We have no trouble picking out a main course. In fact, we have a backlog of recipes that could keep us cooking for years! But when it comes to rounding out the meal with a side salad, we often just fall back on basic mixed greens. Yawn. At our next dinner party, we're mixing things up with one of these!
It really doesn't take a lot of extra time or energy to make a fantastic side salad. Take a look at these recipes: most of them combine just a few basic ingredients with an equally simple vinaigrette. They become interesting because they use a different kind of green or bring in ingredients with contrasting flavors.
TOP ROW
1. Fennel and Radicchio Salad with Pecans
2. Strawberry Arugula Salad with Lemon Ricotta
3. Fennel, Beet, and Orange Salad
4. Spring Salad with Radishes and Pumpkin Seeds
5. Kale Salad with Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon
BOTTOM ROW
6. Frisée Salad with Red Currants
7. Sesame Cabbage Salad
8. Green Salad with Walnut Oil, Celery, and Radishes
9. Cucumber and Radish Salad with Feta
10. Green Salad with Shallots, Dates, Smoked Almonds, and Goat Cheese - Chicken also rounds this out into a main course salad
What are your favorite side salads?
Related:
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
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Our reading list
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
30 DIY Projects for the 3-Day Weekend
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
Comments (5)
Oh, I love to do really awesome salads and salad dressings. Roasted beats and goat cheese with basalmic drizzle. Shredded cabbage with a soy-ginger-sesame dressing. Roasted baby tomatoes with feta with a pomegranate-balsamic reduction. Shredded Carrots and Raisins with a citrus vinegarette.
Salads are cool!
Yum! Some of these sound great, I'm always looking for new salads. Lately we're on an arugula kick-just a simple salad of arugula tossed with homemade vinaigrette and topped with curls of parmesan cheese. So simple but so good! I also love throwing together spinach with tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, red onion and some goat cheese!
Thank you for these great suggestions! I've totally been in a salad rut.
Thanks for these recipes. So many of them look amazing; in fact, I'd love to make them all. I don't even like kale (yet) and the kale with meyer lemon & blood orange sounds so appealing.
Yum--salad is my favourite part of the meal. One recent discovery is a spicy, vinegary cucumber salad with toasted almonds. Or I like to use up mixed cabbage in a spiced asian coleslaw. I think veggies are the best part of the meal. Thanks for the great ideas.