Rachel’s Salad Series
This series highlights the versatility of a simple bed of greens, a few choice toppings, and a perfectly matched dressing! Eating a healthy salad doesn’t have to be difficult, bland, or leave you wanting.
My wife, Rachel, has a passion for salads and helps find new, delicious variations, including the ones on this list. They’re a great weeknight addition, especially for a lighter night. Enjoy!
When you combine fresh veggies, roasted sweet potatoes, and poached chicken with a zesty dressing, you’ve got a deliciously refreshing salad where you let simple ingredients shine through! This is a healthy, well-rounded salad that comes together in no time and will be a big hit at your table!
Chewy udon noodles act as the base for a delicious veggie salad that comes together with an aromatic sweet-sour peanut butter sauce. Whether it’s crunchy veggies or smooth noodles, the fun combination of textures this salad brings keeps you coming back for more. It’s a perfect weeknight meal, when you want a light, tasty meal!
This is the perfect summertime salad: light and fresh with delicious flavors! Fresh cherries are the taste of summer and paired slivered almonds and goat cheese, not to mention the couscous that's perfect at soaking up all the flavors, it's a meal that comes together quickly and is great for dinners and summer parties alike!
This refreshing dish captures the essence of summer with its vibrant colors and Mediterranean flavors. Alongside a medley of fresh veggies, this orzo salad is paired deliciously with a tangy dressing made with red wine vinegar that infuses each bite with a delightful zing. It’s perfect for picnics, cookouts, or as a light lunch option on a hot summer day!
A unique blend of fresh veggies and a tangy, sweet-spicy dressing is what makes this side salad the perfect pairing to a meal. The deliciously crisp kohlrabi, carrots, and bell peppers alongside the softer tomatoes and cucumbers makes sure the salad is as healthy as possible while the ponzu, soy sauce, and lemon juice dressing gives it it’s tantalizing flavor!
Fun salads always work because of their perfect pairing of flavors and textures. This is a salad that combines those elements wonderfully! From the curry grilled chicken paired with creamy avocados, juicy mangos, tangy pickled red onions, buttery goat cheese, and drizzled with an herb vinaigrette, it’ll be a fun time for sure with this salad!
Nuoc cham is a bright Vietnamese sauce highlighted by fresh lime juice and chiles. Tossed over chicken and vermicelli noodles, with crunchy carrots and cucumbers, you get a satisfyingly light salad that gives a salty-sweet finish. It will be a great addition to add to your salad rotation!
So many bright flavors in one bowl! At its base, it’s a salad, but when you add chicken, mangoes, mushrooms, carrots, and bell peppers and top it with a tangy, spicy-sweet dressing, it turns into a healthy, well-balanced meal that you’ll can’t wait to make again!
A simple, no-frills healthy meal, what more could you ask for! This salad is bursting with fresh flavors thanks to delicious whole fruits and vegetables over a bed of hearty spiced quinoa. A basic olive oil dressing helps bring everything together while still letting the fruits and veggies shine through!
A simple salad, but it checks all of the boxes! The crunchy bacon and savory chicken paired with creamy avocados, flavorful tomatoes, soft eggs, and topped with decadent blue cheese makes for a delicious salad and a perfect meal!
This is a wonderful dish full of fall flavors (with a hint of summer for those of us who can’t let go 😊). Crispy charred Brussels sprouts creates a delicious base that’s topped with decadent pickled carrots, toasted walnuts, and mixed together with a drizzle of a citrus vinaigrette. Vegetarian and seasonal, this is perfect as a main dish or a side dish and will showcase those falls flavors beautifully!
This is a Vietnamese salad that is absolutely delicious! The bright flavors of the fresh veggies, the pickled, vinegary notes from the pickled veggies, subtle hints of seafood from the shrimp, all topped with a sweet/spicy sauce that blends everything superbly and leaves your lips with a warming, numbness from the chilies! Incredibly fresh and healthy, so this checks all of the boxes!
Goat cheese paired with grilled peaches, blueberries, and basil is a combination you don’t want to miss out on! This salad is perfect for any time of year, but especially delicious during summer, it’s both simple, yet elegant. Slices of grilled steak add a great kick of protein, and a basic oil and vinegar dressing compliments the rest of the ingredients beautifully! Enjoy as a side salad or eat as a whole meal that you’ll definitely be making more often!
Ripe tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers add a delicious bite to this fantastic salad that emphasizes the freshness of the summery mint and lemon! Perfect for a light dinner or a fresh side dish to bring to an event, this is a great recipe for any event! Finish most of the prep while the couscous steams, leaving you only to assemble the salad whenever you’re ready, how easy is that!
A salad that is inspired by the beautiful combination of fresh ingredients paired with something spicy that is so often found in Thai cooking. This simple salad is elevated with a deliciously sweet peanut dressing that offers enough of a kick to tame that sweetness, but not too much for it to be overpowering. This dressing will soon become a go-to dressing for you!
This a both a delicious salad and a fun way to use up leftover dumpling wrappers! The salad is everything you want from a Thai salad: fresh flavors, with a citrus tang, and a bright spiciness! Topped with a marinated steak and homemade crisps, using leftover dumping wrappers (that may not make it to the salad because they’re so addicting to snack on!), this salad is sure to be a big hit!
If you’re craving tacos or burritos, but don’t want the tortillas and rice, this is the perfect option for you! All the same great flavors of a chicken taco, served, instead, over a bed of lettuce. And drizzle a creamy cilantro and lime dressing over top to bring this deliciously healthy salad all together!
A great summery salad where fruit is the star of the show! With so much fruit in season during the summer, why not take advantage and add them to a salad? To make it extra summery, let’s grill some of that fruit! And then bring it all together with a delicious dressing that has just enough tang and sweetness to send your taste buds firing on all cylinders!
In-season fruits and veggies – check – Grilling – check – Healthy and satiating – check. This dish combines two of summer’s must-have foods in an easy-to-make, healthy way! You can eat it as a main dish, side dish, or bring it along to a summer party!
The perfect side dish for summer grill parties! Sweet grilled corn paired excellently with smokiness from paprika and chili, tanginess from lime juice, and subtle hints of vinegar from pickled red onions. All combined to remind you how wonderful summertime is!
With strawberries and blueberries in season, it’s a great time to find fun ways to use them! This is wonderful summer salad is a great way to do that and checks all the boxes: fresh, flavorful, and fun!
Summer is the time for grilling. And while we’re usually grilling meat, grilling some summer fruits and veggies is equally just as yummy! So throw on the grill and get ready for this perfect grilled summer salad!
One of my favorite salads/side dishes that I've been making for years! With only salt, pepper, and olive oil as your seasoning, the star of this dish are all the fresh and flavorful veggies. Simple, yet delicious and healthy and sure to be the perfect salad or side dish!
You put chimichurri on steak and you put steak in a salad, so why not combine all of those elements into one delicious salad! Pair that with the grilled red onions giving this salad that smokey, sweet flavor that reminds you of your favorite cookouts!
The yummy flavors of tacos in a delicious salad is all you need to know! The freshness of the salad paired with the warm taco meat comes together perfectly in this salad that’s sure to make everyone smile!
We all know how great bacon, apples, and maple syrup go together. Now eat that over a bed of lettuce and top with some crunchy walnuts and you’ve got this delicious salad that you’re sure to love! Or just make the dressing and whip up your own salad!
Between the crunch of a roasted pine nut and the sweetness from a sweet potato and cranberry, this quinoa salad shows you just how great it is, for any occasion! Mix it all together with a hint of honey and cinnamon and you’ve got yourself a tasty, healthy treat!
A classic salad from Nice, France, it’s a hearty salad that you’ll definitely add to your salad rotation! It combines tuna, hard-boiled eggs, green beans, olives, and capers for a delicious blend that you don’t normally find in a salad. You can also add boiled potatoes to the mix, but I’m not a big potato fan, so I’ve left those out.
Although it’s called couscous, pearled couscous is a noodle, although it doesn’t contain eggs, so it’s vegan-friendly. It has a similar shape to many grains, so it’s very interchangeable with grains. This recipe combines that shape of a grain, but texture of a noodle with roasted tomatoes for a delicious meal!
Feeling purple? This tasty dish not only adds vibrant colors to your table, but is also bursting with fall flavors and easy to make!