Quick & Easy Recipe: Sweet & Tangy Spinach Apple Salad

This is a scrumptious yet healthier, pared-down version of an American recipe, made only with baby spinach, apples, walnuts, and cranberries. That’s a lot of texture and taste to savor, however, even without the addition of goat cheese or red onion or grapes—although you could add those too if you wanted. And that’s because of the marvelous dressing, a honey Dijon balsamic vinaigrette, which amps up the flavor of to a much higher level. And if this dressing sounds complicated, don’t worry, it really isn’t. It’s very easy to make, and once you do make it for this salad, you may find you’ll want it on hand for many other sweet and savory recipes.

Here’s what you need:

1 box of baby spinach (100 g/3.5 oz)
4 medium apples
75 g/2.65 oz cranberries
100 g/3.5 oz walnuts

Now the ingredients for the honey Dijon balsamic vinaigrette:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 flat tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 dusting/shake of black pepper

Two notes regarding the dressing:

1. It works with crystallized honey as well. Use 1 tbsp.
2. If you don’t have Dijon mustard, use a heaping tbsp of regular mustard.

Wash the baby spinach and strain it. Peel, core, and dice the apples. Add the walnuts (whole) and cranberries.

Mix them all together and then with the dressing and enjoy knowing that you’re getting not only superb taste but also an amazingly healthy dose of superfoods, not only in the main ingredients but in the vinaigrette as well.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical or health practitioner, and no part of This Blog, or the websites and products I mention and link to on This Blog, is intended as professional medical or health advice, and should not be considered as such. Here are my Full Terms and Conditions.

Disclosure: This blog post contains some affiliate links. If you click on them and make purchases, they generate revenue for this blog at no additional cost to you. I am a Zazzle Associate and designer, and I earn commissions when you buy products through my referral links. All affiliate links on this blog are identified as such. Here’s my Full Disclosure.

And now for some health benefits of the ingredients in this recipe—or where it appears that this recipe actually helps a lot to lower prehypertension and stage 1 high blood pressure naturally.

Walnuts help with lowering blood pressure as they contain omega-3 fats and magnesium.

Cranberries are highly antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods, and they, too, seem to help a little bit with prehypertension.

Baby spinach contains magnesium and potassium, along with lutein, all of which help dilate arteries, among other things.

And then apples, too, contain potassium—as well as quercetin, an antioxidant that helps lower blood pressure and inflammation in the body.

If these food-to-BP connections are important to you or people in your circle, here’s a design/reminder I made that you or they may enjoy.

And did you know that the fiber in apples (and other fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and seeds) is helpful not only with aiding digestion, cholesterol, and reducing the risk of colon cancer, but also with lowering BP? Here’s an article on it from WebMD.

To a happier, healthier life,

Mira

P.S. I’d appreciate a pin/share if you found my post helpful. Thank you! 🙂