To me, a salad is all about the dressing! The dressing makes or breaks the salad; it has to be really good! I especially love creamy dressings; little did I know how healthy they could actually be when you make them yourself! There’s this salad I used to get at a local fondue restaurant years ago that had a creamy poppyseed dressing, and it was my very favorite! Who knows what was in that dressing, but I decided to try making my own version, and it turned out SO good, way better than I even remember!
Homemade dressings are completely life changing, and they’re beyond easy to make. Just a few minutes and you have a healthy dressing! When I made this salad the second time I also added yellow nectarines, which was excellent! You can switch-up the fruit depending on what you like, it would be amazing with anything! The dressing is slightly sweet and tangy, and will keep in your fridge as long as your egg is good for. Enjoy!
Spinach & Berry Salad With Creamy Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 10 cups spinach (I used a bag of organic spinach from Trader Joe's)
- 1 cup strawberries, sliced
- 1 cup blueberries, sliced
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
For the Dressing:
- 2/3 cup avocado oil
- 1 egg (preferably pasture-raised)
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons poppyseeds
Instructions
- Place all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.
- Now let's make the simple dressing! Place the avocado oil, egg, mustard powder, lemon juice and salt in a tall container (I use a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup). Place an immersion blender at the bottom and turn on. Once the mixture starts to blend together and become thick, move the immersion blender towards the top, until it is well blended. This should take less than a minute! **If using a regular blender be sure to see the note below this recipe.
- Add the honey, apple cider vinegar & poppyseeds to the container and blend with the immersion blender again until well combined.
- Toss the salad with the dressing and serve up!
**FYI this recipe only works if you’re using an immersion blender. If you’re using a regular blender or vitamix, use the basic mayo recipe that can be found HERE. Then just add the salt, honey, apple cider vinegar and poppy seeds!
This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase something from one of my links, I will receive a small percentage, at no additional cost to you. I will only ever recommend products that I truly believe in, and that I use myself or find to be very valuable. Thanks for helping me to keep my blog up and running!
This looks so delicious!! I want it for breakfast, lol!!
Thanks, Heather! It would make a great breakfast! 🙂
That dressing sounds absolutely delicious! I think I found a use for my Bed Bath and Beyond coupon – Immersion blender, here I come!
Thank you!! Immersion blenders are the best ever, I use mine all the time!
Sounds super yummy!!!!! Spinach salad is awesome 🙂
Thanks, Mika!!
I don’t currently have any avocado oil. Is there a substitute?
Hi Jeanna! Macadamia nut oil would be the best substitute, but you could also use light olive oil. The only oil I would really avoid is extra virgin olive oil, as it will give the dressing a very bitter flavor. Hope that helps!
Would the flavor of the dressing work well with grapeseed or sunflower oil, do you think?
Hi Jo! I haven’t tried those oils myself, but if they have a very light taste I’m sure they would work 🙂
Your recipes are simply delicious 🙂
Thanks so much, Sarah!!
I tried this recipe with a few changes: olive oil instead of walnut because I had no walnut oil, unsweetened coconut beverage instead of the egg (because I’m sensitive to eggs) and no poppyseeds because I didn’t have any. And it is delicious! The texture is just oily instead of creamy because of having no egg, but It tastes as good or better than the store-bought creamy poppy seed dressing! Thank you!
I’m so happy you found a way for this recipe to work for you! I used to love the store bought creamy poppyseed dressing, until I actually read the ingredients 😉
Just made this for dinner and it was a hit! I didnt have any berries on hand so I used orange segments and it paired perfectly with the creamy dressing. Yum! Looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch this week.
So happy you liked it! 🙂
I love Poppy seed dressing on any type of fruit salad! I look forward to trying this recipe since I have been missing it since I started Clean Eating.
Thanks, Sharon! It’s one of my favorites, and so easy!
how many servings do you think the salad dressing would be?
Hi Cheryl! The servings would depend on how much you use per person, but this salad would feed a minimum of 6 people. The dressing itself makes 1 cup, hope that helps!
Thanks. I was entering the recipe in myfitnesspal and didn’t know how many servings to count. Most appreciated. Yummy
No problem at all, glad I could help!
How long will this last on the refir? Thanks. I’ve made it and I keep making it! But I live alone so I need to know how long it will keep.
Hi Patricia! The dressing will expire on the same date that your egg does, so as long as you’re using a fresh egg, it’ll last quite awhile 🙂
Do you know how many calories in a serving?
Hi Laura! I don’t personally count calories, so I don’t have a calorie count, but you could easily plug the ingredients into an online calculator 🙂
Can’t wait to try this! Tips on subbing out the honey? Have to for Whole30… and this sounds too delicious to pass up if I don’t have to! 😉
Hey Kate! Hmmm, the honey may be a little tricky to sub out as it provides the sweetness – although you could probably use blended dates/date paste instead! It will probably make the dressing darker, but I bet it would taste great 🙂 Hope that helps!