Salad ideas and dressing recipes

[Chlorophyll]

I need some inspiration for healthy DIY salad dressings. Or any other salad hacks. It’ll be fun to see what everyone else likes too! If anybody has any tried & true tahini dressing recipes I’d love to try them. I eat 1 to 2 salads every single day, so I take salads very seriously. I used to spend hours slow roasting walnuts for our week’s salads when I was a teenager….it was my thing. Lol. My two standby dressing recipes are honey mustard and avocado vinaigrette.

The honey mustard is the easiest. Just mix equal amounts of Dijon mustard and honey, and add a small amount of olive oil if you want to. Keep it in a container you can shake if you *do* add oil. It will rise to the top.

The other is: blend half an avocado, a clove of garlic, a tablespoon of honey or sugar, and enough apple cider vinegar to get it as thick/thin as you want (spoon a thin layer of olive oil over the top of any leftovers to keep it from going brown.)

My salad hack is homemade bacon bits. Chop or cut up bacon, pan fry over medium-high heat until crispy, drain on paper towels, cool, and keep in the freezer in a resealable bag. They won’t freeze solid, so there’s no need to thaw them before you use them. Just grab and go. I now use turkey bacon instead of pork bacon and it works just the same. No matter what kind of bacon you use it’ll still be way cheaper and tastier than prepackaged bacon bits.

I used to have a roommate that hated salads but wanted to eat healthier so I came up with a buffalo chicken salad recipe for her. The best part is that it’s only 5 ingredients. (If there are any vegans or vegetarians reading this, please stop reading here or you might get sick. LOL.) Stir fry some diced chicken with sriracha and a *small* pat of butter. After it cools put it on a bed of romaine and top with blue cheese dressing. Some people get fancy and add sliced celery or other veggies, but everyone I know thinks it tastes fine just like this. It’s a good salad recipe if you’re trying to eat low carb but the calories in the dressing can add up if you use a lot. I’ve got a million other ideas but I’m going to ramble on and on if I let myself!

[Pastel]

I really like niçoise salad, although I prefer to leave out the tomatoes and anchovies (which probably disqualifies it as a niçoise, but whatever). I love having tuna, egg and olive together, so it's one of my favourite things in the world

Feta cheese is basically my salad hack. It's hardly a unique thing, but I basically eat salads as an excuse to consume a lot of feta. I think it goes with anything, but especially paired with spinach (another salad staple of mine) or fresh fruits. I love adding mango, strawberry, melon and things like that. So good!

[Chlorophyll]

I always look for an excuse to eat feta, too. Everyone else I know likes blue cheese more.

Hmmm. Bummer that this thread has such little activity. May as well toss in another recipe for the people with a sweet tooth......spinach, strawberries, feta, and raspberry vinaigrette. When I make this for my bf I have to add grilled chicken and candied walnuts or it doesn't fill him up.

I posted this question on facebook and my cousin told me to mix olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Idk. I guess I can try it some time.

[Pastel]

Sounds good actually. I feel like it would taste similar to balsamic vinegar (maybe?) but better. I might give that a go sometime! Also strawberries and feta are a match made in heaven.

Oh, also my mom used to make this watermelon salad thing in the summer. It's basically watermelon cubes, finely chopped red onions, fresh chili, and feta. We'd mostly have it as a side dish on its own, but I've also mixed it into a regular green salad before. So good.

[Patriciamike]

You can try Lentil-Couscous Salad, its really delicious , here is its ingredients
1 6 ounce box israeli couscous, cooked
1 15 ounce can lentils
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 shallot, chopped
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
6 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

[manu_voo]

Sounds good actually. I feel like it would taste similar to balsamic vinegar (maybe?) but better. I might give that a go sometime! Also strawberries and feta are a match made in heaven.

Oh, also my mom used to make this watermelon salad thing in the summer. It's basically watermelon cubes, finely chopped red onions, fresh chili, and feta. We'd mostly have it as a side dish on its own, but I've also mixed it into a regular green salad before. So good.

I've made this salad also and I love it. I also add fresh mint and basil

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[Chlorophyll]

I'm going to have to try that sometime. I forgot about it the first time this thread was ever bumped. Lol.

Another thing that I never posted to this thread was my 'universal dressing spice mix.' I call it universal because you can use it for literally eeeeeevvvvverything from ranch to italian dressing. It's onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, and a small amount of salt and pepper.

A good dressing to make with it is tahini, honey, and vinegar. I've been using that one a lot lately and it's great. Low fat too.

[itsturtles]

Ik this question is old but i noticed it came back so I'll answer too One dressing I love is olive oil, red wine vinegar (can probably do balsamic vinegar if that's more your thing), salt, pepper, and a little mustard! I think yellow mustard or dijon mustard are both okay. Or I'll literally just drip on red wine vinegar plain haha, it tastes great.
I love Ina Garten's Greek panzanella salad! Except I personally don't use the olives or feta cheese because I am not a fan. Sometimes I replace them with other stuff from my fridge, or do just the other veggies from the recipe. It's great without the croutons too (I usually don't have a ton of bread to spare to make her croutons lol). I believe if you google it she also has a recipe for dressing with it.
Also my mom makes a broccoli salad with red onions, bacon bits, raisins, and probably other things I can't remember but it's similar to the salad from Sweet Tomatoes, so maybe there's a recipe online?
This turned out longer than I thought oops. I enjoyed reading what everyone else posted though! Thanks for the ideas