Spinach Salad with Creamy Chia Vinaigrette

This salad is my new favorite – I ate the whole 4 servings of it by myself the other day, and then proceeded to eat another helping with dinner! So… of course I ran right out of spinach which has inspired an extra trip to the grocery store for more – you get the picture, it’s more than just a salad, it’s breakfast lunch and dinner right now!

It has some similar flavors to the more classic Winter Salad, but amped up with creamy avocado and pomegranates. Originally I was thinking a creamy poppyseed dressing until I discovered I was completely out of poppyseeds! So I ended up turning to chia seeds instead – and what a great discovery! If you haven’t had chia seeds in your dressing before, you’ll want to try this out right away! I love how they slightly thicken the dressing, and make it even creamier.

Whenever I’m putting apples in a salad, I always cut them the same way – quartered and cored, then cut each quarter into quarters lengthwise, and finally slice across the slices to create small bite sized triangles.

The 1st time I made this salad, I ate the whole thing myself!

The 2nd time I made it to go alongside my Crockpot Rosemary Chicken with Butternut Squash.

And… the third time, I paired it with Simple Roasted Sweet Potatoes, (with butter of course)!

I’m sort of addicted to toppings, dressings, and sauces because I can never leave well enough alone! So if you don’t have all the ingredients for this salad or don’t feel like deseeding a pomegranate, it’s still good with even just 2 toppings. Although I’ll just say it’s worth your while to put everything in because each ingredients adds something to the overall picture.

And… speaking of pomegranates, last year I discovered a great method for easily, (yes easily) deseeding a pomegranate – check it out over here at Pomegranates 101! The more you practice this method, the faster you’ll get – I did 6 pomegranates the other day, start to finish was just 15 minutes, (including cleanup)!

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