Fill your summer cravings with light yet filling salad recipes that are tasty, healthy, and offer a great punch of nutrients. Here are some of the top recipes for you.
The blazing hot summer makes it difficult to digest everything, especially heavy and rich food. Even though a majority of people among us are foodie and we love to eat different kinds of cuisines, on the hot summer days, it is recommended to go for salads that are healthy, tasty, and easily digestible. The salad recipes are also easy to make, and oftentimes they omit the process of intensive cooking. You would be surprised to know how many different types of veg, non-veg, and fruit salads you can make at home. If you are looking forward to spending a healthy summer this year, here are the top 35 recipes for healthy summer salads.
- Three Bean Salad
Just like the name suggests, this salad requires three kinds of beans, and it is a protein-packed vegetarian salad. This fresh, crunchy, and creamy salad will blow your mind with its colorful and flavorful representation. This recipe is full of protein, fiber, and good fats. This salad can be easily made within 15 minutes, and you can customize it based on your favorite veggies and beans. The three main beans used in this salad are green beans, chickpeas, and black beans. Make sure to add tomato, onion, chili, and lime for taste, along with veggies like bell peppers, corn, zucchini, purple cabbage, and broccoli, to pack it with more nutrients.
- Asian Cucumber Salad with Tofu
Those who love tofu cannot get over this salad recipe that includes two main ingredients, cucumbers and tofu. It is fresh, crunchy, and spicy enough to become a succulent Asian meal. Cucumbers can reduce your body temperature quickly on hot summer days, and that is why they have become a staple summer salad in Asian countries. You must add crushed peanuts, chopped coriander, green onions, and mint leaves, along with roasted sesame seeds, to get that unique nutty flavor. The dressing for the salad is made from honey, garlic, Sichuan Peppercorns, and lastly some vinegar.
- Nepali Mushroom Salad | Mushroom Sadheko
This is a bold and spicy mushroom salad from Nepal, which is also known as Sadeko. This salad is quite easy to make as it is made from simple ingredients only. In order to make this salad, you would need button mushrooms, as these natural sponges can soak up the flavors of the spicy dressing and offer a delightful bite. In order to make this, you need tomatoes, coriander, garlic, onion, salt, and dried chilies to complement your mushrooms that are already boiled or blanched.
- Moong Sprouts Apple Salad
Moong Daal is one of the most versatile lentils that you can eat in any form, whether it is raw and sprouted or boiled to make daal curry. Moong sprouts are very healthy and consist of a lot of protein and organic energy, which is why most bodybuilders and athletes live on them. You can get moong sprouts by soaking them overnight, and then you would need to add the ingredients. Other than moong, you will need green apple, cucumber, pomegranates, as well as onion, coriander, and chilies for taste. Everything is chopped finely to offer a crunchy mouthful feeling with every spoonful of salad. You can serve this salad along with panipuris or even with scooped cucumbers.
- Asian Slaw/ Healthy Cabbage Salad
The Asian Slaw is one of the most delightful of salad recipes that also comes with a cultural embrace. The sweet and spicy taste of the salad makes it quite appetizing for everyone. This light and refreshing salad can easily pair with anything, whether it is grilled chicken, baked fish, paneer, tofu, or anything else. This simple and smart salad needs regular cabbage, red cabbage, bell peppers, apple, carrot, roasted peanuts, and spring onion for some green. You need to mix all of them with honey, garlic, fish sauce, mint leaves, soy sauce, chili flakes, lime juice, and other ingredients to get that flavorful punch.
- Lemon Dill Potato Salad
This Healthy Lemon Dill Potato Salad is dressed in a zesty vinaigrette so fresh that you’ll never miss the traditional mayo-based potato salad! It’s best served warm so that the potatoes soak up all that good dressing and goes best with sides like wings, ribs, and all the barbecue foods. This salad does not include a lot of mayo, which makes it healthy, and it is also light enough to have anytime. The main ingredients for the salad are boiled baby potatoes along with dill and spring onion, which offer a wild combination. You can make the dressing with Dijon mustard, lime juice, lemon, salt, sugar, olive oil, and black pepper.
- Smoked Eggplant Salad
This is a yogurt-infused smoky salad that is made from eggplants or brinjals. This salad offers a flavorful exploration of taste that has similarities with ‘Raita’ and ‘Baigan Bharta’. You do not need any fancy tools or ingredients to make this salad, as most of them can be found at home. Other than brinjal, you would need onions, curd, coconut milk, sugar, salt, chili powder, cumin powder, and vinegar. In order to add the smoky flavor, you can add a small bowl to your curd with smoldering charcoal on top of it. Add a few drops of oil or butter, and it will offer a smoked essence.
- Easy Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
Easy, tasty, and nutritious, this Mediterranean salad is highly captivating with its flavors. This Mediterranean-inspired chickpea salad is like a party in your mouth! It’s got a healthy combination of protein, carbs, fiber, and fats, which makes it a great dinner dish too. Carry it in your lunchbox or serve it as a side with some pita and hummus; this bowl will disappear in minutes. This salad can be made in 15 minutes if you already have cooked chickpeas at hand. The salad is now being made in most countries due to its rich taste and high vegetable protein content.
- Vegan Pasta Salad with Italian Balsamic Dressing
This Vegan Pasta Salad is packed with five cups of veggies and tossed in a light, flavorful Italian balsamic dressing that makes it a firm summer favorite. It is light and healthy, and is a meal on its own. Any salad that includes pasta or macaroni becomes tastier already, and this particular salad includes a lot of veggies, which makes it colorful, crunchy, and greatly nutritious. The best part of this dish is that you can also feed it to children since they mostly avoid veggies. But with the presence of pasta, they cannot say no. The dressing for the salad is also very light, which makes it easy to digest.
- Watermelon Salad
Think of a Hawaiian salad that uses watermelon instead of pineapples, and you will reach closer to this salad recipe. Watermelon is one of the most favorite summer fruits for most people due to its sweet taste and a huge amount of water content, which makes it the juiciest fruit of all. Frozen watermelon cubes on a blazing hot day are a blessing already, and when you use those cubes to make a cold salad, that salad is the most satisfying meal in summer. This salad comes with a fresh and zesty taste along with natural sweetness, which makes it tasty and suitable for everyone.
- Creamy Apple Broccoli Walnut Salad
This apple, broccoli, walnut salad is lighter, creamier, but not mayo-heavy. It is loaded with apples, broccoli, carrots, walnuts, onions, raisins, cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. It is best to make this ahead and refrigerate it for an hour before serving. The texture of this salad is quite mushy with the presence of Greek yogurt, but it is also crunchy with the vegetables. The nutty taste of walnuts really adds up to the whole arrangement, and it is one of the healthiest salads that you can have. While a lot of people like raw broccoli, it is recommended to keep it blanched for a better color and taste.
- Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
This Mediterranean quinoa salad is packed with quinoa, chickpeas, black beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, and feta, which are all good-for-you ingredients. Healthy, delicious, gluten-free, and vegetarian, this salad can be made ahead, which makes it perfect for lunch, parties, birthdays, barbecues, and picnics. Make sure to wash quinoa really well under running water and then rub it between your hands to get rid of the slightly bitter taste. Always remember that the ratio of quinoa to water is 1:2. When your quinoa is ready, you can simply add the other elements and make a hearty bowlful of salad.
- Lemon Orzo Pasta Salad
Lemon-based recipes can be great for the hot summer days, and this salad could be the perfect meal to beat the heat. Super zippy and summery lemon orzo pasta salad is vegetarian, and bursting with summer produce. Tossed with corn, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, red bell peppers, spinach, feta, and a light but delicious lemon salad dressing, this salad is perfect to make ahead and serve cold. Orzo looks like large grains of rice but tastes like the best pasta ever made. Its unique appearance and taste palate make this salad highly popular and captivating for everyone who is looking for something new and refreshing.
- Italian Antipasto Tortellini Pasta Salad
Italian Antipasto Tortellini Pasta Salad is an easy, cold, make-ahead salad that takes under 20 minutes to make and is perfect for picnics, barbecues, and family dinners. In order to make this salad, you would need dried Tortellini pasta along with salami, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, black olives, bell peppers, and fresh mozzarella. You can make the dressing for this salad by combining the elements like olive oil, red wine vinegar, dry basil and oregano, as well as brown sugar, salt, and parmesan. Mix all the ingredients together and get yourself a Michelin-star-winning salad recipe.
- Thai Peanut Mango Quinoa Salad
This gluten-free vegan salad has gained much attention from food lovers, especially among vegans and animal activists, as it does not consist of any element that is unethically grown or extracted. The Thai Peanut Mango Quinoa Salad is Super delicious, which you can make ahead for potlucks and barbecues, and also happens to be highly nutritious for everyone. This salad comes with a finger-licking sweet and spicy sambal dressing that’s different from the regular peanut dressing. Truly, this salad is an absolute treat in the mango season, also known as summer.
- Apple Arugula Almond Salad with Orange Dressing
This is a unique salad that comes with an eclectic taste, and everyone can enjoy it without any guilt since it is gluten-free and completely vegan. Apple Arugula Almond Salad with Orange Dressing is a quick, easy, healthy salad that actually tastes very good. It includes natural sweetness of the apples, lots of crunch from carrots, almonds, sharp arugula, and spicy red onions, and that sweet, salty orange dressing made from, guess what, it tastes really good. So good that you might want to have this salad every day this summer. It is crunchy, fresh, and quite filling.
- Black Rice Salad Bowl with Spicy Peanut Dressing
The nutritional value of black rice is paramount when you add it to your salad bowl; it turns into a flavorful and healthy meal. This recipe is high in antioxidants and protein-rich enough to become a part of your healthy diet. But it is quite filling and can be considered a healthy alternative to Chipotle. It can be made by utilizing the basic elements that are easily available in your fridge. Other than black rice, you will need cucumber, red radish, boiled eggs, and cilantro to make this wholesome salad. It is a Mexican-inspired salad, and it can be high on the spice meter.
- Greens, Persimmon Ricotta Salad with Orange Dressing
Everyone loves a Ricotta salad, and when it comes with new tastes or fusion flavors, the salad is bound to be good. This version of the salad includes a lot of greens and an orange dressing, which makes it delightful. Persimmons are a sweet fruit that most people are not aware of, but adding them to your salad could be a great way to keep things healthy and fun. For the greens, it is highly recommended to use baby spinach and arugula, which can offer you a punch of different flavors. Add as much Ricotta as you want, as fresh cheese is healthier than processed cheese.
- Spinach, Heirloom Tomato, and Crumbled Tofu Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing
Well, the name of this spinach salad already tells about the ingredients in it. This salad is meticulously prepared with spinach, heirloom tomatoes, and broken-down tofu, which gets the zesty essence from the roasted garlic dressing. The flavorful salad is rich in iron, protein, and antioxidants, which makes it highly recommended for people of all ages. This salad recipe is easy to make and can be prepared at home within 15 mins only. This minimal and filling salad could be the best meal on a hot summer day when you are already too tired to cook a full meal. And thus, this one-bowl salad should work well.
- Apple Walnut Summer Salad
Healthy and refreshing, the Apple Walnut summer salad is an absolute delight that is sweet, nutty, and also sharp with the flavors of Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. This salad is the perfect food to cool down in summer; it’s crispy, crunchy, and slightly bitter in essence. It is a low-calorie salad that does not add to your weight but offers plenty of energy to get your work done. You can also consider this as a healthy snack if you are trying to cut down on your consumption.
- Cucumber Noodle Prawn and Mango Salad
Cucumber and mango are two main ingredients for summer salads, as these juicy fruits can cool you down instantly. It is also a gluten-free recipe that everyone can have without any worries. This is a Thai-inspired salad, and the noodles are nothing but cucumbers cut into noodles with the help of a pillar. You use boiled prawns but recommend tossing them in a little bit of butter to get that red color and flavor. Make sure to use sweet ripe mangoes for that yellow orange color, which goes perfectly with the green mint leaves, and Julian cut onions.
- Spicy Chicken Cucumber Salad
This is an Asian cuisine-inspired salad that is spicy, wholesome, and can be an alternative summer meal to your daily consumption. The salad is made with juicy poached chicken and fresh cucumber, which comes with chili oil dressing and a lot of crushed peanuts. The spicy and nutty flavors of this salad make it very unique, and with an ample amount of chicken, this salad is packed with protein. It is a simple and refreshing dish that has gained much popularity all around the world, and now, you can find it in most restaurants. Adding an adequate amount of fresh herbs can help to get that wild aroma that makes it appetizing.
- Thai Prawn Mango Salad
This salad recipe is easy and convenient to make and does not require too many ingredients. The Thai Prawn Mango salad comes together in 15 minutes, and it offers the perfect way to celebrate summer. The salad is delicious, fresh, and zesty enough to make you want more. The trick is not to overcook prawns (less than 7 minutes); based on the size, the cooking time varies from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Make the salad ahead of time because as it sits in the fridge, the flavors get a chance to meld together and get absorbed. This salad can cool you down and fill you at the same time.
- Barley Chicken Salad with Herb Vinaigrette
Barley salads have gained much attention among the foodie people and salad lovers due to their wholegrain attributes. This salad offers a great way to utilize your leftover greens and veggies to create a delightful meal. When you add chicken or any other meat to this salad, it turns into a complete meal that you can have at lunch or dinner. It is also a perfect meal prep, which means you can prepare it early and eat it any time of the week. Barley is considered to be the powerhouse of grains that offers a lot of organic energy, and having it in salad can make your healthy diet even healthier.
- Crunchy Chinese Chicken Salad
Chicken salads are always attractive, no matter how you consume them. However, if you are looking for something vibrant, crunchy, and refreshing at the same time, this crunchy Chinese chicken salad can fulfill all needs. Packed with veggies and poached chicken, this is one of the healthiest meal options that everyone can enjoy. The best part of the salad is the Asian ginger dressing and crunchy fried noodles that make it unique and appetizing. This special salad recipe might remind you of chop suey, which is also a popular Chinese meal.
- Southwest Chicken Quinoa Bean Salad
This salad is quite hearty, delicious, and perfect for the summer days when you want something light but also heavy enough to fill your stomach. In order to make this salad, you would need cilantro, poached chicken, boiled sweet corn, quinoa, and some other ingredients. For the delicious dressing, you would need lime juice, olive oil, honey, chipotle powder, garlic, oregano, and salt. However, if you are looking for a creamy alternative to this dressing, you can mix sour cream, yogurt, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, chipotle powder, oregano, lime juice, and salt together. Both dressings go pretty well with this salad, and you can opt for whichever one suits your cravings.
- Chicken Cobb Salad with Avocado Blue Cheese Dressing
Do you love Cobb salads? The traditional presentation of Cobb salad is highly attractive to everyone as every ingredient in the salad is offered together, but in a separate way without mixing together. It offers fresh patches of colors, tastes, and nutrients from which you can choose what you are going to bite next. This fabulous salad includes a lot of grilled chicken and a lot of bacon, which is served with avocado, blue cheese, corn, and veggies. You can mix the cheese with Greek yogurt and sour cream if you are looking forward to having a creamier alternative. This salad can also feel like a charcuterie board with so many separate ingredients.
- Mexican Prawn Avocado Taco Salad
It seems like a very Mexican dish, a tasty one, and so is the Prawn Avocado taco salad. This salad received its name because it can be put inside a tortilla to make loaded tacos. This is just like your regular Mexican tacos, but a healthier alternative. This salad is filled with ingredients like lettuce, black beans, avocado, cherry tomatoes, corn, and an amazing cilantro-based dressing that turns it into a flavorful blast. It is recommended to go for the small prawns or shrimps that are more flavorful and offer a rich taste. If you are allergic to prawns, you can also have poached chicken breast cut into small pieces.
- Grilled Chicken Mango Salad with Mango Cilantro Dressing
Grilled Chicken Mango Salad with Mango Cilantro Dressing is loaded with cucumbers, peppers, and avocado, and has a crazy good dressing that doubles up as a marinade. This is not a lightweight salad, but more like a full meal that you can have as lunch or dinner. In order to make this salad, you would need chicken, green lettuce, avocados, peppers, cilantro, mangoes, and a few other ingredients for the dressing. The recipe for this salad is easy, and it can be made within 15 to 20 minutes. It could be the best summer salad that you’ve had till now.
Salad is one of those meals that often does not require any cooking or very little cooking, and thus, all the ingredients are fresh and raw mostly. The main taste of salad comes from the dressing that complements it. It is recommended to learn the recipes for a few common dressings that you can combine with your choice of veggies, meat, and fruits. Some of the popular and widely used dressings are Honey Mustard Salad Dressing, Peanut Sauce Salad Dressing, Peanut Sauce Salad Dressing, Peanut Sauce Salad Dressing and lastly the Three Homemade Salad Dressings.
