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Strawberry Spinach Salad with Sesame and Poppy Seed Dressing


I've learned salad dressing is easy to make and the dressing in this recipe is delicious.  I based this recipe off of one I found at allrecipes.com

Original recipe makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
¼ cup white sugar
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon minced shallot

¼ cup almonds, blanched and slivered
1 tablespoon sugar
½ tsp salt

10 ounces fresh spinach - rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
16 oz. strawberries - cleaned, hulled and sliced

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and shallot. Cover, and chill for one hour.

Brown the almonds by placing almonds, sugar and salt in a large fry pan and stir constantly.  Watch constantly as the sugar will caramelize suddenly.

Combine spinach, strawberries and almonds in a bowl.  Mix dressing thoroughly.  Pour over salad to suit your taste.

4 comments:

Mary said...

Clementines or mandarin oranges would be another nice addition.

Rob Rumppe said...

I agree, Mary. The dressing would be good on any salad. If I was using Mandarin oranges, I would consider adding some sesame oil to the dressing just to give it an Asian kick.

Nancy said...

I did enjoy the salad, but the dressing was VERY sweet. Might be better if the amount of sugar was cut in half.

Rob Rumppe said...

@Nancy: That is the amazing thing! The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of sugar. I already cut it in half. I also added some sugar to the almonds, which was not part of the original recipe. Nevertheless, can you just imagine if I had used a half cup of sugar? It would be like dressing your salad with maple syrup.