Spinach Salad with Creamy Chia Vinaigrette

This Spinach Salad with Creamy Chia Vinaigrette is loaded with apples, pomegranates, and creamy cubed avocado. There’s also some tangy feta cheese in there which is the perfect flavor compliment, but can be left out if you’re dairy free. It’s easy to make and perfect for potlucks and festive occasions. I especially love making it for holidays because the pomegranates make it extra pretty against the dark green spinach.

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 poppy seed dressing until I discovered I was completely out of poppy seeds!

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.

Now let’s make this Spinach Salad with Creamy Chia Dressing step by step!

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.

From there after you’ve mixed together the dressing, it’s just a matter of piling everything into a bowl. You can buy the pomegranate arils, or you can de-seed your own.

And if you want to make this ahead, chop the apples and cube the avocado just before serving.

• 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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