How to: Grandma’s Spinach Salad

This spinach salad recipe has been passed down through three generations. We have all tweaked it slightly to our personal taste and I invite you to do the same. My extra addition: garlic, feta and pickled raspberries. (Also delicious with pickled strawberries.)

A lick your plate clean dressing, tons of leafy greens, perfectly pickled raspberries, toasted almonds, juicy mandarin oranges, and salty, creamy feta to round it out. This recipe can be modified easily to suit your needs. If you’re vegan, omit the feta and sub sugar for the honey in the dressing. If you want to turn this salad into a meal, it pairs perfectly with grilled chicken or meat substitute of your choice.

Grandma’s spinach salad dressing

3/4 cup neutral oil

1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp sesame oil

1/3 cup rice vinegar

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pepper

3 tbsp honey

2 cloves grated garlic

Add all ingredients to a mason jar and shake until mustard is emulsified. Store it in the fridge for over a week.

Tip: prepare your dressing a day in advance so the flavours can marry and sharpen.

Pickled raspberries

1 pint of raspberries

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

Make your pickle brine and let the spices steep until the brine is cool. We use peppercorns and mustard seeds as a subtle nod to the dressing. Strain and pour over raspberries. This is a quickle so your raspberries will be ready within the hour.

Tip: Play around with your berries, they can all be pickled! You can even pickle edible flowers.

Salad ingredients

Spinach

Red onions

Mandarin oranges slices (canned)

Pickled raspberries

Grandma’s dressing

Toasted slivered almonds

Feta

Toast almonds until golden brown and fragrant. For my oven, it was 12 minutes at 400°. Slice the red onions and crumble your feta. Drain the canned mandarin oranges. You can also use fresh supremed citrus but I like the convenience of the canned segments. They’re incredibly juicy and sweet. Add all your ingredients to a bowl and toss with dressing. Drizzle a little more dressing on top once served and eat immediately.

This salad has it all, it’s sweet, tart, savoury, nutty, creamy. A perfect summer dish guaranteed to impress. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does and I hope you share it with yours!

Happy eating.