Delicious Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad. I’ve been hankering for some sweet fresh strawberries. Strawberries and spinach are a really light combination that speaks Spring to me!
This Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad is perfect for brunch, lunch, a dinner side or a main dish with the addition of some grilled chicken. Believe me, with grilled chicken, WIN.
It’s topped with a sweet and tangy vinaigrette that gives a little bit of a bite to the sweet strawberries. Honestly, no words describe how great this salad is. You’ll just have to try it yourself!
Spinach, strawberries, avocado, and corn kernels are the key ingredients in this recipe. I’ve come across a few recipes that share similar ingredients, and I’ve loved them all! What I forgot to add in the picture (because I’m losing my mind) is honey! It is essential, so don’t forget to add it!
To make the Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad, I first added white wine vinegar to some cider vinegar. I don’t know what it is about the two that really just make the flavor perfect, but they do! If you only have one or the other, that will work too. I just happen to prefer them combined!
In goes the olive oil. Make sure it’s high-grade stuff! Since it’s a main part of the vinaigrette, the flavor is key! A pinch of pepper is next. Only a little is needed.
And then a good helping of salt. Next are the poppy seeds! Add a lot. It is called poppy seed dressing for a reason. These little morsels of goodness are so tasty!! Honestly, poppy seeds are my favorite. If I could eat a poppy seed muffin every morning, I would go without any guilt. I can’t bring on the poppy seed dressing! Oh shallots, how I love thee. If you haven’t cooked with them, you need to! They are perfect for dressings. I also love them in dishes where I don’t want an overly pungent onion flavor.
I minced them pretty finely and added them to the dressing. Here’s the important missing ingredient in this Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad. Honey, honey. Sorry, I didn’t mean to call you honey.
As I said, don’t skip this stuff! If you don’t like honey, a little bit of brown sugar will work wonderfully.
Whisk ‘er up and try not to immediately dunk strawberries into it. Like most dressing, it’s better if you cover and chill it for at least two hours. If you don’t have that time, no worries!
While the dressing was chilling, I washed my strawberries, sliced them and devoured them, so I had to slice some more. I’m clearly all about honesty here. Chopping up the avocado, I ate way too many of those as well. Whoops.
Once everything was ready, I started to layer my Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad. First, the greens. You can really use any darker green for this. Baby spinach is my favorite, but mixed greens, kale or anything really would still taste amazing! Next came the strawberries. The ones I had were so sweet! And the avocado, I swear there was double this amount when I started.
Because I was saving the Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad for dinner but needed this in my mouth at that exact moment, I made myself a little bowl and poured over the chilled dressing. Oh, be still my heart. I ate this bowl and another…. I might have contemplated eating third. I wouldn’t do that, though, because then I’d have to make more salad. I definitely had to make more salad.
There is not one thing in the ingredients that don’t benefit your health.
Not like I was thinking about that while I was inhaling my fourth Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad bowl of the day. I was just thinking about how happy my tummy was.
Delicious Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons shallots minced
- 1½ tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 5-10 ounces baby spinach other dark greens work too!
- 1 pint strawberries sliced
- 1 medium avocado sliced
- ¼ cup corn kernels cooked
Instructions
- Combine the dressing ingredients together, cover and chill for 2 hours or more. If you don’t have that time, that’s fine too. The longer the dressing sits, the better!
- For the salad, layer the lettuce, strawberries, avocado, and corn kernels. Pour the chilled dressing over the salad and serve.