10 salad recipes to try in 2021

Endive is a bitter vegetable, but that bitterness can be balanced out beautifully by citrus fruit and an acidic vinaigrette. This Seared Endive & Grapefruit Salad certainly tastes like a big to-do, but in reality, it comes together in about 15 minutes. Make this as a work-from-home lunch, then save the leftovers for dinner. This is one of those salads that manages to get even better when it sits around for a while. Get the recipe here.

Have you ever had Ramen Salad? The kind that uses dry noodles from a package of instant ramen? You’ll find iterations of this dish at Midwestern picnics now and then, and every version combines uncooked noodles, a bag of cole slaw mix, nuts, and, if you’re so inclined, chicken and orange slices. And don’t worry, that ramen seasoning packet doesn’t go to waste; it gets mixed in with the dressing. Get the recipe here.

While green papaya isn’t readily available at many grocery stores across America, we’ve come up with an easier substitution to suit your Thai salad cravings: Cabbage. We pair this with a som tum-inspired dressing, using lime juice and fish sauce to create a flavor combination so appealing you’ll want to slurp it up by the spoonful. Pair it with a protein like chicken or tofu, and you have yourself a meal. Get the recipe here.

Hear us out, because we’ve got something controversial to say. Ready? You can have salad for breakfast. It’s fine! In fact, given all the richness that bacon fat brings to greens, it’s more than fine. This breakfast salad is an adaptation of one of Michael Ruhlman’s recipes, and it has all the breakfast staples, like eggs and bacon, along with peppery watercress to liven them up. If you’ve ever considered cold pizza a suitable breakfast, there’s no reason salad can’t occasionally make the cut too. Get the recipe here.

When people hear the word “salad,” it’s easy to forget that it’s not always just a plate of greens. Panzanella is a great example of a salad built around an ingredient that isn’t plucked straight from the garden. In Mantou Panzanella, rustic croutons are swapped out for mantou, a steamed Chinese bun, plus sliced cucumbers and a vinegar dressing mixed with five spice powder. It all results in a lunch you’ll never get tired of, guaranteed. Get the recipe here.

Now and then, you want a little bit of bacon. Okay, maybe a lot of bacon. To alleviate any kind of guilt you might have for simply eating a bowl of crispy smoked pork belly, here’s a BLT salad recipe that has plenty of lettuce and tomatoes in it to balance things out. Instead of mayonnaise, we’ve opted for a bold Worcestershire sauce dressing to supplement those meaty flavors you get with the bacon. Get the recipe here.

It’s not exactly that honeydew has a bad rap—it’s that it doesn’t have much of a rap at all. We wanted to do right by this neglected fruit, so we’ve given the green melon its own starring role in Honeydew Salad, a leafy meal that uses both fresh and pickled melon to bring out a variety of flavors. The melon’s edible seeds are toasted and repurposed into a crunchy topping, and the whole thing is topped with the crumbly cheese of your choice and tossed in a simple vinaigrette. It’s a perfectly satisfying salad that uses a sweet ingredient in a fun new way. Get the recipe here.

Bold, peppery radishes can be a little polarizing. So this Radish Salad focuses on radishes when they’re at their best: it’s a mountain of tasty greens topped with cooked roots, tossed with creamy butter vinaigrette made extra flavorful thanks to brown butter and some very good salt. This is a great lunch for one, and doesn’t take much time to put together. It’s the sort of salad that you can keep on your desk (or the coffee table) and pick at all afternoon long. Get the recipe here.

Freshly roasted beets do take a little bit of patience and a bit of messy peeling, but in the end, they really sing when paired with some acid and fat. This recipe for Beet, Feta, and Walnut Salad lets the root vegetables take center stage with an easy dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. With just the cheese and nuts added in, this is a simple and satisfying meal that has plenty of vitamins, even if we can never remember which ones. Get the recipe here.

Haloumi is a brined cheese with a chewy texture. It’s commonly served pan-fried to give it some heft and flavor, and in this Haloumi And Sweet Potato Salad, haloumi cubes are used like croutons to bring substance to the overall dish. This recipe, from Peas, Love and Carrots by Danielle Renov, marries the salty cheese with a sweet dried blueberry vinaigrette, resulting in a robust salad that’s fit to make a great meal all on its own. Get the recipe here.