This strawberry spinach salad highlights seasonal strawberries when they are at their most flavorful. Bland strawberries are better off roasted or tossed in balsamic vinegar before they are added to a salad, or used in a salad with a strong-flavored dressing.
Some dressings are so flavorful, they stand out - and you remember them. The strawberries in this spinach salad are meant to get all of the attention, so the dressing's sole purpose is to simply, and humbly, bring all of the ingredients together.
It's an avocado-peppercorn dressing made with avocado, lemon juice, and peppercorns. It's equal parts creamy, bright, and peppery, but no one flavor jumps out.
The surprise ingredient that makes this strawberry spinach salad noteworthy (besides the flavorful strawberries you've managed to find), is the fried rosemary. It's salty, fried, herbal profile provides that little bit of intrigue that makes you look forward to another bite.
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Recipe
Ingredients
Salad
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- 1 pint strawberries (about ¾ pound)
- 3 ounces feta cheese
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 1 T olive oil for frying
Avocado peppercorn dressing
- ¼ avocado
- 3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 lemon
- 2 T water
- 1 T olive oil
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
- Pinch salt 1/16th - ⅛th tsp
Instructions
For the salad
- Toast the nuts: Heat a small frying pan over medium. Add pine nuts to the dry, hot pan. Let them sit for a minute, then stir. Keep an eye on them as they cook. They should be perfectly golden after just a few minutes. Transfer pine nuts to a plate to cool.¼ cup pine nuts
- Fry the rosemary:Prepare by setting aside a paper towel lined plate and a slotted spoon to fish out the rosemary quickly! Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet on medium-high. Once hot, add the rosemary - if adding whole, press down to fry them, flip after 10-20 seconds. If adding loose leave, stir constantly for 30 seconds to 1 minute. They are done when they are just starting to brown and crisp up. (If they turn dark brown, they will likely taste bitter.) Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and immediately sprinkle with salt. Let cool. Set aside pan with oil still in it - use it for the dressing.4 sprigs rosemary, 1 T olive oil
- Assemble the salad: Add spinach to bowl and toss with dressing. Season with salt if needed. Top with strawberries, feta, pine nuts, and fried rosemary.5 ounces baby spinach, 1 pint strawberries, 3 ounces feta cheese
For the dressing (makes enough for 2 salads)
- Heat the pan with the rosemary-frying oil to medium. Add cracked pepper and cook for a few minutes to intensify the black pepper's flavor. Set aside to cool briefly.½ teaspoon freshly cracked pepper, 1 T olive oil
- In a food processor, combine the avocado, lemon juice, oil with cracked pepper, and salt. Process until smooth. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time to thin down (or extra lemon juice if you want a more up-front lemony flavor). Taste and season with salt as needed.¼ avocado, 3 T freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 T water, Pinch salt
Notes
- Replace pine nuts with pecans or walnuts
- Replace feta cheese with goat cheese
- Add arugula for some (or all) of the spinach for a more peppery bite
Nutrition
A calorie & nutrition breakdown
The salad accounts for most of the calories (rather than the dressing), for a total of 318 per serving:
- Spinach: 16 calories per serving and 4 grams of protein
- Strawberries: 75 calories per serving
- Feta cheese: 112 calories per serving, 6 grams of protein, and 9 grams of fat
- Pine nuts: 114 calories per serving, 2 grams of protein, and 12 grams of fat
Most of the fat in the salad comes from the healthier monounsaturated fat in pine nuts, olive oil, and avocado.
The dressing is 27 calories per tablespoon, totaling 109 calories if you use the full ¼ cup (per serving) called for in the recipe.
Finding flavorful strawberries
It seems harder and harder to find flavorful strawberries, especially at the grocery store. Farmers livelihoods are dependent on the berries, so they pick them under-ripe to withstand shipping and to get them before critters or rot from rainy weather.
I get it - I grow my own strawberries and can't imagine my income being tied to them considering the problems caused by birds, bugs, and rain!
Your best bet is to visit a farmers market where they were picked at a much riper stage. If you can grow them at home, they taste even better because you can let them fully ripen. When I pick fully ripe strawberries they are a really deep red and last a day on the counter (at most) or two in the fridge.
If you end up with bland strawberries, try making roasted strawberries.
Fried rosemary
If you haven't fried herbs before, it's worth it. The sturdier herbs are easy to pan fry in a tiny bit of oil and add a fun twist to regular dishes. Sprinkle them on top of cobs of corn, roasted veggies, pizza, bruschetta, and even popcorn.
The Pioneer Woman has an article on flash frying herbs, which I found to be very helpful and accurate. She instructs you to coat the bottom of a pan with oil, and add the herbs once the oil is hot. Fry them for 5-15 seconds, then flip and fry the other side for a similar amount of time. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.
For first timers, I recommend frying just one spring of rosemary at a time so you can get the hang of it. The first herb I fried was sage and I let it get too brown and it tasted bitter. The first time I fried rosemary, I took it out too early and it wasn't crispy.
Give it some trial and error - it's low stakes! Keep frying the herbs one at a time until you get it right. When I fried the sprigs of rosemary for the strawberry salad, I used just a tablespoon of oil in the corner of a tiny pan. I left the sprigs whole and pressed them down with a spatula for even frying.
The other important step is to salt the herbs immediately after removing them from the oil. It brings out the flavor - just like under salted french fries fall flat, the fried herbs can too.
Feta cheese
Feta's mild flavor and cream consistency pair effortlessly with strawberries. Feta sold in blocks often has a creamier consistency, but I've also made this with pre-crumbled versions and it's still delicious.
I like a fairly plain feta for this salad recipe, rather than the flavored ones. I don't want the cheese to stand out. That said, I've seen a couple of brands sell a smoked feta that I think could work out really well. I'll try that next time and report back (or leave a comment if you do it first!)
Alternatively, a goat cheese would work just as well as feta in this strawberry spinach salad. Goat cheese is similarly creamy and mild. It often comes in fun flavors too, and I think a honey goat cheese could be quite interesting.
Trader Joe's sells a blueberry goat cheese that could add another complimentary berry flavor, or take over. I'll have to try it to know for sure.
For another summer (or end of spring) salad that's perfect with feta or goat cheese, try this blueberry cucumber salad.
Avocado peppercorn dressing
I wanted the dressing to be subtle, but complimentary to bring everything together in the strawberry spinach salad. Black pepper and strawberries are a common pairing, so I wanted to coax out a little more of the peppery bite.
To do this, I bloomed cracked pepper in some olive oil. The dressing is black peppery, but I wouldn't classify it as spicy at all. (If you think fresh cracked pepper is spicy, then this will also feel spicy - everyone is different!)
The dressing is also pretty flexible and you can change the ratios based on what you prefer.
- Add more lemon juice if you want a lemony flavor which will pair well with all of the ingredients.
- Add more pepper
- Use lemon juice or water to thin it down to your desired consistency. Spinach can hold up to a thick dressing, but it depends on what you personally prefer.
The recipe is made for two large salads - it makes about a half cup. Each salad can use a generous ¼ cup of dressing, which spinach can hold up to.
Substitutions
This strawberry spinach salad is quite flexible, as are most other versions of this type of salad. I used pine nuts, feta cheese, and rosemary - ingredients typically associated with Greece's Mediterranean climate. But other flavors would work well too:
- Walnuts or pecans
- Goat cheese to replace the feta
- Arugula to replace some (or all) of the spinach, which would add a more intense peppery flavor to the salad
The dressing could also be swapped out for a creamy poppyseed dressing, or a similar mild-flavored dressing. A light balsamic vinaigrette could work - but it can sometimes compete with the strawberries. I think a strawberry spinach salad with bland berries is better off with a strong balsamic vinaigrette, actually!
More recipes & resources
If you're looking to use up some strawberries, I gathered over 75 strawberry recipes for the summer. Don't worry, they're organized into categories, like 8 variations of strawberry shortcake or 10 recipes pairing strawberries with chocolate.
If you want an entire salad as a meal, try this summer Cobb salad that is packed with protein and seasonal vegetables.
Looking for more ways to use spinach? I have a couple recipes that can easily go through 5 ounces or more.
If you're wondering what else is currently in season, check out my calendars to see what produce is in season each month (and coming up soon).
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