Strawberry, quinoa, spinach and cashew salad with a homemade honey-mustard balsamic vinegar dressing. It's a delicious Summer salad, made with healthy and clean ingredients!
When it's Summer, I love to combine strawberries and spinach in a salad. I did it in this strawberry spinach salad with bacon, feta cheese, and toasted almonds, I also made a delicious strawberry and spinach salad with mango and avocado.
This salad is vegetarian, gluten free, and dairy free!
To make the salad, combine baby spinach, sliced fresh strawberries, chopped peaches, chopped green onions, chopped bell pepper, cashews, and cooked quinoa. Perfect combination of sweet and savory flavors in a salad.
Note: If you remove quinoa, this healthy salad becomes paleo-friendly.
If you do like quinoa however, here is another delicious recipe that combines spinach, strawberries and quinoa in a vibrant Summer salad with lots of berries and fruit: quinoa salad with spinach, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and mandarin oranges.
The honey-mustard balsamic dressing is homemade, very basic and so delicious! To make the dressing, in a large bowl combine ¼ cup olive oil with 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 2 tablespoons of honey. Then add ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, ½ teaspoon of mustard powder and 1 teaspoon of onion powder.
Whisk everything well until emulsified. Alternatively, add all the dressing ingredients to a glass jar, close with a lid, and shake vigorously until well-emulsified.
Feel free to add more honey if you like your salad dressing on the sweeter side!
Tip: Add the dressing to the salad only when you're ready to serve it, otherwise the salad will wilt really fast.
Strawberry, quinoa, spinach and cashew salad
Ingredients
Honey Mustard Balsamic Dressing:
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- salt and pepper
Salad:
- 10 oz baby spinach fresh, chopped (about 10 cups of torn leaves)
- 4 cups strawberries , sliced (cleaned and hulled)
- 1 ½ cups quinoa , cooked
- 1 cup peaches , finely chopped
- 4 green onions , chopped
- 1 red bell pepper , chopped
- â…“ cup cashews
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the dressing ingredients, and whisk together well. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can serve the dressing immediately or you can cover it and chill for an hour.
- In a large bowl, combine all of the salad ingredients, except the cashew nuts. Add the dressing to the salad and toss. Sprinkle cashew nuts on top of the salad.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
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.
Julia .... thank you for including so many salad variations this week. Fruit inspired spinach and lettuce salads are my favorite and I am keen to try all of the salads you posted this week. I do have a question on the Strawberry, Quinoa, Spinach & Cashew salad ....... are the cashews you use Roasted? Steamed? With Salt? Without Salt? Does it make a difference which kind I use? Any info you can share will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
Hi Mariann! So glad you're enjoying my weekly salad suggestions!! 🙂 Here I used roasted cashews. But honestly, you can use whichever kind you prefer: salted, candied, etc! I also like to buy raw cashews and roast the myself in the oven - that freshens them up and adds extra crunch. 🙂
Used the salad recipe, but for the dressing I used a strawberry-lime vinaigrette that I made the other day. It tasted so fresh and light! Definitely a great combination of foods.
Would you share the recipe for the dressing???
This was so ridiculously delicious! It really tasted like spring time in your mouth. I added a few of the cashews to the salad so they would soften a bit and then topped with the remaining. I didn't have peaches, so I used blueberries and I added chicken for protein. It's a keeper and it's going to my potluck on Friday!