Spinach salad with quinoa and fruit recipe

You need a recipe for spinach salad with quinoa and fruit for the holidays upon us.  It’s that time of year when we swear up and down we will be good and not eat too much pie.  (But then we have three slices in a weak moment.)  Here’s my solution:  indulge a bit at the plethora of holiday parties, and eat super healthy at home.  That’s my plan this year.

This spinach salad with quinoa + fruit is a super healthy recipe.  And it’s tasty too.  I love dispelling the myth that if it’s healthy it must not taste very good.  I’ve used a very light dressing–just enough to coat everything with a punch of vinegary goodness and tossed in a bunch of my favorites that I almost always have hanging around the kitchen.  You be sure to use what you have on hand.  Fresh fruit is so tasty in this salad; fresh oranges sooooo good in place of the apples,  Also, pears!  Pears and dried cranberries with pecans would be fabulous.  If you have some buttery avocados sitting on your counter, toss one of those in too.

I won’t tell if you sneak an extra serving of this salad, and neither will your little black dress.

Spinach salad with quinoa + fruit recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 5-6 cups baby spinach
• 2 small or 1 large apple, cored and diced
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries (can use cherries or raisins)
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped nuts (I used almonds)
• 3 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 1 Tbsp. vinegar (I used honey wine, can use apple cider, white wine or white balsamic)
• 1 Tbsp. really good olive oil
• dash salt

Instructions:

Toss everything except for the vinegar, olive oil and salt together in a bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar and olive oil, season with a little salt and pour over the salad.  Lightly toss and serve.

Makes enough for 2-4 servings.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!