Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad - healthy salad recipe loaded with fresh juicy strawberries, lettuce, and goat cheese. This summer salad comes together in minutes, with only a few simple ingredients, and drizzled with Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing.

You can have a delicious healthy salad ready literally in minutes - 10 minutes to be precise.
This Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad is fresh, crisp, and super versatile. Perfect to enjoy for lunch on its own or adding grilled chicken or white fish for a wholesome meal.
If you like strawberries be sure to check out my other latest recipes such as:
and Easy Strawberry Spinach Feta Salad or simply type the word ''strawberry'' into the search bar.
PIN THIS POST NOW AND SAVE FOR LATER
Ingredients
The best thing about this Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad is that it’s very easily customizable either adding or removing ingredients depending on your mood or what is in your kitchen at the moment.
You can never go wrong with a strawberry and lettuce salad, especially during the summer season, that’s for sure!
For this strawberry salad you'll also need my Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing.
Here are my two cents on a few of the ingredients.
- Lettuce - best lettuce that works with strawberries (in my opinion) is either very crunchy one like kale, Frisée , Kale or similar, something with a little stronger taste like arugula (ruccola) or spinach will work too. Spinach is usually my go-to because I always have it in my fridge but changing things up a bit always helps. For best results, make sure to use a Salad Spinner.
- Strawberries - ripe strawberries will add natural sweetness to the salad and you won't need any additional sweetener (if any at all).
- Cheese - there is something about strawberries and goat cheese that I just can’t resist. Goat cheese adds a creamy and salty flavor that just can't be beaten in combination with strawberries or all the berries actually. For an alternative, feel free to choose regular or creamy feta cheese.
List of ingredients for Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad:
- 1-2 cups strawberries hulled and stems removed, quartered
- ¼ cup gluten-free couscous or sub buckwheat, quinoa, millet, cooked as per package instructions (al dente)
- 2 cups lettuce kale or Frisée lettuce, shredded
- Himalayan pink salt to taste
- Black ground pepper to taste
- 4-5 oz goat cheese crumbled or torn apart into smaller pieces
Top this salad with
No post found!
How to make Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad
Need a different visual? This recipe is also available as a story!
- In a large mixing bowl (or you can also assemble the salad directly into individual salad bowls) add lettuce, couscous, lightly toss.
- Add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Follow with strawberries and goat cheese.
- Drizzle with plenty of delicious Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad Dressing and serve immediately.
Tips
- How to store strawberry salad - This salad should be eaten on day 1, however, you can also meal prep by combining all the ingredients in individual bowls, refrigerating for few hours or max a day, and adding the strawberry vinaigrette only right before serving.
- For best results wash and dry the lettuce using a salad spinner.
- Always prepare the salad dressing before you chop up the salad ingredients. This way the dressing will taste even more delicious.
- If serving the salad later, don’t add the dressing right away, only when ready to serve and preferable drizzled over individual bowls.
- Wine Pairing - Serve with high acid white wines such as Riesling, Chablis or Sauvingon Blanc.
- Don't throw away the strawberry tops! Here's what you can do:
DIFFERENT WAYS TO USE STRAWBERRY TOPS
Always save strawberry tops - don’t throw them away! Here's what you can make with them:
- Make strawberry-infused water.
- Don’t have a plan to use those tops right now? Place them in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge for up to a few days, or in the freezer for a few months, then pull them out when you’re ready to use them.
- Another great way to use them is to infuse your favorite spirit with them (i usually keep them in my rum for few days).
- Add the tops to your favorite smoothies to get a little pink hue and hint of strawberries.
Variations and toppings
What toppings and extras to add are up to you but here are few of my suggestions that work:
- Red onion will add a little zing to this salad and is simply the best onion to choose for a berry salad.
- Nuts - add toasted nuts such as walnuts, pecans or almonds for extra nutrition and crunchiness.
- Ground pepper - for something different, try flavored ground peppers such as Lemon Pepper Seasoning, yum! Or simply squeeze a bit of lime or lemon juice on top of the salad.
- For the dressing use my Strawberry Poppy Seed Salad Dressing or tangy Homemade Sweet Balsamic Glaze.
- Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad with Chicken - add grilled or oven-roasted chicken breast for a wholesome meal. The best part is that the Strawberry Vinaigrette salad dressing works very well with poultry too! Or try my Arugula Chicken Salad with Strawberries and Almonds.
- For extra flavor add caramelized almonds (almonds toasted with a bit of butter, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder, and sugar to taste until caramelized texture.) Or use choose other nuts like walnuts, hazelnuts or pecans following the same method.
- Berries - Substitute strawberries with raspberries or blueberries.
If you love this strawberry salad recipe, you might also like
- Strawberry Arugula Salad with Caramelized Almonds
- Strawberry Asparagus Quinoa Salad
- Easy Strawberry Spinach Feta Salad
- Arugula Chicken Salad with Strawberries and Almonds
I hope you'll enjoy this recipe and if you make this recipe, please let me know down below in the comments or by tagging @theyummy_bowl under your picture on Instagram.
Thank you for reading,
Love,
Julia
Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad
INGREDIENTS
- 1-2 cups strawberries (hulled and stems removed, quartered)
- ¼ cup gluten-free couscous (or sub buckwheat, quinoa, cooked as per package instructions (al dente))
- 2 cups lettuce (kale or Frisée lettuce, shredded)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- Himalayan pink salt to taste
- Black ground pepper to taste
- 4-5 oz goat cheese (crumbled or teared apart into smaller pieces)
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large mixing bowl (or you can also assemble the salad directly into individual salad bowls) add lettuce, couscous, lightly toss.
- Add salt and pepper to taste if needed. Follow with strawberries and goat cheese.
- Drizzle with plenty of delicious Strawberry Poppyseed Salad Dressing and serve immediately.
NOTES
PRIVATE NOTES
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
Julia
Easy and healthy strawberry salad for summer bbq evenings!
MaryAnne
I made this over the weekend to rave reviews from the entire family! Thanks for the recipe!
Julia
Thank you, so happy to hear that!
Shinta Simon
Tried pairing goat's cheese with strawberries for the time, thanks to this recipe, and was blown away by the results! Such a treat. Definitely making it again.
Julia
thank you so much, so glad you liked it!
Deanne
This is one of my favorite summer salads! I love the addition of couscous!
Julia
thank you Deanne, we love it too!
Emily Flint
This salad reminds me of one of my favorite pre-made ones at the grocery store...but now I can make ut at home which is always better! Love, love, love the dressing!
Julia
thank you so much Emily, appreciate it! The dressing is so good!
Angela
This will make a great addition to my Memorial Day BBQ. I love the added texture of the couscous.
Julia
Absolutely, what a great idea! thank you for your feedback!
Jim Knox
Wow. Healthy Strawberry Salad indeed.
Julia
thank you Jim so much!