Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad with Spinach and Arugula

This Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad with Watercress, Spinach and Arugula is the perfect summer salad. Enjoy as a light main or as a side. It’s easy to customise to suit your taste and dietary needs.

Serve as a side dish to this Potato Tart with Lemon, Thyme and Garlic

This strawberry salad has the perfect combination of sweet and savoury. Plump strawberries, goats cheese, walnuts and salad leaves are tossed in a mustard lemon dressing.

I’ve gone for a mix of spinach, arugula (rocket) and watercress. The creaminess of the goats cheese against the peppery-ness of the rocket and watercress is so, so good!

Enjoy it as it as for a summery main or serve it alongside a whole host of dishes.

I love salad recipes in the summer! They are always bursting with seasonal flavours and most importantly, no standing by a hot stove for hours!

Ingredients

Fresh strawberries – for best results, use strawberries that are in season as the flavour is so much better. I have used British Strawberries. Do not use frozen berries

Goat cheese – goat cheese is made from goat milk. I recommend using a soft goat cheese or goat cheese log rather than hard cheese. I have kept the goat cheese in rounds but you can absolutely use crumbled goat cheese too

Salad leaves – I have gone for a pre mixed salad bag of watercress, baby spinach and rocket. You can absolutely use whichever salad leaves you like or can get hold of.

Red onion – add sliced or chopped red onion for flavor and crunch. Leave out if you are not a fan of onion.

Walnuts – optional. Roughly chop

Salad Dressing

Dijon mustard – or use whole mustard

Sugar, maple syrup or honey

White wine vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the salad dressing ingredients
2. Seasoned with salt and black pepper
3. Alternatively, add the ingredients to a mason jar, shut the lid tightly and shake until the ingredients are well combined.

Assemble the salad in a large bowl:

1. Slice and halve or quarter the strawberries and slice the red onion
2. Slice or crumble in goat cheese and add the walnuts
3. Then add the salad leaves of choice and gently toss
4. Drizzle over the mustard dressing
5. Serve

Pro Tips

1. Use high quality ingredients – use the freshest ingredients possible. Strawberries should be ripe but not mushy and crisp salad leaves are better than limp.
2. Serve the salad immediately once assembled – this salad is best eaten straight away to enjoy the fresh flavours without pools of moisture.

Serving Suggestions

For a full meal, enjoy alongside these main courses:

For light picnic foods, go for Air Fryer French Bread Pizza or Tandoori Paneer Galette

A fruity drink like this Watermelon Mocktail is super refreshing and light.

Storage

Store leftover salad in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to a day.

You can also keep the salad in your large salad bowl but cover with plenty of plastic wrap (clingfilm)

I recommend eating the salad immediately after serving as juice releases quickly from the strawberries once dressed.

If preparing for later, I suggest dressing the salad just before serving. Keep the salad dressing in a separate airtight container.

Use leftover goat cheese to make Whipped Goat Cheese Dip

Other Strawberry Recipes

Instant Pot Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

No bake strawberry Cheesecake

Strawberry Avocado Salsa

Fresas Con Crema

Strawberry Lassi

As always if you make this recipe, be sure to leave me a comment, rate this recipe and tag me on Instagram @jcookingodyssey or #jcookingodyssey. I love seeing all your photos of my recipe recreations!

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