Family Famous Spinach Salad

Now I know why everybody loves it but no one wants to make it! It's washing the spinach that is such a lengthy process, especially when you are having a dinner party for 10, and don't have a salad spinner!




I remember this salad at my husband's family gatherings, his mom would always make it. As I learned later - everybody always asked her to make that particular spinach salad. I remember tasting it for a first time, and realizing why. It was just delicious! Sweet and tangy dressing with celery seeds and red onions complements the fresh spinach like nothing else. Few bacon bits and hard boiled egg just make all come together in a perfect way.
The dressing is the key. It has to be made one day ahead or overnight, so all the ingredients have time to infuse their flavors and make this incredible flavor.

Original dressing recipe calls for:

1 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup of sugar (or less)
1/3 cup vinegar (cider, white wine or red wine vinegar)
1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. celery seeds
1 TBS. Dijon mustard

Put all above ingredients to a jar or a plastic container with a lid, cover and give it a good shake. Refrigerate overnight before serving. This makes about 1-1 1/2 cup of dressing, serves about 10.

For a salad, to assemble before serving:
1 large bag of spinach, washed
3 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup of bacon bits

Toss all salad components with the dressing, let sit for few minutes before serving. Do not put all the dressing on the salad, as it might be too much, the spinach leaves needs to be just barely covered with he dressing. It will taste too sweet if too much dressing is added.




This is the original salad, but believe me - with this dressing the possibilities are endless. One Sunday afternoon I made a batch of the dressing, so we could have a salad for couple of days during the week. I did not want to eat the same salad every day. On Monday I mixed it with mixed greens, chopped pecans and some blue cheese. On Tuesday, I made spinach salad with fresh raspberries and feta. Wednesday - we had mixed greens, spinach, green apple, cranberries and feta cheese.... and Thursday - I made a salad with chopped romaine, olives, chicken, tomatoes and blue cheese - it was a hit!

As you can see - it works great with lot of different combinations.