This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Sweet or savory, green or pasta, there is a salad for any occasion. I’ve rounded up some of our favorite easy salad recipes I think you’ll enjoy!
More Collections: Pasta Salad Recipes, Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes, Grilled Dinner Ideas
SALADS to Love!
I love salad all year long, but I especially crave it during the spring and summer. Salads are great for so many reasons, they can hold their own as a main dish, or be a great supporting dish.
Why we love them:
- From sweet to savory, there are so many kinds of salads, and in my book – they’re all winners. The best kind, however, are the ones that are EASY to make too!
- An easy side or meal. While some salads are more complex, all the easy salad recipes in this collection are simple to make (and pretty darn delicious, too)!
- Flavor and texture. These include in-season produce and incorporate lots of colors, flavors, and textures.
Types of Easy Salads
There are 5 types of salads that I make regularly.
- Green salads use a lettuce base and may include a variety of other chopped fruits and vegetables. They can include iceberg, butterhead, romaine, and leaf lettuce. Kale and spinach leaves may also be used.
- Vegetable salads use a base other than lettuce. It may have a creamy dressing or a simple vinaigrette. It may also include other chopped vegetables, nuts, and protein.
- Bound salads contain a mixture of food that is bound together with a thick dressing, often mayonnaise. This would include anything from Egg Salad to Potato Salad.
- Pasta salads use smaller pasta as the main ingredient like penne, rotini, farfalle, or ditalini. It is often tossed with chopped vegetables and protein along with some type of dressing.
- Fruit/dessert salads. Fruit is the main ingredient of this salad. It can simply be a combination of 2-3 types of fruit tossed together or it may have a sweet cream coating and resemble more of a dessert.
Ingredients for Easy Salads
A great salad starts with simple ingredients.
- Vegetables: When adding vegetables to a salad, you often do not need to cook them. Simply wash, chop, and toss. Can’t get easier than that!
- Leafy greens: iceberg, butterhead lettuce leaves, romaine lettuce, baby spinach, kale
- Green veggies: broccoli florets, celery, brussel sprouts, green onion, cucumber
- Colorful veggies: carrots, cauliflower florets, beets, bell pepper, red onion, roasted butternut squash, olives, cherry tomatoes
- Fresh herbs: basil, cilantro, chives, dill, mint, parsley, thyme
- Fruits: berries, cranberries, melons, diced apples, peaches, or pears, grapes, tomatoes, or avocado.
- Salad proteins: Adding grilled chicken or beef to a salad is an easy way to make it more filling and turn it into a main side rather than a side. Or try shrimp, bacon bits, black, kidney, or white beans, boiled eggs, buffalo chicken, or chickpeas.
- Cheese is often added to salads counting any combination of vegetables. Use a simple cubed cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, goat cheese, or feta cheese.
- Crunch: Add some crunch with croutons or nuts like walnuts or toasted almonds.
Dressings
“Dressing” is the perfect word for salad dressing. For a classic try lemon juice, or a lemon vinaigrette, olive oil, or balsamic vinaigrette. Or try some of our favorites:
- Homemade Ranch
- Greek Dressing
- Pesto Dressing
- Caesar Salad Dressing
- Lemon Poppyseed Dressing
- Cafe Rio Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Our Favorite EASY SALADS
These are our go-to salad favorites and all are delicious! Use these tips to serve it as a side or main dish.
When serving as a side dish, plan to serve ½-1 cup (4-6 ounces) pasta salad per guest. For green/vegetable salads plan to serve 1-2 cups (2-5 ounces) per person. Finally, plan to serve 1 cup (3.5 ounces) of fruit salad per person.
If the salad is the main dish, plan to serve 1½-2 cups of pasta salad or 2-2½ cups of green salad per person.
1 Chicken Caesar Salad
2 Fruit Salad Recipe
3 Broccoli Salad Recipe
4 Pasta Salad Recipe
5 Chicken Salad Recipe
6 Cobb Salad
7 Macaroni Salad
8 Summer Corn Salad Recipe
9 How to Make Egg Salad recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipe10 Easy Coleslaw Recipe
More Simple Salad Recipes
For even more easy salads enjoy these as a perfect side dish or a light dinner. These sweet options could even be used as a dessert!
11 Wedge Salad Recipe
12 7 Layer Salad Recipe
13 Arugula Salad Recipe
14 Potato Salad Recipe
15 Broccoli Strawberry Salad Recipe
16 Frito Corn Salad Recipe
17 Cucumber Tomato Salad Recipe
18 Kale Salad Recipe
19 Pistachio Salad Recipe
20 Chicken Pasta Salad
21 Ambrosia Salad Recipe
22 Snickers Salad
23 Cheesecake Fruit Salad Recipe
24 Ham Salad Recipe
Recipe Video
25 Pizza Salad Recipe
26 Southwest Salad Recipe
27 Asian Pasta Salad recipe
28 Spinach Tortellini Salad Recipe
29 Mozzarella Pasta Salad Recipe
30 Caprese Pesto Pasta Salad recipe
31 Taco Pasta Salad Recipe
Quick and Easy Cobb
The classic Cobb Salad is one of my all-time favorite salads. It’s the perfect salad for dinner because, beyond the greens, it’s got so much more.
This version uses cubed cheddar cheese, but blue cheese crumbles are also a popular addition to this salad. The great thing is you can add or change it up to make it your own!
Here is the recipe:
30+ Easy Salad Recipes
Ingredients
- 6 cups romaine hearts chopped
- 1 avocado sliced
- ½ cup cheddar cheese cubed or grated
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 chicken breast seasoned, fully cooked and cubed
- 1 cup corn sautéed or broiled
- 4 slices bacon chopped
- 2 boiled eggs chopped
- 2 green onions sliced
Instructions
- Thoroughly wash romaine and allow to dry.
- Add romaine to a large salad bowl or platter.
- Add all of the toppings in layers and then sprinkle with green onions on top. Serve with ranch dressing.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
All Easy, All Delicious!
Even if you don’t enjoy green salads, I’m sure there’s at least one easy salad recipe here that you will like! These are the easiest salads out there, and they all taste amazing.
Be sure to check out all of our Salad Recipes.
More Collections: Summer Salad Recipes, Best Green Salads, Fall Salad Recipes
Thank you for sharing this amazing list of salad recipes! There were so many delicious-looking options to choose from, I ended up making the broccoli strawberry salad and I really enjoyed it!
This list was super helpful to find a salad that worked for all of my family. There are so many allergies that I have to worry about but this list helped me find the perfect salad that worked for everyone.
I just added so many of these to my must try list! Thank you so much for this list!
I typically have a green salad for lunch, but that gets kind of old. Right now I am obsessed with your buffalo chicken salad. I think I’ll try the strawberry harvest recipe next.
I love all the variety of recipes here. Every kind of salad that you can imagine and better yet there so yummy!
What an amazing collection. We love the lemon poppyseed dressing!
I absolutely loved all of these ideas! I’ve been wanting to mix things up so I didn’t get tired of salads and this is so helpful, thank you!
Yesss I’ve tried a few of these and I have a bunch more on my list now! Thank you!
We make some kind of salad with so many of our meals. We love your easy pasta salad & your Asian salads. They are all so good & super easy to make!