7 Healthy Garden Salad Recipes

One of the best things about garden salad recipes is how wonderfully crunchy they are. Using crisp ingredients like onion, lettuce, carrots and red cabbage gives the garden salads a wonderful texture.

Also, because of the typical ingredients in them, garden salads tend to be really colorful. You can usually tailor the ingredients in a garden salad recipe to suit your own taste.

This delicious garden salad is very simple, featuring lettuce, tomatoes, beets, walnut halves, bell pepper and cucumber. The lime dressing is delicious with it. In fact this is one of my favorite garden salad recipes. I really love the beets in there.

The salad itself is easy to put together and we recommend arranging the ingredients on top of the lettuce but if you prefer you can toss the lettuce with everything else. The dressing can be modified for a hotter taste (more chili powder and hot sauce) or a milder one (just use less of the hot stuff) but it is also very good the way it is.

If you wish to serve this fresh garden salad recipe as an entrée you might wish to add some chicken to it. You can chop some cooked chicken and toss it with the other salad ingredients or even use a whole poached or pan-fried chicken breast. The dressing is especially good with poultry so this would work out well in more ways than one.

Feel free to modify the ingredients if you want to. If you like the idea of using nuts but you do not have walnut halves or you are not so keen on them, you can try peanuts, cashews or almonds instead. The nuts add a crunch which goes well with the crispness of the lettuce and bell pepper.

The beets are good in this garden salad because they are an unusual ingredient and offer a good contrast. You can get vacuum-packed cooked beets. Make sure all the skin has been scrubbed off because sometimes a little of it is missed before it is vacuum-packed.

Other possible ingredients that you could include in the garden salad are chopped hard-boiled eggs, grated cheese, and black or green olives.

Use your favorite kind of lettuce in this garden salad recipe. Romaine, green leaf or a bag of mixed baby leaves would all work well.

You can decide how you want to serve it too, whether you just want to toss the whole lot together or whether you prefer to divide the lettuce between the plates and then arrange the toppings on it.

One key rule though is not to add the dressing until just before serving else your crispy garden salad recipe might become a soggy one instead.

There are lots of garden salad recipes to choose from but this one is extra crunchy and extra colorful, so you could do a lot worse. The dressing contains garlic, herbs, mustard, apple juice and more, so it has plenty of dimension. If you like your salad swimming in dressing (some people do) you can double the dressing recipe.

Else you can just make the stated amount and it should be sufficient for most people’s needs.

This fresh garden salad really looks the part; if you are making this for a potluck supper or buffet you can count on it being an eye-catching dish. If you do want to take this to a potluck event, by the way, you can toss the salad ingredients together and put them in a tightly-sealed container. Keep the dressing in another container and combine the two just before serving.

The salad ingredients are best served chilled but the dressing can be served at room temperature and it is more fragrant and aromatic that way anyway.

This unique and delicious summer garden salad recipe makes its own juices from the salad ingredients, with the sugar, salt, pepper and vinegar helping out a little. The marinating time is important because this is when the magic happens and the flavors blend and the salad gets more juicy, so allow one or two hours for a great result.

Don’t add the lettuce to the marinating mixture because we all know what happens when lettuce is combined with liquid; it gets soggy and that would ruin your entire garden salad, so it is best to add the lettuce at the end. You can either serve the marinated mixture on top of the lettuce or toss the lettuce with it.

A hint of Mexico comes from the tomatoes, avocado and cilantro, and you can play up this south of the border touch even more by adding a squeeze of lime juice to the dressing or by adding some corn kernels (drained canned corn or drained thawed corn kernels) to the salad before marinating it. This is only an idea of course and you can make the salad as it is and still expect great results.

This is a great make-ahead garden salad recipe which can save you time if you are catering for an event or making the food for a buffet and you do not want to be rushed at the last minute, putting the finishing touches to everything. Simply make this one or two hours ahead and let it steep in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it.

Since you can make it ahead it is also a good side dish if you are unsure exactly what time you will be serving dinner. Some salads are not good if they are left to sit around for hours but this one is actually better that way. Leave out the black olives if you aren’t keen.

This is one of the most simple garden salad recipes. It combines colorful ingredients like salad leaves, onion, black olives and tomatoes with a Dijon, parmesan and parsley dressing for a mouthwatering flavor and plenty of texture.

The parsley, mustard and Dijon work nicely together in the extra-virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar dressing and the result is piquant and very tasty.

The salad itself is simple to prepare and all you need to do is toss everything together. Make sure the salad ingredients are sliced or chopped up quite small. A good salad should be in bite-size pieces so you only need a fork to enjoy it, not a knife too.

Most garden salad recipes are very healthy and they are attractive too with their riot of colors. If you want to get extra vitamin C from your garden salad, include plenty of cucumber, sprouted beans and tomatoes.

To make this garden salad more filling you can add some croutons or a protein source like chicken, shrimp or turkey. Smoked poultry is nice here or you can add some cubes of cheddar.

Pick out sharp cheddar for mouthwatering results. The parmesan in the dressing will be nice with the cheddar cheese in the salad.

You could even leave the parmesan out of the dressing and serve the salad with shaved parmesan curls on it instead; that would also be a good serving suggestion. Make this salad your own by adding whatever salad ingredients you fancy.

Although the rosemary croutons are delicious, you can swap the rosemary bread for olive bread or a plain rustic loaf for a different flavor if you choose to. Perhaps rosemary bread is not available where you are, so just pick out something you like.

If you like the idea of rosemary, you can use a plain rustic loaf and sprinkle dried rosemary over it before baking the croutons for a similar result. You can also use dried oregano, dried basil or another herb or combination of herbs.

Garden Salad Recipes: Get Creative!

The sky is the limit when it comes to inventing your own salad recipes and if you want to make a garden salad there is only one rule – the majority of the ingredients must be fresh.

They do not necessarily have to come from your own garden (although that would be great!) But you should include plenty of fresh ingredients and preferably some crunchy or crispy ones to contrast with the softer ones.

Some ingredients come in crispy and soft forms and that includes lettuce. Round lettuce is soft but iceberg lettuce is crispy. Other crispy or crunchy ingredients that you could add are carrot, bell pepper, celery, bacon bits and nuts.

If you want to adapt this recipe, go for it. You might like to keep all the original ingredients and throw in some dried fruits or nuts, or a handful of crumbled bacon or even some crumbled feta or blue cheese.

The basic garden salad recipe is simple enough to accommodate most other flavors and textures. You might like to swap the cherry tomatoes for sliced big tomatoes or use spinach instead of the mixed baby salad leaves. Any of these changes would be fine.

For the greens you might like to use a variety of different leaves, including Bibb or Boston lettuce or Romaine.

Boston lettuce, which is also known as butter lettuce, is originally from the Mediterranean although other varieties developed in North America. Bibb and Boston lettuce are two of the most popular types of lettuce in the United States and they are similar although Boston lettuce has wider, paler leaves than Bibb.

Butter lettuce is tender and mild in flavor, which means it pairs well with all kinds of other ingredients and is often used in garden salad recipes. This type of lettuce goes especially well with fruity or creamy ingredients, as well as with honey.

Lactucarium is found in butter lettuce and it might interest you to know that this compound has sedative effects similar to opium. It is recommended for treating intestinal spasms, palpitations and insomnia although a few leaves should not have any effect at all.

Rumor has it that the emperor Domitian used to serve a whole head of butter lettuce to his guests at the beginning of their meal, forcing them to fight their sleepiness for hours, since falling asleep in front of the emperor would have been a big no-no.

Wash and dry your lettuce well before using it in the garden salad recipe. Use a canned jalapeno for less heat or a fresh one for more. Take out the seeds and stem before using it. If you really don’t like the idea of adding heat to your garden salad recipe, you can leave the jalapeno out altogether.

The salad will still be flavorful and have a nice texture without it. The lemon juice in the dressing should be fresh for the best flavor but you can use bottled lemon juice at a pinch; it does not make too much difference.