Strawberry Poppyseed and Bacon Chopped Salad – A quick and tasty chopped salad topped with a creamy strawberry poppyseed dressing and crumbled feta!
What on earth is a poppyseed? After I’d thrown all of the ingredients for this dressing into my food processor and was giving it a few good pulses, it hit me. What is a poppyseed? Does it come from a Poppy? Is that a flower or something else? And have you tasted a poppyseed plain? It tastes like…. I don’t even know, I really have no words to even describe it. But I swear, recipes that call for poppyseeds must have them or they won’t taste like they should. While I’ve got the use of a trove of innovation at my fingertips, I’m gonna look up poppyseeds and be right back. Have a cookie or something, this will only take me a moment.
Okay I’m back. Woah talk about fact-shock. Poppyseeds do come from a flower. But that’s not the shocking part. Guess what else comes from that same flower? Opium. Whaaaaa??? Serious. No wonder I get a little sleepy after I eat lemon poppyseed muffins. I’m pulling your leg I don’t think I’ve ever felt sleepy after eating anything with poppyseeds unless I ate it at four in the morning.
Oh and one more useful fact about poppyseeds. Apparently in traditional Indian medicine, poppyseeds can be ground, combined with milk, and made into a paste to be used as a skin moisturizer. Huh. Who knew. All these years I’ve been using lotion.
But off-topic from the history of poppyseeds, let’s talk about how awesome they are in this poppyseed. The dressing people, the dressing. Creamy, tangy, sweet, and whatever fantastic adjective you get when you add poppyseeds to the mix. Annnnnd, can I just get a hoo-ray for quick and healthy dinners? After a long day of work, stress, mis-haps, and ruined plans, an easy and delicious dinner is what I need. Something I know is gonna turn out fantastic with minimal effort. This is it folks. The dinner you want to make at the end of a long hard day. So tasty, healthy, and ready to eat in fifteen minutes, you can’t beat that!
What people are saying about this Strawberry Poppyseed and Bacon Chopped Salad
“This salad is SO good! I chopped everything and made the dressing on Friday for dinner at the lake on Saturday. We served it with grilled ribeye steak and baked potatoes. I saved half of the salad and dressing and we ate the rest tonight. Thanks for sharing!” – Ashley
“Thank you for the delicious recipe Tiffany! I added avocado to the mix and it was so great. I will be adding this recipe to my rotation. I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow for lunch – onion breath and all 
It’s so worth it.” – Jayme
“This salad is amazing!! I made it several times when strawberries were in peak season. SO, so good! A new favorite, for sure! Thanks for sharing!” – Brenda
“The salad was amazing, and dressing was the best part! Paired it with my homemade lasagna and it was a perfect combination. Thanks for sharing.” – Myra
Strawberry Poppyseed and Bacon Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 6 cups romaine lettuce - chopped
- 2 cup strawberries - chopped
- 8 strips bacon - cooked and crumbled
- ½ red onion - diced
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
Dressing
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon diced red onion
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup white vinegar
- ¼ cup strawberries - chopped
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl toss together chopped lettuce, strawberries, bacon, and red onion. In a food processor or blender, add all dressing ingredients and pulse 1-2 minutes until smooth. Pour dressing over salad and top with crumbled feta cheese. Enjoy!
I want to dive right into this salad! All the colors are beautiful and that dressing sounds amazing! I’ve heard poppy seeds can actual cause a positive drug test in certain circumstances. Crazy!
Using gluten-free bacon, I’m all set! What a great idea to use strawberries and onions instead of avocado in a much like cobb salad. Love it! Thanks!
Thank you for the delicious recipe Tiffany! I added avocado to the mix and it was so great. I will be adding this recipe to my rotation. I can’t wait to eat it tomorrow for lunch – onion breath and all 🙂 It’s so worth it.
Oh my gosh why didn’t I think of avocado – brilliant! I’m definitely throwing that in the mix next time. Onion breath shmonion breath – this salad is too good to resist! 🙂 🙂
I’m planning to make this tomorrow and was going to make the dressing ahead of time. I was just wondering how it stores? Is this a make and use it now type of thing? I’ll just go ahead and make it tomorrow, because I don’t want to waste my ingredients. But it would be good to know for future. Thanks! (You can reply here or email me)
Hi Sam, you can definitely make this dressing ahead of time, you may need to whisk in a tablespoon or two of water the next day because it does thicken a bit in the fridge overnight – but still tastes spectacular. I hope you enjoy this! 🙂
Awesome, thanks so much!! Can’t wait to eat this!
Hi Sam- I made this last night and took leftovers for lunch today. The dressing was just as delicious as it was last night. All it needed was a little stir 🙂
This salad is SO good! I chopped everything and made the dressing on Friday for dinner at the lake on Saturday. We served it with grilled ribeye steak and baked potatoes. I saved half of the salad and dressing and we ate the rest tonight. Thanks for sharing!