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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 Recipe
7 Macaroni Salad Recipe
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 Recipe
23 Cheesecake Fruit Salad Recipe
24 Ham Salad Recipe
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
Fantastic!
Thank you!!
HI Kristyn, I am going to a wedding shower on August 1st and it is a filipina/asian style. I wanted to take your Hawaiian Macaroni salad, however I cannot find the recipe. I am wondering if you wouldn’t mind reposting or forwarding it to me. I love it’s tanginess and simplicity. I served in the past to my son and he loves it. It seems you would be super busy with 6 children, so I understand if you don’t have the time.
Hi! I’ll reach out and see if we can track that recipe down for you. Here are a few that came to mind real quick… are any of these the one you are thinking of? https://lilluna.com/macaroni-salad/ or https://lilluna.com/cheesecake-factory-luau-salad/ or this one is not from our site but we shared it on FB a few years ago and sounds like it might fit your description too: https://www.facebook.com/LilLunaBlog/posts/1359477357412501
Here are some other yummy Asian inspired salads as well that might work: https://lilluna.com/?s=asian+salad
I cannot find your avocado blt pasta salad recipe !
This has got to be *the* best salad collection of ‘real food’ salads that I have seen. Lots of great fresh ingredients without all that weird new age ‘food’ that people are putting in salads now(sorry, but quinoa?..blech). Thanks for the recipes, great job!
Nice blog right here! Additionally your site so much
up very fast! What host are you using? Can I
get your associate hyperlink in your host? I wish my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
I love salad in the summer – well pretty much all year long lol! I’m so excited to try these!!
xoxxo
Thanks for including some of my recipes!!
All of these look amazing! Pinned!
Thank you so much for the feature! So much inspiration here! 🙂
So many delicious salads – thanks for including one of mine!
Of course, Leigh Anne!! XO