Strawberries with walnuts, mixed greens and aged balsamic vinegar is luxury in a bowl. Without exaggeration this salad is a celebration of colors and flavors. A celebration of summer after all.

During hot summer days it’s a perfect and refreshing side to go with grilled meat. But it's also a light and flavorful stand alone meal.

Walnuts and Parmesan cheese fill in for the protein, strawberries and mixed greens for low carbs, and aged balsamic - ooooh - it does a real magic in this salad!

It’s NOT your regular balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Not even a usual balsamic vinegar for that matter.

If you’ve never heard of aged balsamic, no worries. Once you try it, you’ll never miss it again in the pantry.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

10 fresh strawberries
1 bag of mixed greens (spring mix or baby spinach)
4 whole walnuts
⅓ cup parmesan cheese, shaved
aged balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Preparation:

Strawberries Balsamic And Mixed Greens Salad Recipe

Step 1:

Wash and pat-dry strawberries with a paper towel. Cut of the green tops with a knife. Quarter each strawberry.
Using a vegetable peeler shave some parmesan. You can also do this directly over a plate before serving.
Crack open walnuts if they’re in a shell.

Step 2:

In a large salad bowl add your mixed greens, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and some salt. Toss well.
Now you can either divide you salad into servings or just run with this huge salad bowl and finish arranging the salad.
The arrangement of this salad goes like this:
Salad mix, strawberries, walnuts.
Drizzle everything with aged balsamic vinegar and top with freshly shaved parmesan cheese.

You can add some protein and toss in some grilled chicken or turkey breast to give a boost of proteins.

How to Choose Aged Balsamic Vinegar

A true balsamic is made of aged balsamic vinegar and concentrated cooked grape must.

It has a glossy dark color and a creamy, velvety texture. It not only feels good in the mouth, but also makes balsamic of a great use in plate decoration.

As to the flavor it’s very rich and sweet with tart notes but not as acid as classic balsamic vinegar.

Of course the best balsamic in the world is Balsamic of Modena, from Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.

As opposed to balsamic glaze or cream of balsamic vinegar, aged balsamic is made of all natural ingredients, without stabilizers or added sweetness.

When shopping for a real aged balsamic, here're some clues:

It's ALWAYS in a glass bottle.
It has no added sugar, color, thickener, or preservative.
It's not cheap.

You might be tempted to get away with a balsamic glaze or cream of balsamic vinegar which is very similar to aged balsamic.

Only problem is that it's not 100% natural. Yes, it has a great thick texture and sweetness as aged balsamic does, but it's due to added corn starch and sugar syrup and not the natural process of reduction.

So do not go for cheap alternatives.

Go with a traditional, thick, syrupy, and entirely delicious aged balsamic vinegar.

It makes not only a perfect company for salads, cheese, fish and meat but also for desserts!

Full Recipe