This fresh Strawberry Walnut Salad features ripe strawberries, fresh spinach, creamy feta cheese, and a homemade vinaigrette dressing, resulting in a salad that is bursting with flavor.
Why You’ll Love it
- Delicious ingredients: Fresh strawberries are the simple star of the show in this salad. Try experimenting with different cheeses until you find one you love. The homemade poppyseed dressing gives a kick of flavor. I like to keep it mixed up in the refigerator to jazz up boring salads.
- Simplicity: Preparation for this salad is minimal. Simply combine all the ingredients right before you’re ready to enjoy it, ensuring it stays fresh and avoids any sogginess.
- Great as a side or main dish: You have the choice to savor it as is or include some grilled chicken or fish for a delightful, yet light, meal option.
» You might try this Mediterranean Cucumber Salad and this Maple Balsamic Dressing.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This salad is full of fresh ingredients, and will come together quickly.
- Spinach – Fresh, crispy spinach leaves. I use baby spinach, because it’s so bite sized and delicate. Regular spinach works too, but be sure to tear it up into smaller pieces.
- Strawberries – Use the freshest strawberries you can find. The sweet, tart juiciness of the berries really makes this salad delicious.
- Soft cheese – I use blue cheese or feta, crumbled, in this salad, but you can also use any soft cheese you like that can crumble easily into the salad.
- Toasted walnuts – It’s very simple to toast raw walnuts on the stove top just before serving that this takes away the bitterness of the walnuts.
- Dressing ingredients – Lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, agave syrup or sugar substitute like allulose or Erythritol, salt and pepper, poppy seeds.
I use allulose as a sugar substitute. You can use Swerve, monkfruit, Erythritol or Xylitol. It’s really up to you. The reason I use allulose is because it’s a no calorie no carb sweetener like erythritol, but it doesn’t have the cooling effect. I get allulose directly through Wholesome Yum. I think you’ll really like it, especially if you also don’t like the cooling effect.
Learn more about low-carb sweeteners and conversion here.
Equipment Needed
- Large salad bowl – You will need a bowl large enought to hold 4 cups of fresh spinach.
- Small jar with a lid – I like to use pint jars with reusable lids to store salad dressing in the refrigerator.
Expert Tips to Follow
- You really should prepare this strawberry salad when you are ready to eat it, but you can make up the dressing ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to enjoy the salad, simply mix up the salad ingredients and add the dressing.
- It’s best not to dress the salad until you are ready to eat it, and even then to only add dressing to the portion you know you’ll be eating right away. Doing this will keep the salad from getting soggy before you can enjoy it.
How to Make Strawberry Walnut Salad
Step One
Start with fresh, crisp spinach leaves. I use baby spinach, because it’s so bite sized and delicate. Regular spinach works too, but be sure to tear it up into smaller pieces. You’ll know why if you’ve ever tried to fit a whole leaf in your mouth in one bite. It’s not pretty.
Step Two
If you have raw walnuts, you’ll want to toast them lightly on the stovetop before adding them to the salad. To do this, heat a pan over medium heat, add a small amount of oil to the pan. Pour in the walnuts. Push them around the pan regularly until they are lightly toasted. You don’t want to leave the stove while they’re toasting, as this is a pretty fast process and they can easily burn if you turn your back for too long.
Step Three
Add the chopped strawberries, crumbled cheese, and walnuts to the salad. Toss lightly to mix it up.
Add all dressing ingredients to a container or jar with a lid. Shake well.
Pour over the salad and toss to coat.
Don’t toss the salad with the dressing until you’re ready to serve it. The leaves become wilted quickly and you want this to be as crisp as possible when served.
How Many Carbs Are in Strawberries?
One cup of whole strawberries contains a total of 11 total grams of carbs. This total includes fiber, of which there is 2.9 grams in 1 cup. So there are 8.1 net grams of carbs in one cup of whole strawberries.
In case you’re wondering, that same cup of whole strawberries contains 1 gram of protein, .4 grams of fat, and 47 calories.
How many strawberries are in a cup? It varies depending on the size of the berry, but there are about 8 medium-sized strawberries in a cup, or 5 ounces of strawberries weighed. That give you the option of cutting the typical serving size in half and lowering the net carbs you’re getting.
Additions
This salad is great with just spinach, strawberries, cheese, and walnuts, but if you’re wanting to turn it into a lunch salad instead of a side salad, there are a few great accompaniments to add.
Try one or more of these additions:
- Grilled chicken or fish
- Avocado
- Sliced red bell peppers
- Shelled edamame
- Other berries, like blueberries or raspberries
Questions About the Recipe
How many carbs are in strawberry walnut salad?
A serving of spinach strawberry salad contains 10 grams of total carbs, 2 grams of fiber, for 8 net carbs. This can be lowered quite a bit by using an agave syrup substitute that contains no sugar.
I don’t like spinach, what else can I use?
If you don’t like spinach try using arugula or romaine as an alternative. Iceberg lettuce will work too, or try mixing multiple types of lettuce for a different taste and texture. It really comes down to your taste and preference.
Why is my salad soggy?
You may have mixed the salad dressing into the salad too early. Try mixing up the salad dressing and leaving it in the refrigerator until right before you eat. The longer the dressing sits on the salad the soggier and limper the spinach will get.
What to Serve This With
This salad is a great side dish, especially for a light summer dish, like salmon or white fish. It also goes really well with this buffalo stuffed chicken or a versatile pulled pork shoulder.
Here are a few of our favorites:
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Strawberry Walnut Salad
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Small jar with lid
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 4 cups (120 g) fresh baby spinach
- 1/2 cup (75 g) crumbled blue or feta cheese
- 1/2 cup (74 g) fresh strawberries
- 1/3 cup (39 g) toasted walnuts
For the dressing:
- 1/4 cup (59 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (59 ml) high-quality olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) agave syrup or sugar-free sweetener
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.5 g) salt
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.5 g) black pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon (5 g) poppy seeds
Instructions
- Toss all salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Add all dressing ingredients to a container or jar with a lid. Shake well.
- Pour over the salad and toss to coat.
Notes
- Prepare this strawberry salad when you are ready to eat it, but you can make up the dressing ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator.
- It’s best not to dress the salad until you are ready to eat it, and even then to only add dressing to the portion you know you’ll be eating right away. Doing this will keep the salad from getting soggy before you can enjoy it.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Angela lives a low-carb lifestyle in the Pacific Northwest with her two kids. She loves to read, cook, bake, try new recipes, and travel.