This is a recipe for a beautiful and very colorful Spring Spinach Salad inspired by my friend Shoba’s mixed greens with strawberries idea.  It is simple to prepare yet showy and perfect for a spring potluck and upcoming Mother’s Day.  The star of this salad is the edible flowers.

Spring occasions to make spring spinach salad:

• Persian new year | Nooroz/Nowruz
• Mother’s Day
• Easter

I’ve made this salad many times since the inspirational lunch at Shobas.  Each time I’ve brought this fancy salad to a gathering it has gotten rave reviews.  Most recently I brought it along to our Easter brunch at my sister-in-law’s house.  If you can find purple edible flowers the color really pops with the red of the strawberries – so pretty!!

Edible Flowers are fun to add to salads to eat and to garnish.  Please be careful with ingesting flowers if you are not used to eating them, especially if you have severe pollen allergies!  Start slow.  There are certain kinds of flowers that are edible and others that are not.  Safest to either grow your own or pick them up from the fresh herb section in the farmer’s market or grocery.  Steer clear of picking flowers to use in your salads – they may be sprayed with pesticides and they may not be the edible type!

Easter Sunday brunch with family

This salad is lovely with baby spinach and also mixed greens.  I love butter lettuce – there are red varieties of butter lettuce that would look very nice in this mix.  I sometimes add beets.  If you like nuts and are lucky enough not to have nut allergies in the house, add some toasted, sliced almonds.  For the cheese, feta has slightly less fat but goat cheese is a bit tastier here.

Trim the stems for a light baby spinach salad

Optional berries and fruit for color:

• strawberries
• raspberries
• pomegranate arils
• dried cherries or cranberries

Bob did an impromptu tutorial on how to open a pomegranate for me this morning.  I could hardly believe how easy it was to film him, put it on Snapchat and Youtube, and be able to share the ‘how-to’ with you all.  I just love the DIY share experience.  To learn a cool technique on how to easily get pomegranate arils (the little seeded fruit) out from the peel underwater, click on the arrow below:

Fresh pomegranate has a great crunch and a sweet and sour taste

If you love this colorful salad, be sure to try an iconic Persian salad, Salad Shirazi that is so light, bright and refreshing.

Yield: 6

Spring Spinach Salad

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A pretty spring salad with spinach and mixed greens, strawberries, goat cheese, and nuts. Edible flowers add a colorful touch. Take an impressive plate to your next potluck!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• Package organic baby spinach and a package of mixed greens or red butter lettuce
• A pint or 2 cups cut fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
• arils of 2 fresh pomegranates
• 1/4 goat cheese
• 2 T. candied pecans
• 3 T. sliced almonds, toasted
• Couple pinches edible flowers
• Cherry vinegar or vinaigrette of choice

Instructions

1. Wash and trim spinach
2. Wash mixed greens/ butter lettuce
3. Wash and cut strawberries
4. Prepare pomegranate arils (remove from fruit shell)
5. coarsely chop pecans
6. Arrange on a plate

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 163Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 104mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 8gSugar: 18gProtein: 5g