Vegetarian Recipes

50+ Best Salad Recipes

Having a repertoire of great salad recipes is key. This is a list of many of the best salads I’ve prepared over the years. You’ll see a mix of chopped salads, green salads, plus grain and pasta salads. They all have an emphasis on fresh, whole, seasonal, plant-based ingredients. Enjoy!

Chopped Salad Recipes

One of my favorite genres of salad. Chopped salads tend to be intensely flavored, varied in texture, and packed with ingredients. They often feature a strong dressing, and are a great way to use up odds and ends in your refrigerator.

Lime & Blistered Peanut Coleslaw

This feather-light, mayo-free, coleslaw recipe uses blistered peanuts, cherry tomatoes, and lime vinaigrette and is perfect alongside fajitas, or whatever you have coming off the grill.
Spicy Rainbow Chopped Salad with Peanuts

Everyone loves this beautiful rainbow chopped salad made with blood oranges, crispy shallots, peanuts, and a creamy, red curry dressing. Give it a try!
Cucumber Salad

A refreshing chopped cucumber salad loaded with peanuts, spices, toasted coconut, and chiles.
A Good Shredded Salad

A shredded salad with lots of cabbage and scallions, tossed with soy sauce, honey, and cilantro, and amount of crunch toasted peanuts, and celery.
Heirloom Apple Salad

The sort of hearty apple salad I love – heirloom apples, shaved celery, and toasted nuts of your choosing. The dressing is creamy and spiked with rosemary, garlic and champagne vinegar.

Green Salad Recipes

The key to great salads is buying fantastic salad greens. Or even better (and less expensive), grow your own if you have the space. For the best salad foundation, look for vibrant leaves that aren’t sad or wilted, and pass on bagged and packaged lettuces.

Grilled Wedge Salad with Spicy Ranch Dressing

A delicious, crisp grilled wedge salad topped with a spicy ranch dressing, chives, and nuts. An all-time favorite summer salad.
Anna’s California Miso Avocado Salad

A California-inspired Miso, Avocado, & Lima Bean Salad from A Modern Way to Eat, by Anna Jones. Seasonal greens and beans are tossed with an assertive, creamy miso dressing.
Genius Kale Salad

There is a special kale salad recipe in the Food52 Genius Recipes cookbook. A single kale salad that ran the gauntlet, beating out all others, for a slice of limelight.
The Greenest Salad

A shredded green salad bulked out with blanched broccoli, avocado, pistachios, a bit of feta, and tossed with a tarragon balsamic vinaigrette.
An Ideal Lunch Salad

Chickpeas, celery, black olives, pepitas, avocado, blanched broccoli. Full of crunch & substance, it’s a salad that can stand up to a few hours in a container without collapsing.
Lacinato Kale and Pecorino Salad

A base of finely shredded Lacinato kale to which and abundance of toasted pecans, pecorino cheese, and shredded Brussels sprouts are added. A strong lemon-tahini dressing is leveraged to brighten things up and take the raw edge off of the kale.

Summer Salad Recipes

Arguably peak salad season, summer salads feature all the magic coming out of backyard gardens and local markets. These salad recipes help you work through tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, and beautiful stone fruits. Many are meal-worthy, helping to keep your kitchen cool during the hottest weather.

Grilled Zucchini & Bread Salad

A bread salad made with torn pieces of toasted multi-grain bread, grilled zucchini, chickpeas, and a simple, garlic-forward ponzu dressing.
A Really Great Coconut Corn Salad

Butter a skillet add corn, fresh thyme, red onions, toasted almonds and coconut, and finish with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice…
Heirloom Tomato Salad

My favorite tomato salad this year – made with roasted and ripe tomatoes, capers, mozzarella, almonds, and chives.
Fruit Salad with Thai Herbs

A summer fruit salad – berries, peaches and pluots drizzled with a citrusy lemongrass and honey dressing, topped with toasted walnuts, and lots of mint.
Easy Tomato & Pasta Salad

Pasta salad extraordinaire – tomatoes & pasta in an A+ one-bowl meal. Whole-grain pasta, baby kale, basil, and the best tomatoes you can get your hands on.
Joshua McFadden’s Cucumber Salad

A ringer of a cucumber salad. The main players: cucumbers, ice-bathed scallions, toasted walnuts, mint, rose, and a vinegar-spiked yogurt dressing.
Na’ama’s Fattoush

A beautiful fattoush recipe and a preview of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s new book, Jerusalem.
Pluot Summer Salad

This salad is pluot based, with toasted ginger, garlic, and shallots. It is drizzled with a simple lime soy sauce dressing, and is generously flecked with herbs – in this case, mint, basil, and cilantro.

Pasta Salad Recipes

A handful of favorite salad recipes featuring pasta, noodles, fresh ingredients and super bold flavors.

Sriracha Rainbow Noodle Salad

This is a noodle salad you’ll crave every day. A radiant, color-flecked tangle of noodles, cabbage, shredded carrots, pickled sushi ginger, and an abundance of cilantro, basil, and scallions.
Hazelnut & Chard Ravioli Salad

Plump raviolis tossed with toasted hazelnuts, lemony chard, and caramelized onions are at the heart of this ravioli salad recipe.
Classic Macaroni Salad

A fresh take on classic macaroni salad. It hits all the notes of your favorite old-fashioned macaroni salad, but gives you a few nutritious options to explore as well.
Pomelo Noodles

Being nice to your future self & and simple lunch salad made with noodles, edamame, greens, ponzu dressing, peanuts, and pomelo.

Great Picnic Salad Recipes

These are the salad recipes to turn to when you need something that can travel. The kinds of salads that can handle a picnic or potluck.

Tempeh Taco Salad

All the things you love about a taco, in salad form. Tempeh taco salad – crushed tortilla chips bring the crunch, black beans and crumbled tempeh coated with taco seasoning brings the substance, and a strong, smoked paprika-apple cider dressing pulls everything together.
California Barley Bowl

I made this Megan Gordon’s beautiful California Barley Bowl for a family brunch last week. From her inspiring new cookbook, Whole Grain Mornings.
Mung Yoga Bowl

The kind of bowl that keeps you strong – herb-packed yogurt dolloped over a hearty bowl of mung beans and quinoa, finished with toasted nuts and a simple paprika oil.
Garlic Lime Lettuce Wraps

Not a salad per se, but a lot of my favorite salad components at play here. Ginger and garlic tempeh rice, folded into lime-spiked lettuce wraps with lots of herbs, cucumber, and carrots.
Herbal Rice Salad with Peanuts

An herb-packed rice salad recipe with peanuts, toasted coconut, and a strong boost of fresh lime.
Carrot, Dill & White Bean Salad

Warm, coin-shaped slices of pan-fried carrots, white alubia beans, and chopped dill tossed with a tangy-sweet lemon shallot dressing.
Bar Tartine Cauliflower Salad

A beautiful cauliflower salad from the new Bar Tartine cookbook – a crunchy, hearty mixture of cauliflower, seeds, chiles, radishes, chickpeas, and green onions slathered in an enveloping garlicky yogurt dressing.
Rainbow Cauliflower Rice Bowl

Lightly cooked cauliflower is chopped, then tossed, with turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and a touch of ghee. Then you add sliced avocado, hard-boiled eggs, toasted seeds, rainbow chard stems, lettuces. It’s beautiful and delicious.
Last Minute Everything Bagel Noodle Bowl

A perfect one-pot meal. Noodles, tofu, and broccoli boiled in one pot, drained, tossed with splashes of olive oil and ponzu, plus a generous showering of everything bagel seasoning to finish it all off.
An Exceptional Salad with an Unusual Coconut Oil Dressing

Coconut oil dressing was just one of the brilliant ideas that jumped out at me from the pages of Julia Sherman’s new Salad For President cookbook.
A Maximalist Potato Salad

Tender potatoes are loaded with chiles, chopped herbs, garlic & whatever bright, fresh vegetables you have on hand.
Spring Roll Salad

Imagine a spring roll without the wrapper and you’ve got this salad. A familiar chorus of flavors – sweet, sour, tangy, hot, and nutty all projected onto a mound of serpentine rice noodles and seasonal vegetables with a peanut dressing and lime splash.
Lazy Day Peanut Noodle Salad

A peanut noodle salad recipe featuring soba noodles punctuated with spring onions, tofu, peanuts, and asparagus.
Asparagus Panzanella

A simple asparagus panzanella – a quick, mustard buttermilk dressing accents good asparagus, alongside crusty shards of toasted bread, and a dusting of sesame seeds. Shred a hard boiled egg over the top for a more substantial meal.
Cocagne Bean & Artichoke Salad

The bean & artichoke salad I made to take to Easter this year – pickled celery, chopped kalamata olives and toasted walnuts, along with tender artichokes, and lots of the white cocagne beans I picked up at my neighborhood farmer’s market.
Ayocote Bean & Mushroom Salad

A wintery bean salad made with gorgeous Rancho Gordo ayocote negro beans, and pan-fried hedgehog mushrooms.
Coconut Quinoa Bowl

A quirky, unique bowl of quinoa, with a couple of secrets. And the next time you have leftover quinoa (other other favorite grain) give it a try – coconut, garlic, almonds, kale, topped with salted yogurt and avocado.
Zucchini Agrodolce

A pretty, summer-centric zucchini agrodolce – shredded zucchini doused with a garlic infused agrodolce splash of vinegar, honey, and olive oil, tossed with toasted coconut and walnuts for crunch, red onion for bite and assertiveness, a couple of chopped dates, and tiny greens or herbs threaded about.
Blue Kale Studio Salad

A vibrant spring salad – butter lettuce, saffron almonds, blue kale micro greens.
Shredded Egg Salad

Shredding hard-boiled eggs on a box grater makes a light, fluffy, bright egg salad, and I must say, a nice alternative to chopped, heavily dressed versions of the classic.
A Good Winter Salad

A simple salad made with crunchy lettuces, a garlicky, melted lemon butter dressing, and shaved endives, delicata squash, avocados, and pepitas.
Avocado Salad

Thinly sliced avocado arranged over simple lentils, drizzled with oregano oil, toasted hazelnuts, and chives.
Cilantro Salad

Simply cilantro leaves and stems tossed with a simple shallot-forward soy sauce dressing, plus peanuts, and asparagus. If you’re at all a cilantro fan, you have to try this.
Buttermilk Asparagus Salad

Simple side – asparagus tossed with a garlicky buttermilk dressing, perky radish sprouts, lots of fresh cilantro, and a handful of cooked posole.
Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Salad

A beauty of a carrot salad – tricked out with chickpeas, chunks of dried pluots, sliced almonds, and a toasted cumin dressing.

Fave Salad Boosters & Dressings

An Exceptional Ginger Carrot Dressing

Blender dressings are great, in part, because they’re fast. Everything into one container, puree, and you’re set. This one is great – carrots, turmeric, coconut milk, shallot, and ginger come together into a dressing perfect for everything from green salads to grain salads.
Five Minute Avocado Dressing with Herbs and Spinach

If you love a good avocado dressing, you’ve got to give this one a try. It is fragrant with fresh herbs, seasoned with miso, and boosted with spinach.
Salad Booster

I often carry a small vial of this spiced kale and nori medley in my purse, refilling it every few days. Nutrient-dense and delicious, you use it as a healthful seasoning for salad, vegetables, stir-fries…
Seven Great Blender Dressings to Keep on Hand

Use these dressings on salads, grain bowls, inside spring rolls, spread on sandwiches, and spooned onto tacos.
Shallot Vinaigrette

A shallot vinaigrette made with rosé wine in place of vinegar.

Enjoy the salad recipes! I hope there are a few here that make their way to your table through the year. I have a special fondness for the Spicy Rainbow Chop Salad. And this Cilantro Salad shifted how I think of cilantro. And this is the best bean salad with a tangy-sweet lemonade-ish dressing. Don’t miss the favorite salad dressings that are listed at the bottom as well, and give the wedge salad below a go with any of them in place of the spicy ranch!

Best Salad Recipes: Easy Wedge Salad

When I run low on Champagne vinegar, apple cider vinegar is a good swap here. Also, if you want to thin the dressing a bit, add an extra splash of the buttermilk. You can also use other sturdy lettuces in place of the iceberg called for here, Romaine and heads of little gems are good alternatives.

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 cup / 100g sour cream
- 1/2 cup / 100g buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for grilling
- 2 teaspoons Champagne vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons minced chives, plus more for serving
- 1 tablespoon sriracha, curry paste, or salsa negra
- 1-2 medium heads of iceberg lettuce for serving: crunchy kale chips, toasted nuts

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine the sour cream, buttermilk, olive oil, vinegar, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, chives, and sriracha in a jar. Stir until well combined.

2. Prep your grill by getting it nice and hot. Cut the iceberg lettuce into quarters through the core and stem – this way they hold together. Brush each wedge with a generous amount of olive oil, and get ready to put them on the grill. It will go fast, so don’t walk away. Quickly arrange the lettuce wedges cut side down across the hottest zones of your grill. Leave them there for 30-45 seconds, or long enough to take on some color. Then, quickly (and carefully) turn each wedge onto its second cut side, for another 30-45 seconds, remove quickly onto individual plates or a family-style platter.

3. Serve drizzled with the dressing and lots of crushed kale chips, toasted nuts (pine nuts and pistachios pictured here), and you can never have enough chives. You’ll likely have plenty of leftover dressing, it keeps, refrigerated, for 4-5 days.

NOTES

Serves 4 – 8

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Vegetarian Recipes

How to Make Crispy Hash Browns

Potatoes are THE budget-friendly kitchen staple. They’re cheap and can be used in about a bazillion different ways. When I was asked for a tutorial on How to Make Crispy Hash Browns almost 9(!) years ago, I jumped on it. And all these years later, I still use this same method to get perfectly golden, crispy hash browns every time. I love making an indulgent breakfast on the weekends, and this recipe makes the perfect base for what I like to call my ultimate hash browns. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see what I topped them with to take them to the next level. 😉

Overhead view of hashbrowns in a skillet.

“Just made these with frozen hashbrowns. My husband took one bite and asked “Wow, what’s the secret to making them crispy?” I replied with “Beth.” 😂”

Erin

Easy Recipe for Crispy Hash Browns

Just like any breakfast potatoes, I’m sure everyone makes their hash browns differently. BUT, there are three things that I’ve found to be key to making really great golden brown hash browns: rinsing the starch off the potatoes, drying the potatoes well, and using an adequate amount of oil. Yes, that’s right, OIL! If you don’t use enough oil, the potatoes will dry and tend to go from white to burnt. Use enough, and you’ll get crispy yet moist potatoes with a beautiful spectrum of golden brown color.

This recipe only uses 3 simple ingredients (potatoes, oil, and seasoning salt), so each ingredient really matters! That’s why I like to keep things simple and focus on technique. And I’m happy to say this easy recipe has never failed me yet. 😁

Side view close up of crispy hashbrowns cooking in a skillet.

Crispy Hash Browns Recipe

In just a few simple steps, you can learn How to Make Crispy Hash Browns at home. Follow my tricks to make them perfectly crisp and delicious!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Total Cost $1.97 recipe / $0.49 serving

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Total Time 30

Servings (1 cup each)

Calories 303kcal

Author Beth Moncel

Ingredients

2 large russet potatoes (about 2 lbs.)* $1.76
4 Tbsp cooking oil, or as needed** $0.16
Seasoning salt to taste $0.05

Instructions

Peel the potatoes, if desired. Use a large-holed cheese grater or food processor to shred the potatoes. Place the potatoes in a colander and rinse well, or until the water runs clear. Let the potatoes drain.
Squeeze the potatoes of their excess water by pressing against the side of the colander or squeezing in your fist. Or, place the potatoes in a clean, lint-free dish towel, roll them up, then press to remove excess moisture.
Heat a large cast iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat***. Once hot, add a tablespoon of cooking oil. Tilt the skillet to spread the oil over the surface. Add about 1/3 of the shredded potatoes or enough to cover the surface of the skillet in a solid, yet thin layer (1/2 inch thick or so). Let the potatoes fry, without disturbing, until deeply golden brown on the bottom (3-5 minutes). Season lightly with seasoning salt.
Flip the potatoes, and drizzle with additional oil if needed. Let the potatoes cook on the second side without disturbing until golden brown and crispy again. Season lightly on the second side.
If needed, flip and cook one more time to achieve the ratio of brown to white that you like. Repeat the process until all of the potatoes are cooked. Serve hot.

See how we calculate recipe costs here.

Notes

*I use Russet potatoes because they crisp up great in the skillet due to their texture and composition. You can certainly try another type of potato, but just keep in mind waxier varieties might not crisp up the same.

**You must use an oil with a high smoke point, like canola, corn, peanut, or sunflower oil. Butter obviously gives amazing flavor, but the butter solids tend to burn, so you’ll want to use clarified butter or ghee instead. I didn’t have the patience to clarify any butter, so I just used canola oil.

***I always use my 10″ cast iron skillet because it offers non-stick protection while giving really even heat and a nice surface for crisping. While stainless steel is also great for crisping, starchy foods (like potatoes) tend to stick a lot more on stainless, so it can be tricky. If you’re not well practiced with keeping food from sticking on stainless steel, I’d suggest either cast iron or a non-stick skillet.

Nutrition

How to Make Hash Browns step-by-step photos

Clean the potatoes: Start with two russet potatoes (about 2 lbs). You can either scrub them clean and leave the skin on or peel them. Gather the other ingredients.

Shred the potatoes: Use a large-holed cheese grater or a food processor to shred the potatoes. I found that the potatoes shredded fairly easily with the cheese grater, so it wasn’t worth cleaning out the food processor.

Rinse the shredded potatoes: Place the shredded potatoes in a colander and rinse them really, really, really well. The water running from the colander should be clear. Then, let them drain.

Dry the shredded potatoes: Making sure the potatoes are as dry as possible is my secret to keeping them crispy. If they have too much water on them, that water will turn to steam while they cook, which basically steams the potatoes and makes them soft. So, you can either let them drain a long time in the colander, squeeze them dry with your hands, or roll them up in a clean, lint-free towel and press them dry. I chose the towel method.

A hand holding a pot of tony chachere creole seasoning.

Make the hash browns: Heat a large cast iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add about a tablespoon of oil. Spread the oil over the surface of the skillet, then add about 1/3 of the shredded potatoes or enough to cover the bottom of the skillet in a solid but thin layer (only about 1/2 inch thick). You’re shooting for maximum surface contact here, so if they’re packed in there too thick, some won’t touch the skillet…and they’ll generate steam again and make everything mushy.

While the potatoes are cooking, sprinkle on a little seasoning salt. This is the kind I use, but you can use whatever brand you like. I love the little bit of extra flavor and kick that seasoning salt adds to the crispy hash browns compared to just plain salt and pepper.

Hashbrowns cooking in a cast iron skillet.

Now, the key here is to not touch them long enough for them to get really nice and brown and crispy. If you mess around with them, stirring or flipping too often, they won’t form a nice crust, and the long strands will kind of break down. So, LEAVE THEM BE. 😊 Then, once they’re very golden, flip them. You might need to drizzle on a little more oil at this point to help the second side crisp up.

Then, LET THE SECOND SIDE BE until it’s also golden and crispy. Now, depending on how many potatoes you have in the skillet, you may want to flip and cook one last time to get most of the potatoes crispy, but that’s up to you. Some people like a 50/50 ratio of crispy to soft, some people like almost all crispy. Repeat the process a couple more times or until you’ve cooked all the potatoes.

Overhead view of homemade hash browns on a plate, topped with a fried egg, sour cream, avocado, diced tomato, and sliced jalapeño,

These crispy hash browns are great on their own and all, but why not make them ULTIMATE by adding lots of yummy toppings? I did a fried egg, some avocado slices, diced tomato, sliced jalapeño, green onion, and a dollop of sour cream. Waffle House ain’t got nuthin’ on my hash browns.

Serving Suggestions

On those days when I don’t want to add any toppings, I like to serve these homemade hash browns with something equally delicious to make it a complete breakfast! I love piling them up alongside candied bacon for the perfect sweet-and-savory combo. Air fryer hard-boiled eggs are also great because they’re hands-off and cook themselves while I tend to the potatoes! But if I’m feeding a crowd, I’d go for something like a frittata or sheet pan pancakes since they’re both easy to make and can serve a lot of people at once.

Storage & Reheating

Let your leftovers cool and store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat them in a skillet with a little oil or in the air fryer to crisp them back up again!