Strawberry Salad with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

What should I write about first?  That I have a terrific recipe for strawberries?  Or how excited I was last week when my blog passed the 1000 visitors mark, so I decided to do a giveaway in true blogland fashion?

The giveaway is closed.  The winners have been drawn--congratulations to Maureen and Anne!

Okay, let's do the giveaway first.  My followers are automatically entered into the giveaway.

If YOU would like to be entered into the giveaway, all you have to do is a). become a follower or b). leave a comment to this post.  If you are a follower and you leave a comment, you will be entered twice!  And since I have TWO items that I am giving away, if you win twice, you get two prizes!

Anyone can enter.......and since I have had recent visitor(s) from India, let it be known that I will post world-wide.

I will draw the winners on Wednesday.

Wanna know whatchur playin' for? (that was my best impersonation of the host of Survivor.)

Two of my favorite cutting boards.  You may have noticed them in previous posts....the tomato made its first appearance in the pasta with creamy tomato sauce recipe and the lemon made its first appearance in the recipe for BLT/Grilled chicken salad .

I like them so much, I bought two for you.

 The thing I like most about these cutting boards is the green rim, which has a rubbery texture so the cutting board does not slip and slide around.  I also like that they are sooooo cute!

If you would like to win one of these cutting boards, don't forget to a.) become a follower of this blog or b.)leave a comment to this post by Wednesday.  And if you do both a. and b., you will be entered twice.

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated or connected to the company, Dexas, which makes these cutting boards.  Not only do they have no idea who I am, I would venture further and say that they do not even care who I am.

Okay, now on to the next part.  I promised you a strawberry recipe.  This is a recipe for a strawberry salad with a honey balsamic vinaigrette. 

The supermarkets are finally selling sweet, juicy strawberries (at very reasonable prices), as opposed to the hard, tasteless strawberries they sell in the winter (at outrageous prices). 

Of course, the best strawberries here in New England are the ones you pick yourself or buy at your local farmers' markets.  It won't be strawberry picking season here for a few more weeks, but do yourself a favor when that time comes and buy some local strawberries......yum.

Strawberry Salad with Honey/Balsamic Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette ingredients:

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard

Salad ingredients:

• 6 oz. baby spinach
• 12 oz strawberries, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup glazed pecans
• 1/4 cup feta cheese



Place all of your dressing ingredients into a small bowl.

Mix well to combine.  I use an immersion blender and it takes about 30 seconds to combine.  You could also use a hand mixer.  A whisk also works well, but it will take longer (the honey is a bit stubborn, it doesn't like to combine with the oil) and if you're whisking, you should probably use a larger bowl so the dressing doesn't splash out.

After you've made the dressing, gather your 4 salad ingredients. 

To remove the stems from the strawberries, I use this nifty little gadget.  It's about the size of a 1/4 teaspoon-size measuring spoon, but it has little teeth to scoop out the top of the strawberry.

Like this.

After removing the stems, cut the strawberries into bite-sized pieces.  I cut the smaller strawberries in half, and the larger strawberries into quarters.

This 5 oz. bag of glazed pecans is the perfect size for this recipe.  You will be able to use one cup of pecans in the salad, and have a few left over for you to munch on while you are preparing the salad.  Because you will not be able to stop yourself from munching.

Or you can also make your own glazed pecans, which is very easy to do.  I'll save that recipe for a future blogpost.  And now back to our salad...

After you've made the dressing and prepped the strawberries, putting the salad together is easy.

Just put the spinach, strawberries and pecans into a large bowl.  Drizzle about 1/2 the dressing onto the salad, and toss lightly to combine.

The dressing is very strong, so you only want to toss about half of it with the salad.  Serve the remaining dressing on the table so your guests can add more if they like.

You can either add the feta cheese to the salad when you toss it, or serve it on the side and sprinkle it on top, like this.

Or if you really like feta cheese, you can toss it with the salad and sprinkle it on top.

I can't even describe to you how yummy the combination of the vinaigrette and the sweet strawberries and pecans is.

Enjoy!