Strawberry Spinach Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Dressing -Gluten-Free

This strawberry spinach salad with strawberry balsamic dressing is gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan and so perfect for summer entertaining! So easy to prepare and so full of flavor, you will be making this summer salad all season long!

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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Vegetarian Vegan

An aerial view of a platter with spinach salad and strawberries, red onion, slivered almonds, dried blueberries and a strawberry balsamic dressing.

This recipe was originally posted in May 2018 and updated in March 2019 to create a better reader experience.

Strawberry Spinach Salad Recipe

It’s that time of year!!! Berry season! As soon as May starts, I’m about ready to throw strawberries in anything and everything. From my morning breakfast parfait to my smoothies to my strawberry spinach salad with strawberry balsamic dressing.

This strawberry spinach salad with strawberry balsamic dressing is the epitome of summer! We’re talking fresh spinach, juicy strawberries, slivered almonds, creamy avocado, sliced red onion, and sweet dried blueberries.

This salad is delicious as is and makes a beautiful first course to your main meal. However, if you would like to serve this salad as your entree, I recommend adding some protein to fill you up! Grilled salmon or chicken would be a great addition, as would tofu for my vegan friends.

What Dressing to Use With Strawberry Spinach Salad

We’re using strawberries in two ways here, in the salad itself and in this tasty strawberry balsamic dressing. I won’t lie to you guys… the strawberry balsamic dressing kind of makes the salad.

However, other salad dressings that would go well with this spinach strawberry salad are champagne vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, poppyseed dressing or even a green goddess dressing.

What Dried Fruits to Use on Strawberry Salad

In this strawberry spinach salad recipe, we’re using dried blueberries. Typically, dried cranberries are common in salads, but since it’s summer I wanted to use another type of dried berry in this salad.

The dried blueberry definitely drives this strawberry salad into summer mode! If you can’t find dried blueberries, feel free to use dried cranberries instead!

A cup of strawberry balsamic dressing being poured onto a strawberry spinach salad.

Toppings for Spinach Salad

Raw Onion

I never though I’d be a raw onion in a salad kind of girl… but it’s totally perfect in this salad. The bite from the red onion just works so well with the sweetness from the strawberries.

If you’re not a raw onion in salad kind of person, I get it – but really give it a try! You might surprise yourself!

Avocado

A salad isn’t a salad without avocado if you ask me. Super creamy and delicious and takes the salad to the next level.

Especially since this is a dairy-free and vegan salad without creamy cheese, the avocado really brings that velvety texture that is missing without cheese.

You can dice it, cube, it, roll it into avocado roses. Whatever makes you feel fanciest, friends!

Nuts

I used slivered almonds in this recipe, but other nuts would be equally as delicious. I love the texture from the slivered almonds because they are so crunchy and light when slivered.

How to Make Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Okay, okay. Let’s get into this strawberry balsamic salad dressing I can’t stop thinking about! It’s sweet, tart, savory, sour, bright, fresh.

All the good stuff! You would think with strawberries being the base of the salad dressing that it would just be cloyingly sweet, but oh no. The exact opposite.

The sweetness of the berries is balanced so well with the balsamic vinegar. And my secret ingredient for making a majority of my salad dressings just makes all the difference in the flavor department…. stone ground mustard!

I’m not talking about mustard powder, but instead the wet stuff. You can use dijon mustard if that’s what you have on hand, it will still provide a great flavor that compliments the strawberries and balsamic very nicely.