For lunch on Thursday we had some spinach and strawberry salad. I don’t know about you, but I always find using up a whole bag of spinach really hard. I like it in juices and in green leaf salads, but partnered with sliced strawberries and drizzled with a strawberry dressing is by far my favourite.
Nutritional Goodness in the Spinach and Strawberry Salad
Spinach:
It will come as no surprise to you that spinach is a superfood. Rich in vitamins K, A, B2, B6, E, C in addition to manganese, folate and calcium. Spinach is helpful for diabetes management, cancer prevention, lowering blood pressure, keeping bones strong and healthy, promoting digestive regularity as well as encouraging healthy skin and hair.
Strawberry
Strawberries are always popular and are also filled with nutritional goodies such as vitamin C, potassium, folic acid, fibre in addition to being rich in powerful antioxidants including anthocyanins, ellagic acid, quercetin and kaempferol. These all have a role in preventing heart disease, preventing strokes, cancer, constipation, lowering blood pressure and controlling diabetes.
Strawberries are one of the dirty dozen. These are the top twelve fruit and veg that have high levels of pesticides. Organic is best, but even non organic, well washed is better than not eating them.
How to Make a Spinach and Strawberry Salad
As you can see, it is simple, tasty and so very healthy! But how is this spinach and strawberry salad made? Just slice the strawberries and add to a bowl of washed and dried baby spinach leaves. Yup, it’s that simple!
The dressing is made from a small handful of crushed strawberries. I literally squeeze them through my fingers. The strawberries and their juice are all added to the jar. I pop a dollop of mayonnaise, some olive oil and some good quality balsamic vinegar and shake it up together in the jar.
I served it up with some simple pasta with fresh cherry tomatoes and torn basil topped with salt, pepper and a small amount of Parmesan:
You can toss the salad in the dressing but I find it goes soggy very quickly. Instead I drizzle it over the spinach and strawberries at the table, just before eating.
This salad is both gluten and dairy free, which means that every single member of the family can eat it!
Looks yummy – going to try it.
I made your strawberry dressing yesterday. It was delicious.
We actually go through a whole 16 ounce tub of baby spinach each week– I mix a bit of spinach in with our green salad each night and cook things like quiche with it too. I love strawberry/ spinach salad and tried branching out to make an asparagus and strawberry salad last night. I loved it (but I was the only one).
Oooh you have inspired me to go and make a smoothie with my slightly sad spinach. I don’t have any strawberries but I do have bananas and some frozen mixed berries. And peanut butter with cocoa powder in. Nom nom nom.