Strawberry Pecan Feta and Spinach Salad

Summer is almost here! This Strawberry Pecan and Feta Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing is perfect for it! This salad is so light and refreshing, and perfect for those hot summer days!

I am totally loving Strawberry season. I’ve been incorporating Strawberries into a lot of Smoothies lately like this Strawberry Mint Smoothie.

But today I decided to mix things up and make a salad that included Strawberries.

When I’m putting together a salad I usually have no idea what I’m making it out of until I go to the grocery store. I usually am just wandering around the produce section looking for what’s on sale and what produce looks the best.

This week it was Spinach, Strawberries, Carrots, and Avocados that were on sale. I’m thinking to myself, ok what else can I add to pizzazz this up? As I’m wandering through the the store I notice Feta cheese is on sale, perfect! Ok now I need some sort of a nut… Pecans…Yes! Since I am now living in the South, Pecans are Everywhere!

Now I just need to come up with a good dressing for this salad. I’ve been stuck in a salad dressing rut lately making Balsamic Vinaigrette for every single salad I’ve been eating. Don’t get me wrong, I love this dressing, but I’m ready for a change.

I’ve been making my own salad dressing lately because A) It’s cheaper B) It tastes way better than the store bought dressings and C) I know what every single ingredient is that goes into my dressing. Have you ever looked at the ingredients on some of the salad dressings out there? Half of the stuff I can’t even pronounce.

I have a rule for food: If I can’t pronounce it, I’m not going to eat it.

I decided to buy some Poppyseeds and make a Poppyseed dressing. Note: Poppyseeds can be found in the spice aisle of most grocery stores. Maybe you already knew this, but I didn’t. I wandered through every single aisle of the grocery store until finally I gave up and asked an employee where they were. So if you didn’t know this, hopefully I’m saving you precious time from searching for these. 🙂

The Poppyseed dressing is really easy to throw together, it literally takes about 5 minutes to make.

The dressing is made up of EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), Red Wine Vinegar, Minced Garlic, Honey, Sea Salt, and Poppyseeds. I usually have all of these ingredients on hand, the only thing I had to buy were the Poppyseeds.

I like to mix all of the salad ingredients in a big bowl first (except for the Avocado), then add it to the plates. I add the Avocado last, because if you mix it all in the bowl it gets a little mushy.

Then just drizzle as much of the Poppyseed dressing over your salad as you want. This way the salad doesn’t get too soggy.

If you have leftover dressing, like I did, you can store this in a glass mason jar with a lid in the fridge for up to 5 days. Which is great, because then the next time you make a salad your dressing is all ready to go!