Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese and Lemon-Honey Poppy Seed Dressing. Delicious, healthy salad with easy ingredients.
I love spinach salad and make it all the time using different kinds of ingredients. These days I really like cashews so this salad features cashews, goat cheese, and dried cranberries. The dressing is easy to make at home and super delicious: I mixed olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, honey, poppy seeds and stirred it altogether until smooth. So easy and very tasty!
This photo shows all ingredients that go into this salad (except for the salad dressing): spinach, cashews, goat cheese, and cranberries. Easy!
This is a perfect salad for winter months when we all need extra vitamins and nutrition. It has lots of good fats: olive oil and cashews.
After you make this spinach salad and mix it with the salad dressing, add the goat cheese last, on top of the salad. You can mix it in right in the salad, too, but it gets creamy really fast which you might actually like or you might not. So, keep this in mind. Enjoy!

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese
Ingredients
Salad ingredients:
- 4 oz baby spinach
- ½ cup cashews roasted
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 2 oz goat cheese
Salad dressing:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Instructions
- In a salad bowl, combine baby spinach, cashews, and cranberries. Do not add goat cheese yet.
- In a separate small bowl, combine salad dressing ingredients: olive oil, honey, lemon juice, and poppy seeds. Whisk until well-combined.
- Pour the salad dressing over the salad, and mix. Do not add all of the salad dressing at once - add just enough to coat the salad to your taste. Top with crumbled goat cheese.
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Made this salad with a few minor changes. I used pecans instead of cashews and feta instead of goat cheese. It is a great salad and the dressing is fantastic. Took it to a family dinner THEY LOVED IT
Connie, I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Pecans and feta cheese sound delicious in this salad!
This was fantastic
What a great salad Julia!! Christmas or not, my husband and I had it the other night! We added sirloin strip steak slices to it and it was out of this world - so good!! Thanks for sharing!
Delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Flavor combinations came together wonderfully
and I loved the dressing.
Jessica, I am so glad you liked this recipe! Thank you for stopping by and sharing such positive feedback - I really appreciate it!
Looks amazing! Could I use feta instead of goat cheese !
I tried feta once and it wasn’t as flavorful
I would use goat cheese - it's mild in flavor, while Feta might be too salty for this salad.
Superb salad!!! My family loved it too!!! Will sever it at my next friends gathering:-)
This salad sounds wonderful!! I haven't made it yet but I plan to very soon. Thank You
Enjoy!
This looks wonderful and I thank you for it. For me....I think I will add about (+ or -) 1 cup chopped chicken. I Certainly don’t have to have it to enjoy this beautiful salad. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.
Thank you! Chicken is a great addition to this salad!
GOOD salad to use cashews!
Yes, cashews taste amazing in salads!
The appearance of the cheese looks more like Feta cheese then Creamy soft goat cheese. The dressing is way too sweet.
Sounds sweet. If use Paul Newman’s olive oil & vinegar.
If the dressing is too sweet, reduce the amount of honey to 1 tablespoon or use your favorite dressing.