Addicting Spinach Cucumber Salad

Spinach Cucumber Salad (Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free)

Spinach

My mom made this delicious and healthy salad for us all the time when I was growing up. I remember planting a spinach patch next to our chives just for this salad. I'd go outside and check the growing spinach to check to see if there was enough to make this salad yet. Good thing spinach grows fast. We would pinch off the outside leaves, allowing for the continued growth of the plant. We would then snip off a few fresh chives and mince them up.

We always made this dressing (recipe below) for this salad. It is perfect. This recipe would make a meal for the two of us. If you use it as a side, it will serve at least 4.



SPINACH CUCUMBER SALAD Recipe:

1 large bunch spinach, washed and dried, destemmed
1 medium cucumber, peeled and sliced thin

DRESSING:

1/2 plain yogurt
1/4 c. mayonnaise
2 T. olive oil or "GREEN OIL"
1 to 2 T. fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 c. fresh chives, minced
1 T. fresh dill weed, minced
1/2 t. xylitol (to replace 1/2 t. sugar)
onion salt, to taste
dash garlic powder
fresh ground black pepper, to taste


Method:

Mix the dressing ingredients to taste.

The dressing should have a nice tang and have enough onion salt added so that it isn't flat tasting.

Toss the dressing with the prepared spinach and cucumber and serve immediately.


Options:

You can use frozen minced chives. I harvest chives from my herb garden in the summer and mince them up and freeze them in a zip-lock bag. Then they are ready for me year-round.

You can add 2 to 3 T. finely minced scallion tops (the green part) for the chives.

You can substitute about 1 T. dried dill weed for the fresh dill weed, to taste.


Enjoy!

Leila

Cucumber