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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! Winners announced each season in my newsletter.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.
Salad was good, dressing was okay but expected it to be a little sweeter based on the ingredients.
Yum! The dressing makes it and my love of apples and avocado added to a happy day for me.
Day one of the challenge…what a lovely salad to ring in the arrival of spring!
So many crisp and flavourful ingredients but still super simple to put together.
The dressing was very tempting to drink indeed!
Delicious combination of texture and flavor!
Delicious Used mostly spinach and red leaf lettuce, because I’m drivung/traveling back home and can’t make it exactly as recipe suggested, but was able to add some of the strawberry vinaigrette dressing to it. Also couldn’t get more than 2 miles walking in this morning, but will make up for it tomorrow.
Great job making your salad and getting your exercise! We only suggested 1 mile/day, so you did AMAZING!!
Very good and filling. It may be a bit to early in the year for good, flavorful strawberries though. Even though the strawberries I purchased were ripe they didn’t have much flavor. I will definitely try this salad again when I can find strawberries in the farmers market.
Very tasty! Enjoyable flavour combination. Even my husband liked it, which is a win! I used half the maple syrup and 1/3 of dried basil because I didn’t have fresh. I think I would have preferred with fresh basil per the recipe.
Fresh herbs really do make a huge impact! But way to go making it work with what you have on hand! #TheRawkstarWay
Really filling and tasty. I’m allergic to strawberries so replaced with raspberries, which turned out great.
Yum! Great idea!
This salad was yummy, it was the dressing with some creamy avocado that made this salad yummy! The green apple added a sweet crunch to the salad. Overall I liked the salad and will add this to my salad rotation!
I loved the mixed greens strawberry salad.. it tasted fresh and bright and was filling!! The apple, strawberry and avocado is a great combo they compliment each other…
I have always loved fruit in my salad but this salad takes it to the next level with the strawberry basil dressing. This is going to be a new staple in my home! Thank you!
I absolutely loved this salad dressing. Not only is the mix of strawberry and basil delicious, but the deep pink colour against the variations of green is a gentle yet enticing experience for the eyes.
A crisp green Granny Smith apple, English cucumber, perfectly ripe avocado and crunchy almonds are a delightful assortment of textures. I chose to use mixed greens and arugula from my own indoor garden, and the arugula provided a nice slightly bitter contrast to the rest of the ingredients.
I will definitely make this again.
The color contrast in this salad really does add to the experience!
Loved the strawberry vinaigrette.