Strawberry Salads Forever

This post is completely strawberry inspired! From their beautiful red color to their yummy taste, strawberries are love! Lately I've been on a strawberry kick. I twittered about sharing my Willams-Sonoma roasted strawberry salad experience and how I was munching on fresh strawberries for dessert tonight.

The other night I made a scrumptious 'Baby Spinach Salad with Roasted Strawberry ", recipe compliments of Williams-Sonoma It was the perfect recipe for those of out there that aim to be healthy and loove cooking, but aren't quite 'top chefs' yet.

But first, I wanted to share some great online shopping finds that will totally get you in the "strawberry" mood for this great salad.

Dress by Motel, $64.37 ASOS

Heels by Jeffrey Campbell, $159.99 ModCloth

Aren't those shoes adorable?

Salad time!

Now before beginning, invite some girlfriends over (or a hot date!) or put some music on. To stick with this strawberry theme, I recommend Strawberry Swing by Coldplay or Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles or the amazing cover by Jim Sturgess.

I'm going to be proving the "half" version of the recipe, as it makes a huge salad (enough for 6 people I'd say). And other great thing about this salad is that it's cheap. It cost me about $16 for all the goods (minus the basics I already had like spinach, almonds and red wine vinegar..), and that was for the full size recipe. The most expensive ingredient was the pecorino romano cheese which cost $9.99, but I only used half for the cheese and it will make for an excellent snack later.

Ingredients

1/2 lb yummy fresh strawberries

4 tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. plus 1/2 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

fresh ground pepper to taste

3 tbs. red wine vinegar

1/8 cup fresh orange juice (I just brought the small "lunch-size" of Simply Orange orange juice, as I didn't take the time to make fresh OJ. Just being honest...)

2 tsp. freshly ground tarragon (this is usually located by the lettuce and spinach, in case you didn't know - because I didn't! Thank goodness you're never too old to call your mom)

1/2 cup blanched whole almonds, roasted (I totally cheated on this and used the pre-sliced salad mix-in almonds)

4.5 cups of baby spinach

2.5 oz pecorino romano cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat over to 400 deg F

PART 1, Roasted Strawberries - Cut strawberries in half lengthwise, and spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet. It's important that you actually used a rimmed sheet, as you'll be covering them in 1 tbs. olive oil, 1 tsp. sugar, a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle the olive oil and the sugar over all the berries, then toss to coat all the berries evenly. Roast the strawberries until soft and yummy, which is about 10 minutes.

PART 2, Salad Dressing - Whisk together the vinegar, orange juice, tarragon, a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Next, slowly whisk in 3 tbs. olive oil.

PART 3, Putting it all together - In a small bowl mix together the almonds and a dash of salt. In a large bowl, combine the fresh baby spinach, another dash of salt and as much fresh ground pepper as you'd like or don't like. Then drizzle and mix in about half the dressing (you can add more later if you want). Divide up the salad spinach, and top with the amazing strawberries, yummy cheese and the almonds.

TADA!!

Now that was easy, wasn't it?

So until next time, follow me on Twitter and let me know:

-What's your favorite fruit this summer?

-Do you have any good recipes that incorporate strawberries?

-And I'm still looking for a delicious vegan cupcake or cookie recipe to try this weekend, what's your favorite?

Sincerly yours,

The Foodie Fashionista xoxo