If you are making your own dressing, follow the instructions for this recipe (it makes about 1 cup, which is exactly what you need for this salad).
To make the salad, add all salad ingredients to a large bowl. Pour over the dressing and gently toss. Serve immediately.
Notes
Ingredient notes
Herbs: Use soft herbs in the salad – things like basil, mint and/or parsley taste absolutely delicious in this recipe.
Walnuts: Feel free to leave these out if needed, or use different nuts if you don’t like walnuts. Pecans or almonds are very delicious, too. You can lightly toast them before using them in the salad for extra flavor.
Dressing: I used my homemade lemon poppy seed salad dressing, but store-bought is just fine if you’re in a hurry. If you want to try making your own but aren’t sure – it’s very simple to put together. Just a case of measuring out some stuff and whisking it together. I’ve also made this salad with White Balsamic Vinaigrette before, and it’s also delicious.
Recipe tips
I chop the walnuts first before I slice the rest of the ingredients, because I only want to use one chopping board. Slicing fruit and veggies makes the board damp, and damp walnuts get sticky and annoying when chopping them… So I always get them out of the way first.
The strawberries I usually slice in a crazy disarray for salads. Some rounds, some half moons, some wedges… I find that keeps the salad really interesting.
You can opt to cube the cucumber, but I find it prettier in slices. Plus, my kids love eating cucumber slices, so they pick these out of the salad and happily munch on them. Parenting win!
Toss the salad as carefully as possible, because you don’t want to smash the strawberries.
To prep the salad ahead of time, store the dressing, the salad vegetables/strawberries, the walnuts and the feta cheese each in separate containers in the fridge for up to a day. Toss/dress right before serving.