Spring and summer are indisputably for salads. Just about everything crunchy and colorful and fresh comes into season, and especially when temperatures begin to climb, the best way to do justice to all those summer vegetables is to let them shine with little intervention. Simple doesn’t mean boring, though: The best vegetable-forward salads offer a balance of flavors and textures, making them filling, standalone meals. These are the salads that Eater editors will be reaching for all season.
I love this easy salad year-round, but it’s especially good in the summer when the tomatoes — and the temperature in my kitchen — hit their peak. An ideal “too hot to cook” meal, it’s a salad that asks little of me: I simply have to open cans of beans and corn, roughly chop tomatoes and avocados, and sprinkle in chile and garlic powder (which I opt for in place of the tedious-to-cut fresh stuff). It tastes just as great at room temperature as it does when it’s cold and scooped with a tortilla chip straight from the fridge. Since this recipe is easy to scale up and since the lime juice keeps the avocado fresh, you’ll ideally make enough for leftovers, but they always disappear quickly in my house. — Bettina Makalintal, Senior Reporter at Eater.com
Ina Garten, the Food Network
There are two salads I generally can’t get enough of — panzanella and Greek — so it’s probably not surprising that I enjoy a mash-up of the two. This version comes courtesy of the venerable Ina Garten, and it’s one of my outdoor entertaining go-tos. It’s sturdy and substantial, and though it includes tomato, given the other flavors involved, it’s not as dependent on excellent summer tomatoes as a traditional panzanella. I will pull an Ina, though, and caution you to please use “good” feta for this salad — stabilizer-laced crumbles will definitely distract from letting the salad’s vegetables and simple ingredients shine. — Missy Frederick, Cities Director
The summer’s hottest club is this salad. It’s got everything — corn, tomatoes, basil, a sweet and tart dressing, and roasted onions and fresh scallions, for everything alliums can offer. After a childhood spent hating tomatoes, I’m always trying to make up for lost time, and this salad feels like the best way to enjoy all of what the season has to offer. And while I love a leafy green salad, it’s nice to know that they don’t always have to be the star of the show. — Jaya Saxena, Correspondent at Eater.com
Zaynab Issa, Bon Appétit
I’m a sucker for any salad with cheese, and halloumi has a particular hold on me. So this salad, from Bon Appétit’s August 2022 issue, had me from the jump. But it really won my heart thanks to its tangy dressing, which is a simple mix of lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, and sumac (a highly underrated ingredient). The molasses and sumac both impart a sour, sweet, flavorful depth that complements the fruity nectarine and provides a nice foil to the creamy halloumi. If pomegranate molasses isn’t an ingredient you tend to keep on hand, I’ve found that tamarind (in liquid form) is a perfect substitute. You can also throw in some cucumbers, or even a yellow pepper, to enhance it, or crib this dressing for other salads. Consider it your summer salad starter pack to endlessly tweak and adapt — and devour. — Ellie Krupnick, Executive Director of Editorial Operations, Lifestyle
Julia Moskin, NYT Cooking
I eat a lot of kale, but usually sauteed or roasted. Raw kale salads tend to be a hit-or-miss proposition; the lesser versions make you so aware of their considerable roughage content that eating one can feel like performing an exorcism on your colon. More so than most leafy greens, kale needs to be handled with a respectful but firm hand. That’s why I love Julia Moskin’s lemon-garlic kale salad: while there’s a ton of raw kale in here, it’s tamed and balanced by the addition of toasted sliced almonds, grated parm, and a lemon-garlic dressing whose acidity gives everything an invigorating kick. I’ve watched people who don’t really “do” kale ask for seconds of this salad; when I served it at a recent potluck, not a single sliced almond was left behind. And like any good salad, it takes well to adaptation: you can use different nuts, or leave out the cheese to make it vegan, or use less dressing, and it will still work. It is, in other words, a solid-green hit. — Rebecca Flint Marx, Editor of Eater at Home
Leila Heller, Persian Feasts
The freshness of Shirazi salad — and the amount of summer tomatoes and cucumbers you can incorporate into it — makes it one of the best salads to enjoy during the hotter months. This recipe from Persian Feasts is easily adaptable; you can include pomegranate syrup for added sweetness, nix the radishes if you want, and play around with the herbs (dill, to me, is mandatory). The best part is crowning the salad with pomegranate seeds, which look like jewels, and diving in. — Kat Thompson, associate editor, Eater at Home
