Once you hear of a cherry salad, you is likely to be considering of cherry fluff. However that’s not what that is. This strawberry cherry salad with spinach, toasted pecans, and goat cheese is delightfully candy and excellent for summer season! Paired with a heavenly honey French dressing, this salad hits the spot for satisfying your dietary wants and your candy tooth on the identical time.
Summertime is the proper time to mess around with totally different salads. Within the scorching climate, you don’t all the time desire a scorching, heavy meal. You would possibly choose one thing cool and lightweight, like a salad. This strawberry cherry salad is simply the factor for summer season! Serve it as a aspect dish or add a slice of bread or a bagel to make it a meal. It goes nice with my Cinnamon Vanilla Cappuccino Bread recipe.
What Goes in This Strawberry Cherry Salad?
Strawberries: Summer time is the season for strawberries! That is the proper fruit for a summer season salad and it appears to be like actually fairly in your images.
Cherries: Important for a strawberry cherry salad – or any cherry salad! They’re a pleasant, candy deal with and pair properly with strawberries.
Spinach: These nutritious greens go nice with summer season fruits and veggies.
Pecan halves: Toasted pecan halves praise the opposite flavors on this salad rather well.
Margarine or butter: Wanted for toasting the pecan halves.
Goat cheese: Provides a little bit of protein. Plus, goat cheese is all the time an important combo with summer season fruits like strawberries and cherries.
Methods to Make This Strawberry Cherry Salad
This strawberry cherry salad is very easy to make. Principally, you simply toast the pecans, wash the produce, and chop the strawberries and cherries, and also you’ve acquired it!
First, I might toast the pecan halves. Unfold the pecan halves over a baking sheet, warmth the margarine or butter within the microwave, and pour it on prime. Then, toss with a spatula to coat the pecans evenly. Preheat the oven to 350 levels and toast the nuts for 10 minutes. Once they’re completed, take them out to chill.
Whilst you look forward to the pecan halves to toast and funky off, you possibly can go forward and rinse and drain the spinach in a colander, and put it in a big bowl or storage container. Then rinse off the strawberries and cherries. Subsequent, hull and chop the strawberries in half. After that, take away the stem from the cherries, chop them in half, and peel out the pit or kernel within the middle and discard it. Or, working fastidiously, you possibly can use a sturdy straw, paperclip, or chopstick to push the pit out from the underside of the cherry as described on this article from Recipes.internet. That is referred to as pitting the cherry; it turns out to be useful when you have your coronary heart set on complete cherries quite than slicing the cherries in half.
Cherry Pitters
Word: Make pitting cherries even simpler with a instrument designed particularly for the duty! Cherry pitters allow you to take away the arduous pit from the middle of a cherry with a easy push.
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triangle Cherry Pitter – Stainless Metal – Removes Pits in Seconds – Dishwasher Secure
Storing the Salad
So far as storage goes, I might retailer every merchandise in a separate container within the fridge. I might retailer the spinach in an enormous, lined bowl. For the strawberries and cherries, you possibly can most likely retailer these in the identical medium-sized container. Toasted pecans can sit out at room temperature, and I might retailer them in a Ziplock bag or small container of some kind. As for the goat cheese crumbles, simply go away them within the container they got here in.
And that’s the way you make and retailer your strawberry cherry salad!
Honey French dressing
I wished to pair this strawberry cherry salad with the honey French dressing that I used within the Strawberry Salad for Valentine’s Day. Nevertheless, as I discussed in my Summer time Berry Salad with Honey Dressing submit, the vinegar style on this dressing is kind of outstanding, and I actually wished the honey to face out extra. So, I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit, and I used to be happy with the consequence.
Components for the Honey French dressing
Canola oil: A good selection for an oil to pair with candy flavors like honey.
Apple cider vinegar: A French dressing all the time has vinegar. It is a sensible choice as a result of I feel the apple cider taste goes properly with the honey. Whereas I used a 3rd cup within the authentic recipe, I made a decision to scale it again to one-fourth cup right here to make the honey stand out greater than the vinegar.
Lemon juice and water: Just some tablespoons of lemon juice and water to stability out the flavors.
Ginger: Floor ginger blends simply with this dressing. It goes nice with honey and lemon flavors.
Honey: That is the star ingredient in a honey French dressing. Whereas I initially had simply three tablespoons on this dressing, I’ve determined to essentially maximize this taste through the use of a half cup of honey this time.
Well being Advantages of the Components
Strawberries
Strawberries include the next vitamins and well being advantages in response to Jolene Hart’s Eat Fairly:
- Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-aging properties
- Vitamin C for constructing collagen, defending the physique from free radical injury, and boosting metabolism
- Manganese for shielding the mitochondria
- Ellagic acid, a phytochemical that helps with blood sugar stability and sustaining cell well being
Cherries
Cherries include the next vitamins and well being advantages in response to Jolene Hart’s Eat Fairly:
- Anthocyanins for robust akin and connective tissue, plus safety towards free radical injury to the DNA
- Quercetin, an antioxidant that guards towards UV injury and will scale back allergy signs
- Anti-inflammatory properties to assist with arthritis and post-workout soreness, and stop wrinkles and redness within the pores and skin
- Vitamin C for making collagen and elastin for wholesome pores and skin, antioxidant properties, regulating metabolism, and replenishing vitamin E
- Beta carotene, which converts to vitamin A and guards towards UV injury
- Potassium for electrolyte stability and circulation, muscle and nerve well being, and PH stability
Spinach
Spinach incorporates the next vitamins and well being advantages in response to Jolene Hart’s Eat Fairly:
- Lutein for eye well being
- Vitamin A for cell renewal and wholesome pores and skin
- Glutathione for detoxing and DNA safety
- Vitamin C for antioxidant properties
- Iron, manganese, and magnesium for blood-oxygenating chlorophyll and wonder
- Vitamin Okay for robust bones
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Different Salad Recipes
Strawberry Cherry Salad
1 lb strawberries
1 lb cherries
1 cup toasted pecan halves
1 tbsp margarine or butter for toasting the pecan halves
10 oz child spinach
8 oz goat cheese crumbles
Honey French dressing
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps water
1/2 tsp floor ginger
1/2 cup honey
1. Preheat the oven to 350 levels.
2. Get out a baking sheet, measure out a cup of pecan halves, and unfold them out over the baking sheet.
3. Microwave margarine or butter in a small, microwave-safe cup for about 30 seconds or till melted.
4. Pour the margarine or butter over the pecan halves, and toss with a spatula.
5. Rinse off the strawberries and cherries in a colander.
6. Hull the strawberries, chop them in half, and set them apart in a bowl.
7. Take away the stem from the cherries and pit them, or chop them in half and take away the pit together with your arms.
8. Place the cherries in a colander with the strawberries to rinse once more, then switch them to a storage container.
9. Open the field of spinach and rinse it off in a colander, then retailer it in a big bowl.
Honey French dressing
1. Add the canola oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, water, floor ginger, and honey to the blender.
2. Mix till totally blended.
Placing all of it Collectively
1. Get out a bowl and serve the spinach first, then the fruit, then the toasted pecans.
2. Open a container of goat cheese crumbles, add a number of tablespoons to the salad.
3. Lastly, spoon a number of tablespoons of the honey French dressing over the salad, and revel in!
5. Place the pecan halves within the oven to toast for about 10 minutes, then take them out to chill when they’re completed toasting.
6. …
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: 10 minutes
Key phrases: strawberry cherry salad, cherry salad, honey French dressing
Diet Info
It is a diet information label I crafted for this strawberry cherry salad. Word that this doesn’t included diet information for the accompanying honey French dressing. (These are my very own calculations and have not been reviewed by the FDA.)
That is the diet information label I crafted for the honey French dressing revised recipe included on this submit. (These are my very own calculations and have not been reviewed by the FDA.)
