Crunchy fresh spinach, juicy sweet strawberries, and a homemade vinaigrette make this strawberry spinach salad my absolute favorite! And bonus, it’s so healthy!
After three months of indulging (hello, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!), this strawberry spinach salad is the perfect palate cleanser!
It’s healthy eating, while still being delicious and filling. Bonus, it’s easy to make paleo and weight watchers friendly!
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Strawberry Spinach Salad, Ingredients:
- Balsamic dressing (here’s my Balsamic Dijon recipe!)
- Walnuts, chopped
- Fresh strawberries
- Fresh blueberries
- Red onion, thinly sliced
- Blue cheese, crumbled
- Fresh spinach and/or arugula (I like a mix of the two!)
Strawberry Spinach Salad, Directions:
- Layer ingredients into mason jars in the order listed (begin with dressing), in the desired amounts.
- Seal tightly with a lid and store in the refrigerator.
- When you’re ready to eat, check and make sure your jar is sealed tightly, then give it a good shake to distribute the dressing evenly.
- Eat directly from the jar, or pour into a bowl.
- Enjoy!
Is fruit good in salads?
Confession: until a couple years ago (okay, maybe last year), I thought fruit in salads was totally gross. I know, I KNOW. What was wrong with me?!
I’m not sure exactly what flipped the switch in my culinary tastes, but these days I just love love love fruit in my salads! (p.s. I totally love it).
Make ahead salad recipe
These salads are perfect for make ahead meals to bring on a picnic (yay, summer!) or to work, or even for prepping food ahead of time for a party.
I love putting them in mason jars (click here to see my favorite jars), but don’t worry if you don’t want to shell out the cash for name brand jars – just save your old pickle and spaghetti sauce jars.
Sterilize them in some boiling water and you’re good to go! Upcycling for the win! Strawberry Spinach Mason Jar Salads are so crazy easy to make and super versatile.
I love (love love love) that I can make them on Sunday night and they’ll stay fresh and delicious all week long.
This little dude kept sneaking tastes of the blueberries and strawberries for himself while I was preparing the salads. He turns three in a few weeks (three!!!) and calls them “strawbabies” and “boobubbies” – it’s basically the cutest thing ever.
UPDATE – he’s four now. Four, you guys. (((SOB)))
SIX, omg.
How do you keep your salad from getting soggy in the fridge?
The super secret (okay, not really secret at all) trick is putting your dressing and protein on the bottom and not letting the lettuce get wet. Make sure you check out our delicious Balsamic Dijon Dressing, it’s my favorite with this strawberry spinach salad!
So long as your lettuce stays dry, the salads will last several days. Yay!
Complete the meal with our serving suggestions
Enjoy your spinach and strawberry salad with our healthy turkey meatloaf, a glass of sparkling water (I am TOTALLY addicted to it lately), and a couple gluten free oatmeal cookies!
More Salad Recipes
Apple Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad – Introduced to me by my friend Stacy who claims she’s not much of a cook (liar, liar, pants on fire), this Apple Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad is a hit everywhere we take it!
Spinach and Pear Salad – Use fresh or canned pears, and mmmmmmm, enjoy!
Carnitas Salad Bowl – It’s like street tacos! But in a bowl! Such a yummy idea.
Fig and Blue Cheese Spinach Salad – You had me at figs. And blue cheese. You won’t believe the dressing we pair with this Fig and Blue Cheese Salad, it’s out of this world!
Loaded Burger Salad – For when you don’t really feel like a salad, but want to pretend. See also, perfect for paleo or keto diets!
Italian Antipasto Salad – Just like grandma used to make! But on lettuce, and with dressing!
See all our healthy salad ideas!
Tools we love
- OXO Good Grips Green Salad Spinner – Make sure your salad isn’t watered down by using this OXO salad spinner. We love it for spinning our broccoli before roasting too!
- Anchor Hocking Glass Cruet With Stopper – Are you obsessed with making your own salad dressings like I am? You’ll need a dozen or so of these. Yassssss.
- Lipper International Small Bamboo Bowls, Set of 4 – Children of the eighties will be especially nostalgic for wooden salad bowls. Why did we always eat salad out of wooden bowls? I don’t know, but P.S. I love it.
- Lipper International Bamboo Salad Bowl – You’d better believe we’re serving the salad from a wooden bowl too!
- Wide Mouth Pint and a Half Mason Jars – these are the best mason jars for salads. Perfect size and nice wide opening, so you can eat the salad right from the jar if you’d like!
How to Make Strawberry Spinach Salad
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Ingredients
- Balsamic dressing
- Walnuts chopped
- Fresh strawberries
- Fresh blueberries
- Red onion thinly sliced
- Blue cheese crumbled
- Fresh spinach and/or arugula I like a mix of the two!
Instructions
- Layer ingredients into mason jars in the order listed (begin with dressing - here's the link to my favorite balsamic dressing!), in the desired amounts.
- Seal tightly with a lid and store in the refrigerator.
- When you're ready to eat, check and make sure your jar is sealed tightly, then give it a good shake to distribute the dressing evenly.
- Eat directly from the jar, or pour into a bowl.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Love strawberries? Treat yourself to some strawberry slab pie or strawberry yogurt cake!
This was first published as a partnered article with Fresh From Florida as part of Influencer Activation for Influence Central, all opinions and recipes are my own.
06-25-16
Delicious! I’ll take a jar for lunch today!
I am so glad you reminded me blueberries are in season! I love blueberries myself and would love to be dining on this salad all winter long 🙂
I have never tried or thought of mixing strawberries, blueberries with arugula as a salad. Generally speaking I don’t think I have ever tried blueberries in a savory way! Looks like I have been missing out. 😀
I will make this salad and it will be good to have when I need lunch for work! Thanks for this recipe and I love the recipes that you send my way. Happy New Year to you! Happy 2018!
thank you! happy new year to you as well! <3