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Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

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This fresh strawberry spinach salad recipe is tossed with creamy avocado, toasted almonds, your choice of cheese and a honey-sweetened poppyseed dressing.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

Forever and always one of my favorite salads to make this time of year. ♡

I first shared this strawberry spinach salad recipe here on Gimme Some Oven nearly a decade ago, but it’s one of those classics that I’m certain I will be making for decades and decades to come. Made with loads of fresh strawberries, tender baby spinach, creamy avocado, toasted almonds, paper-thin red onions, crumbled blue cheese (or goat or feta), and my favorite lightly-sweetened honey poppyseed dressing, this salad is always the first recipe I want to make each spring when juicy ripe red strawberries come back in season. And it always tastes like such a treat.

Feel free, of course, to sub in your preferred kind of greens, nuts (or seeds), and cheese. And if you want to add in some protein, grilled chicken, shrimp or bacon are always delicious options.

So grab a pint of the ripe strawberries while they’re in season, and let’s make this gorgeous salad together!

Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Strawberry Spinach Salad Ingredients

Strawberry Salad and Poppyseed Dressing Ingredients

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need to make this strawberry salad recipe and poppyseed dressing…

  • Greens: I typically use baby spinach or a spring green mix for this strawberry salad, but feel free to use whatever salad greens you love best.
  • Strawberries: Look for fresh strawberries that are as ripe as possible.
  • Avocado: Sliced or diced avocado add a delicious extra bit of creaminess to this salad.
  • Crumbled cheese: We’re partial to using crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese in this salad, but feta or burrata would be delicious options too.
  • Sliced almonds: Definitely recommend lightly toasting the almonds before adding them to the salad, to bring out their best flavor.
  • Red onion: I recommend slicing the onion paper-thin. If you prefer a milder onion flavor, just rinse the sliced onion briefly in cold water before adding it to the salad.
  • Poppyseed dressing: My favorite poppyseed dressing recipe is made simply with avocado oil (or olive oil), red wine vinegar, honey, poppy seeds, Dijon, salt and pepper.

Slicing strawberries, avocado and red onion

Recipe Variations

Here are a few ideas for different ways to customize this strawberry salad if you’d like…

  • Use different fruit: This salad also tastes wonderful using fresh blueberries, cherries, peaches, pears or pomegranate arils in place of (or mixed with) the strawberries.
  • Use different nuts/seeds: Pistachios, walnuts, pecans (or candied pecans), pepitas or sunflower seeds would all be delicious alternatives to almonds.
  • Add fennel: I also love adding some super-thinly sliced fennel to this salad.
  • Make it vegan: Use your favorite vegan cheese or omit the cheese entirely to make this a vegan strawberry salad.

Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing in Bowl

More Green Salad Recipes

Looking for more fruit-forward green salad recipes to try? Here are a few of my faves!

Strawberry Spinach Salad in Bowl with Poppyseed Dressing

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Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 39 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4 -6 servings 1x

Description

This delicious Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad is quick and easy to make, full of great fresh flavors, and tossed with a simple poppyseed dressing.


Ingredients

Scale

Salad Ingredients:

  • 6 cups fresh baby spinach
  • 1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
  • 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
  • 4 ounces crumbled blue cheese (or goat cheese or feta)
  • 1/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
  • half a small red onion, thinly sliced

Poppyseed Dressing Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup avocado oil (or olive oil)
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • fine sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. Make the dressing. Whisk all ingredients together vigorously in a small bowl (or shake in a covered jar) until emulsified. Taste and season with a pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper, as needed.
  2. Toss the salad. Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle evenly with the dressing then gently toss until combined.
  3. Serve. Serve immediately and enjoy!


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212 comments on “Strawberry Avocado Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing”

  1. Sound wonderful so great I could eat everyday!
    Will try for Christmas!

  2. in my place philippines there is no available baby spinach not much of strawberry its called seasonal and also oyher ingredients. what is the substitute of baby spinach?

    • You can substitute blueberries or blackberries if you are able to get those fruits. And as far as the salad part goes, sometimes I use an organic field mesclun mix instead of the spinach. Just experiment!

    • Try Kale it is very good..Just put the dressing on the kale an hour before adding the other ingredients. Delicious

    • No don’t use Kale it is too hard, use field salat or maybe they cal it fetticus!
      I am from holland and we use this always in stead of spinach! Too bad you can not buy it here in the USA but I read you can buy it in the Asian part of the world! :-)

  3. My daughter serve me your spinach strawberry salad with the poppy seed dressing yesterday for lunch ,it was absolutely delicious .Thank you for sharing this with us .. Claire Roche of Calgary

  4. This looks terrific! Do you know if it is gluten free?

  5. Do you have the nutritional info on this recipe…mainly looking for calorie count?

    Thanks!

  6. This recipe looks lovely. Do you have and will you share the nutritional information? I would like to have that if possible. Thanks!

  7. yummy and good for you to boot! I love blueberries and added some, great with the dressing. thanks for the delish dish.

  8. This salad and dressing are AWESOME! Even though it’s winter, I couldn’t resist making it and all I can say is WOW. So delish and so refreshing. I shared it with a vegetarian friend of mine and she loved it. I can’t wait until the summer when I can go pick some fresh strawberries. BTW…I added some salmon and it was to die for!!

  9. Sounds yummy!! Going to try it!! I am an avocado lover!!

  10. Looks awesome, I will definitely be trying this recipe yummm

  11. We dont care for gorgonzola cheese or Bleu Cheese.
    Is there any other type of cheese that would work well for this recipe?

    Thank-you :)

  12. The appearance of this salad makes my mouth water. My wife and I are looking to eat more responsibly. Both of us are nearing 70. She has emphysema. We are looking for recipes like this to enhance my wife’s energy and well being. I look forward to more wonderful recipes. Got any energy boosting recipes for us?

  13. I have made this salad for years…got the recipe from my MIL in PA. Absolutely fabulous! I would not omit the dry mustard, btw…it really makes it tasty!

  14. How long will this poppy seed dressing stay fresh?

  15. I made this salad last night and it was amazing! My husband loved it too! will make again and again.

  16. Just ate this for dinner. I left out the poppy seeds and onion and added chicken and bacon (I like some meat in my salad). It was delicious!! I’ll definitely be making this again!

  17. Fabulous, in a word. Took it to a church ladies bible study. Bam! It was gone! I added bacon.

  18. Omitted onion and used chive (fructose malabsorption person here). Ground my own mustard seed. Added baby beetroots. Used ash chèvre instead of Gorgonzola (housemate is lactose intolerant) Oh. My. Goooooodness. This was delicious!

  19. Love. Love strawberries and spinach, love poppyseed dressing. Love everything about this recipe and I cannot wait to try it. Thank you!

  20. Warning! Ingredients for Poppyseed dressing are not included when recipe prints.

  21. Yet another favorite in our household that made it to my favorite recipes list on my blog- holy cow we love this salad – have it at least once a week – no kidding! :) Very healthy too!

  22. Loved it… made it for a gathering and everyone raved.. I definitely intend to make it again, but next time I will use 1/4c oil, rather than 1/2. It really wilts down the spinach… Otherwise, excellent recipe, thank you!

  23. This is my new go-to salad for BBQs and potlucks. I took it to a birthday get together tonight and it was a huge hit! Several people there have food allergies/sensitivities (including me,) so having a home-made salad dressing is a huge plus. Everyone could eat it!

  24. Hi Ali
    I am making your awesome salad this weekend! I recently made a spring chopped salad and mentioned your salad in my post. If you get a chance check it out:https://cupsandspoonfuls.com/2014/05/02/spring-chopped-salad-5-spring-salads-for-mothers-day/
    Take care!
    Kelly

  25. Delicious!! It would be helpful the have the nutrition information for this and all other recipes on your site.

  26. Please give nutritional content . This salad looks awesome, but I want to know how much I can eat myself.

  27. Omg!!! This was sooooo yummy !!!! My new fave!!!

  28. Yummy! I want this now. I must save this recipe. I love all of the ingredients!

  29. I was searching for a salad recipe and luckily I came across this one. I made this last night to take to dinner with friends. Everyone loved it! I used Feta cheese and I sugared the almond slices. It was delicious!

  30. Some fresh blueberries would really pop w/all this great flavor!ti

  31. I made this tonight and it was a hit! Happy plates all around :) Delicious summer salad!

  32. I made it yesterday night and it turned out superb. The dressing itself was sweet-sour pleasing. Combined with fresh veggies it was an instant hit. Thanks a lot.

  33. I was already planning on making a strawberry spinach salad for dinner tonight, but got online to find an idea to make it a little different. Adding the avocados was a great idea, Ali!

  34. Kept this recipe from FB months ago. Will make a large one for a birthday party in Aug. Can’t wait. It looks so good. Will also add Feta.

  35. Can I use Dijon mustard instead of the ground mustard?

  36. Not a big avocado fan, but the rest of this sounds lovely.  Since I live with a carnivore, who looks at me like a wounded animal if there is no meat on the table, I think I will replace that with chunks of chicken or turkey breast and make this a meal.  With some fresh home made bread it should be delightful!

  37. Wow, the strawberries and avocado make a beautiful combination. Thank you for sharing this..

  38. Ali, how many will this serve? I’m taking it to my daughter’s tomorrow for Easter dinner.  Thanks!

  39. This isa very good salad.   My concern is the calories from the salad dressing.   I think you could cut the amount of oil or make a vinergette dressing workout the oil.  Make s dressing using cashews, little bit of Almond milk, o garlic and Basalmic vinegar .  

  40. I made this salad for a Spring Luncheon for 135 ladies.  Our event was a benifit fund  raiser for The Sisters of the Holy Family Guild Of Alameda County.  It very easy to make and it brought many complaiments. It not only tasted good it was beautiful to look at.

    • Thanks for giving my recipe a try Claudia, I’m glad it was a hit for your event!

    • Hi Claudia,
      I’m looking to make this for a large group. Do you recall how you scaled up for 135 ladies?
      Thanks!

  41. Again, What is the Nutrition Facts

    • Hi Lin, I’m sorry but we currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site. The nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. I hope that helps!

  42. LOVE this salad.

    eat it with grilled chicken. perfect meal.

  43. Started making this salad in March. It was soooo good we had it with Easter dinner. Now having it again for Memorial Day get together. I love how it satisfies and pleased the family members aging from teens to 50’s!

  44. This salad is so good! I don’t like gorgonzola cheese so i use feta instead. I bring this to cookouts a lot and it’s always a big hit. 

  45. This is the second time I’ve made this salad and it’s my favorite.  I have a family get together in July and this salad will be served.  Thank you so much for posting!

  46. your recipes look amazing.  I’d love to follow your page.

  47. We enjoyed this flavorful summer salad.  It’s very easy and we will make again.  We used 1 lb. of baby spinach.  Instead of cider vinegar, we used 1/4 c. raspberry vinegar.  Instead of honey, we used agave.

  48. This salad is delicious! I made it as the direction surpggested, using blue cheese, added blueberries, omitted the nuts and topped with grilled chicken! AMAZING!

  49. Made it for our Christmas table (summer in Australia) & it looked really festive as well as being delicious. Definitely on the make again list! Thank you ☺