Serving Suggestion
This recipe is not complete without a flavourful dressing. To make the perfect vinaigrette, always use high-quality ingredients. How good it tastes will depend largely on the quality of the ingredients you use, so choose good olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and mustard and use freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Make sure to mix the vinaigrette thoroughly to ensure that all of the ingredients are well-combined, and the flavours are evenly distributed. You can, for instance, make it in a small shaker or a jam jar with a lid to easily shake everything together.
With an easy summer salad recipe in your repertoire, making a delightful main course or side dish that is perfect for warm summer nights is quick and simple. Learn more about summer salads below where we have answered the most frequently asked questions about them.
Rinsed rocket
|
100 g |
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Rinsed baby spinach leaves
|
100 g |
Shelled, fresh peas
|
200 g |
Red and yellow cherry tomatoes, cut into halves
|
400 g |
Spring onions (approx. 100 g), cut into slices
|
1 bundle |
200 g |
Olive oil
|
1 tbsp |
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White balsamic vinegar
|
1 tbsp |
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (Approx.)
|
1 tbsp |
Mustard
|
1 tsp |
Coarse salt (to taste)
|
|
Freshly ground pepper (to taste)
|
This refreshing summer salad with strawberries and greens makes for a great lunch or dinner dish. You can serve it as a refreshing starter for a smaller group of friends and family or use it as a light side dish for a crowd. No matter how you serve it, it tastes wonderful. The combination of fresh and crunchy vegetables, sweet strawberries, and salty, tangy salad cheese with herbs is mouth-wateringly good and sure to refreshen you after a warm day spent in the sun.
If you are looking for other great salad ideas for your summer party menu or cosy picnic, we suggest having a look at some of our other summer recipes. If you like the idea of using fruit in your salads, you should try our salad with melon and cucumber or our thirst-quenching watermelon salad.
Making a delicious summer salad for dinner is easy in the summertime when fresh ingredients are plentiful, not to mention bursting with flavour. The sun-ripened produce used in this spinach summer salad with cherry tomatoes is what truly sets it apart from other salads.
The combination of peppery rocket, earthy baby spinach and peas, sweet strawberries, and bright spring onions is wonderfully fresh as well as complex. The rocket and spinach form the robust base of the dish as the decorative strawberries enhance it with their sweet taste, tender texture, and the scent of summer, while the spring onions introduce a crisp texture and a subtle onion flavour with a little sharpness that is in no way overpowering.
Mixing a vinaigrette is incredibly easy. A vinaigrette is a type of dressing made by mixing oil, vinegar, and other seasonings or flavourings, in this case, lemon juice and mustard. The best summer salad dressing must be light and bright, making this vinaigrette the perfect choice for this particular summer salad with strawberries and salad cheese, perfectly complementing its light yet complex flavours.
Since this vinaigrette is made with rich, smooth olive oil, sweet and tart white balsamic vinegar, and zesty, acidic lemon juice, you get a dressing that hits the mark perfectly. The aromatic mustard adds a pungent and slightly spicy taste to the dressing, deepening its flavours and giving it additional complexity. It also helps emulsify the oil and vinegar to create a well-combined dressing with a well-rounded, slightly tangy taste to brighten this delicious summer salad.
A tasty way to serve this is with grilled meat. A light summer salad with steak, pork, ribs, chicken, or the like that has been perfectly cooked on the grill makes for a great combination. The crunch and freshness of the salad combined with the smoky flavours of the grilled meat is the epitome of summer, so try, for example, our grilled spareribs or spiced lamb skewers.
It is also perfect with grilled fish and seafood. Experiment with pairing it with rich, buttery grilled salmon, flaky cod, mild halibut, meaty tuna, or sweet and salty shrimp, depending on which kind of seafood you like best.
You might also like to serve it with slices of crusty bread to add a bit of additional bite and texture. You can try our savoury olive bread with thyme, adding both flavour and texture to the summer salad.
This sweet and tasty summer salad can easily be varied by experimenting with what produce is in season, for example, summer berries, vegetables, and herbs.
To mix it up, a blueberry summer salad is a popular variation. Blueberries have a slightly tart and tangy flavour, with subtle notes of sweetness and earthiness. Their complex flavour profile works well in this summer salad. In addition to being tasty, blueberries are also a beautiful addition with their bold, dark blue colour set against a bed of bright greens.
If you would like to use fresh herbs, we highly suggest making a simple summer salad with basil. This sweet and slightly spicy herb is great in salads like this one as it both complements and off-sets the flavours of the fresh greens and strawberries.
It will also taste great with fresh herbs like mint and lemon verbena. The former adds a refreshing and cooling flavour that pairs nicely with the peppery undertones of the rocket and the mustard-flavoured vinaigrette. The latter has a citrusy and floral flavour that perfectly balances the sweetness of the strawberries and mirrors the acidity of the freshly squeezed lemon juice in the vinaigrette.