When it comes to 15-minute meals, you just can’t go wrong with a strawberry spinach salad with feta and poppy seed dressing. This salad recipe truly has a mind blowing combination of ingredients that all work together beautifully to make one of the tastiest salads that I have ever tried.

How to Make a Strawberry Spinach Salad with Feta

Follow these easy to follow directions and you’ll have a fresh strawberry spinach salad with feta prepared from scratch in no time at all:

Prep the onion. Place the red onion slices in a bowl and cover with cold water. Allow the onions to soak for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven. Preheat your oven to 350℉.
Prep the pecans. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake. Bake the pecans in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
Cool. Remove the pecans from the oven and allow them to cool slightly.
Chop. Chop the pecans roughly.
Combine the ingredients. Add the hulled and sliced fresh strawberries, fresh baby spinach, drained red onion, and ½ of the poppy seed dressing (see below for details on how to make) to a bowl and toss to coat.
Sprinkle. Sprinkle with chopped pecans and crumbled feta and then gently toss to combine.
Serve. Serve with the remaining ½ of the poppy seed dressing.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

How to Make Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing

Here’s exactly how easy it is to prepare the homemade poppy seed dressing:

Combine the ingredients. Add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, poppy seeds, honey, and Dijon mustard to a bowl and whisk to combine.
Season. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

If you’re looking for another really good dressing recipe for this salad, I recently tried this basil strawberry dressing from Christina at The Whole Cook and it was so, sooo good.

3 Quick Tips for Making the Best Homemade Salads

Here are a few handy tips to keep in mind that should hopefully help you to make the best homemade salads ever:

Add protein as needed. I really believe that you can never have too much protein in your salad. With that in mind, don’t hesitate to add protein-heavy options in with your own salads – grilled chicken breast or beef, seafood options like shrimp or salmon, or even Greek yogurt are all great options to consider.
Keep the dressing stored separately. One of the best things about salads is how easy they are to meal prep ahead of time. However, in order to preserve maximum freshness, just make sure that you keep your homemade dressings stored separately from your salads in separate airtight containers in the meantime.
Make it colorful. Don’t be afraid to add a wide variety of bright and colorful ingredients into your homemade salads! This recipe in particular is a fantastic example of that: bright red strawberries, leafy green spinach, white feta, etc.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

(You may also like: Watermelon Salad With Feta, Cucumber and Mint)

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Feta and Poppy Seed Dressing

Author: Emma - NurturedHomes.com
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 6 1x

Scale

For the salad:

1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
10 oz fresh baby spinach
½ small red onion, sliced
¾ cup pecans, chopped
3 oz feta, crumbled

For the poppy seed dressing:

¼ cup balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tbsp poppy seeds
1 ½ tbsp honey
½ tsp Dijon mustard
salt and black pepper to taste

To make the dressing, add all the ingredient to a small bowl and whisk to combine.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper and set aside.
Place the onions in a bowl and cover with cold water.
Let sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Spread the pecans on a baking sheet lined with parchment pepper.
Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
Chop the pecans roughly.
Add the strawberries, spinach, drained red onion and half of dressing to a bowl and toss to coat.
Sprinkle with chopped pecans and crumbed feta and gently toss to combine.
Serve with remaining dressing.