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.

Sort by

Salade Lyonnaise (French Frisée Salad with Bacon and Poached Egg) with frisée, bacon and eggs — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Salads

Salade Lyonnaise (French Frisée Salad with Bacon and Poached Egg)

Salade lyonnaise is a French bistro salad from Lyon: bitter frisée tossed with crisp bacon lardons and a warm mustard vinaigrette, topped with a poached egg. The vinaigrette is built right in the pan, in the rendered bacon fat, so it's served warm rather than cold, and the egg yolk breaks into the dressing at the table to enrich it. The combination is a balance of bitter greens, salty bacon, sharp vinegar and a rich yolk.

25 min380 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Shopsky Salad with bell pepper, cheese and cucumber — Bulgaria recipe

🇧🇬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

Smashed Cucumbers with cucumber, garlic and chili — China recipe

🇨🇳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

Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad) with green papaya, lime and peanuts — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭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

Spring Pea and Feta Couscous Salad with pearl couscous, peas and feta — Mediterranean recipe

🌊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

Tabbouleh with bulgur, parsley and tomato — Lebanon recipe

🇱🇧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

Thai Spicy Beef Salad with beef, lime and mint — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Salads

Thai Spicy Beef Salad

Thai spicy beef salad, yam nuea (ยำเนื้อ) in Thai, is thin slices of seared steak tossed while still warm with red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, mint and cilantro in a lime, fish sauce and chili dressing. You sear the beef, rest it, slice it and dress it in about half an hour. Serve it on lettuce leaves or with jasmine rice.

30 min210 kcal2 serves

🌶️Spicy⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Tomato Salad with tomato, red onion and garlic — Mediterranean recipe

🌊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

Vegan Buddha Bowl with chickpeas, sweet potato and quinoa — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAAdvanced

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

Watermelon Feta Mint Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing with watermelon, feta cheese and mint — Mediterranean recipe

🌊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

Zaalouk with eggplant, tomato and garlic — Morocco recipe

🇲🇦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

Other categories

Keep browsing the archive — twelve doors into 710 recipes.

Dishes Seafood Salads Soups Dips Grains