This strawberry salad has summer all over it. It's the best! Sweet strawberries, crisp red onion, fresh herbs, cos lettuce and a whole lot of other goodies. It's finished off with a creamy roasted strawberry dressing.
Technically summer is still a couple of days away but it's hot hot hot outside! I don't feel like cooking for long, so salads are the perfect solution.
The garden is absolutely taking off at the moment. We have the most gorgeous strawberries growing in our newest strawberry patch that actually gets some good sun!
Today's strawberry salad utilises those strawberries, both fresh and roasted. Fresh goes directly in the salad for pops of juicy sweetness. Some are roasted for the creamy roasted strawberry dressing which ties it all together.
There is crisp cos lettuce, crunchy red onion, fresh basil and mint (because those are totally the herbs of summer!), salty feta and toasted walnuts.
It is so good.
The roasted strawberry dressing is naturally sweet from the strawberries. They're slightly caramelised from the roasting which brings out their flavour.
They need to be roasted a little ahead of time. The salad is super quick to throw together but the strawberries need time to cool before being mixed with the other dressing ingredients.
Summer Salad with Roasted Strawberry Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 100 grams fresh strawberries sliced
- ½ small red onion very thinly sliced
- 50 grams feta crumbled
- ½ cup walnut pieces
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves torn
- ¼ cup fresh mint leaves shredded
- 2 medium bunches cos lettuce (or lettuce of your choice) roughly chopped
Roasted Strawberry Dressing
- 100 grams fresh strawberries chopped
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Lay the chopped strawberries for the dressing in a baking tray. Roast them for 15 minutes.
- Once roasted, remove the tray from the oven and tip the strawberries into a bowl. Allow them to cool.
- Heat a small saucepan over medium heat and add in the walnut pieces. Toast them for around 5 minutes until they're fragrant. Leave them to cool.
- Add the cos lettuce, feta, onion, fresh strawberries, walnuts and fresh herbs to a large salad bowl and toss them all together. Reserve a little bit of the feta, onion, walnuts and strawberries to sprinke on top for decoration at the end.
- Using a stick blender, blitz together the cooled strawberries along with the salt, mustard, balsamic and oil. Taste and season more if necessary.
- Drizzle 4-5 tablespoons of dressing over the salad and toss it together. Sprinkle over the remaining reserved salad ingredients and an extra drizzle of salad dressing.
- Any remaining dressing can be stored in a jar in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Nutrition
Have you made this? Tag me and let me know! @home_grown_happinessnz
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