Fresh Strawberry Spring Salad Recipe – Eckert’s

Spring is my favorite season. I love everything about it, from the mild weather to the rainy days to the blooming flowers. It’s a wonderful season filled with wonderful things, but the best thing about spring may be that it brings the return of fresh strawberries!
Strawberries are a delicious fruit that can be used in a wide variety of recipes, helping you make everything from sweet to savory dishes. Of course, at Eckert’s we have a few favorites that we like to dive into every spring (favorites like strawberry pie, strawberry lemonade and strawberry preserves), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for some more fun!

A salad with strawberries is one of my favorite ways to celebrate springtime. I like using freshly picked strawberries from Eckert’s to really finetune my flavors. By combining a spring salad with strawberries, pecans, cranberries and some feta cheese, you can build something delicious that’s great for serving on Easter or any other springtime lunch or dinner.

A Spectacular Spring Salad with Strawberries
This particular strawberry spring salad recipe uses just a few simple ingredients, plus a delicious vinaigrette that features Dijon mustard, maple syrup, lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil. The whole dish is surprising in a very sweet and delicious way.
When building your strawberry spring salad, you’ll want to consider how you cut your ingredients. I like cutting my strawberries along their width so that I have circular strawberry pieces that add extra flavor to every bite, but you might prefer to cut your strawberries into chunks instead. The same can be true for cranberries! While for this recipe I prefer to chop my dried cranberries, I know plenty of people will prefer to have them whole.
I also prefer to use romaine lettuce for my salads, but you might prefer to make a spring mix salad or strawberry spinach salad – although this might require you to play around with the ingredients and measurements a bit more, adding more strawberries or less cranberries and so on until it’s just right.

Eat well!

Ingredients

• 6 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1.5 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 tbsp dried cranberries (optional)
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large lemon, zested and juiced
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Begin by preparing all of your ingredients: chop the romaine lettuce, dried cranberries and pecans and slice the strawberries widthwise (or however you prefer them).
2. Place the chopped lettuce in a large mixing or serving bowl. Add the sliced strawberries, chopped pecans, dried cranberries and crumbled feta cheese. Toss to combine.
3. For the dressing, add the extra-virgin olive oil, one tablespoon lemon zest, one tablespoon lemon juice, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, salt and pepper to a food processor. Blend until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the food processor and drizzle over the other ingredients.
4. 4. Toss to incorporate the dressing and serve. Enjoy!