A few simple instructions make building a delicious, fresh green salad at home super easy! Just pick one or more ingredients from each category and then chop, toss and serve!
I love huge green salads with layers of flavors! When I go out to eat, I like to order things that I can't or don't make at home. For a long time, I ordered a lot of salads because I just didn't know how to easily make a salad at home. Then I just decided to tackle making homemade salads head on. Since then, I've made hundreds and hundreds of salads. I eat some sort of salad every day, usually as part of my lunch. And, somewhere along the way, I realized there were categories of ingredients for salads. Once I realized this, it took all the uncertainty and guesswork out of making salads. I was able to make tons of different combinations just by picking one or more ingredients from each category. And now? Making homemade salads is super easy, and I look forward to them everyday!
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1. How to build a salad: pick one or more leafy greens
- Any single leaf lettuce
- Spinach
- Mixed spring greens (my current favorite!)
- Arugula
- Cabbage
2. Pick one or more root vegetables
- Red onions
- Carrots
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Beets
3. Pick one or more fruits
- Cucumbers
- Tomatoes
- Avacadoes
- Bell peppers (red, yellow or orange)
4. Pick one or more fresh herbs or microgreens
- Cilantro
- Basil
- Dill
- Microgreens such as cilantro, arugula or broccoli
5. Pick one or more seeds
- Pepitas (or pumpkin seeds)
- Sunflower seeds
- Sesame seeds
- Hemp seeds
6. Pick one oil
- Olive oil
- Sesame oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Any other neutral oil
7. Pick one acid
- Balsamic vinegar
- Soy sauce or tamari sauce (gluten free)
- Lemons or limes
Variations
There are so many more options that you can use to build a salad at home:
- Green vegetables - thinly sliced fresh asparagus, zucchini or green beans
- Protein - grilled chicken, beef, salmon, boiled eggs, tofu or beans
- Cheese - feta, goat cheese, blue cheese or fresh mozzarella
- Nuts - walnuts, pecans, cashews, peanuts, almonds or pistachios
- Berries - blueberries, strawberries, blackberries or raspberries
- Additional toppings - dried fruits or croutons
Meal Prep Salads
Salads are awesome for meal prep! For lunches at work, I usually took a salad and some leftovers that I could heat up at work. For meal prep, line out your containers. Start with 2 handfuls of your leafy greens for each container. Then as you chop the ingredients from each category, add those ingredients straight to the containers. Don't worry about measuring, just use as much of each ingredient as looks good. You'll get the hang of it quickly after a few times. Add all the ingredients except for the dressing. Add the dressing on the day you will be eating the salad.
Storage
Store any meal prep or leftover salad in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. For meal prep salads, wait to add any dressing until the day you are eating the salad.
Next Level Tips
- I love to challenge myself at the grocery store to try new vegetables. It makes building and eating salads week after week more fun. Turnips, watermelon radishes, golden beets. There are so many options! And, as a bonus, root vegetables are usually not very expensive either.
- Don't throw away leftover veggies, save them for your salads! Say you buy green onions for a recipe, but you don't need the green top parts. Chop them and save them for your salad. Or maybe you have extra asparagus or zucchini from the garden. Just thinly slice the veggies and add them to your next salad. Yes, I mean fresh, uncooked asparagus! Sliced thinly, it adds a perfect crunch and another layer of flavor to your salad!
- Don't forget the seeds! Seeds are so healthy and salads are a perfect way to eat more seeds!
FAQ
Yes, you can use store bought salad dressing, but most are full of sugar and other yucky stuff. Skip them and save some money too! You don't even need to make your own vinaigrette. Just drizzle a little olive oil and an acid like a balsamic vinegar directly on to your salad. It works because there are so many other layers of flavors on this salad!
Yes! Soy sauce on salad is so, soooooo good. It adds a great umami flavor. I do suggest a reduced sodium soy or tamari sauce though. Also, don't add any additional salt on the salad if you are using soy sauce. Soy sauce and olive oil is my current favorite combination for salad dressing!
Tamari is a soy-based sauce that's been processed differently than regular soy sauce but tastes almost exactly like soy sauce. Tamari is typically gluten free, unlike regular soy sauce.
You can use an acid without any oil. Frozen blueberries also work as a perfect salad dressing as they naturally juice themselves as they thaw. Room temperature, previously frozen blueberries add just enough liquid to use as a dressing. They are a low calorie and super healthy alternative to oil based salad dressings. And yummy too!
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
How to Build a Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups (handfuls) leafy greens
- ¼ cup pick one or more sliced root vegetables ex. carrots, red onions or beets
- ¼ cup pick one or more diced fruits ex. tomato, cucumber or avocado
- 1 tablespoon pick one or more seeds ex. pepitas, sunflower or sesame
- 1 tablespoon pick one of more fresh herbs ex. cilantro, dill, or micro greens
- ½ tablespoon pick one oil ex. olive oil, grapeseed oil or sesame
- ½ tablespoon pick one acid ex. balsamic vinger, lemons or soy sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start with 2 cups/handfuls of leafy greens in each salad bowl or meal prep container.
- Choose one or more ingredients per category of root vegetables, fruits, fresh herbs and slice or dice. Layer each ingredient onto the salad bowl or meal prep container as you go. Sprinkle seed of choice on top.
- Drizzle the oil lightly across the the salad. Drizzle the acid (balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, etc.) across the salad in the opposite direction.
- Add salt and pepper to taste if so desired. (Do not add additional salt if using soy sauce in salad.)
- Toss or lightly fluff with fork before serving or eating.
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Wendy says
I love this post! Salad reimagined, thank you for the tips!!