Spinach Salads That Make the Meal

,      That beautiful green spinach makes me feel healthy just looking at it. A few posts ago  I told you about the recipe I found on Spoonful of Flavor. It is a wonderful Watermelon Berry Salad with a Strawberry Mint dressing.  It was so delicious, I decided to experiment with a few other flavor combinations that went with spinach.  (I had purchased plenty!)  
         First of all, I also had some cucumbers and delicious vine ripened tomatoes.  I thought about a Greek Salad, but I decided to go with a little Italian twist.  Here is what I did, be sure to click on the pictures for the directions.

Chop and add together Spinach, a bunch of green onions and cubed cukes.

Chop up and add two tomatoes.

Put in a couple of big handfuls of mozzarella cheese.

Toss everything together. I love these colors!

Pour on Italian Dressing. Not too much, just enough to give it a good coating without hiding the taste of the veggies.

Top with Parmesan Cheese. Doesn't it look delicious?

       I am not giving you specific measurements for this salad because depending on the size of salad you need, you can add more or less of everything.
​                           Cucumber Spinach Salad
     I eyeballed how much spinach I thought I would need, added 1 big cucumber, 1 bunch of green onions, 2 tomatoes, and probably 2 cups of mozzarella cheese.  Then, dressing and Parmesan according to your taste. Super easy and super good!

A perfect side dish for any meal. A nice healthy accompaniment!

         After enjoying the Watermelon Berry Salad so much with the delicious Strawberry Mint Dressing, I was intrigued by the idea of the fruity dressing.  My son called and invited us over for smoked pulled pork at his house and I asked what I could bring.  He suggested a fruit salad or something.  That got my creative juices flowing and I came up with a new type of fruity salad mixed with spinach and I am so in love with it!  Here it is:

I had picked up some blueberries on sale. Don't they look beautiful with the spinach?

I also picked up some gigantic Fuji Apples! I cored and thinly sliced one apple and soaked the slices in lemon juice.

I needed a little more crunch I decided, so pecans came to mind. I coarsely chopped them. But, I didn't want to throw them in just as they are...

So I glazed them in a maple brown sugar glaze.

Here are the spinach, blueberries, apples and pecans all tossed together. Throw the apples in lemon juice and all.

The last thing, before the dressing, is to toss in some shredded Parmesan. Toss it all together. But wait! There is more!

    To dress the salad I really wanted to pull in some of the flavors I had already used, and being inspired by the Strawberry Mint shared by Spoonful of Flavor, I came up with a Blueberry Maple blend that is perfect for this salad. I can't decide what is more special in this salad, the glazed pecans or the  dressing. This time there is a little more of a recipe:

                Apple Blueberry Spinach Salad 
1 good sized bunch of spinach, washed well.  (I always pick the stems off.  Is that normal? I just don't like stems.)
 1 container blueberries, about 1/2 pint,  washed 
1 or two apples, depending on their size, thinly sliced
about 1/2 c. reconstituted lemon juice. (Maybe less, whatever will coat the apples to keep them from turning brown.)
 1 c. pecans, roughly chopped
1 T. butter
3 T. real maple syrup
2 T. brown sugar
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese

      Put the spinach, blueberries and apple slices, lemon juice and all in a salad bowl together.  Next, prepare the pecans.
      Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat and add the maple syrup.  Add the pecans to the skillet and stir to coat with the syrup and butter mixture.  Sprinkle the brown sugar on top and mix to coat.  This doesn't take very long, don't burn the pecans or the sugar.  Take off the heat when the pecans are coated and let cool briefly before adding to the salad.  (I could eat these all up by themselves, and I don't even like nuts that much.  There are really good! You could really package them up and give them away as gifts.)
      After you add the nuts to the salad, toss in the cheese.  Now it is ready to serve with the dressing.

​                       Blueberry Maple Dressing
1 container of blueberries
Juice of one lemon
2 T. real Maple Syrup
Blend all together until smooth.  Add more or less maple syrup to taste.

"​I can't decide what is more special in this salad, the glazed pecans or the dressing."

The result is a really pretty salad that went great with the pulled pork and rice.

    I hope you will give these a try! Let me know how you like them.  If you know of some other great combos with spinach, let me know!

   Don't forget to check out our new printables page! There is a great new Hot Cocoa Bomb Idea Book that you can download for free! Don't forget you can order the molds here.
​