spring chicken & strawberry spinach salad
Guys. It's officially spring and I'm 100% awed that Boston hasn't dumped a billion inches of snow on us (yet — still waiting for a freak snowstorm to appear in April tbh). Though honestly, snow days are kinda nice and I do miss them a little. They're a good time to step back from it all and just relax.
Regardless, this just means that cold salads are OK to eat once again. Not that they were ever not OK to eat, but I definitely prefer warm salads with roasted veggies rather than salads with lots of raw ingredients during the winter.
I stopped by this little table in our student center that had a man from a nearby farm and impulse bought some gorgeous strawberries and spinach because honestly, I was really missing strawberries in my life (sorry, California girl at heart). And because I had a sad lack of veggies in my fridge.
And this super easy springtime salad was born. It's the perfect light dinner and tastes fresh. Like spring.
spring chicken & strawberry spinach salad
serves: 1 | time: 25 minutes | dinner, lunch | paleo
ingredients
3 handfuls of organic spinach
3 strawberries
1/2 small antibiotic free boneless chicken breast (about 1/2 a pound)
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp Daily Tonic* (or salad dressing of choice — try whisking together oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and lemon juice for a super easy and delish dressing)
Paprika, salt (sea salt and Himalayan pink salt shakers from Costco are the best), and pepper to taste
Cooking olive oil for the pan (can also use avocado oil, ghee, or coconut oil)
directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium pan, heat up about 1 tbsp cooking oil of choice.
Take the chicken and pat dry. Grind sea salt and pepper and sprinkle paprika on both sides and rub in.
When the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan. Sear for about a minute, then flip.
Take a baking pan and line with aluminum foil. Place the chicken on it and set it in the oven.
While the chicken is cooking, wash the spinach and the strawberries and dry.
Cut the strawberries into slices and roughly chop spinach, if desired.
Cut the avocado into cubes.
In a mixing bowl, combine the spinach, the dressing, and the avocado. Mix throughly (I like to use chopsticks or tongs, like they do at Sweetgreen).
Depending on how thick the chicken is, it may or may not be done cooking at this point. You can remove it from the oven and check — just press a finger on it (warning: it might be hot). If it's too squishy, put it back in. if it's slightly firm, cut in half and see.
If the chicken is still cooking, this is a perfect time to do those dishes and plate your salad prettily.
Once the chicken is done, cut into slices and place on top of the salad. I also like to pour the chicken "juice" onto my salad (just because it's freakin' delicious).
Top with anything else you desire (pepitas would be awesome, but I didn't have any) and enjoy!
*Note on the Daily Tonic: I bought this at the Boston Public Market on a whim and originally meant to take shots of it in the morning as a pick-me-up. But when I opened the bottle up and smelled it, it was so strong that I knew there was 0% I would be able to do that (and I can typically take shots of anything — I used to do ACV, lemon, and cayenne). But I found that it's the perfect salad dressing.
(From Vermont Pepper Works) ingredients: vinegar, ginger, honey, turmeric, horseradish, ginger, honey, jalapeño pepper, pink peppercorn