Summer Strawberry Spinach Salad with Feta

Summer is here! With these hot days, it's nice to not have to cook anything! This week I made myself a quick and delicious spinach salad with strawberries, feta cheese, almonds, and red onion tossed in an easy balsamic vinaigrette. Local strawberries are available right now as well as fresh spinach in area farmers markets and grocery stores. Below you will find the recipe. I left the quantities of each salad ingredient open so you can decide if you would like to serve one or ten! The dressing recipe makes approximately one cup.

Salad Ingredients:

• fresh spinach leaves, wash and spin dry
• feta cheese, crumbled or chopped (goat cheese would also be delicious!)
• thinly sliced red onion
• strawberries, rinsed and sliced
• slivered almonds, toasted
• fresh chives, garnish

Balsamic Vinaigrette:

• 3 T balsamic vinegar
• 9 T olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 strawberries, pureed or mashed using a mortar and pestle (or with a fork!)
• kosher salt/cracked pepper to taste

To make the dressing, In a large bowl, combine the vinegar with the honey and strawberry puree. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking constantly. When the vinaigrette has taken all the oil, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Toss the spinach leaves and red onion in the vinaigrette before adding the cheese, strawberries, and slivered almonds. Garnish with fresh chives. Serve immediately.