Easy Apple Spinach Salad with an Apple Vinaigrette

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Quick and Easy Spinach Salad recipe has apples, pumpkin seeds, and a simple flavor-filled apple vinaigrette dressing to go with it. Spinach salad is a light but filling side dish that will pair wonderfully with a grilled meal.

Quick and easy spinach salad recipe with apples, pumpkin seeds, and a simple flavor-filled apple vinaigrette dressing to go with it. 

A Healthy Spinach Salad and Apple Vinaigrette Recipe

I love finding quick, easy, healthy side dishes because sometimes I get a roast in the slow cooker or some chicken legs in the oven and then I get tired of thinking about dinner. Apple Spinach Salad is one of those quick, healthy, easy recipes that you can pretty much keep everything on hand for because it doesn’t have a whole lot of ingredients and it always tastes great. It’s a really simple recipe to swap out what you love or have on hand too. No pepitas? Great, use sunflower seeds or cashews. No fresh apples? Great, try seasonal peaches or strawberries. It’s so flexible and always delicious.

The start of a really simple salad, in my opinion, is a great salad dressing to go with it. You are going to love this apple vinaigrette! I tried a few different things to get an apple flavor into it and in the end, using apple juice concentrate made the best dressing with the most flavor. It’s just sweet enough (without being a sweet dressing really) and it’s packed with apple flavor. Add in some basic seasoning, apple cider vinegar, and a good quality olive oil and you have yourself one really easy but very impressive dressing.

Add this easy salad to your meal plan this week because you can’t beat fresh apples this time of year!

Tips and Tricks for making Apple Spinach Salad:

  • Baby spinach is one of my favorite greens to work with because it’s prewashed, it’s tender, not bitter, and it’s easy to find. I’ll often give the bagged baby spinach a rough chop when making salad for my family. It’s a bit easier for little mouths to chew that way.
  • You can use a variety of nuts and seeds for this salad. I love pepitas (raw, hulled pumpkin seeds) because they pack some great nutrition and it’s fun to think of fall. You could add anything from slivered almonds or toasted cashews to hempseed hearts or sunflower seeds (or a combo of any of them!)
  • If you are prepping this salad ahead of time you might want to toss the sliced apples in just a little lemon juice so that they don’t brown before serving.
  • The beauty of this salad is that you can add a whole lot of things that you like or have on hand – it’ll be delicious. You can also just stick with salad, apples, and a few nuts or seeds and it’s still delicious. Make it your own or keep it simple, it’ll be good either way.

What do you put in a spinach salad?

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Bowl of spinach salad with apples and apple vinaigrette

Easy Apple Spinach Salad with an Apple Vinaigrette


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5 from 1 review

  • Author: Melissa Griffiths - Bless this Mess
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4-6 1x

Description

Quick and Easy Spinach Salad recipe has apples, pumpkin seeds, and a simple flavor-filled apple vinaigrette dressing to go with it. Spinach salad is a light but filling side dish that will pair wonderfully with a grilled meal.


Ingredients

Scale

For the Apple Salad

  • 46 cups baby spinach
  • 1 green tart apple
  • 1 red sweet apple
  • pepitas, candied pecans, or other nuts
  • feta, crumbled cooked bacon, dried cranberries, optional

For the Apple Vinaigrette

  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons apple juice concentrate
  • 1 teaspoon Dijion mustard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • sprinkle garlic powder, black pepper, 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, optional

Instructions

  1. To make the salad: place the spinach in the bottom of a serving dish.
  2. Chop the apples into bite-sized pieces and place on top of spinach.
  3. Add pepitas and other nuts as you like. Add optional ingredients.
  4. To make the dressing: Add all of the ingredients to a pint Mason jar, add the lid, and shake well to combine. Adjust to meet your taste.
  5. Add a few tablespoons of the dressing to the salad and toss to combine. Serve the salad with additional dressing on the side so that people can add more as they like during the meal.

Notes

  • The beauty of this salad is that you can add a whole lot of things that you like or have on hand – it’ll be delicious. You can also just stick with salad, apples, and a few nuts or seeds and it’s still delicious. Make it your own or keep it simple, it’ll be good either way.
  • Prep Time: 10 min
  • Category: Side
  • Cuisine: American

Long live all the super easy side dishes that are packed with nutrients, easy to make, and taste like something you’d get at a restaurant!

Love this spinach salad recipe? Here’s a few healthy recipes you might like:

Happy cooking from my kitchen to yours friends!

Quick and easy spinach salad recipe with apples, pumpkin seeds, and a simple flavor-filled apple vinaigrette dressing to go with it.
Quick and easy spinach salad recipe with apples, pumpkin seeds, and a simple flavor-filled apple vinaigrette dressing to go with it.

About Melissa

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4 Comments

  1. I have to say–fantastic recipe. I barely ever stick to any recipe I download, but this one was amazing. It had a unique, fresh flavor, and my husband said it was the best salad he’d had in over a month (in or out of the house). With all of the unique ingredients, it contained a superb mix of textures–crunchy, chewy, etc. I served it with roasted chicken drumsticks on the side. Thanks for rescuing me from my salad rut for the night!






    1. SO good to hear from you! And I appreciate you taking the time to come back and leave a comment and a star review, always helpful!