Monday, July 12, 2010

spinach salad with poppy seed dressing

there is this local restaurant here in the valley O' cache that has a few salads to die for. one of them is a broccoli salad with golden raisins (would be better with the addition of bacon IMHO) and the other is a spinach salad.

both have an amazing poppy seed salad dressing on them. i think it's the same dressing. anyway. i spent an hour at my mother's house trying to recreate the dressing...and by jove, i think i figured it out. at least i came close.

you should make this salad tonight, because it's july and it's hot. and you don't need to cook anything.

poppy seed dressing

*2/3 cup sugar (experiment with the amount. 1/2 cup might be plenty.)
*1/3 cup warm water
*1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
*1 cup vegetable oil
*1/2 tsp. salt
*1-2 tsp. poppy seeds

whisk together water, sugar and vinegar until sugar is dissolved. add the salt and poppy seeds. slowly whisk in vegetable oil and mix well. makes about 2 1/2 cups.

spinach salad

i don't really have measurements for this salad, because i just toss it all into a bowl. it's a salad for heck's sake. so.. these are guesstimates, like all my cooking. sorry if this makes you crazy.

*2 lbs spinach (2 16 oz bags. i like to buy the prewashed organic baby spinach.)
*1/2-3/4 cup feta cheese
*1 cup sliced strawberries
*1/2 cup roasted almonds (roasted sweetened almonds are amazing!)
*poppy seed dressing to taste (about 1 cup)

don't mix this together until right before serving. i like to toss the salad together first, and then put the strawberries on top. otherwise, the feta cheese turns pink.

6 comments:

Stacey Irwin said...

oooh that does sound yummy! And I happen to love a good spinach salad. I know what's going to be on my menu for then next week. ( probably every other day too....)
I'll let you know what I think!

Unknown said...

God bless you. No seriously. I am obsessed with this salad. I'll have to try the homemade dressing with it!

Connie said...

That sounds so good! I have all of the ingredients for the dressing...

Anonymous said...

Looks great! I wanna share this to my friends in Foodista. Just if you don;t mind adding the foodista widget for feta cheese at the end of this post, then that will do it! Thanks. by the way, if i dont have feta cheese, what kind of cheese do you suggest can i use?

Anonymous said...
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The Burbank Family said...

Turned out great. I did use extra virgin olive oil instead since it is made for this type of thing. I was wonderful. Thanks for bring this to the bbq.