Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad

A delicious Strawberry Spinach Salad with Bacon features crispy bacon, fresh strawberries, blue cheese, and candied pecans on a bed of spinach. It is tossed in a homemade lemon maple vinaigrette dressing, and is served as a side dish or main course salad.

Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad is the perfect way to up your salad game! Featuring fresh summer produce along with big beautiful flavors, this is perfect for summer cookouts, dinners and potlucks.

Strawberry Spinach Salad with Bacon

This strawberry bacon spinach salad possibly my new favorite salad in the whole wide world. Not even kidding.

The other day I had three plates of it all in a day. Post-breakfast (last round of recipe testing), lunch (accompanied by some of Cheesy Bacon Potato Casserole – random, yes…but also so very delicious), and dinner. One of those I even served it with some of this Southern Chicken Salad on top…yum!

Here are a few reasons why we are in love with this spinach strawberry bacon salad:

• Takes only 25 minutes to make – you can prepare this yummy bacon strawberry spinach salad under 30 minutes! If you use bacon bits, you can get this done in under 10 minutes!
• It’s a full meal – it’s not just a side, it can be a main course. I add chicken or salmon to it and it makes for a light and delicious summer dinner.
• Make ahead friendly – make the dressing ahead of time and store in refrigerator, then toss the spinach leaves and other ingredients in dressing when ready to serve. Great way to prep this ahead of time for cookouts and parties.
• Customize it – there are so many delicious ingredients you can add to this strawberry spinach bacon salad. See detailed list below for more ideas!
• Healthy – spinach kale strawberry bacon salad is not only delicious, it’s good for you too! It features a tastefully mix of veggies, protein, and healthy fats.

Ingredients

here are the main strawberry spinach salad ingredients:

• spinach leaves – use fresh baby spinach, not frozen
• strawberries – sweet and juicy strawberries work best! You can substitute with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, or a combination of a few!
• candied pecans – these delicious sweet pecans add flavor and texture to this spinach strawberry salad. Regular pecans, glazed pecans, or walnuts can also be used. If you want to make your own candied pecans, check out this recipe.
• blue cheese – feta, goat cheese, gorgonzola, or even shaved Parmesan can also be used as well. The cheese adds a bold and distinct flavor to our strawberry spinach bacon salad
• bacon – you can also use turkey bacon for a healthier take or pre-cooked bacon / bacon bits for the ease of it.

As for that dressing, here’s what you need:

• maple syrup – use 100% pure maple syrup for best flavor
• lemon juice – always best freshly squeezed from fresh lemons.
• extra virgin olive oil – use good quality olive oil for best flavor
• garlic – fresh minced garlic is preferred, avoid using garlic powder for best taste
• salt – this will open up the flavors in the dressing

Let’s Make It!

That Lemon Maple Dressing…

Let’s get this straight. This Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad is nothing without the homemade Lemon Maple Salad Dressing

Made only with freshly squeezed lemon juice, 100% pure maple syrup, a little bit of garlic, a pinch of salt, and lots of olive oil to give it the creaminess, it is liquid GOLD. I highly recommend using 100% pure maple syrup – it gives the dressing the full  flavor it deserves.

Double or triple the batch and store in refrigerator (for up to 2 weeks) for your future salad needs. Because you will NEED it. Trust me.

The Salad

And now to the Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad itself. It’s one of those happy situation where all my favorite ingredients come together to form a salad:

1. Spinach
2. Strawberries (it’s the season!)
3. Crispy bacon 🙂 🙂 🙂
4. Candied pecans. Or substitute with pecans, cashews, or almonds. What we are trying to do is to give the salad a nice crunchy texture.

YUM YUM YUM!

Toss the salad ingredients together, be careful not to squish the strawberries….then toss it in dressing.

Lastly, top strawberry bacon spinach salad with crumbled cheese and candied pecans.

Another option is to serve the tossed Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad with the dressing on the side. I like to do this when I know the salad will sit out for a while before it gets eaten so that the spinach doesn’t get soggy.

This also gives people the freedom to adjust how much dressing they want in their salad.

Substitution

You can of course substitute some of the ingredients for some of your favorites. Here are some ideas:

• Instead of strawberries, try blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, grapes or apples
• Instead of spinach, try kale, romaine, spring mix, or spinach and kale, or kale and spinach, or spinach and spring mix….you get the idea
• Instead of crispy bacon, try prosciutto, ham or salami
• Instead of candied pecan, try another nut (almond, cashew etc)
• Other yummy ingredients to add to this salad: carrots, bell peppers, cheese (feta, parmesan, mozzarella), and much more!

This is just the tip of the ice berg, there’s an endless list of things to mix and match and make this salad your very own!

What to Serve it with:

Should you choose to not eat it by itself, here are some main course ideas that will go great with this Spinach Strawberry Bacon Salad!

• Marinated Flank Steak
• Lemon Butter Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops
• Panko Crusted Salmon
• Panko Baked Chicken
• Garlic Butter Dill Salmon
• Pork Tenderloin with Gravy
• Lemon Balsamic Grilled (or Pan-Fried) Chicken
• Tilapia with Avocado and Corn Salsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Thank you for listening to me blabber about my love for this Spinach Salad beauty. In short, bullet-points kinda style of summary to wrap it all up, here’s what you can expect from this Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad:

• Sweetness from the strawberries and maple syrup
• Savory from the bacon
• Citrus from the lemon
• Crunch from candied pecans and bacon

Ahhhh. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. ❤️

DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍

Other Salad Recipes

• Winter Fruit Salad
• Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad
• Greek Cucumber Salad
• Asian Salmon Salad with Ginger Soy Dressing
• Caprese Salad with Avocado
• Lemon Orzo spinach Salad
• Caesar Pasta Salad
• Broccoli Kale Apple and Cranberry Slaw