Healthy Eating: Sweet, Tangy, Crunchy, Light, And Nutritious

Developing healthy eating habits is easier when the food you prepare is fresh, flavorful, and fast—simple recipes that have your mouth watering as you prepare them.

This tangy refreshing salad makes a great light lunch or works as a side dish. It is loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. The strawberries provide sweetness, and the cucumber and pine nuts add a pleasing crunch.

Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Pine Nuts

“What is more refreshing than salads when your appetite seems to have deserted you, or even after a capacious dinner – the nice, fresh, green, and crisp salad, full of life and health, which seems to invigorate the palate and dispose the masticating [chewing] powers to a much longer duration.” ~ Alexis Soyer, French chef, 19th century

You will need:

• 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
• 2 1/2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups strawberries, quartered
• 3 tablespoons roasted pine nuts (The small but mighty pine nut is loaded with the mineral manganese, and rich in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, and copper. Pine nuts also provide protein, vitamins K, E, niacin, and thiamine.)
• 1/2 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Peel and dice the cucumber; quarter the strawberries.
2. Roast the pine nuts: place in skillet on medium heat and stir, 4-5 minutes.
3. Combine cucumber, spinach, strawberries, and pine nuts in a bowl.
4. In a small cup or bowl mix together the dijon mustard, honey, white wine vinegar, and the oil.
5. Add the dressing to the salad and toss; salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately. Enjoy!

“To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist – the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know how much oil one must mix with one’s vinegar.” ~ Oscar Wilde

Source: The First Year Blog
Photo credit: Plat (@flickr)