Amazing Spinach Salad with Sweet-Spicy Nuts, Apples, Feta and Bacon
This really is the most amazing spinach salad ever! Loaded with sweet + spicy nuts, apples, feta, and bacon, it is a delicious showstopper.
This is my most favorite salad. Ever, ever, ever.
It’s chock full of everything I love.
- baby spinach
- crisp sweet apple slices
- tart dried cranberries
- tangy feta cheese
- baconbaconbacon
- sweet and spicy candied pecans
The combination of all those amazing, delicious ingredients is straight up incredible.
The simple dressing
The tasty vinaigrette for this amazing spinach salad can be made up to a week in advance.
It’s a throw-it-all-together-in-a-blender type of dressing. And it’s super tasty.
Which means you may not want to reserve it for this salad alone. It’s a great all-purpose dressing to keep in the refrigerator at all times.
Quick Skillet Candied Pecans
The other star of this salad show is the candied pecans. Not only because: CANDIED PECANS, but also because they are made in the skillet (easy!) and we’re also making them a little sweet and a little spicy.
The sweet + spicy + crunchy combo takes this salad over the top; they’re probably my favorite part of the whole salad.
I’ve simplified the skillet candied pecans in the recipe below. Lots of readers had issues with the pecans crystallizing (and so did I a times!).
This new (easier) method is foolproof.
Sugar and water simmer with the salt and cayenne. Throw in pecans (or walnuts), cook for a few minutes longer, and then spread onto parchment to cool completely.
Glazed. Crunchy. Perfect.
This salad is a magical sum of so many yummy parts, and it is a showstopper anytime I bring anywhere. Elegant, pretty, DELICIOUS!
FAQs for this Spinach Salad
The salad ingredients are very adaptable! I think as written, it’s the perfect combination of flavors, but feel free to play around with substitutions, leaving certain ingredients out, or increasing a favorite ingredient.
If you’re candied nuts, once cooled, are sticky instead of crunchy, they might benefit next time from another minute of cooking in the skillet so the sugar can cook longer.
You can definitely experiment! I’ve used half white wine vinegar and half red wine vinegar before with good results.
Amazing Spinach Salad with Sweet-Spicy Nuts, Apples, Feta and Bacon
Ingredients
Red Wine Vinaigrette:
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, pressed or finely minced
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt, more or less to taste
- Black pepper to taste
Sweet Spicy Nuts:
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ cup granulated or brown sugar
- Pinch cayenne pepper, more to taste if you want
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Salad:
- 16 ounces baby spinach or spring greens, or a combination
- ½ small red onion, slivered (see note about tempering the onion flavor)
- 6 to 8 slices bacon, regular or thick cut, cooked and chopped
- 1 cup feta cheese crumbles, more or less to taste
- 1 cup dried cranberries or cherries, more or less to taste
- 1 to 2 honey crisp apples, cored and sliced thin
Instructions
- For the dressing, blend all the ingredients until smooth or combine in a jar and shake until well-combined. Refrigerate until needed (or up to several days)
- For the nuts, add the water, sugar, salt and cayenne pepper to a skillet set over medium heat. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute until the sugar is dissolved. Add the nuts and stir to coat. Cook for another 1-2 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring slowly but constantly. Spread the nuts evenly on a parchment lined baking sheet and let cool. Break into pieces.
- To assemble the salad, toss all the salad ingredients together along with the cooled nuts. Toss salad with the dressing OR serve the dressing alongside.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: barely adapted from my virtual friend, Kim (thank you!)
Recipe originally published January 2014; updated November 2020 with new photos, recipe notes, etc.
I am another who would greatly benefit from a video tutorial on the candied walnuts! I have just finished two attempts and neither are what I would call a great success. My problems are similar to others’. The white sugar starts melting but it clumps up into little chunks instead of becoming a smooth liquid. In the first batch, when it started getting clumpy, I stopped stirring it because I was thinking perhaps stirring was letting parts of it cool prematurely and it was causing the clumps. When I left it alone, the clumps started liquifying, but once I added the nuts the sugar wouldn’t coat them evenly and got really thick and hard to stir.
On the second batch, I used medium heat and added the sugar and walnuts together at the beginning. I stirred this batch constantly. After what seemed like forever, the sugar finally started melting, but it still wasn’t turning into a smooth liquid. It coated the nuts more evenly than the first attempt, but the coating is bumpy! Not smooth and golden brown like all the photos. I know this must be user-error since this exact method for candied nuts is used in many recipes. I just can’t figure out what part I’m doing wrong.
Darn, Megan! I don’t like to hear that it’s not working out. Let me try to get a little video together.
This is a wonderful and flavorful salad. I did omit the sweet walnut crunch topping only because I had none at home. I sprinkled pine nuts on instead. I ate what I’m sure amounted to two helpings. I would definitely make this again.
Loved it but will us honey instead of sugar next time. All other ingredients make a nice combination.
I was so anxious to try this salad! I did have a problem with the sugar melting though. I was careful to put the burner onto med low heat and I stirred constantly. My sugar never liquified. Some of it melted a bit but it just clumped together and never finished melting. I used a non stick pan so i thought that I would try it in a regular pan. No luck there either. So I ended up carmelizing with brown sugar and butter and put just a bit of cayenne pepper in that. I hope that it turns out for me. Any suggestions on what I might have done wrong?
Hmmm, I’m not sure, Sharlene! I think I’m going to try and put together a video tutorial of this step to help people. I’ll keep you posted!
I made this salad to go with our Super Bowl menu. Our daughter-in-law had a baby in the early morning & I sent dinner for her & my son & she loved the salad! In fact when she was home from the hospital, I asked her what I should make to take for their dinner one night & she said anything as long as it has that good spinach salad!! So I did
That’s awesome – and congrats to your son and daughter-in-law!
This was fabulous!! I didn’t have craisins, but added some grapes, sliced in half and about 3 or 4 strawberries, quartered. Squeezed some fresh lemon over those and the apples. Some seriously good eats, here! 5+ stars =) Thank you for this recipe!!!
Thanks Mary.
Just made this for lunch. It might just be my new favorite salad ever. And I didn’t even put the nuts in it. I’m so making this every chance I get. Thank you!
this salad never comes up when I search for salad. It is my favorite.
Love this salad. Thanks for all your yummy recipes!
this looks like a great salad……….but………..I had to give up making salad with our Thanksgiving dinners as NO one ate the salad……….so I went to a few fresh veggies on tray with pickles, olives, etc……they will take some of that.
SO……I will put this salad on my holiday list perhaps for Christmas or Easter.
Thanks!!
I made this salad last night. It was wonderful!! Thank you for the recipe!!
I made this tonight and subbed Trader Joe’s goat cheese with honey. This salad is just outrageous! Thank you!
I made this yesterday to go with slow cooker chicken philly sandwiches. Both are delicious, but this salad was a hands down winner around the table. My husband, the man who grew up on iceberg lettuce and the three salads in a week is pushing his limits guy, took one bite and said, this salad is Great! He had two helpings!! Don’t think that has EVER happened with a salad in the 21 years we’ve been married. But, come on, bacon and feta…it’s gonna be good. 🙂 Thanks, Mel!
This is the most amazingly, unbelievably delicious salad. And I almost never say that about green salads. I just made it for my family for a Christmas gathering and everyone adored it. Many, many compliments! Thanks so much for this one!
I love this list of ingredients! One annoying question, though: can I sub anything for the red wine vinegar? Thank you!
Probably – you might try another type of vinegar that you like the flavor of.
I want to make this salad for Thanksgiving to take along to someone else’s house. Will have to feed about 30. How much should I make? Triple recipe? More?
Also, can I make the sugared nuts ahead too? Or just the dressing? Help!!
Sure, you can make the nuts and the dressing ahead of time. I’d probably triple the recipe for 30 people.
I’ve made this salad twice now….once for just my lunches and again for a group dinner. It was definitely a crowd-pleaser! The nuts were the only “tricky” part to this recipe. Trying to get them all evenly coated, without chewy or rock-hard results. Fine line to get them to that thin crackly coating…. I guess I just need to practice more!
This is a fabulous salad that I will be making again. I did, though, have trouble with the nuts. I will have to find a different technique for sugaring them. Thanks so much!
I am trying to make the sweet spicy nuts and having trouble. I read the recipe to have 1/3 cup sugar pinch of salt and pinch of cayenne. Heat over med-low. Umm….does sugar eventually melt? Does it need water? Egg white? Anything? Am I missing something?
You don’t need any additional water or other ingredient. It takes several minutes but the straight sugar will begin to melt over medium-low heat. If you are watching it carefully, you can increase the heat to medium – just take care that the sugar doesn’t burn. It will melt and liquefy around the nuts.
So do you put the nuts in when it still looks sugary or do you wait until it liquifies? It is a mystery to me that sugar over low heat will liquefy.
I am making this salad for Thanksgiving for my big (36 people) extended family. I know recipes from Mel are always delicious!
I usually wait and put the nuts in when it is mostly melted. Did it work out??
Yes! It was fabulous and everyone loved it. What a delicious salad!
I always use pure maple syrup and a little salt after I toast my pecans. Healthy option to sugar. And comes out salty sweet as well.
Just made this and it is delicious! The finished salad is large and I only used 12 of the 16oz of spinach it called for! So glad I did not double this recipe, it will easily feed 10-12 as a side dish
This looks delicious. Question…I am allergic to pecans and walnuts…are their any other nut that could be used as a good substitution?
Rachelle – I think slivered or sliced almonds would work really well.
I made this salad when you first blogged about it…it is perfect! I love it. I am going to try the wrap idea from kas above…I bet that would be wonderful too.
I made this tonight and used blue cheese instead of feta because that’s what I had on hand and used strawberries instead of cranberries because I had to use them up and it was delicious. However I would like to say, I wouldn’t use blue cheese again because it was too overpowering but definitely going to make this at a dinner party!
This was so delicious I wanted to cry! Thank you for your recipes!!!!!! I use your blog to cook dinner every night!
This salad….HEAVEN ON A PLATE. We’ve had this 3 days in a row. After the first time I made it, I immediately sent the link to my foodie friends. I also made this into a wrap by adding rotisserie chickien. So yummy!
I made this salad for a ladies’ lunch and it got rave reviews. Amazing combination of textures and flavors. Next time I would add a little more cayenne to the nuts for my family. Thanks for your efforts to help us make healthy eating more exciting.
Thanks for the recipe! I made it for my husband and I for lunch today and it’s delicious! The vinaigrette will be my go to dressing as it was perfect and I always have those ingredients in my pantry.
This is one nice salad!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was a huge hit even with my kids! With the nuts, I cut out the step of toasting them in the oven and instead added them to the saucepan with the sugar and spices. As the sugar melted, the nuts were coated evenly and were quite delicious. My 3 year old was willing to eat the whole plate of candied pecans. 🙂
This salad is amazing! I made it last night along with your tender grilled pork chops. My husband rolled his eyes because he hates salad, but he ate every bite. And when I offered him a red velvet cheesecake brownie for dessert, he passed it up- for MORE SALAD! 🙂 Thank you for this wonderful addition to our lives!!! PS. The pork was fantastic too!
I just made the sugar coating for the pecans. All the nuts stuck together and the coating is really chewy. Is it supposed to be like that? I was careful not to let the sugar burn or bubble. Any suggestions? They taste great but thought it would be different. Not so sticky. Thanks for all your recipes. They are great!
Patti – darn! No, the sugar coating should be crisp and crackly once it hardens, not chewy. Do you think you might have needed more nuts to sugar ratio? That helps sometimes so that there isn’t an excess of sugar.
Hi Mel! I made this salad tonight and the family loved it! I do too and will be making it often! Thank you so much for all of your great recipes. I never go wrong making the food you suggest. Always great!
Thanks for the great salad idea. I’ve been stuck in spinach salad rut for awhile (baby spinach, strawberries, feta, sunflower seeds – I can’t eat nuts, and balsamic vinegar), so this salad is the perfect solution to get out of it. I can’t wait to make it for dinner one night this week.
I made this salad today (along with your Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup & Chocolate Toffee Shortbread Squares) for a dozen people. Everyone raved and said what a good cook I am. 🙂 You are my new favorite cookbook! Thank you for sharing your yummy recipes!!
Mel you are the best! I’ve made one of your meals every night since I discovered your blog this past Halloween. My family could not be happier with me! Plus following your recipes has cut out the processed foods I was used to cooking with, which has made a pretty significant change in our health!
I just have one tip for this salad. I love spinach and I make a killer Spanikopita. I learned through a Greek friend of mine that spinach needs to be chopped in order for spicies, dressing, etc to adhere to them. If you just lightly chop the fresh spinach your yummy salad dressing will coat to the spinach leaf. It makes for an even yummier salad!
Thanks for helping my little family!
Such a great tip, thanks, Tori!
Spinach is almost always in my fridge, I like it so much . And I like the sweet version a lot.
I’m not a huge fan of salads either, but this is the only kind I love! A bit of everything yet simple to put together, and with nuts in it! Kim in MD, she’s a landmark in your blog, that first comment in so many posts! Yeah, we all could do with a Kim in our food bloggers lives.
This looks right up my alley, yum! Can’t wait to try it! I have had the same problem with raw red onion so I’m excited to try your tip. Another way I’ve tried to tone down the raw onion is instead of slicing it IN my salads, I throw a little (less than you’d use if you were slicing it) in when I make my salad dressing and blend it good. Works like a charm. 🙂
I forgot to mention that I sometimes substitute a mild goat cheese, mild bleu cheese or Gorgonzola for the feta. If you like those cheese, it’s equally as delicious!
I’ve been thinking about you and hoping you and your family are managing well in these sub-zero temps. I stopped by to see what you’ve been up to and surprise- you posted this delicious salad! Awwww…you made me smile, Mel! Great food and entertaining has always been my passion, and I am always thrilled to share recipes with you and help with your menu planning! You can call me anytime, This salad is a family favorite, and is a must at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is a gorgeous salad, as is your photo of it. Thanks so much for the shout out. Stay warm!
I make a salad very similar to this and everybody raves about it all the time. I just wish I had the desire to eat MORE salad in these frigid MN temps — I know I SHOULD, but I just can’t bring myself to eat something cold! Pass the queso!
Ohhhh! This is just the salad I need this week. Thanks so much for posting it Mel. It looks divine!!!
I’m sure the salad is amazing…but that is an awesome picture. Oh yes, and I just watched your new video. You are adorable.
This looks SOO delicious! I will definitely make it soon!
If I can’t decide what to make, I come straight to your blog!
I thank you…my hubby thanks you!
I love salads like this! Definitely a good way to spice up lunch!
I enjoy a good salad! I cant wait to try this out. If its anywhere near as good as your taco salad, I’ll be one happy lady!! If I could make one request: more dressing recipes! I’m always looking for good vinegarettes/dressings- but they seem hard to come by lately. I truly dislike throwing pre-made bottled dressing in my shopping cart 🙁
This comes very close to my favorite salad. Which will be going up on my blog in the near future. Tasty indeed. We definitely like a lot of the same dishes.
Looks amazing. My mouth is watering.
This looks amazing! I love everything that is on this salad. I will be making it for work this week and pinning it to my Pinterest for later on as well. I’m trying to go more Paleo and this may help (minus the feta cheese and bacon) but baby steps to Paleo.
P.S. I’m new to your blog & consider me a follower! I’m a few blogger and enjoy friends, check out Boarding Together.
http://boardingtogether.blogspot.com
I make a salad just like this but the dressing is a maple-cider vinaigrette. It has maple syrup, apple cider vinegar and oil, Dijon mustard and salt and pepper. Super simple but delicious!!!
Thank you so much, Kim, for your tenacity and willingness to share good things with others. And, yes Mel, everyone needs a friend like Kim in their life and that is what you are to so many of us. (Again, thanks Kim, for your willingness to share – maybe you can mentor/encourage others concerning the virtue of sharing “friends”. 🙂 :-)) This salad is so eye appealing with excellent nutritional value and tasty ingredients. I’m excited to make it for family and friends. Mel, as always, LOVE your descriptive, humorous writing!