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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.
Made the Mixed Green Salad last night. It was a hit! I did substituted walnuts for sunflower seeds. Wasn’t able to get strawberries for the dressing so used sun dried tomatoes. Loved the apple and the avocado in the salad. Will definitely make it again. Thanks!
Using sun-dried tomatoes sounds really interesting and yummy!
Your dressing sounds yummy!
I thought it was good, but not great. Better as a side salad, since it’s very fresh but not very substantial. I liked the concept of the dressing but thought it was missing something.
That’s a great idea. Also, feel free to add to this salad as you like!
This salad was a wonderful cacophony of flavors – it made lunchtime interesting and yummy!
Great salad, Loved the dressing. Strawberries made it sweet but not over powering!
Love this recipe! So yummy!
This salad is absolutely delicious! I was concerned about trying a strawberry based dressing since I’ve never had anything like that. But, I am sold! This will become part of my springtime meal rotation for sure. This will be great on the Easter table. I did not have walnuts, so I used pecans and it was still very tasty
Yay for adding this recipe into your regular rotation! Love hearing that!
Pecans would be perfect in this salad!
I had the salad for lunch today and it was so good! The strawberry dressing was amazing and complemented all the fixings just right. It was enough to fill me up for lunch. I’m wondering if I can make this salad dressing and freeze it?
I don’t see why not!
I have never frozen it, but I guess you could def try it! I usually use it all before going bad, LOL!
This salad was so good. I would have never put together these ingredients together and the mix was wonderful!!
Yum! This dressing was amazing, my 5 and 7 yr old couldnt get enough. Simple salad but the flavours are so satisfying.
I absolutely love this salad! I made extra dressing as it is amazing to pair with granny smith apples for a snack!!
Strawberries and basil are a rawkstar combination
I would have to agree! This salad is RAWESOME!
Aww! Even the lil’ rawkstars enjoyed!
The strawberry and basil flavors worked great in the dressing over this crisp salad. I loved the combination of fresh tart green apples, crunchy cucumbers and almonds, creamy avocados and crisp mixed greens. Definitely adding this recipe to my book of keepers!! It tasted of springtime!!
Couldn’t find Argula, so used a romaine mix.
Pretty easy to prepare, and it definitely makes enough for two!
Tangy and sweet – definitely hit the spot, and I would make it again.
That’s a perfect substitution! Keep up the great work!
Fresh! Delicious! Who knew maple syrup in a salad dressing would be good?!
It gives you that perfect sweetness!
Meal prepped my salads yesterday along with the dressings. The strawberry dressing is so good. Delicious salad. I am not vegetarian so I added chicken to my salad. So good. So excited to participate in the challenge.
That’s a great idea!
I love envy thing about this salad except the arugula. Turns out, arugula is disgusting to my palette. I may try to do this again as a spinach salad or with iceberg. But never again arugula.
Good stuff! Who says healthy is not tasty?
This was delightful. The basil and strawberry was superb in the dressing, and I loved the nuttiness of the almonds with the earthiness of the avocado and the tang of the apples. Great recipe!
The mixed green salad is delicious and the strawberry vinaigrette is amazing!!
This salad was not only pretty, it was DELICIOUS!!! So crisp (except for my slightly ripe avocado). The combination of the cool cucumbers and the tangy green apple was perfect! And that strawberry basil dressing may be my new favorite!! When I tasted it yesterday, I thought it was great but after the flavors melded together overnight…..ONG….. need I say more?
Love this review!! 🙂
This salad was SO GREAT! The dressing is fresh, the salad is crunchy with the cucumber, apple and almonds – perfect for the start of spring. Thank you! Looking forward to day 2’s salad <3
I would say this salad is good, but didn’t strike me as anything special. Maybe a different type of apple? Or adding chicken? Maybe a balsamic dressing might have been better?
Loved the Mixed Greens Salad, great combination of salad ingredients. The only thing better was the dressing, so amazing! The pungent strawberry flavor is so incredible and well partnered with this salad.