Spinach Strawberry Salad with Pomegranate Viniagrette

I found this lovely little salad in one of those recipe booklets they sell at the checkout stand at the market (I've professed my love for these booklets before). This one's called Easy Organic Cooking and it has a section on Take-Along Lunches -- it's the very reason I bought the book in the first place because there were all these lovely little salads on page after page after page. Just the thing I always wish I had at work during my lunch hour when I'm sinking my teeth into yet another turkey sandwich.

The recipe comes with intricate instructions on packing individual portions of the spinach and red onion mixture into one bag, then packing individual servings of the dressing in another bag, the strawberries and almonds in yet another bag... I say just divide everything up and pack it in individual rubbermaid containers. They're reuseable and way better for the environment than wasting all those plastic bags.

I made this salad for dinner tonight and I'll definitely be toting another one to work tomorrow.

The dressing is awesome. It has pomegranate juice, toasted sesame oil, cider vinegar, olive oil, and red pepper flakes. It all melds together nicely and you can taste each individual ingredient in every bite.

My version of the recipe (a little less sugar, olive oil instead of vegetable oil...). In the spirit of the cookbook, use as many organic ingredients as you can:

Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Makes 5 two-cup servings

Dressing ingredients:

1/3 cup pomegranate or pomegranate-cherry juice

2 T toasted sesame oil

2 T olive oil

3 T cider vinegar

2 T sugar

Large pinch of red pepper flakes

Pinch of salt

Salad ingredients:

1 bag (9 oz.) spinach leaves

1/2 c red onion, thinly-sliced

2 c strawberries, sliced

2 - 4 oz. slivered almonds

Combine dressing ingredients in a jar, secure lid, and shake vigorously until well-blended. If you're having a salad right this minute, toss a little of everything together and dig in.

If you're doing the take-along thing, divide everything by five. Toss spinach, onions, strawberries, and almonds into large plastic containers. Pour equal portions of dressing in small plastic containers.

Comments

[Mari]

this is a good excuse to buy some pomegranate juice, which i never do, as it's so expensive here (the NL is behind on some stuff); and make my bf happy with fruity salad, which his picky eating self actually likes.

[Kelly]

I officially need to make this.

[Cindy]

I tried this recipe for dinner last week and liked it very much. Instead of using raw slivered almonds, I dry-roasted and chopped some whole ones - this really amped up their flavour!

Thanks for posting this lovely salad, Molly.