everyday Salad

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My favorite “ everyday ” salad recipe is flying and easy to make, tossed with a simple and delightful lemony dress, and sol versatile that it goes with fair about everything !

Friends ! Do you have a go-to side salad recipe in your repertory that you absolutely love ? This simpleton green salad — which we fondly call our “ everyday ” salad here in our house — is mine. ♡

It ’ s the no-frills, easy-breezy, fresh-and-flavorful, always-a-winner k salad recipe that we make most much here in our theater behind the scenes. And flush after eating it literally hundreds of times, it ’ second one of those raw material recipes that we somehow never grow tired of. It ’ s incredibly quick and easy to make with a bag of greens ( we most much use spring greens ), a vegetable or two ( we normally add red onion, plus cucumber, bell pepper, carrot, or whatever ’ s in the crisp drawer ), a sprinkle of nuts/seeds for protein and grind ( we ’ ra partial to pepitas or sunflower seeds ), and my favorite “ everyday ” salad preen ( that ’ mho super-simple to whip up ). Best of all, this tossed salad comes together in less than 10 minutes and constantly tastes wonderfully inner light and newly and flavorful. And it besides happens to be naturally gluten-free and vegan — and somehow magically goes with equitable about any meal !
The flip ’ s the limit, of class, when it comes to customizing this recipe with whatever greens, veggies, nuts, or even dressing ingredients that you happen to have on hand. And if you feel like making a meal out of this salad, it besides tastes delicious with an extra protein ( such as wimp or prawn ) and/or some croutons added in besides .
anyhow, if you ’ ra interested in working more salads into your weekly lunch and dinner rotations, I hope you ’ ll give this salad recipe a hear. It is decidedly a darling here in our house !

Everyday Salad Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Everyday Side Salad Ingredients:

As I mentioned above, the base ingredients in this salad are all fabulously flexible. So feel free to use whatever you love best or have on bridge player ! You will barely need some type of…

• Fresh greens: I tend to go with spring greens, baby arugula, or some sort of mixed greens for this salad. But any greens that you love best will work.
• English cucumber: We always keep a few English cucs in the refrigerator because they are easy to work with (you don’t have to mess with removing the seeds), they last for quite awhile in the crisper drawer (yay!), and they always taste so delicious with this salad! That said, feel free to use any type of cucumber that you prefer for this salad, or see other fresh veggie ideas below too.
• Red onion: If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time, you know that I can never resist adding some thinly-sliced fresh red onions to my salads. But if you don’t love them as much as I do, feel free to leave them out (or use sliced shallots as a milder alternative instead). Or to take the edge off of the red onion flavor, you can also briefly rinse the sliced onions in water before adding them to the salad.
• Nuts/seeds: Feel free to add in whatever nuts or seeds that you love best to give this tossed salad some extra crunch and protein! We’re partial to salty pepitas, toasted pine nuts, or sunflower seeds in our house. But toasted almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, or any other favorite nuts/seeds would be delicious options too.
• Everyday dressing: See below!

Everyday Salad Dressing Ingredients:

so many of you have made and loved my “ everyday ” salad dressing recipe over the by few years that I ’ ve since created a separate recipe post wholly devoted to it if you would like to read more. ♡ But it ’ second basically merely a great general-purpose salad dressing that comes together in minutes and goes with just about everything ! To make it, you will need the keep up salad dressing ingredients :

• Olive oil: As always, I recommend using good-quality extra virgin olive oil when it comes to salad dressing recipes, since its flavor will really shine through.
• Lemon juice (or vinegar): We usually use freshly-squeezed lemon juice for this dressing. But if you don’t happen to have any fresh lemons on hand, you can sub in red wine vinegar instead.
• Dijon mustard: Which just adds some subtle flavor here and helps to round all of the flavors out. (Don’t worry, it won’t make it taste too mustard-y!)
• Garlic: I prefer to use minced or pressed fresh garlic in this dressing, but you can also sub in garlic powder if you prefer.
• Salt and black pepper: And finally, we will use fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper to season the dressing.

*The recipe included below makes a little total of salad dress, which we find oeuvre great with the portions listed in the recipes. But some readers prefer to double the amount of dress, or you can make a well larger batch ( as shown in the photograph above ) if you would like to have some pre-made salad dressing ready to go in the electric refrigerator for former in the workweek .

Optional Salad Add-Ins:

Beyond the base ingredients mentioned above, there are all sorts of excess add-ins and variations you can try out with this salad. So please feel rid to customize this salad recipe and make it your own ! For example, you could…

• Add a protein: Cooked chicken, steak, pork, shrimp, salmon (or other kinds of fish), scallops, or tofu would all be delicious additions to this salad.
• Add cheese: A variety of hard cheeses (such as shaved Parmesan, Pecorino, or Manchego), soft crumbled cheeses (such as goat cheese, feta, or gorgonzola), or soft mozzarellas (such as burrata or mini mozzarella) would all be delicious in this salad too.
• Add extra fresh veggies: In addition to (or in place of) the sliced English cucumbers, feel free to add in any other fresh veggies that you love, such as sliced bell peppers, carrots, radishes, celery, corn, etc.
• Add jarred veggies or olives: Feel free to also toss in any jarred veggies that you love, such as roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, pepperoncini peppers, or olives.
• Add tomatoes: Fresh or sun-dried tomatoes would also be delicious in this salad.
• Add beans: And of course, you’re also welcome to add in any beans for extra protein too, such as chickpeas, lentils, white beans, or red kidney beans.

More Side Salad Recipes:

If you ’ ra looking for more english salad inspiration, check out the rest of our bare “ everyday ” salad recipe collection, which includes childlike recipes for Kale Salad, italian Salad, Mexican Salad, Mediterranean Salad, and Sesame Slaw. Or feel complimentary to check out some of our readers ’ early favorite greens salad recipes, including…

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