Strawberry Arugula Salad Recipe

Feed Your Face

Strawberry Arugula Salad Recipe

Salads are perfect for summer — they're easy to make and cool to eat when it's boiling hot outside. Here's a healthy, easy recipe to enjoy this summer.

 

Those of you who've read Feed Your Face know that I'm not a gourmet cook. But I do love to eat.
That’s why salads are right up my alley; they're easy to make, and just what I want to eat when it’s boiling hot outside. I had a delicious Strawberry and Arugula Salad from Whole Foods recently — I loved the sweetness of the strawberries combined in the same bite with the spicy pepperiness of the arugula. The salad is also prettier than a Caesar or iceberg salad; plus, arugula has eight times the calcium and four times the iron of iceberg lettuce. I tried a few times to reproduce the salad. Here’s what I came up with, along with a few tweaks:

1 1/2 cups ripe strawberries, hulled and sliced
4 cups baby arugula (more tender than regular arugula)
Toasted pecans, blanched Marcona almonds, or hazelnuts
1/2 cup feta, Gorgonzola, or shaved Parmesan cheese (optional)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Roast nuts in a shallow baking pan until toasted; set aside to cool. In a large bowl, toss strawberries with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar. Set aside. Whisk together remaining tbsp balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add vinaigrette, arugula, nuts, and cheese to strawberries. Toss lightly. To make it a main course, I add grilled chicken; you could also add grilled shrimp.