Prepare the dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, honey, lemon juice and poppy seeds into a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Adjust flavour with salt. Adjust thickness by adding milk, about 1 tablespoon at a time. Transfer dressing into a squeeze bottle for ease of application.
Prepare salad: Begin layering salad ingredients into a plate or flat-bottomed bowl starting with the spinach. Add a small handful of microgreens, a few cherry tomato halves, some egg and a sprinkle of bacon. Drizzle with a tiny bit of the dressing. Repeat process two additional times.
Garnish the salad with a bit of black pepper if you wish and serve immediately. Present additional dressing on the side, if desired.
Layered Spinach Salad
Ingredients
For the dressing:
¼ cup low fat sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 tablespoons honey
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
kosher salt to taste
2% milk, enough to thin out the dressing
For the salad:
2 cups baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
1 cup microgreens
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 extra-large eggs, hardboiled and sliced
4 bacon rashers, cooked and chopped
Directions
Prepare the dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, honey, lemon juice and poppy seeds into a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Adjust flavour with salt. Adjust thickness by adding milk, about 1 tablespoon at a time. Transfer dressing into a squeeze bottle for ease of application.
Prepare salad: Begin layering salad ingredients into a plate or flat-bottomed bowl starting with the spinach. Add a small handful of microgreens, a few cherry tomato halves, some egg and a sprinkle of bacon. Drizzle with a tiny bit of the dressing. Repeat process two additional times.
Garnish the salad with a bit of black pepper if you wish and serve immediately. Present additional dressing on the side, if desired.
Layered Spinach Salad
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Baby spinach layered with tomatoes, chopped bacon and egg with a poppyseed dressing…
Enjoy for lunch or a light evening meal, this LAYERED SPINACH SALAD is delish!
One of our subscribers wrote in asking if we had a classic spinach salad recipe. She continued, “Nothing fancy, I just want a “good ol’ run-of-the-mill” version. Hmmm, let’s see if this fits the bill. Who’s ready for a LAYERED SPINACH SALAD?
Thinking back to the many different spinach salads I’ve enjoyed over the years, I settled on this version. It might remind you the type of salad often served in restaurants – nothing too complicated, just some favourite ingredients presented with a complimentary dressing.
Here’s what went into making it:
POPPY SEED DRESSING
I often begin with the dressing when I start working on salad recipes. In this case, I decided on something slightly creamy with a hint of tanginess and a touch of sweetness. Feel free to make the dressing even creamier by replacing the low fat sour cream with a thicker 18% version. You can also exchange the 2% milk we used for whole, or even buttermilk if you wish. These two substitutions will certainly up the richness of the dressing. Click the following link for a quick look on how to make a POPPY SEED DRESSING from scratch.
BABY SPINACH
Spinach has long been one of my favourite greens, thanks to my mom’s wizardry at making veggies more “kid-friendly”. She’d blend spinach into a cheese and phyllo pie or cream it with onions, lemon and dill as a splendid side. I have no trouble recommending it all these years later because it’s so good for us – low in calories, fat-free and the baby spinach is smaller and more tender too. My one suggestion is to always wash your spinach really well, ensuring the removal of any lingering sand or grit.
FIXINGS
I specifically added the cherry tomatoes to keep things as simple as possible, but let’s not forget how perfect they are in this layered spinach salad. They add a nice texture, slight sweetness and a pop of colour too.
Bacon and eggs also work with the bacon adding a bit of crunch and the egg adding richness. In a perfect world, the eggs are extra-large and organic, while the bacon is thick-cut and still slightly warm when tossed into the mix.
I’m completely enamoured by the fresh taste of microgreens. Sure they’re pretty but it’s really about their high count of essential vitamins and minerals.
PRESENTATION
I’m happy we decided to create this salad with its distinctive layered presentation; tossing it in the dressing would have made it too dense and goopy. Adding little dribbles of the dressing as you carefully add the various ingredients layer by layer is the way to go. Make it and you’ll understand why it works!
Whether you’re serving this salad for lunch or a light dinner, how about a few suggestions for other things that partner really well with it. We’ve served it on the side of our EASY GRILLED CHICKEN and GRILLED LAMB LOIN CHOPS – everyone raved!
How can so much goodness fit on just one plate? This LAYERED SPINACH SALAD is almost too good to be true!
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Ingredients
For the dressing:
¼ cup low fat sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, finely minced
2 tablespoons honey
juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
kosher salt to taste
2% milk, enough to thin out the dressing
For the salad:
2 cups baby spinach leaves, washed and dried
1 cup microgreens
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 extra-large eggs, hardboiled and sliced
4 bacon rashers, cooked and chopped
Directions
Prepare the dressing: Place the sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, honey, lemon juice and poppy seeds into a small bowl and whisk together until smooth. Adjust flavour with salt. Adjust thickness by adding milk, about 1 tablespoon at a time. Transfer dressing into a squeeze bottle for ease of application.
Prepare salad: Begin layering salad ingredients into a plate or flat-bottomed bowl starting with the spinach. Add a small handful of microgreens, a few cherry tomato halves, some egg and a sprinkle of bacon. Drizzle with a tiny bit of the dressing. Repeat process two additional times.
Garnish the salad with a bit of black pepper if you wish and serve immediately. Present additional dressing on the side, if desired.
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