Strawberry Walnut Salad with Spinach and Goats Cheese

This Strawberry Walnut Salad with spinach and goat's cheese is the perfect summer salad. Packed with sweet juicy strawberries, fresh baby spinach, crunchy walnuts, and avocado and served with an orange and poppy seed dressing. This is a real show-stopper salad great for special occasions or as a lovely summer lunch.

Jump to:

• 🛒 What You'll Need
• 🔪 How to Make Strawberry Walnut Salad
• 👩‍🍳 Top Tips
• ❓FAQs
• 🔄 Variations
• 💭 Storing and Making Ahead
• 🥗 More Tasty Salad Recipes
• Even More Salad Inspiration
• Spinach Strawberry Walnut Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

I make a lot of salads, even before we switched to a vegetarian diet, salads have always been one of my favourite things to make. Whether it's a healthy lunch like this Caprese salad or a tasty salad like this veggie noodle salad, salad is always on the weekly meal plan in my house. This spinach strawberry salad is one of my favourite salads for summer, it's something I like to make for a light lunch and always goes down a treat. It's also great as a main course salad or as a side dish.

This strawberry spinach salad is so easy to make with no cooking involved, perfect for when it's too hot to cook!  Made with sweet strawberries, walnuts, creamy goat cheese, leafy greens and a very easy dressing this salad is a party for your taste buds! One bite of this salad gives you sweetness from those fresh strawberries, a lovely nutty flavor from the walnut and then you have the creaminess from the goat's cheese. 

🛒 What You'll Need

• Strawberries - Look for just ripe strawberries in the grocery store. They should be firm and not squishy with fresh green leaves. 
• Spinach - I use baby spinach for this recipe, it's milder than regular spinach making it perfect for salads.
• Goat's Cheese -  I like semi-soft goat's goat cheese for this salad as it brings a lovely creaminess to the salad. 
• Nuts and Seeds - Walnut halves and pumpkin seeds add texture to this salad so I recommend adding these.
• Other ingredients - You will also need avocado, cucumber, radishes and scallions (spring onions).
• For the dressing - to make the dressing you will need, extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed orange juice, runny honey, Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, poppy seeds, salt and black pepper.

🔪 How to Make Strawberry Walnut Salad

Please see the recipe card below for the complete ingredient list and step-by-step instructions.

1. Make the dressing - this is an easy dressing. Just add all the dressing ingredients to a jar with a very tight-fitting lid. Give it a very good shake. Once everything is combined leave the jar in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
2. Assemble The  Salad - Add the baby spinach to a large salad bowl, then add in the scallions (spring onions) cucumber, celery, walnuts, and seeds and toss well. 
3. Add the avocado  - and crumble the goat's cheese over the salad. Give it a little toss, just a gentle nudge so they both fall into the spinach.
4. Add the Strawberries - tumble the strawberries onto the salad and let them fall into place. Resist the temptation to toss now, they will be fine sitting on top.
5. Pour over the dressing - pour the dressing over everything. Give the leaves a little lift with the salad servers, again no tossing. I sometimes just leave the dressing on the table for everyone to pour it themselves. Some salads are best dressed this way, this one suits it both ways, drenched in the bowl or on the plate, it's a personal preference so you decide.
6. Serve immediately.

👩‍🍳 Top Tips

• Use baby spinach, it's milder than regular spinach and is easier to eat. 
• Make sure that you dry the strawberries after you wash them and before you add them to the salad. This will stop the salad from becoming soggy.
• Hull your strawberries! Do this by using a small sharp knife, holding the strawberry in one hand, and with your other hand insert the tip of the knife into the strawberry at a 45° angle. Rotate the knife around the core leafy bit until you have removed the top. Or cut the strawberries in half lengthways and using the same sharp knife cut into the core leafy bit at a 45° angle on one side and then the other until you have removed the white fleshy core.
• Use freshly squeezed orange juice for your dressing, it's just so much nicer, trust me!
• Don't toss too much, if you toss that avocado and the goat's cheese too much it will get soggy and melt into the dressing, you really don't want that.

❓FAQs

🔄 Variations

• Swap the vegetables - this salad is very flexible and it is easy to make a few changes to it. For example, you can swap the scallions for red onion, this will add some tartness to the salad. You can also swap the baby spinach for other dark leafy green veggies such as kale or spring greens.
• Try a different cheese - If you're not a fan of goat cheese then try some feta cheese or blue cheese crumbles. The tangy feta will add an extra layer of flavour to this salad. Blue cheese is a great choice as it will add some saltiness to the salad which will work well with the sweet strawberries.
• Swap the dressing - if you're not keen on the dressing I've used then try a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Or you could use a store-bought vinaigrette dressing of your choice. 

💭 Storing and Making Ahead

• This salad really is best made fresh, however, if you are bringing this to a BBQ or the like, then assemble the salad up to step 3 above. Store the salad in an airtight container  Store the avocado, goat's cheese strawberries and dressing in separate containers then add everything to the salad when you are ready to serve.
•  You can make the dressing the day before. Just store that in the fridge and give it a very good shake before you add it to the salad. The dressing should only be added just before you serve it. 
• The complete salad is best eaten straight away, it doesn't keep very well in the fridge, and it tends to get a bit soggy. So the best way to avoid this is to serve the dressing separately, if you do this there will be no soggy things in your salad. It will then keep for a day or two covered in your fridge.

🥗 More Tasty Salad Recipes

If you're in the mood to try out more of my salads then these are some of our favourites. This Moroccan Style Couscous Salad with roasted veggies and chickpeas is such a tasty salad that is great for lunch. Or try my Greek Chickpea Salad with spinach and feta, we love this as a side dish for BBQ day. If you're a fan of pasta salads then my Broccoli Pasta Salad always goes down well with adults and kids alike.

Even More Salad Inspiration

*This recipe was first published in May 2019 and updated in May 2023 for housekeeping.