What, to you, is the perfect simple salad? I'm not talking lunch salads or grain salads, but the simplest of dinner accompaniments, the salad that gets tossed at the last moment to lay beside a piece of grilled chicken or a plate of pasta. This kind of salad often feels like an afterthought. It's the obligatory vegetable to be munched down before enjoying the rest of your dinner. But this doesn't need to be so! Here are some thoughts, tips, and directions to help you turn your side salad into the most delicious part of the meal. More

We're all familiar with 'sinkers', right? They're the delicious but weighty additions to green salads that immediately end up on the bottom of the bowl after one toss. Think radish, tomato, avocado, beets, any chunk of vegetable or nut that has a bit of weight to it. The solution? Forget the salad bowl and reach for a platter instead! More

I don't often get so attached to one thing that it's all I eat, day in and day out, but it happened with a salad dressing a few months ago. A simple shake-up of miso paste, tahini, and lemon, it's nothing revolutionary, and certainly nothing I hadn't had before at the local healthy lunch joint, but for some reason it's really been hitting the spot.


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I know I'm not usually the one to share bountiful salad recipes here on The Kitchn. It's not that I don't like salads. I do, I really do. But most of the salads I eat on a regular basis are not "exciting" enough to photograph and wax poetic about for the blogosphere. Something tells me this bright summer salad might make a pretty good exception. More

With a flavor that ranges from bright and peppery to mellow and buttery, extra-virgin olive oil is known for its pronounced taste, so dressings made with olive oil taste like olive oil. This isn't a bad thing, but if you are looking to shake up your salad routine, try expanding your oil options. Here's why nutty, heart-healthy avocado oil is one of our new favorite salad oils. More

Citrus, in all its sweet and sour goodness, is the perfect summer salad mix-in! And we have a few tasty recipes to prove it: how about blood oranges paired with feta and onion? Or grapefruit topped with parmesan and celery? We promise you—whatever your citrus craving, a few slices will wake up your salad and provide a bright burst of color. Is your mouth watering yet? More

If you're looking to eat more whole grains, but aren't sure how to prepare them, salads are a good place to start. Cooked grains soak up flavorful dressings without turning to mush, and taste great with crunchy vegetables, sweet fruit and soft chunks of cheese. And they make excellent leftovers, so if you give any of these 10 recipes a try, be sure to make enough for tomorrow's lunch too. More

Man, I love a good vinaigrette. The best ones elevate a simple pile of greens into a salad. So I was pretty jazzed to see Amanda Hesser's recipe for the best French vinaigrette ever at Cup of Jo today. This is vinaigrette French-style, "perfectly peppery, garlic-y, lemon-y." Yes please. More

I spent last week on the coast of Northern California, splitting the time between Marin County north of San Francisco, and Big Sur to the south. We drove north to south in the middle of the week, through golden hills and irrigated rows of green. Suddenly, with fields all around, I sniffed. Had I forgot to wash my hands after last night's garlicky pasta dinner? No — even that wouldn't give off this garlic pungence, this scent of a thousand garlic cloves minced and oily. Welcome to Gilroy, California, the capital of garlic. Here, in honor of Gilroy, for all you garlic-lovers, is a pasta salad with not one, not two, but three whole heads of garlic. More

Today, I made a salad that reinforced something that I've known for a long time: cheese is the ultimate unifier. More