Hello and welcome to this thing we’re doing where we help you figure out what you’re gonna put in your mouth this week. Some of these are recipes we’ve tried, some of these are recipes we’re looking forward to trying, all of them are fucking delicious. Tell us what you want to put in your piehole or suggest your own recipes, and we’ll talk about which things we made, which things we loved, and which things have changed us irreversibly as people. Last week, we made dumplings.
What is a salad, really? Are you thinking of a bowl of greens with some chopped up veggies sprinkled on top, drizzled with an elegant dressing? Well this post isn’t about that. This is about the ambigous selection of foods that fall under the salad umbrella, but cagetorically reject lettuce as a concept, consisting instead of a protein and/or a carb, interspersed with finely chopped morsels of other foods added for flavor and color, mixed with a precisely curated blend of spices. You will not find lettuce here, oh no. I debated even excluding salads with parsley, but I decided to include them for you, if you are the kind of person who finds parsley important. Many of these salads would do well on a sandwich, but a lot of them will hold up pretty well on their own. Take one to a picnic, a potluck, or possibly place them beside one of these.
Fish
1. Quinoa Avocado Salmon Salad
via the Dish
2. Essential Tuna Salad
via the Kitchn
3. Easy Vegan Chick Pea “Tuna” Salad
via Autostraddle
4. Avocado Tuna Salad
via Simply Recipes
“By the way, here’s a cool little avocado beauty tip. Once you’ve scooped out the avocado from its peel, rub the inside of the peel on your elbows. The oil from the avocados is great for smoothing rough skin!”
5. Smoked Whitefish Dip with Horseradish
via Smitten Kitchen
6. Tuna Salad in Apple Cups
via Ripped Recipes
7. White Bean Tuna Salad
via Food dot com
Chicken
8. Walnut Pesto Parsley Chicken Salad
via the Kitchn
9. Curried Chicken Salad
via Food Network
10. Chicken Salad with Grapenuts and Cranberries
via the Kitchn
11. Strawberry Macadamia Nut Chicken Salad
via GirlMeetsPaleo
This one is paleo, just FYI.
12. Chicken Mango Black Rice Salad
via Bon Appetit
13. BBQ Chicken and Macaroni Salad
via the Kitchn
Pasta
14. Pasta Salad with Goat Cheese
via Real Simple
15. Spring Pasta Salad with Peas and Pesto
via Serious Eats
16. Broccoli Feta Pasta Salad
via the Kitchn
15. Garlicky Vegan Pesto Pasta
via Autostraddle
16. Pasta and Fried Zucchini Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
17. Zucchini Summer Pasta Salad
via Autostraddle
18. Orzo Pasta Salad
via Pop Sugar
19. Soba Noodle Salad
via Autostraddle
Beans/Grains
20. Gazpacho and Lentil Chorizo Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
21. Meyer Lemon Grain Salad with Asparagus and Almonds
via the Kitchn
22. Black Bean Confetti Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
23. Warm French Lentil Bacon Salad with Herbs
via the Kitchn
24. Eggplant Tomato Barley Salad
via Autostraddle
25. Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
26. Blood Orange and Wheat Berry Salad
via Autostraddle
27. Smashed Chickpea Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
28. Chickpea Pesto Salad with Strawberries
via Autostraddle
29. Quinoa and Black Bean Winter Salad
via Autostraddle
30. Bean Salad Dip
via Autostraddle
31. Curry Pea Salad
via Culinary Mamas
Potato
32. Tzatziki Potato Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
33. Warm Lentil and Potato Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
34. Hot German Potato Salad
via Food dot com
35. Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
36. Potato Salad with NO MAYO
via Autostraddle (this is Carolyn’s take on the #35!)
37. Pesto Potato Salad with Green Beans
via Smitten Kitchen
38. Hokey Smokey Potato Salad
via The Good Kind of Crazy
Egg
39. Classic Egg Salad
via the Kitchn
40. Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon
via Smitten Kitchen
41. Curried Egg Salad
via Health dot com
42. Avocado Egg Salad
via Inspired Taste
43. Pesto Egg Salad
via My Fitness Pal
Fruit
44. Ginger and Lemon Fruit Salad
via My Recipes
45. Fruit Salad with Pudding
via Food dot com
46. Winter Fruit Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
47. Secret Fruit Salad
via Rachel Shultz
48. Pretty Fruit Salad
via the Pioneer Woman
49. Chopped Vegetable, Watermelon and Feta Salad
via Smitten Kitchen
50. Fruit Salad with Lemon Lavender Syrup
via Greatist
Last week I got really stoked on the idea of making pasta salad. Camille put up with me sending her a million recipes and hunting down roasted red peppers at the grocery store, but didn’t seem too excited about what I consider to be the best warm-weather food of all. It wasn’t until we started talking about planning a meal around the dish I was so excited about that I realized what her issue was: She had never had pasta salad in her life, and she didn’t really get the concept. She wasn’t sure what would go in it or why you’d ever serve pasta cold.
All of this is a long way of saying thank you, Maddie, for bringing light to the lettuce-less salads of the world. My fellow pastavores and I salute you.
WAIT BUT WHAT DID SHE THINK AFTER SHE ATE IT???
Pasta salad is really the best. I don’t eat it enough.
Pastavores 4 life.
Also the warm brown rice salad from the cafe at the Bookmill in Western Massachusetts! This ish is life-changing.
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/04/22/warm_brown_rice_salad/
It really might be the best salad I’ve ever put in my mouth.
I’m always surprised at how many Western MA people are on here, even though I shouldn’t be.
mmmm Bookmill. (I, too, have done a short stint in Western Mass.)
I have to say, though – this is the second salad I’ve seen with Grape-Nuts-the-Cereal and I’m not sure I understand.
*reads this post whilst eating salad*
*feels like today’s salad failed its potential*
i believe in your salad.
POTATO SALAAAAAAD
i could look at every one of these images for a very long time.
These recipe dumps are my favorite! I always find something that I want to try! Tonight will be Avocado Egg salad, because I already have everything I will need. Later this week I’ll try the smashed chick pea salad. Looks so good! Thank you for making picking out food easier!
let us know how they turn out!!
The avocado egg salad is fantastic. The avocado makes it creamier and fuller in flavor. I recommend topping it with sriracha.
I’ve never seen a salad list that had so many recipes that include mayo I love mayo too, but can we get a salad recipe list by someone who actually LOVES vegetables? These recipes hardly stray from the most basic combination of tomatoes, onion, cucumber, and parsley in most of the recipes. This list should have been called salads with minimal amounts of vegetables. Where are the dark leafy kale greens, purple cabbage, organic rainbow carrots, shredded beets, berries, micro greens and sprouts, salad dressings made with fresh squeezed juice, raw nuts, exotic mushrooms, sprinkles of seeds, sea vegetables, etc. This list reads like it was written by a suburban mom on a health kick, not the farmer’s market enthusiast that a kick ass salad recipe list would require.
http://develop.autostraddle.com/100-leafy-salad-recipes-that-arent-just-for-silly-wabbits-278449/
i think this is a little closer to what you’re looking for!
I hate leafy shit in my salads. Hate. It. I’ll put in a token amount of cabbage or spinach so it doesn’t look too weird when I’m in the break room eating a bowl of carrots, mushrooms and salmon, but given my druthers I’d rather not. (Also, raw kale gives me mad heartburn.) Salads are a great way to get my veggies in, though, so I’m always looking for new options – the less leafy, the better.
There’s plenty of veggies in these recipes! They’re just not traditional “salad” veggies. Personally, I’m looking forward to trying a few of these!
ha! there was supposed to be a link carmen’s salad list in the intro but my link was dead. it’s BACK. hope you find the veggies you wanted.
also, though, these salads might not be your jam, and that’s fine, but it’s no reason to hate on moms.
Going to make the butternut squash and chickpea one tonight and for lunch tomorrow. Will also try to convince two year old and fussy partner to eat it. May add sweet potato and cook the chickpeas too so they’d can be a little toasty. Looks good! I appreciate recipe posts!
toasty chickpeas! yes please!
Could you maybe make a note if certain dishes are vegan? It would mean I don’t click on a yummy looking dish and find out its got some cheese hidden away.
If not it doesn’t matter, just a suggestion.
Could you not just substitute/remove the cheese/non-vegan item from a recipe…?
SALADS WITH NO LETTUCE ARE ALL I WANT TO EAT EVERY DAY EVER. Thank you for this list!!! Like this is seriously my all-time favorite category of food. I am going to make all my lunches all summer off of this list and I’M SO EXCITED.
It’s also 8 pm and I haven’t eaten dinner yet. Can you tell I’m hungry?
Make #40. Make it NOW. You will eat the whole bowl at once. NNNG TIME TO MAKE THE CELERY.
So many new lunch ideas! (And obviously I’m super excited to see so many Smitten Kitchen recipes – I almost exclusively eat from Deb’s blog/book these days. Yummmmm.)