Lighten up dinner with Sunflower Sprouts Salad, Grilled Chicken on Greens, and more fun takes on the standards

If you like the classic dinner salad, try:

Sunflower Sprouts Salad
Our version of the standard green salad is an airy stack of tender butter lettuce leaves with raw and cooked vegetables.

If you like chicken Caesar salad, try:

Grilled Chicken on Greens with Creamy Harissa Dressing
We’ve breathed new life into sliced chicken on greens with harissa, a fiery Tunisian chile sauce (or paste) laced with coriander, garlic, cumin, and caraway.

If you like seafood salad, try:

Vietnamese Calamari Herb Salad
Fried calamari goes to Vietnam, where seafood (and meats) are often paired with lots and lots of fresh herbs. Here, the intense, fresh flavor of mint, basil, dill, parsley, and cilantro make a clean-tasting counterpoint to the rich, lightly crunchy calamari.

If you like parsley-and-tomato tabbouleh, try:

Minty Tabbouleh with Preserved Lemon
Tabbouleh gets a zingy makeover, thanks to aromatic mint and salty, tangy preserved lemon. Our version complements grilled meats of all sorts.

Dressings you’ll keep using:

Sesame Miso Vinaigrette
It’s delicious on everything from simple mixed greens to seafood to chicken to noodle salads, and can be used as a marinade too.

Buttermilk Herb Ranch Dressing
Quick and simple, this creamy, tangy dressing holds its own against the commercial kind. 

PERFECT SALAD, EVERY TIME

The simple, foolproof method for a great tossed salad? Start with one or more ingredients from the first category, then pull some from at least a few of the remaining groups, reducing amounts as you move down the list.

1. Leaves

Actually, you can make a beautiful salad with nothing more than lettuces and herbs. Think about mixing different flavors, shapes, and textures: peppery arugula with mild, tender butter lettuce; crunchy romaine with sturdy parsley. To see whether you’ll like a certain combo, taste a shred of each component together first.

2. Vegetables

Anything good to eat raw will work: mushrooms, radishes, carrots, green onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh peas. Mix in cooked vegetables for added layers of texture and flavor: white beans, chickpeas, potatoes, sautéed shallots, roasted peppers, artichokes, and beets, for instance.

3. Fruits

Their sweetness and acidity perk a salad right up. Standbys are strawberries, pears, figs, oranges, apples, and persimmons. Dried fruits create little explosions of flavor: slivered apricots, raisins, currants, cranberries, and cherries. And don’t forget lemon and lime zests.

4. Rich tastes

Used sparingly, they’re the treasures in the pile of green: meats (bacon, prosciutto, sausage, smoked salmon); cheeses (parmesan or pecorino shaved with a vegetable peeler, crumbled blue cheese or feta, soft gobs of chèvre); nuts (toast for best flavor and crunch); and avocados, the butter of the vegetable kingdom.

5. Sour & salty tastes

Like meats, cheeses, and nuts, these should also be used just as accents, since they’re so flavorful. Try olives, capers, anchovies, and preserved lemon.

One-block Diet: Watch us raise an ultra-local feast »

 

Keep Reading: