Crisp, light and delicious, this garden salad recipe is packed with fresh and colourful veggies. It comes together quickly and pairs wonderfully with so many things.
Don’t you just love a refreshing and crispy green salad? I know I do! It’s great as an appetizer, served on its own for a light meal or paired with a main dish.
With the summer season just ahead, comes lots of fresh produce. I love to make garden salad all throughout the year, but it’s especially tasty during those summer months (and perfect to go with barbecue).
One of my fave things to serve it with is my ribs recipe. The ribs are baked in the oven and finished on the grill. Rich and savoury, the ribs pair so well with the fresh garden salad.
Garden Salad Ingredients
Of course, the base of any garden salad recipe is lettuce. I typically like to use Romaine lettuce for garden salad because it’s pretty readily available, it’s crunchy and super fresh tasting.
Aside from lettuce, popular garden salad vegetables are bell pepper, radishes, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion and carrots. Of course, you can use other veggies besides those, but those are typically quite common varieties. Sometimes I love to also add a little shredded purple or green cabbage for texture and heartiness. Broccoli or cauliflower florets are great additions too.
It’s best to use what’s freshest or in season, letting the veggies shine.
If you want to go beyond vegetables, you can add in some other things, such as cheddar cheese, croutons and nuts (more on than below). There are so many fun possibilities!
Keeping things simple, for today’s recipe, I used lettuce, bell pepper, radishes, cucumber, tomatoes and red onion.
How To Make Garden Salad
Place all your veggies in a large mixing bowl and use some salad hands (or clean hands) to make sure everything is nicely incorporated. That way, when you take a bite, you get a little bit of everything. Then it’s just a matter of serving up the salad and drizzling with your favourite salad dressing. Easy! (The full recipe is in the recipe card below.)
Salad Dressing Ideas
You can’t have a garden salad without a yummy salad dressing, if you ask me. You can use whatever salad dressing you prefer, really. Some of my favourites to serve with garden salad are:
- Italian dressing
- Ranch dressing
- Balsamic vinaigrette
- Creamy balsamic dressing
- French dressing
What’s your go-to salad dressing for garden salad?
What To Serve With It
Garden salad is often served as a side along with something else. There are so many great options to serve with it, but here are some of my faves:
- Ribs (as mentioned above)
- Pan fried cod
- Baked trout
- Grilled or baked chicken breast
- Store-bought rotisserie chicken (such a time saver!)
- Homemade lasagne
- Soup (chicken soup or vegetable alphabet soup are yummy options)
- Some sort of sandwich or wrap, such as a veggie sandwich, crispy fish burger or turkey bacon wrap
If I want something extra quick to serve with the garden salad, canned sardines are a yummy choice.
Tips
- Fresh is best: For the absolute best tasting garden salad, use what’s in season and, of course, use what you enjoy best. In the summer months, I love going to the farmers market and grabbing the latest harvest from local farmers. You can’t beat the freshness!
- Dressing: Don’t dress your salad until right before serving so everything stays fresh and crisp. If you dress it too early, you run the chance of those veggies wilting.
- Veggie size: When prepping the veggies for the salad, try to keep them roughly the same size so everything is nice and uniform.
- Onion flavour: If you want to reduce some of the pungency of the red onion, after slicing give them a rinse under cold water. Be sure to drain them well (or pat them dry with some paper towels) before adding them to your salad.
Fun Salad Additions
- Add crunch: Think buttery croutons, nuts (such as almonds or walnuts), seeds (such as pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds), homemade granola (granola is so yum on garden salad!) or crispy fried onions.
- Add richness: Cubed cheddar cheese, crumbled goat cheese or diced avocado are all yummy options.
- Add sweetness: If you’re a fan of sweet and savoury combinations (I know I am), add some dried sweetened cranberries, diced apple or diced pear.
- Add protein: If you want to make your garden salad more hefty and substantial, consider adding some protein, such as grilled chicken, canned tuna or chickpeas.
More Easy Salad Recipes
If you make this garden salad recipe, be sure to leave a comment below!
Garden Salad
Ingredients
- 6 cups chopped lettuce, I used Romaine lettuce
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes, I used about 2 Roma tomatoes
- 1 cup diced bell pepper, I used 1 medium red bell pepper
- 1 cup chopped cucumber, I used two mini cucumbers
- 1 cup sliced radishes, I used about 4 large radishes
- ½ cup sliced red onion
- Salad dressing, for serving (use your favourite dressing)
Instructions
- Add the lettuce, tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber, radishes and red onion to a large mixing bowl. Use salad hands (or your clean hands) to mix everything together.
- Divide the garden salad into bowls or plates and drizzle with your favourite salad dressing. Enjoy!
Notes
- Fresh is best: For the absolute best tasting garden salad, use what’s in season and, of course, use what you enjoy best. In the summer months, I love going to the farmers market and grabbing the latest harvest from local farmers. You can’t beat the freshness!
- Dressing: Don’t dress your salad until right before serving so everything stays fresh and crisp. If you dress it too early, you run the chance of those veggies wilting.
- Veggie size: When prepping the veggies for the salad, try to keep them roughly the same size so everything is nice and uniform.
- Onion flavour: If you want to reduce some of the pungency of the red onion, after slicing give them a rinse under cold water. Be sure to drain them well (or pat them dry with some paper towels) before adding them to your salad.
- Add crunch: Think buttery croutons, nuts (such as almonds or walnuts), seeds (such as pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds), homemade granola (granola is so yum on garden salad!) or crispy fried onions.
- Add richness: Cubed cheddar cheese, crumbled goat cheese or diced avocado are all yummy options.
- Add sweetness: If you’re a fan of sweet and savoury combinations (I know I am), add some dried sweetened cranberries, diced apple or diced pear.
- Add protein: If you want to make your garden salad more hefty and substantial, consider adding some protein, such as grilled chicken, canned tuna or chickpeas.
A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
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Tried this recipe?
If you do make this recipe, thank you!! It would mean so much if you could leave a comment below. Love to know how you enjoyed it, and it helps other readers too!
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