This stunning Spring Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette is sure to delight your taste buds all spring and summer long. A mix of colors, textures, and flavors with a unique strawberry balsamic vinaigrette will help you stick to your healthy living goals using the freshest ingredients. It's a light, delicious, and thirst-quenching salad that's perfect for spring!
A classic balsamic vinaigrette has always been one of my favorite dressings, but since we are heading into strawberry season and strawberries and balsamic are a classic pairing, I thought why not make them into a dressing?
When strawberries come into season, we make all the things! Some other favorite recipes featuring the ruby-hued fruit are Strawberry Scones and Fresh Strawberry Pie.
Homemade Salad Dressing
If you don't already make your own salad dressing, now is the time to start! It's so easy to do and the taste is way better than anything that comes in a bottle.
Flavors like those of the fresh strawberries, balsamic vinegar, shallot, Dijon mustard, fresh thyme, and garlic that go into making this strawberry balsamic salad dressing recipe pair perfectly with the wonderfully mild and almost subtly sweet extra virgin olive oil.
Drizzle that over the mix salad greens with sliced strawberries, candied walnuts, thinly sliced fennel, crumbled goat cheese, and red onions, and you've got yourself a salad that is sunshine and spring days wrapped up in every crunchy, sweet and savory bite.
Classic Flavor Pairing: Strawberries & Balsamic Vinegar
If you have never tried the classic combination of fresh, ripe strawberries with a good quality balsamic vinegar, it's a must-taste experience to add to your list of culinary adventures. The savory balsamic vinegar actually brings out the natural bright sweetness of ripe strawberries and complements it.
This homemade Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette perfectly balances the two star ingredients. This vibrant, power-packed salad dressing is something you might want to eat with a spoon. As in I was literally having to stop myself from doing that as I was taste-testing for this recipe.
I tend to be pretty liberal using this particular salad dressing because the bulk of it is just fresh strawberry puree and it doesn't keep for more than a day or two.
Making a Strawberry Spring Salad
The first step to an incredible salad is to really thoroughly wash and dry your salad greens. That's where a handy-dandy salad spinner comes in. It really does make a huge difference in the texture of the salad when your greens are crispy and crunchy instead of waterlogged.
I used both red and green leaf lettuce for this spring salad. I love the color contrast of the red leaf lettuce and green leaf lettuce, and think that their flavor and texture go great with the other salad components.
Just roughly chop up the salad greens and then rinse them well and give them a spin in a salad spinner until they are totally dry. Then I just remove the basket from my salad spinner and use the bowl for serving.
Top the lettuce with sliced strawberries, thinly shaved fennel, sliced red onion, crumbled goat cheese, and candied walnuts. It has a great balance of sweet and savory, crunchy and creamy soft (thanks to the crumbled goat cheese), and loads of flavor in the form of the fresh strawberry balsamic dressing.
This salad tasted like something I might expect to order at a fancy restaurant. Except I made it at home in about 10 minutes.
More Delicious Salads You'll Enjoy
- Chopped Kale Salad
- Persimmon, Pomegranate and Spinach Salad
- Grilled Cajun Chicken Salad with Creamy Cajun Dressing
- The Most Amazing Apple Salad with Candied Walnuts and Poppy Seed Dressing
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Spring Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 head red lettuce
- 1 head green lettuce
- ½ fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 pint strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced (about 1 ½ to 2 cups)
- ½ cup candied walnuts
- 2-4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
Dressing
- 1 cup strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 Tablespoon shallot, finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions
- Chop the lettuces and wash them well to remove any dirt or grit. Spin in a salad spinner to remove excess water and get the lettuce nice and crispy.
- Slice the fennel, red onion, and strawberries, then sprinkle over the top of the lettuce in a serving bowl. Top with candied walnuts and crumbled goat cheese. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
- In a food processor (affiliate link) or blender, pulse the strawberries until pureed. Add all remaining vinaigrette ingredients and pulse again until smooth. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Dressing is best used the same day, but can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.
Nutrition
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of OXO and California Olive Ranch.
SO GOOD! I subbed toasted pecans for candied walnuts and basil for thyme because that’s what I had … definitely going on my regular rotation! The strawberry dressing is SO good!!!