20-Minute Apple Spinach Salad with selfmade maple-lime mustard dressing will make a wholesome and refreshing addition to your favourite weeknight dinner! The addition of fruit, nuts, and cheese elevates this easy spinach salad to a brand new degree. Simple sufficient to make on weekdays – presentable sufficient to serve for a special day! Serve it as a aspect, or add protein to show this into a whole meal.
Easy spinach salad
This scrumptious 20-Minute Apple Spinach Salad options primary elements, reminiscent of pink and inexperienced apples, child spinach, pecans, dried cranberries, and goat cheese tossed along with the selfmade Maple-Lime Mustard Dressing. You’ll be able to serve this as a aspect with nearly any fundamental course (hen, steak, pork, seafood, pasta). Or, add protein and make it a meal. Convey this crowd-pleasing aspect dish to picnics, potlucks, barbecue events, and different gatherings with family and friends. Easy sufficient to make on a busy weekday – fancy sufficient to serve firm! Different easy salads I like to recommend are spinach salad with parmesan and pine nuts and strawberry spinach salad with bacon and toasted almonds.
The elements
This easy spinach salad is full of fiber and options fairly a couple of colourful, wholesome, and nutrient-rich elements. All of them are easy and will be simply present in most grocery shops making this salad an ideal selection for any day of the week year-round!
- Apples. I used 1 small pink apple (Fuji, you too can use Gala or Honey Crisp) and 1 small inexperienced apple (Granny Smith). I didn’t peel the apples for presentation functions.
- Spinach is full of vitamins and antioxidants. It’s excessive in fiber and a superb supply of many nutritional vitamins and minerals. Spinach is a good supply of nutritional vitamins A and C, in addition to folic acid, iron, and calcium. I used child spinach.
- Dried cranberries. I used Craisins – their sweetness matches completely with the apple spinach salad. You may also use dried figs, blueberries, or cherries. You’ll be able to plump up the dried fruit by briefly blanching it with scorching water.
- Pecans add crunch and texture to any salad and are full of fiber and are wealthy in lots of vitamins. This contains zinc and Vitamin B1. I wish to calmly toast them within the preheated oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes.
- Goat cheese provides creaminess.
- Easy dressing. Costume this fast and straightforward apple spinach salad with a scrumptious selfmade dressing made with simply 4 elements: maple syrup, mustard, olive oil, and lime juice. I like to recommend utilizing freshly squeezed lime juice (not the bottled form) and additional virgin olive oil. You should use both maple syrup or honey.
Tips on how to make it forward
This simple spinach salad is so fast to assemble that it would not actually must be made upfront. All you want is 20 minutes within the kitchen. This can be a nice salad to deliver to picnics, potlucks, and barbecue events and to serve to a big crowd. On this case, you may double or triple the salad elements, and it could be useful to prep some elements upfront. Listed here are my suggestions:
- Toast the pecans within the preheated oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. Cool them off and maintain them in an hermetic plastic bag.
- Put together the salad dressing as much as 3 days upfront and retailer it refrigerated in a glass mason jar.
- I don’t suggest prepping spinach or apples upfront as you may simply assemble them the day of!
- The meeting ought to take solely 10 minutes earlier than serving for the most effective outcomes and freshness.
- Tip: do not add the pecans, goat cheese, and salad dressing till proper earlier than serving to maintain the apple spinach salad contemporary and to stop the nuts from getting soggy.
Variations, substitutions, and recipe notes
Not solely does this simple spinach salad function actually easy and simply accessible elements, nevertheless it’s additionally an extremely versatile recipe which you can simply alter relying on what you might have accessible.
- Greens. Use your favourite greens with this salad – spinach, arugula, blended greens, backyard greens, and lettuce.
- Nuts. Costume up an apple spinach salad along with your favourite nuts: pecans, walnuts, cashews, or almonds. If utilizing uncooked nuts, toast them briefly within the oven to make them crunchy. You may also buy roasted nuts or use candied nuts.
- Add seeds. Add toasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds along with the nuts or as an alternative of them.
- Dried fruit. I used Craisins (dried cranberries). You may also use dried figs, blueberries, or cherries.
- Cheese. I like to recommend utilizing goat cheese, feta, or gorgonzola.
- Salad dressing is made with maple syrup, mustard, olive oil, and lime juice. Maple syrup will be changed with honey. You should use lemon juice as an alternative of lime juice. I used Dijon mustard, however any mustard will work.
What to serve with it
Apple spinach salad will pair properly with any fundamental course. Serve it with grilled meats, hen, steak, seafood, or pasta dishes. Listed here are a couple of options:
- Creamy Rooster and Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Spinach
- Creamy Spinach Rooster
- Creamy Tuscan Rooster with Spinach, Artichokes, and Solar-Dried Tomatoes
- Rooster and Bacon Pasta with Spinach and Tomatoes in Garlic Cream Sauce
Different spinach salads you would possibly like
- Strawberry Spinach Salad with Blueberries, Feta, and Pecans
- Spinach Salad with Peaches and Blueberries
- Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese and Lemon-Honey Poppy Seed Dressing
- Spinach Salad with Mango, Avocado, Blueberries, Strawberries, Cashew Nuts, and Balsamic French dressing

Apple Spinach Salad
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Elements
Salad dressing
- ⅓ cup additional virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 giant lime juice freshly squeezed
Salad elements
- 6 oz child spinach
- 1 cup pecan halves toasted, a few of them chopped finely
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 small inexperienced apple (Granny Smith), cored and diced
- 1 small pink apple (reminiscent of Fuji or Gala), cored and diced
- ⅓ cup goat cheese crumbled
Directions
Make salad dressing
- Mix all salad dressing elements in a mason jar. Whisk properly with a fork, till emulsified. Add extra lime juice to style.
Meeting
- I favor to rearrange the salad in particular person bowls for presentation functions.
- Add spinach to every particular person salad bowl. Chop up half of the nuts. Nestle the remaining salad elements on prime of the spinach.
- Drizzle with the salad dressing.
- Alternatively, you may mix all of the salad elements (besides pecans) in a big serving bowl, add the dressing, and toss to mix. Then, prime the salad with toasted pecan halves (a few of them chopped).
Notes
- If utilizing uncooked pecans, toast them within the preheated oven at 350 F for about 5 or 10 minutes till a bit of bit darker in colour and crunchy. Watch out to not burn the nuts.
- You may also buy roasted, flavored, or candied pecans. On this case, you need not toast them.
Diet
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