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Spinach salad with cranberries and goat cheese


Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese

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Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese and Lemon-Honey Poppy Seed Dressing. Delicious, healthy salad with easy ingredients.

I love spinach salad and make it all the time using different kinds of ingredients. These days I really like cashews so this salad features cashews, goat cheese, and dried cranberries. The dressing is easy to make at home and super delicious: I mixed olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, honey, poppy seeds and stirred it altogether until smooth.  So easy and very tasty!

This photo shows all ingredients that go into this salad (except for the salad dressing): spinach, cashews, goat cheese, and cranberries. Easy!

This is a perfect salad for winter months when we all need extra vitamins and nutrition.  It has lots of good fats: olive oil and cashews.

After you make this spinach salad and mix it with the salad dressing, add the goat cheese last, on top of the salad. You can mix it in right in the salad, too, but it gets creamy really fast which you might actually like or you might not. So, keep this in mind. Enjoy!

4.78 from 71 votes

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese and Lemon-Honey Poppy Seed Dressing.  Delicious, healthy salad with easy ingredients.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 4 people

Calories per serving 321 kcal

Author: Julia

Salad ingredients:
  • 4 oz baby spinach
  • ½ cup cashews roasted
  • ¼ cup dried cranberries
  • 2 oz goat cheese
Salad dressing:
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

  • In a salad bowl, combine baby spinach, cashews, and cranberries.  Do not add goat cheese yet. 

  • In a separate small bowl, combine salad dressing ingredients: olive oil, honey, lemon juice, and poppy seeds.  Whisk until well-combined. 

  • Pour the salad dressing over the salad, and mix.   Do not add all of the salad dressing at once - add just enough to coat the salad to your taste.   Top with crumbled goat cheese.

Nutrition Information

Cranberry Spinach Salad with Cashews and Goat Cheese

Amount per Serving

Calories

321

% Daily Value*

Saturated Fat

 

Cholesterol

 

Sodium

 

Potassium

 

Carbohydrates

 

Fiber

 

Sugar

 

Protein

 

Vitamin A

 

2805

IU

Vitamin C

 

10.9

mg

Calcium

 

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Spinach, Cranberry and Goat Cheese Salad

by Becky Leave a Comment

Spinach, cranberry and goat cheese salad for all your potluck needs and beyond! Each component is tasty on it’s own (okay maybe not spinach) but when they all come together, something truly delicious happens.

This salad has got it goin on. Tender spinach leaves, creamy goat cheese, tart cranberries, salty/crunchy pepitas. Yes yes yes. But I think we all know you can have a salad with the tastiest ingredients in the world but if the dressing is no good, the whole thing is basically ruined. That is not the case with this dressing! It has perfectly balanced acidity, a touch of sweetness and get this: just 6 ingredients. Bring this as your contribution to your next holiday get together, work potluck or just serve it at home to your family. It will be a hit for sure!

I don’t have any interesting stories about how this lovely little salad came to be. Just had some extra goat cheese from a failed recipe attempt and was determined not to waste it! I hate when I buy a special ingredient for a recipe, only use part of it, then the rest gets wasted because it’s just not something I eat all the time. That’s why I have a bunch of recipes that call for chipotle peppers in adobo! Most recipes don’t call for the entire can so I’ve come up with a bunch of places to use up those peppers. Like chipotle mayo, tamale pie and black bean soup to name a few. But I digress, let’s talk ingredients!

Ingredients

Spinach salad
  • Spinach
  • Creamy, crumbly goat cheese (I get the chevre kind from Trader Joe’s)
  • Pepitas or pumpkin seeds (I prefer to buy raw and roast and salt them myself, but you can buy them already roasted if you prefer)
  • Marinated shallots (we will talk about how to do this! it’s easy and requires basically the same ingredients as the vinaigrette)

Vinaigrette
  • Avocado oil (you can also use sunflower or canola)
  • Red wine vinegar
  • Garlic powder
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Honey

These 6 ingredients alone in the right proportion (this is key!) makes a super delicious dressing that will make you look forward to salad. Sometimes I spruce it up by adding fresh herbs (like basil, dill, mint, parsley) and finely minced shallots. Just an option!

Make it

So this is a really simple recipe but there are a few (easy) extra steps like reconstituting the cranberries and marinating shallots that make it feel like a special salad from a fancy schmancy restaurant.

1:

Marinate the shallots

You might be tempted to skip this step and just throw some thinly sliced shallots on the salad and call it a day. And you can, but…. I really think you should give this step a try. It’s so worth it! It takes the edge off the onion flavor and imparts a nice pickly flavor that is the perfect compliment to the goat cheese and cranberries.

To make them: simply slice the shallots, place in a jar and top with vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and a drizzle of oil. Shake and let stand while you prepare the other ingredients and the dressing.

2:

Roast pepitas

Or you can buy them already roasted/salted. I like to just roast my pepitas myself so I can control the salt. It’s easy to do! Just spread the seeds out on a parchment-lined baking sheet drizzle with just a touch of oil, sprinkle with salt and bake in the oven for a few minutes.

3:

Make the dressing

Not much to see here, just throw all of the ingredients in a jar and shake! But lemme tell ya, this dressing is MY FAVORITE. I can’t even count how many times I’ve made it the last few months. It has taken me forever to finally make a dressing that I like more than any bottled kind and I’m so excited about it.

Also note, you will end up with extra dressing. Enjoy it for up to 2 weeks after making it! I promise it will make you want to eat more salads.

4:

Reconstitute the dried cranberries

All you have to do here is place the cranberries in a small bowl and pour some hot water over them. This helps them plump up and become soft and gets rid of the hard chewiness that dried cranberries can sometimes have.

5:

Assemble the salad

I think you know what to do here, except may I just suggest tossing the spinach leaves with dressing first, then sprinkling on the goat cheese, cranberries, pepitas and shallots. That way the goat cheese doesn’t smear all over the spinach and look messy.

Tried this recipe?

If you’ve tried this spinach, cranberry and goat cheese salad, let me know! Leave a comment/rating below and let me know how it went. You can also find me on instagram @thefigjar 🙂

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Print Recipe

Spinach Cranberry Goat Cheese Salad

A simple spinach salad that is big on flavor. It's easy to make and is a great side for almost any meal.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Course: Side Dish, Salad

Cuisine: American

Keyword: spinach cranberry goat cheese salad

Servings: 6

Author: Becky

Salad contents
  • fresh spinach
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 2.5 oz goat cheese
Roasted pepitas
  • 1/2 cup raw pepitas *see note
  • 1/4 tsp avocado oil
  • sprinkle of salt
Marinate shallot
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallot (about 1 medium-sized shallot)
  • 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • drizzle of avocado oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp water
Dressing
  • 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2/3 cup avocado oil
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tbsp honey
Marinate shallots

  • Place sliced shallots in a jar, add vinegar, water, salt, pepper, sugar and a drizzle of oil. Shake and set aside.

Roast pepitas

  • Spread pepitas on a parchment-lined baking sheet and add 1/4 tsp of oil and a sprinkle of salt. Place in a 325F oven for 7-10 minutes until fragrant.

Reconstitute cranberries

  • Place dried cranberries in a small bowl. Pour hot water (just enough to cover) over the cranberries and let stand for about 5 minutes. Drain water.

Dressing

  • In a jar, combine vinegar, oil, salt pepper, honey and garlic powder by shaking vigorously (with the lid on of course!)

Assemble

  • Add spinach to a large bowl. Add 3-4 tbsp of dressing and toss. Top with cranberries, pepitas, shallots and goat cheese crumbles.

Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

  1. You can buy these already roasted and salted, I just prefer to do that myself so I’m providing instructions on that, do what you feel. 

Dressing

  1. You can jazz up the dressing by adding some minced shallot (maybe 1 tbsp or so) and fresh herbs (2-3 tbsp). I usually do a blend of basil, dill and mint. The dressing is great as is though! 
  2. You will end up with extra dressing, enjoy it for up to 2 weeks after making it.

 

 

Filed Under: Salads, Misc Tagged With: spinach cranberry goat cheese salad

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