The reason most salads do not survive as dinner is that they are built like a side dish and then asked to do a main course job. Every one of these dinner salad recipes has something with real weight in it: brown rice, lentils, quinoa, roasted sweet potato, grilled salmon, chicken off the grill or a rotisserie bird you did not have to cook. That is the whole difference between eating a salad and eating a meal. There are chopped ones, warm ones, make-ahead ones that improve overnight, and a handful of slaws that hold up in a lunch container for days. Several need no cooking at all. And a fair number of the dressings here are good enough to write down and use on everything else you make this month, which is honestly how I judge a salad recipe.
1. Spinach Pecan Brown Rice Salad
Short grain brown rice is the base, which is what makes this filling enough for dinner instead of an hour later. It goes in with green olives, diced green bell pepper, purple onion, chopped spinach, feta and pecans toasted at 350 for eleven to thirteen minutes, all dressed in lemon zest, three to four tablespoons of lemon juice and two tablespoons of olive oil. That is a lemon-forward, low-oil dressing on purpose. It is vegetarian, it travels to a potluck without wilting and it is better the next day.
Get the full tutorial at Vanilla And Bean.
2. Cranberry Almond Spinach Salad
A full sixteen ounces of baby spinach with a cup of toasted sliced almonds and a cup of dried cranberries, and the dressing is where the work is: white wine vinegar and cider vinegar whisked with sugar until it dissolves first, then olive oil, honey, minced shallot, toasted sesame seeds and optional poppy seeds. Whisking the sugar into the vinegar before the oil is the step people rush, and it is the reason a dressing goes gritty. Eight servings, and dress it right before it goes on the table.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking Classy.
3. Cauliflower and Broccoli Detox Salad
Everything here is shredded or chopped very small, which is the point: cauliflower, a head of broccoli, kale, carrots, parsley, blanched almonds, poppy seeds and dried cranberries, so every forkful gets a bit of all of it. The dressing is lemon juice and zest emulsified with olive oil, grated ginger, dried oregano and raw honey. Fifteen minutes and no cooking beyond a one minute blanch of the almonds, which you can skip by buying them blanched. It holds in the fridge better than any leafy salad will.
Get the full tutorial at Chef De Home.
4. Apple Brie Salad
Brie cut into one inch pieces rather than shaved, which changes the whole experience of it, with mixed greens, a large apple in matching chunks, pecans, dried cranberries and green onions. The dressing is a proper apple triple: olive oil, cider vinegar, a tablespoon of actual apple cider, honey, pepper and a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger. Ten minutes, eight servings. Cut the brie while it is cold and straight from the fridge or you will be wrestling with it.
Get the full tutorial at Lemon Tree Dwelling.
5. Thai Peanut Chicken Crunch Slaw Salad
One bowl, one toss, twenty minutes, and a rotisserie chicken does all the cooking for you. Coleslaw mix and broccoli slaw go in with matchstick carrots, green onions, red bell pepper, cilantro, two seeded cucumbers and a cup and a half of shredded chicken, dressed with a cup of bottled thai peanut sauce and the juice of a whole lime. That lime is the ingredient that stops it tasting like a jar. Chopped peanuts go over the top at the end. Six servings, and serve it immediately while it is still crunchy.
Get the full tutorial at The Creative Bite.
6. Classic Creamy Potato Salad
Three pounds of russets in one inch chunks, simmered ten to fifteen minutes and not a second longer, then chilled for thirty minutes before anything creamy touches them. That order matters more than any ingredient on the list. The dressing is light mayo and sour cream in equal measure with cider vinegar, yellow mustard, celery seed and a quarter cup of milk to loosen it. Hard boiled eggs, celery, chopped baby dill pickles and red onion rinsed under cool water first, which takes the raw bite out. Eight servings.
Get the full tutorial at Cooking Classy.
7. DIY Chicken Salad
Chicken salad has to have grapes in it, and that is the hill I am staying on. This is the version already published here, and two notes from making it are worth carrying over: it uses cashew pieces where a lot of recipes use pecans, which works better than it sounds, and it calls for more salt than I use, so hold some back and taste before you commit. Piled into a split ciabatta roll with a handful of greens it is a genuine dinner rather than a sandwich filling.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
8. Skinny Cabbage Salad
Six ingredients and no mayonnaise anywhere. Five cups of thinly sliced cabbage, two cups of shredded carrot and a third of a cup of finely chopped dill, and then the step that makes it: sprinkle the salt over and massage the whole thing with your hands for four or five minutes to soften the cabbage before the olive oil and pepper go in. Skip that and you have raw cabbage in a bowl. Do it and you get something that tastes marinated. It also holds up for days, which most salads cannot claim.
Get the full tutorial at Cooktoria.
9. Healthy Egg Salad
Six hard cooked eggs but only four whole ones, with two of them contributing whites alone, which drops the richness without turning it into diet food. Greek yogurt stands in for most of the mayonnaise, and three quarters of a cup of diced celery gives it the crunch that egg salad usually has to beg for. Dijon, kosher salt, pepper and a tablespoon of fresh dill finish it. Fifteen minutes for three servings, or four open faced sandwiches on whole grain toast with arugula and tomato.
Get the full tutorial at Well Plated.
10. Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Orange Vinaigrette
Five minutes, because it uses already cooked beets and everything else is assembly. The orange vinaigrette is a quarter cup of fresh squeezed orange juice, a quarter cup of olive oil, two tablespoons of honey and half a teaspoon of stone ground mustard, shaken in a jar. That mustard is not optional seasoning, it is the emulsifier holding the oil and juice together. Beets, segmented orange, goat cheese crumbles and micro greens go over peppery salad leaves. Leave the cheese off and it is dairy free, vegan and paleo.
Get the full tutorial at Wonky Wonderful.
11. Roasted Chickpea Salad With Vegan Ranch Dressing
The ranch is made from twelve ounces of soft silken tofu blended with non-dairy milk, lemon juice, cider vinegar, garlic, parsley, dried chives, dried dill and a little agave, and it is nut free, which matters if you have been handed a cashew based vegan dressing before. The chickpeas roast at 425 with onion powder, garlic powder and a dash of cayenne, and they must be patted properly dry on a towel first or they steam instead of crisping. Romaine, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, corn and avocado underneath. Thirty minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Emilie Eats.
12. Grilled Salmon Cobb Salad
A cobb rebuilt so nothing in it is off limits on a Whole30, which is a harder trick than it sounds given that a cobb is basically bacon and dressing. Six cups of arugula carry grilled salmon, zucchini grilled in quarter inch rounds, crumbled bacon, two chopped hard boiled eggs and halved cherry tomatoes. The ranch is compliant mayo with cider vinegar, minced garlic, parsley and chives, which takes about a minute. Grill the salmon five to seven minutes a side until it flakes. Fifteen minutes prep, ten cooking.
Get the full tutorial at Fashionable Foods.
13. Lentil Salad With Feta, Lemon And Parsley
Use small green French or Puy lentils and nothing else, because they hold their shape and brown lentils will turn to mush on you. A cup and a half simmer in four cups of water for twenty two to twenty five minutes, and undercooking slightly is the right error here. They go warm into a red wine vinaigrette with dried oregano so they absorb it, then cucumber, cherry tomatoes, a full cup of parsley, red onion and feta. Eight servings, and it keeps covered in the fridge for four days.
Get the full tutorial at Rachel Cooks.
14. Mediterranean Tomato Salad
No separate dressing gets made at all. Six or seven ripe tomatoes cut in wedges are tossed with red onion, three minced garlic cloves and a packed cup each of parsley and dill, then seasoned with two and a half teaspoons of sumac, lemon juice, white wine vinegar and a third of a cup of olive oil straight into the bowl. Sumac is the ingredient doing the heavy lifting, tart and faintly fruity, and it is worth buying a jar. Serve it with bread, because the juices in the bottom are the best part. Six people, ten minutes.
Get the full tutorial at The Mediterranean Dish.
15. Cranberry Chicken Salad on Apple Slices
The apple is the plate, which is the whole idea. Two cooked chicken breast halves are chopped and mixed with dried cranberries, roasted pecans and thinly sliced celery, bound in equal parts light mayo and sour cream with lemon juice and half a teaspoon of curry powder. That small amount of curry is what keeps it from tasting like every other chicken salad. It gets spooned onto apples sliced into thin rounds. Ten minutes, four servings, and it makes a legitimate dinner for one with some bread on the side.
Get the full tutorial at Yummy Addiction.
16. Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad
The clever bit is that the marinade and the dressing are the same thing made once. You whisk olive oil, lemon juice, water, red wine vinegar, parsley, dried basil, garlic, oregano and salt, pour half over a pound of chicken thigh fillets to marinate for fifteen to thirty minutes, and refrigerate the other half to dress the salad at the end. Romaine, cucumber, two roma tomatoes, red onion, avocado and kalamata olives underneath. Twenty five minutes, four servings, and one less bowl to wash.
Get the full tutorial at Cafe Delites.
17. Cucumber Greek Salad
Two peeled cucumbers sliced a quarter inch thick, four to six roma tomatoes and half a red onion, dressed in a quarter cup of olive oil, a tablespoon and a half of lemon juice, two tablespoons of red wine vinegar and two teaspoons of dried oregano, then feta and black olives folded through at the end. Roma tomatoes are specified for a reason: they carry far less water than a beefsteak and will not flood the bowl. Eight servings in ten minutes, and it wants an hour in the fridge before it goes out.
Get the full tutorial at Belle of the Kitchen.
18. Creamy Broccoli Apple Salad
Twelve servings, twenty minutes, nothing cooked. Four cups of raw broccoli florets with two chopped apples, shredded carrots, dried cranberries, red onion and half a cup of chopped pecans, dressed in equal parts mayonnaise and Greek yogurt with two tablespoons of lemon juice, a tablespoon of sugar, salt and pepper. Swapping half the mayo for yogurt is what stops a broccoli salad tasting heavy by the third forkful, and the lemon juice going in with the dressing rather than over the apples keeps everything from browning.
Get the full tutorial at Turning Clock Back.
19. Garden Vegetable Pasta Salad
Two and a half cups of uncooked pasta with twenty halved cherry tomatoes, a green zucchini and a yellow one sliced thin, a broccoli crown broken small, half a red onion and half a red bell pepper, so the vegetables genuinely outweigh the pasta here rather than hiding in it. The citrus vinaigrette is half a cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of red wine vinegar, three tablespoons of lemon juice, sugar, dried oregano, half a garlic clove and salt. Eight servings in thirty minutes, and all the vegetables stay raw.
Get the full tutorial at One Little Project.
20. Teriyaki Chicken Salad With Pineapple Sesame Dressing
The dressing is the reason to make this: a cup of fresh pineapple blended with honey, cider vinegar, toasted sesame oil, garlic, grated ginger, salt, canola oil and sesame seeds, with an optional tablespoon of mayonnaise if you want it creamier. Underneath sits romaine, thinly sliced red cabbage, more pineapple, matchstick carrots, red pepper, snow peas, green onions, toasted macadamia nuts and toasted coconut flakes. Six servings, thirty minutes. Worth knowing before you start: the teriyaki chicken itself is a separate recipe on another page.
Get the full tutorial at Carlsbad Cravings.
21. Lemon Herb Zucchini Noodle Salad
Nine ingredients, no cooking, ten minutes. Three large zucchini get spiralized, then tossed with a thinly sliced celery stalk, a tablespoon of chopped basil, two teaspoons each of olive oil and lemon juice, a teaspoon of fresh mint, half a teaspoon of lemon zest, a quarter teaspoon of ground cumin and a pinch of red pepper flakes. The cumin is the surprise and it is what keeps this from tasting like a diet lunch. Two to three servings. Toss and eat it, because zucchini noodles weep if they sit.
Get the full tutorial at The Healthy Maven.
22. Roasted Sweet Potato Quinoa Black Bean Salad
A pound and a quarter of sweet potatoes and a large red onion go in half inch chunks onto a sheet pan with olive oil, two teaspoons of chili powder, smoked paprika and salt at 400, and roasting the onion alongside rather than leaving it raw is what makes this taste finished. Then a cup and a half of cooked quinoa, black beans, a bell pepper and three quarters of a cup of cilantro, dressed with the zest and juice of two limes, maple syrup, garlic and olive oil. Six servings, forty minutes, and it is built for make ahead lunches.
Get the full tutorial at Well Plated.
23. German Cucumber Salad
Two pounds of cucumbers sliced thin with half a large onion and a loosely packed half cup of chopped fresh dill, and then you choose your dressing, which is the useful part of this recipe. Either the sharp one, four tablespoons of white vinegar with olive oil, a teaspoon of sugar and salt, or the creamy one, sour cream or yogurt with olive oil, Dijon, white wine vinegar, sugar and optional garlic. Chill at least an hour before serving. Eat it the same day, because cucumbers give up their water by tomorrow.
Get the full tutorial at Maria Ushakova.
24. Skinny Classic Coleslaw
Eight cups of finely shredded green and purple cabbage with a cup of shredded carrots and a quarter cup of minced celery hearts, dressed in half a cup of Greek yogurt and only a quarter cup of mayonnaise. The onion gets grated on a box grater rather than chopped, which spreads it through the whole bowl instead of leaving you with bites of raw onion. White vinegar, sugar, Dijon, salt, celery seed and pepper finish it. Fifteen minutes and it makes ten cups, so it is the cookout quantity.
Get the full tutorial at Healthy Seasonal Recipes.
25. Navy Beans Salad
A can of navy beans, half a cucumber, a quarter red onion, a Campari tomato, three crushed garlic cloves, parsley, olive oil, black pepper, two teaspoons of lime juice and half a cup of dried cranberries. Twenty minutes for two people. The instruction worth following exactly is the first one: run the beans under cold water for a full forty five seconds and then dry them completely on a tea towel. Wet beans will not take up any dressing and that is why canned beans usually taste of nothing much.
Get the full tutorial at Healing Tomato.
26. Super Healthy Broccoli Salad
The classic loaded broccoli salad with cheddar and bacon, given some actual nutrition: toasted pepitas, hemp seeds and anywhere from two tablespoons to a quarter cup of chia seeds stirred into a dressing of full fat yogurt, mayonnaise, honey, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. The broccoli gets blanched rather than left raw, which softens the edge without losing the crunch. Twelve servings. Add the bacon and the honey roasted almonds only right before it goes to the table, otherwise both go soft in the dressing.
Get the full tutorial at The Fed Up Foodie.
27. Broccoli And Quinoa Salad
A cup and a half of quinoa cooks in three cups of water for fifteen minutes and then has to go into the fridge and cool completely before anything else joins it, because warm quinoa will wilt the broccoli. Then five cups of florets, a diced apple, half a cup of pecans, a small onion, two celery stalks and six pieces of crumbled bacon, dressed with a cup of mayonnaise thinned with two tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette and three tablespoons of honey. Eight servings, and it wants two hours chilled before serving.
Get the full tutorial at Premeditated Leftovers.
