Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Phillipa and Truman came over for dinner tonight.

All I have to say is: YUM!

I made a spinach and strawberry salad to serve up with the steak, sausages and other salads... it was so pretty, I meant to take a photo of it before dishing it up, but I quite honestly forgot. The original plan was to make it using the perpetual spinach from our garden - but when I tested it, the leaves were a bit more bitter than regular spinach.  I quickly ran out to the fruit and veg shop to get a bag of baby spinach, but the best I could do was a bunch of whole leaf spinach.  It was still lovely and fresh tasting, but not quite as pretty as usual.

Ooops.  The whole bowl was full of this lovely salad - well worth making when you have guests or fancy a treat.

This salad is awesome on so many levels.  As I mentioned on my other blog, I love different tastes and textures in my food - this is definitely a multifaceted salad.  The sugared almonds add sweetness and crunch, the vinaigrette dressing is both tart and sweet, which brings out the flavour of the strawberries beautifully.  A former workmate of mine sent me this recipe many, many years ago as part of a recipe exchange and it has never (ever) failed me - just as she promised - I have the email saved in one of my webmail accounts so I can access it, wherever I am in the world!

I will not even consider putting this in the Weight Watchers calculator to find the points.  If you want to, feel free (it served the 5 of us quite easily and I had a double helping and there was a bit left over - as you can see from the photo above.  I'd guess around 8 servings.)

Divine Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Dressing - I mix it all up in a little container, and shake it up and pour it on just before serving, so the salad/almonds don't get soggy.

• 1/4 c vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp raspberry vinegar or 4 tbsp red wine vinegar (I used 4 tbsp white wine vinegar tonight and I liked it a bit better than the red - it wasn't as strong.)
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tsp poppy seeds
• 1 green onion finely chopped (I used a handful of chives today, also equally as lovely.)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• pinch or two of paprika

Sugared Almonds - Mix ingredients in a bowl; pan fry on medium heat with no oil until golden brown.  Make sure it's not too high or else the sugar will caramelize on the almonds and they'll stick together.  Can also sprinkle these on just before serving, or if the spinach and strawberries are completely dry - you don't want to lose the crunch or the sweetness.

• 1/2 c slivered almonds  (I used a 70g pack today, which is slightly over a 1/2 cup.)
• 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 2 tsp water

Salad - Wash and pat dry the spinach.  Toss the strawberries through it.  Use as many as you like - I think the more the merrier!  I usually make all the bits well ahead of time and assemble just before serving.

• bag of spinach (I prefer baby spinach, but today I used 1 bunch of spinach leaves and chopped them up.)
• 2 c strawberries - hulled and sliced/quartered/halved - whatever you prefer  

Enjoy!