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    Home » Recipes

    Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad

    Published: Sep 18, 2018 · Modified: May 6, 2019 by Sonila · This post may contain affiliate links · 8 Comments

    • 94
    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Last night was the first time I prepared the Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad and here’s why. When I picked up my son from school, I asked him what he had for lunch and he told me with an exuberant voice that he had 3 Hot Dogs!!! And then he remembered and told me, oh but I had the beans, fruit and salad too mommy, don’t worry. How can I not worry? I want my children to eat healthy food! I try to cook as much as possible at home but as they grow up, they’ll go out in the world and eat what’s out there.

    Jump to Recipe

    So last night I decided to create a rich salad full of vitamins and anti-oxidants! I’m not sure this would erase the effects of 3 hot dogs or that 3 hot dogs for that matter would be that harmful in the long run. Maybe it made me feel better as a mom to load my kids up with fruit last night. I think I put every fruit I had at home inside this salad. If you decide to ever try it, hope you like fruity salads. My kids loved it, they thought it was dessert time for dinner time last night.

    Some links in my posts may be affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you purchase items by clicking on these links. I will always disclose when a product in a post has been gifted by a company as well as when a post or product is sponsored.

    Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad
    Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad

    I served the salad with baked chicken and garlic jasmine rice. The dragon fruit salad is the perfect fresh salad for dinner time. My 5 year old asked a lot of questions about the fruit, he had never tried dragon fruit before. So dinner conversation turned into a learning experience as well.

    What is Dragon Fruit?

    Dragon Fruit or pitaya (pitahaya) is the fruit of a special cactus species which is native to Central America. However, give the popularity of this fruit in the last decade, the fruit is now grown widely around the world. Dragon Fruit is a tropical fruit.

    There are several varieties of this fruit, white flesh with black seeds and red flesh with black seeds. Taste is mild, sweet and a bit tart, almost like a kiwi mixed with a sweet berry. For the health benefits of Dragon Fruit, please check out this article.

    Dragon Fruit, Pear & Spinach Salad Recipe

    As I told you earlier, this recipe was created on the go as an attempt to pack as much antioxidants and vitamins in one plate. I didn’t really plan it as a recipe for the blog. The initial picture as well was just taken with a cell phone. I repeated the recipe later on for a better shot and you can see the new picture below. When I first made this salad, I used a red dragon fruit while the second time, I made it with a dragon fruit that was yellow on the outside and white on the inside. It’s just a different variety, but both delicious.

    The goat cheese and pecans balance the fruity flavors perfectly! If you are not a fan of goat cheese, you can replace it with feta cheese.

    Please note that in the recipe I prepared a lot of dressing so each person can pour on their plate as needed. If you are going to toss the salad before serving, I suggest to use half that amount of dressing and add more as needed instead of pouring it all in right away.

    Dragon Fruit Salad with Pear, Spinach, Pecans, Goat Cheese and Berries

    Dragon Fruit, Pear & Spinach Salad

    Sonila
    Fresh salad to serve as side dish or main course. Dragon fruit adds a very nice flavor and makes for a fun conversation with kids during dinner time.
    5 from 1 vote
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 10 mins
    Course Salad
    Cuisine American
    Servings 4 people

    Ingredients
      

    • 5 oz spinach
    • 1 dragon fruit
    • 2 pears
    • 10 oz goat cheese
    • 1 cup pecan halves
    • 6 oz blackberries
    • 6 oz raspberries

    Dressing

    • 8 tbsp olive oil
    • 8 tbsp red wine vinegar
    • 1 tbsp poppy seeds
    • 0.5 tbsp salt

    Instructions
     

    • Fill the bowl with spinach.
    • Add cubed dragon fruit, peeled pears, cut cheese.
    • Add berries and finally sprinkle everything with pecan halves.
    • Mix olive oil, vinegar, salt and poppy seeds. Put the dressing on the side or pour on top and toss the salad.
    Keyword dragon fruit salad, fruity salad, goat cheese salad, Healthy Salad, Salad, spinach pecan salad
    Tried this recipe?Mention @mediterranean_latin_love or tag #mediterraneanlatinloveaffair!

    If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin the below image in Pinterest. Thank you:)

    Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad with Berries, Pecans, Goat Cheese and Poppy Seed Dressing
    Dragon Fruit, Pear and Spinach Salad

    For other salad recipes, please check the below links:

    • Mediterranean Potato Salad
    • Red Quinoa, Orange Salad
    • Orange, Cabbage Salad

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    • 94

    Filed Under: Recipes, Salads Tagged With: dragon fruit, healthy salad, pear, salad, spinach salad

    About Sonila

    Mom of 2, wife, engineer, food blogger & recipe creator! Sonila was born in Albania, her heritage inspires her Mediterranean recipes while that of her husband the Latin ones. Sonila has 2 degrees in Engineering from University of Miami.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Nyxie

      July 11, 2019 at 10:28 am

      This sounds amazing! I’ve never tried dragon fruit be fore and I’m not even sure where to buy them, but I would love to give this a go should we ever cross paths.

      Reply
      • Sonila

        July 11, 2019 at 11:08 am

        Thank you so much:)). It’s a rare fruit, even here in Miami it’s sold seasonally. There are the Yellow ones and the Red ones (on the outside), then inside they can have different colors too. It’s a bit like kiwi but sweeter and not as tart. Delicious on smoothies too. Some places call it Pitaya instead of dragon fruit. I find it cubed, frozen a lot more often than fresh…the frozen one is great on smoothies.

        Reply
    2. Heather Behrends

      June 03, 2019 at 10:12 pm

      1I love how bright and colorful this salad looks! And the ingredients are so simple and real – yum! Thank you for this great recipe – I can’t wait to make it!

      Reply
      • Sonila

        June 04, 2019 at 7:30 am

        Thank you Heather:). It turned out to be a success. Everything is easy to find in grocery stores or farmer’s market, except dragon fruit. That’s something you have to specifically look for and find out who sells it locally.

        Reply
    3. The Passive 100

      September 22, 2018 at 1:53 pm

      This looks amazing! I never thought to use dragon fruit this way.

      Reply
      • admin

        September 22, 2018 at 4:53 pm

        Thank you!! I’ve used it in yogurt before but never in salads so it was a surpring happy accident recipe:)))

        Reply
    4. Mary Yaroscavitch

      September 19, 2018 at 7:16 pm

      5 stars
      I bet this would taste amazing with Lychee’s too. Saving this recipe for later.

      Reply
      • admin

        September 19, 2018 at 7:18 pm

        That’s such a great idea!! Cold lychees are so refreshing:)).

        Reply

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    Sonila Zarate
    Sonila Zarate

    Mom of 2, wife, engineer, food blogger & recipe creator! Sonila was born in Albania, her heritage inspires her Mediterranean recipes while that of her husband the Latin ones. Sonila has 2 degrees in Engineering from University of Miami.

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