Category

Salads

Not the sad side-dish kind. Composed salads that earn their place at the table — grains, proteins, something pickled, dressing built in the bowl.

All ⏱Under 30 min ⏱Under 60 min 💪High Protein 🌾Gluten-free 🌶️Spicy 🥑Keto

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🇫🇷FranceMedium

Salads

Rockfor Salad

Mixed greens, toasted walnuts, and crumbles of pungent Roquefort blue cheese in a honey-mustard vinaigrette. The interplay between the sharp, cave-aged cheese and crunchy walnuts makes every bite bold and interesting.

20 min200 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian🥑Keto⚡Quick

★4.8

🇷🇺RussiaAdvanced

Salads

Russian Vinegret Salad

Boiled beets, potatoes, and carrots diced small and tossed with briny dill pickles, sauerkraut, green onions, and a simple sunflower oil dressing. This salad has been on Russian holiday tables for over a century. It is earthy, tangy, and satisfying cold — the kind of thing that gets better by the day and tastes best made a day ahead.

75 min195 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

★4.8

🇧🇬BulgariaMedium

Salads

Shopsky Salad

Chunky tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and onion topped with a thick slab of grated sirene cheese — Bulgaria's answer to the Greek salad. No lettuce, no fuss, just peak-season vegetables and salty white cheese.

45 min180 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🥑Keto🌾Gluten-free

★4.5

🇨🇳ChinaMedium

Salads

Smashed Cucumbers

A classic Chinese cold appetizer where cucumbers are smashed to create craggy surfaces that soak up a bold sesame-soy-vinegar dressing. Ready in 30 minutes, refreshing and addictive.

30 min80 kcal5 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌶️Spicy⚡Quick

★4.5

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Salads

Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad)

Thailand's most iconic salad — shredded green papaya pounded in a mortar with tomatoes, green beans, garlic, chili, lime juice, and fish sauce. Crunchy, spicy, tangy, and refreshing all at once. Served cold with sticky rice and grilled chicken.

20 min140 kcal2 serves

🌶️Spicy⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

★4.8

🌊MediterraneanAdvanced

Salads

Spring Pea and Feta Couscous Salad

A bright, no-fuss salad that works as a side for grilled lamb or chicken, or holds its own as a light lunch. Pearl couscous — the round, pasta-like kind, not the fine-grain North African variety — gets toasted before cooking, which gives it a nutty depth that plain couscous lacks. Pickled shallots cut through the richness of the feta and keep the salad from tasting flat. Fresh mint is non-negotiable here: it's the ingredient that ties everything together and makes this taste like spring rather than just a bowl of starchy things.

25 min390 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

★4.4

🇱🇧LebanonMedium

Salads

Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a Lebanese herb salad — not, as many Western recipes would have it, a grain salad with herbs in it. The correct ratio is roughly four parts chopped parsley to one part bulgur by volume. The bulgur is present for texture and a gentle nuttiness, but the parsley is the point: the salad should be intensely green, assertively flavoured, and taste like fresh herbs dressed with lemon rather than wheat dressed with garnish. Fine bulgur (#1) soaks directly in the lemon-olive oil dressing without any cooking, which keeps the texture light. The tomatoes are salted and drained before going in so they don't flood the salad with watery juice. Everything is finely chopped by hand — a knife, not a food processor, which turns the parsley to paste.

30 min165 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan⚡Quick

★4.8

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Salads

Thai Spicy Beef Salad

A bold Thai salad of seared beef with red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, fresh mint and cilantro, dressed in a bright lime-fish sauce dressing. Served on lettuce leaves or with jasmine rice — light, spicy, and deeply aromatic.

30 min210 kcal2 serves

🌶️Spicy⚡Quick

★4.7

🌊MediterraneanEasy

Salads

Tomato Salad

The simplest salad in the world — when tomatoes are truly ripe. Thick wedges of juicy tomatoes with red onion, garlic and oregano, dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar. The tomatoes release juice that blends with the dressing into an extraordinary sauce.

20 min150 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌱Vegan

★4.6

🇺🇸USAMedium

Salads

Vegan Buddha Bowl

Quinoa, crispy spiced chickpeas, roasted sweet potato, fresh avocado, and shredded purple cabbage, all brought together with a tahini-lemon dressing. Buddha bowls follow a five-part formula: grain base, plant protein, roasted vegetables, fresh raw vegetables, and sauce. There's no fixed recipe — the whole point is that you can swap nearly every component based on what's in season or what's in your fridge, and the bowl still works. What makes this version reliable: the chickpeas are properly dried before roasting, the sweet potato is cut small enough to caramelize rather than steam, and the tahini dressing is thinned down enough to actually coat everything rather than sitting on top.

40 min540 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

★4.9

Watermelon Feta Mint Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing

🌊MediterraneanMedium

Salads

Watermelon Feta Mint Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing

Watermelon feta mint salad is the classic Mediterranean summer dish where sweet cold watermelon meets salty creamy feta, lifted by fresh mint, cucumber, and a honey-lime dressing. The combination dates back at least 2000 years across Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, where karpuz peyniri (watermelon with white cheese) is a daily summer staple. The trick is contrast: salt amplifies the watermelon's sweetness, watermelon water tames the sharpness of feta, and mint plus lime cut through the heaviness with brightness. Active work is 15 minutes — no cooking, just precise prep and a few small techniques that separate a great version from watery mush. Serves 6 as a side dish for grilled meats, fish, or as a light starter.

15 min180 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

★4.8

🇲🇦MoroccoMedium

Salads

Zaalouk

Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad — eggplant and tomatoes slow-cooked together with garlic, cumin, paprika, and plenty of olive oil until they collapse into a thick, jammy paste. Not quite a dip, not quite a side dish. The Moroccan kitchen serves it alongside tagines, spooned onto bread, or as part of a mezze spread of small salads that open a meal. Charring the eggplant before cooking it is optional but does add a smoky note that the straight-cooked version lacks. It tastes better the next day, and keeps for four days in the fridge.

50 min145 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

★4.9

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