This Smoked Salmon Spinach Salad features flavorful smoked salmon, tender baby spinach, crisp apples, chewy raisins and toasted almonds all tossed in lemon vinaigrette.
So easy to make and amazingly delicious! This will become your new favorite spinach salad!
Why You Should be Using Smoked Salmon for Your Salads!
I might be late to the smoked salmon salad party, but I am sooo happy to be here! If you haven't discovered how amazing smoked salmon is in salads, you have no idea what you have been missing.
We eat a lot of salads around here. A lot. This easy salmon salad has jumped to the top of the list. As I was carrying my empty salad bowl back to the kitchen, I was contemplating how soon was too soon to make this again.
With smoked salmon, you only need a little bit, because it has such flavor! We were able to make two salads from one 4 oz package of salmon.
Click here to pin this delicious Spinach Salad now!
Easy Weeknight Salad or Light Lunch
Since the weather is warming up, I've been spending a lot of time weeding the garden and planting new plants. So, I've been looking for easy salads.
I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks, Kitchen Express by Mark Bittman. Do you have this book? I love it.
What I like about it is that it's not in a traditional recipe format.; It's in paragraph form and it's more him telling you how he makes the recipe. With things like a handful of this, toss in some of that, a splash of this, a dollop of that.
I was looking for a simple salad recipe to make after a hard day of gardening and I found a spinach salad with smoked trout and figured I could change it up a bit. This spinach salmon salad comes together in under 30 minutes and tastes amazing!
Ingredients
- Sliced Almonds - can use chopped.
- Apples - use your favorite crisp apple.
- Olive Oil - Since this is for a dressing, I use my best Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Lemons - you'll be using the juice for the dressing, can add some of the zest if you want more citrus flavor.
- Dijon Mustard - can also use a spicy whole grain for more robust flavor.
- Smoked Salmon - smoked trout, mackerel or chicken would work!
- Baby Spinach - or your favorite salad blend. I used baby spinach and baby bok choy.
- Raisins - or currants or dried cranberries.
Directions
To make this salad, begin by toasting the almonds in a dry skillet over medium high heat. When they begin to color, remove them from the heat and place in a small bowl.
Gather the rest of your ingredients: baby greens, smoked salmon, raisins, mustard, apples, olive oil and a lemon. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard (you are making a classic mustard vinaigrette.)
Core and thinly slice the apples and add them to the vinaigrette and toss to coat. Then break the smoked salmon into pieces and add it to the bowl. Add the greens, the almonds and raisins.
Toss to coat and taste and add salt and pepper to taste. (This salad tastes especially nice with some fresh ground black pepper right at serving.)
I am not exaggerating when I say that this salad was soooo good! It was the perfect blend of healthy and delicious! Each bite had a bit of smokey salmon flavor, some sweet crisp apples, chewy raisins and nutty toasted almonds.
It's just like one of those fancy salads you'd get at a little cafe, only you make it yourself and it's so easy!
Make this and then try some variations - maybe use smoked trout or chicken, cranberries instead of raisins, walnuts or pecans (how about my Bourbon Candied Pecans!)
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More Delicious Salmon Recipes
You'll find even more salmon recipes on my Salmon Recipes Pinterest Board.
Recipe
Spinach Salad with Smoked Salmon and Apples
Ingredients
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- 4 ounces smoked salmon
- 2 apples
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice fresh squeezed
- 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- ¼ cup raisins
Instructions
- Place the almonds in a dry skillet and toast them over medium high heat until they start turning golden. Remove from heat and place in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and Dijon mustard.
- Core the apples and cut them into thin bite sized slices and add to the dressing mixture. Toss to coat.
- Flake the salmon and add it to the bowl along with the almonds, spinach, and raisins. Toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Notes
Nutrition
This was originally published in 2019 and has been updated for 2020.
I just made this salad for lunch today and it was AMAZING! I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins, and sweet butter crunch and red leaf lettuces for the baby spinach - because it was what I happened to have on hand. This salad was the perfect blend of sweet & salty, smooth & crunchy! I will definitely make this again and would love to try it with smoked rainbow trout too. Thanks for sharing this recipe, Pam!!
So glad you liked it! I bet it would be so good with smoked trout!
My husband loved this! Thanks for the recipe!
Now this is my kind of salad! I love everything about it. I will definitely be making this for lunch soon!
Such a delicious recipe perfect for summer!!
It really is the perfect summer salad - so easy and so delicious.
I look forward to this salad in my lunch box all morning!
Isn't it the best lunch box salad?!
It looks like a fine lunch! It's still too cold here to not eat a hot meal for dinner, but I'm hoping for a change in the weather sooner rather than later.
Despite it being a little wintry here, this is going to be my lunch next week.
It's so good! It reminds me of something Donna Hay would make.
I love eating different types of salads so I always search salad recipes and i like this one I will try smoked salad for tomorrow's lunch.