Fresh Corn Blueberry Spinach Salad

Quintessentially summer, this Blueberry Spinach Salad with tender corn, pickled red onions and sweet/spicy almonds is fresh, delicious and goes so well with grilled entrees!

This is one of those salads that will disappear right before your eyes at picnics, potlucks, parties and family get-togethers. It’s loaded with fresh, summery ingredients and is topped with a fabulous poppy seed dressing that everyone seems to love! And the crunchy, salty, sweet and spicy roasted almonds are the crowning glory!

A perfect summer salad

To me, it’s so nice to go to a summer get-together and find a big, beautiful salad that’s loaded with fresh, vibrant ingredients. In fact, you might not want to invite me to your party or picnic if you prepare something like this Blueberry Spinach Salad. I’ll be sure to load my plate up with your beautiful creation and then go back for seconds.

The delicious summer season is in full swing and Scott and I love visiting our nearby farmers market each Saturday morning. There’s always an amazing array of fabulous produce and each week there’s something new that’s been harvested. This past Saturday I saw the first blueberries and my mind began swirling with ideas for new blueberry recipes.

And although corn is still knee-high here in the mountains of North Carolina, beautiful fresh corn is abundant and cheap at our local groceries, thanks to the farmers a few states below us. All this makes it the perfect time to make and serve this delicious Fresh Corn and Blueberry Spinach Salad!

Have you figured out yet that I’ve been actually prepping you for this salad for a few weeks now, as I’ve already shared some of the components?

The Honey Cider Poppy Seed Dressing.

The Sweet and Spicy Roasted Almonds.

And the (show-stopping) Pickled Red Onions.

You may have already tried one or two of these recipes but just wait till you put them all together with crisp baby spinach, tender sweet corn and juicy plump blueberries – DELICIOSO!

Café Tips for making this Fresh Corn Blueberry Spinach Salad

• Much of this salad can be made in advance. The dressing, almonds and pickled red onions can be made up to a week ahead, making it super easy to throw this salad together quickly.
• Feel free to substitute thinly sliced red onion for the pickled red onion.
•  Because this salad is so colorful and pretty, it looks best served on a simple white platter or bowl.
• This Blueberry Spinach Salad is perfect to serve with any grilled entree. We love it with chicken, steak, pork chops, ribs…
• If you can’t find pretty baby spinach, arugula, watercress, butter lettuce or spring mix would also be delicious. Look for whatever is prettiest and freshest at the market.
• You won’t need to use full recipes of the pickled red onions, sweet and spicy almonds or the poppy seed dressing for this salad. However, all of them are super versatile and can be used in lots of other ways. See the individual posts for each one for ideas on how to use them.
• I love to serve this salad with something yummy from the grill and a loaf of warm, crusty Ridiculously Easy Focaccia Bread. The perfect summer meal! If you haven’t tried this delicious focaccia bread, put it on your list! This is the comment I received recently about it:

“This recipe is so good and so easy! More often than not, online recipes just don’t come out looking like the picture on the recipe. This one did and it was delicious. The crust was crisp and the bread was chewy. This recipe is a definite keeper.”

If you enjoyed this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review! It’s so helpful to other readers to hear other’s results and ideas for variations.

5 from 6 votes

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Fresh Corn Blueberry Spinach Salad

Quintessentially summer, this Blueberry Spinach Salad with tender corn, pickled red onions and sweet/spicy almonds is fresh, delicious and goes so well with grilled entrees!

Author: Chris Scheuer

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Blueberry Spinach Salad, Spinach Salad

Prep Time: 30 mins

Cook Time: 8 mins

Total Time: 38 mins

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 78 kcal

Ingredients

• 4 ears corn with husks on
• 8 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• ⅓ cup Pickled Red Onions or thinly sliced red onion
• ⅓ cup Sweet and Spicy Roasted Almonds
• Honey-Cider Poppy Seed Dressing

Instructions

1. For the corn:

2. Place corn, two ears at a time, in the microwave and cook for 3-4 minutes).

3. Remove from microwave with a hot pad and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
4. After cooling, cut the bottom end of corn off, about 1 1/2 inches from the ​end. Pull back husk and silks from the top (almost all of the silk should easily pull away). Slice kernels from husks and set aside to cool.

5. For the salad:

6. Combine spinach, blueberries, corn and red onions in a large serving bowl. Sprinkle with a generous pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

7. Drizzle with 3-4 tablespoons of the poppy seed dressing and toss together.
8. Top salad with almonds. Serve extra dressing at the table.

Recipe Notes

See Café Tips above for more detailed instructions and tips.

Nutritional Information does not include onions, almonds and dressing. See those individual posts for that info.

Calories 78kcal

Fat 1g

Saturated fat 1g

Sodium 41mg

Potassium 417mg

Carbohydrates 17g

Fiber 3g

Sugar 7g

Protein 3g

Vitamin A 77.5%

Vitamin C 22.3%

Calcium 4.2%

Iron 8.1%

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