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Berry Avocado Salad

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Berry Avocado Salad

This is it – one of my alltime favorite salads. I make it as a meal with chicken or as a side salad with no meat. I make it with fresh berries in the summer, or whatever berries I can find in the winter. I make it with either strawberry vinaigrette for a lighter taste or poppyseed dressing for a heartier salad. It never fails me!

If you need a go-to salad, this Berry Avocado salad is it. It works great alone or as part of a food spread – see below from a summer party I did the food for.

Above I made it with strawberry vinaigrette and no meat, for a lighter side salad. Below I made it with poppyseed dressing and chicken – a hearty main dish meal! So versatile and flavorful.

It has tons of fruit, protein from the chicken and pecans, a little feta cheese, avocado, tons of spinach, and a homemade poppyseed dressing that is LIGHT. This homemade poppyseed dressing is made with no oil! Only greek yogurt, vinegar, sugar, and poppyseeds. Because it’s so light you feel like you can just slather it on without your salad feeling oily. I hope you can try this dressing, but if you’re in a time crunch any store bought poppyseed dressing will be great!

This Berry Avocado Salad is a great lunch but is also a great full meal for dinner. When I made it my kids had some cut up grilled chicken and piles of fruit separated out 😉 Dipping the fruit in the poppyseed dressing was actually delicious.

I put the ingredients for the poppyseed dressing in a mason jar and shook it up. I have the leftovers in the fridge now for my next salad. Easy easy homemade dressing. Slather it on!

Berry Avocado Salad

Prep Time 0 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Chicken (optional)

  • 3-4 small chicken breasts or tenderloins
  • 2 tsp garlic salt
  • 1 tsp italian seasoning

Salad Ingredients

  • 6-8 c. fresh spinach
  • 1 avocado, sliced (sprinkle avocado with salt – tastes so much better this way)
  • 3-4 c. fresh berries (I used strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
  • 1 c. chopped candied pecans (buy in produce section or near salad dressings)
  • 1/2 c. fontina or feta cheese
  • salt, for topping

Greek Yogurt Poppyseed Dressing (or you can use store-bought Brianna's poppyseed dressing)

  • 1 c. Greek yogurt (low fat or no fat)
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/4 c. vinegar
  • 4 tsp. poppyseeds

Pureed Strawberry Dressing (alternate dressing – or you can use Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette)

  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 2 tbsp. white vinegar
  • 1.5 c. fresh strawberries
  • 1/3 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 c. white sugar

Instructions

Chicken (grilled or roasted)

  • Season both sides of chicken with garlic salt and italian seasoning. 
  • Place chicken on grill or on lightly greased baking sheet. If grilling, cook on each side for 7-8 minutes until cooked through (depending on thickness).
  • If roasting chicken in oven, preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit. Once chicken is on lightly greased baking sheet, roast for about 10-12 minutes on each side until chicken is cooked through.
  • Once chicken is cooked, sprinkle with more salt (if the chicken is salty it’s a nice complement to the sweet fruit and dressing), then slice into small pieces and set aside until ready to assemble salad. 

Poppyseed Dressing

  • Before assembling salad, make dressing. Combine all ingredients in a large mason jar and shake together to mix (or whisk together in a bowl). Chill until ready to serve. 
  • Dressing can be made ahead of time and chilled. If you don’t have time to make the dressing, any store bought poppyseed dressing works great too.

Assembling Salad

  • In a large bowl toss together fruit, nuts, feta, and spinach with enough dressing to coat. I like to then divide that out onto each person’s plate and then make the plates look nice by adding the chicken, avocado, and a little extra dressing on top of each plate or bowl individually. 
  • If making for a large group, toss all ingredients together in an oversized bowl, but wait to dress until just before serving so spinach doesn’t wilt.

Alternate Strawberry Salad Dressing

  • To make this salad a little lighter, you can use a strawberry vinaigrette. Puree these ingredients in a blender:
    2 tbsp. olive oil
    2 tbsp. white vinegar
    1 1/2 c. fresh strawberries
    1/3 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice
    1/4 c. white sugar
  • Before serving toss some of this strawberry dressing with the chicken, then toss the chicken into the salad and dress the salad. This is a great summer fresh variation!

Can’t wait for you to dive into this Berry Avocado Salad – I know you’ll love it! Tag me with photos @plumstreetcollective on Instagram. Thanks for reading!

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2 Comments

  1. Hi! What type of vinegar did you use? Can’t wait to make this!

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