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For years, I thought salads had to look a certain way—bland iceberg lettuce, salty croutons, and a thick, creamy dressing. I ate them… but I didn’t love them. That all changed when I realized how fresh, vibrant, and satisfying salads can actually be.
This strawberry mixed greens salad is one of my favorites. It’s all about the balance—crisp greens, sweet fruit, creamy avocado, and that bright strawberry basil vinaigrette that brings everything to life. This is the kind of salad you’ll actually crave. Enjoy!
Table of Contents
What is a Mixed Greens Salad?
A mixed green salad is a simple salad made with a variety of leafy greens—like spring mix, spinach, arugula, or lettuce—topped with fresh ingredients and a dressing. It’s known for being light, flexible, and easy to customize based on what you have on hand.
This recipe stands out because it’s more balanced and satisfying—with fruit, healthy fats, crunch, and a homemade strawberry basil dressing that adds fresh, vibrant flavor.
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How to Make Mixed Greens Salad
This mixed greens salad recipe is filled with these greens, plus tangy green apple, creamy avocado, and crunchy almonds. Seriously, this salad is the perfect meal when your sweet tooth comes calling and you’re trying to eat healthy.
1. Wash and dry greens
A recent study done by Consumer Reports says that we should all be washing any produce that comes into our cooking spaces, whether “pre-washed”, organic or otherwise. This is because even those mixed greens carefully washed by well meaning producers can still contain contaminants from E. coli, chemicals and more.
2. Chop apples, avocado and cucumber
I like to chop them all into bite-size pieces (the smaller, the better).
3. Make the Strawberry viniagarette
Combine dressing ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor and puree into the best dressing you’ve ever had with mixed greens.
4. prepare the plate
Add the mixed greens first, and then toppings to the plate. Drizzle dressing on top and enjoy!
Make-Ahead Tips
If you want this salad for work, prep it all in a mason jar. It’s seriously so easy! Simply layer the ingredients in the mason jar. Keep the strawberry dressing in a separate container until time to eat. When you’re ready to eat, pour the dressing on top, give the mason jar a good shake, and enjoy!
Strawberry Mixed Greens Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cup spring mix greens loosely packed
- 1 cucumber thinly sliced
- 1 green apple diced
- 1 avocado sliced
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
Dressing
- 1 cup strawberries diced
- 6 fresh basil fresh, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp pure maple syrup
- pinch sea salt, unrefined
- pinch black pepper, ground ground, to taste
Instructions
- Arrange salad ingredients on plates.
- Puree the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor. Taste and add more salt and pepper, if needed.
- Drizzle some of the dressing over salad (you may not need all of it). Eat immediately.
Notes
- Swap mixed greens with the leafy greens of your choice.
- Oil-free? Omit the olive oil. It’ll still be delicious and less caloric.
- Lemon Vinaigrette would also be delicious on this recipe.
- Add the nuts or seeds of your choice for more healthy fats + protein.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!Common Questions
Yes! If you have a favorite dressing, feel free to swap out my Strawberry Vinaigrette. Yet I do encourage you to make it one time like this because it’s out-of-this-world delicious!
You sure can. You can swap it for any leafy green you prefer or have on hand. You might check out our Leafy Greens Guide for more inspiration.
In all my salads, I try and use some sorta nuts, seeds or protein to help me stay full. A salad is typically a meal for me, which means it needs a variety of fiber, healthy fats, protein and carbs to keep me full until the next meal.
I love the dressing and this entire salad . So fresh and tasty. The combinations of flavours in the dressing really enhance this recipe. 2 of my family members were skeptical but loved it after tasting it!
Love that even though they were skeptical, they still tried it. Keep rawkin it!
What a perfect springtime salad! I may be including the dressing in our rotation of homemade dressings.
YES! It goes well with many different combos!
This salad is delicious! The dressing is refreshing and oh so tasty. Definitely will be a repeat recipe.
Glad you’re lovin it!
The basil made it!
Agreed! 😉
Yes it makes everything else pop!
Anything with strawberries is always yummy! I purchased a different variety of basil and noted that it gave a distinctive flavor, not bad, just different, enjoyed the salad for dinner.
Strawberries are my fav as well!
Great basic and easy salad. Used blueberries (didn’t have any strawberries) and kids loved it.
Blueberries are a great substitute, how awesome to involve the kids also!
Light, fresh, crunchy, colorful and full of great variety! What a delightful salad topped with a yummy dressing. Strawberries in the dressing were a fun surprise.
Surprises are always fun, especially when it involves strawberries!
I made the salad into a green smoothie! I even used the salad dressing ingredients except for salt/pepper. Instead of lemon juice, I used 1/2 lemon–seeds and peel and frozen strawberries. Added some protein powder and psyllium husks! Yum-o
This salad is a great candidate for a smoothie! Pretty adventurous of you! 😉
So delicious! I loved the salad dressing with a combination of strawberry and basil. I toasted the almonds which really added to the flavour!
Delicious salad. It was fast and easy to make. The taste was so good I felt like a foodie chef.
This salad was great! (I am not a cucumber fan so I left that out); the dressing…omg…so great! Definitely will be making this dressing again and some version of this salad will become part of my regular menu. Thanks!
Oh my goody goodness!!! This salad was amazing. Solely for the dressing! I mean, the combo of the apple, cucumber, avocado and almonds was a great way to make spring mix exciting, but the second we tasted that dressing it put the whole salad over-the-top amazing. Don’t sub the dressing for some store bought fruity vinaigrette, it will never be as satisfying and delicious. Thanks for a great recipe I will come back to often!
I loved the strawberry mixed greens salad today. I Love the dressing as many others mentioned was so yummy – glad it makes extra! I make salads often but have a picky husband so this is a test to get him to try more variety and for me to try various dressings.
Yummy salad! The dressing was a nice change from my usual olive oil base.
Totally enjoyed this. Fabulous dressing. Will definitely make this again. I didn’t have basil so I used cilantro; and used walnuts instead of almonds.
Oh my heavens!!! Amazing! Loved every single bite!!! I was a bit nervous about the strawberry dressing but it was so yummy!!
I wish I loved this salad in its entirety but, sadly, I did not. Too much of a sweet thing for a meal salad! The dressing was delicious but did not have the appearance that you see in the photo; it was much thinner in consistency. Too much on the salad then overwhelmed it. The apple was much too tart and needed some salty balance, which the salad lacked. Presentation could have been more colorful; a little too much “all green”. The addition of the smooth texture of the avocado was a nice contrast to the crunch of apple, almond and cucumber. I think had my dressing turned out thicker and I had used a bit less of it, the overall result would have improved. I’d say this is ideally a small side salad for four and not a meal salad for two.
This can def be used as a side salad! Sorry it wasn’t a total win for you, but way to go for giving it a shot!
I loved the salad and the dressing! I didn’t chop/measure the basil, I just pulled off 4 leaves. I definitely could have used more. Instead of cutting/chopping I used a mandolin for the cukes and apple. This recipe was so easy to make. Looking forward to the other salads!
This salad tasted perfect for the weather here in the Midwest today! I enjoyed the dressing more than I thought I would!
This dressing is incredible! It was the star of this salad. We’ll definitely make it again and put it over different salad ingredients.