Healthy Strawberry Salad Recipe
Skip the store-bought salad dressings and make your own to top this refreshing Strawberry Salad. The combination of fresh, sweet strawberries and crisp greens makes this salad a winner.
This healthy salad is bursting with fresh fruit and flavor. The homemade dressing is made mostly of strawberries making it light and refreshing.
Ingredients
To make this delicious salad, start by gathering your ingredients. There’s nothing worse than dreaming of what you are going to eat and start making it – only to learn that you are missing a few key ingredients.
For the salad base, you need the following:
- 6 ounces spring mix lettuce
- 1 ½ – 2 cups chopped strawberries
- 1 cup blueberries
- ¼ cup red onion, sliced or chopped
- 1 medium cucumber, chopped
- ⅓ cup goat cheese (more or less to taste)
- ½ cup pecans
For the homemade dressing, you need:
- 1 cup fresh strawberries
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh)
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
How To Make Strawberry Salad
Rinse strawberries and blueberries and pat them dry. Cut a red onion into slices or small chunks – whichever you prefer. Peel and slice or chop one cucumber.
1. Prepare the salad dressing first. To make this strawberry dressing, simply place all of the ingredients, except poppy seeds, in the blender and blend until it has liquefied. Pour in a mason jar that has a lid and add the poppy seeds. Set aside.
2. Next, prepare your greens. If you are like me, that means opening the package and placing the greens on salad plates.
Divide the fruit, cucumber, pecans, and onion between the two salads. Top with goat cheese – skip this if you are a vegan or serving the salad to someone who is.
Place a lid on the mason jar and shake it well. Pour the salad dressing over the salad.
Tips For Making Strawberry Salad
- Don’t add the dressing until you are ready to serve. Otherwise, the salad will get mushy or slimy.
- You can omit any of the ingredients that you don’t care for.
- Feel free to add in raspberries, bacon, or almonds to change it up.
- Store the dressing in the fridge for up to one week.
Strawberry Facts
Strawberries are not only delicious, they are also nutritious. According to WebMD, strawberries are packed with vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants and are low-calorie, fat-free, and cholesterol-free. Plus, eight strawberries have more vitamin C than an orange.
- Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside. The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
- The strawberry plant is in the same family as roses.
- Strawberry plants are perennials, meaning that the plants grow back year after year.
- There is a museum in Belgium dedicated to the sweet little berry. (If you can read French, then you can read more about it by clicking here.)
- Approximately 80% of strawberries are grown in California.
- After being picked, strawberries do not continue to ripen.
- One cup of strawberries is only 55 calories and contains 88.3 mg of Vitamin C. (The daily recommended amount of Vitamin C for women is 75 mg, for men it is 90 mg.)
- Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
Hungry for more salads? Be sure to check out the following posts:
Strawberry Salad
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 6 ounces spring mix lettuce
- 1 ½ – 2 cups chopped strawberries
- 1 cup blueberries
- ¼ cup red onion sliced or chopped
- 1 medium cucumber chopped
- ⅓ cup goat cheese more or less to taste
- ½ cup pecans
Dressing
- 1 cup fresh strawberries
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice fresh
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- To make the dressing, add all of the ingredients to a good quality blender and mix it until liquified.
- To make the salad, place the spring mix into a large bowl and mix in the rest of the salad ingredients. Drizzle with dressing when you are ready to serve.
Nutrition
Be sure to come back and tell us how your salad turned out!
