Strawberry spinach salad with balsamic honey dressing is a salad lovers dream! Strawberries, spinach, pecans, poppy seeds, and an incredible balsamic honey dressing! And we are going to let you into a little secret. You see those little specks of cheese in the mix? You would think it is feta right? It is pretty typical to put feta cheese in a fancy salad like this cause lets face it, feta is delicious! But the cheese you see is actually queso fresco! What?!
Don’t get us wrong, we love feta cheese. But we forgot to grab it at the store the time we needed it, and had to look for a quick substitute. We happened to have some left over queso fresco cheese from a previous taco night and thought what the heck! Let’s try it out! And bam! It is the best addition to this salad! The queso fresco is a mild crumbly cheese with a similar flavor profile like mozzerella, so it adds a little salty taste to the sweetness of the dressing.
We love it and have others comment on how much they love it too! And it looks beautiful too! We put this salad in a wooden salad bowl and served it on up with our tong servers and it couldn’t have looked more perfect! And honestly, you could switch up the queso fresco or feta if using, for any type of crumbly cheese that you like. Blue cheese, gorgonzola, parmesan, it all will taste good. And let’s not forget about the dressing. You mix balsamic with honey and poppy seeds to get a super savory dressing that goes perfect with the rest of the ingredients.
We also love adding some shredded chicken on top of our salad, particularly our crockpot rotisserie chicken. Or have this salad for a meatless monday dinner! Gluten free and vegan for the win! We hope you love this salad as much as we do! Comment below to let us know what you think. Go get fooding!
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Strawberry Spinach Salad with Balsamic Honey Dressing
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Loading...A beautiful and yummy salad with all the fixings! Spinach, strawberries, pecans, crumbled cheese, and a honey poppy seed dressing to top it off! Healthy and delicious!
Ingredients
- Salad:
- 3/4 cup raw pecans, toasted
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 10 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 1 quart strawberries, sliced
- 3/4 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
- Dressing:
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 3 TBLS extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 TBLS poppy seeds
- 2 TBLS honey
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
In small mixing bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients until well combined.
Set in fridge until use.
Pour pecans into a large skillet and toast over medium heat for about 5-10 minutes. The pecans should be fragrant, and not burnt.
Place the spinach in a great big serving bowl. Add the strawberries, onions, pecans, and cheese.
Drizzle about half of the dressing over the salad and toss to coat the leaves. Assess the amount of dressing. You want the spinach leaves to be nicely moistened but not swimming in dressing. Add a little more if needed to suit your preferences.
Serve immediately, with extra dressing on the side as desired. Enjoy!
Notes
1. It is important to not burn the pecans. They should be toasted and should give off a lovely fragrant smell. --- 2. If you don't want to use queso fresco or can't find it in the store, then any other crumble cheese option like feta would be great! --- 3. A mix of arugula and spinach for the salad portion is also great way to switch up this recipe! --- 4. We like to double the dressing ingredients! It is so good on other salads and will last in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. --- 5. If you don't have dijon mustard, regular yellow mustard will work just fine! --- 6. Do not pour the dressing onto the salad until you are ready to serve and eat. The dressing will make the salad soggy and we don't want that!
