What makes a classic salad? Almost all of the recipes here are garden salads, which means they are primarily mixtures of leafy greens and vegetables. (No disrespect to chicken salad or a fruity ambrosia, that is not our focus here.) What you will find instead are time-tested salads with proper names — your Waldorfs and Caesars, Greeks and Italians — as well as salads with basic templates that have been riffed on in thousands of restaurants and millions of homes — a kale salad with dried fruit, a wedge salad with a rich dressing, a green salad with crispy coated goat cheese. One element they do all reliably share is just how delicious they are.
Caprese Salad
Matt Taylor-Gross
It’s one of the most simple and delicious of salads. It’s also one that doesn’t work without the highest quality ingredients: fresh mozzarella, verdant basil, the most flavorful extra-virgin olive oil you can wrangle, and a ripe tomato (otherwise, why bother?). At it’s best, there’s nothing better.
Greek Salad
Matt Taylor-Gross
Crunchy, briny, salty, cool — this salad is near foolproof. Snappy cucumbers, chunky tomatoes, briny olives, and salty feta with lemon, oregano, and mint, it’s also richly textured and intensely flavorful. Don’t @ me: It’s the best salad to eat with a pizza.
Wedge Salad with Tahini Green Goddess Dressing
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Shell Royster
Two icons — the wedge salad and green goddess dressing — can be found in this delicious and striking recipe, where a nutty, tahini-forward take on the classic mayo- and herb-filled salad dressing is drizzled over giant slabs of refreshingly crunchy iceberg lettuce.
Caesar Salad
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
The beloved Caesar salad is such a reliable — and indeed irresistable — formula, it works nearly any place and any time. (I am looking at you, every box of airport convenience store Caesar salad I have ever eaten.) This recipe ups the umami even more with delectable anchovy butter croutons.
Big Italian Salad
Julia Hartbeck
Radicchio, romaine, and iceberg bring refreshing crunch and a slightly bitter flavor to this bright and flavorful salad, chock-full of treats like peperoncini, olives, and cherry tomatoes. It’s tossed in an oil-and-vinegar dressing made extra rich with a touch of mayonnaise.
Niçoise Salad
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Stylist Barrett Washburne
This recipe for another classic south-of-France dish comes from the doyenne of French cooking in the United States: Julia Child. Hearty and delicious, it’s a heaping salad of tinned tuna and steamed potatoes, blanched green beans and hard-boiled eggs, olives and anchovies. It’s no wonder Child called this one of her favorite summer meals.
Classic Coleslaw
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Torie Cox & John Somerall / Prop Styling by Audrey Davis
Raw cabbage salad has roots that date back to ancient Rome and is perhaps best known for its vital role as coleslaw in the barbecue extended universe. “When you visualize a table loaded with barbecue, I bet there is a heaping bowl of slaw,” says barbecue expert Matt Horn. His recipe dishes up a slaw with a tart-sweet dressing that’s designed to cut through the rich, fatty intensity of barbecued meat as a side or even sandwich topping.
Kale Salad with Cranberries, Almonds, and Goat Cheese
Maxwell Cozzi
Sweetened with dried cranberries, made salty and tart with fresh goat cheese, and given crunch and nutty flavor with sliced almonds, this ideal winter salad is also delicious any time of year. Don’t forget to massage your kale!
Tomato, Basil, and Cucumber Panzanella with Grated Tomato Balsamic Vinaigrette
This traditional Tuscan bread salad was designed to make use of stale bread. Here food writer Samin Nosrat helps day-old sourdough along by making oven-roasted croutons, which make for extra-crunchy companions to refreshing cucumbers, snappy red onion, and juicy ripe tomatoes.
Grilled Chicken Salad with Herby Tahini Dressing
Robby Lozano / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Josh Hoggle
Sliced grilled chicken breast is the stalwart, hearty companion to so many salads. (I see you Caesar salad. And taco salad. And kale salad.) This recipe does right by this classic pairing by infusing both the chicken marinade and tahini dressing with herby, tangy flavor from za’atar seasoning, Dijon mustard, and lemon juice, while a little honey evens it all out.
Cucumber Salad
Julia Hartbeck
This simple salad of quick pickled, thinly sliced cucumber rounds is as elegant as it is easy to make. Vinegar and sugar give it a hint of sweetness and a burst of acidity.
Grilled Onion Lyonnaise
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Shell Royster
A traditional salade Lyonnaise incorporates bitter, crisp frisée, salty bacon, a warm vinaigrette, and a barely cooked poached egg. Justin Chapple added sweet grilled torpedo onions for an extra smoky-sweet element to the classic salad recipe.
Salade Catalane
Mary Jo Hoffman
Roasted red pepper, anchovy, and hard-boiled egg are the three core components of a classic salad Catalane. Food writer Steve Hoffman developed this recipe for a chopped salad–version after moving to the sleepy French town of Autignac in Languedoc-Roussillon, which he writes about in his memoir A Season for That.
Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint
Julia Hartbeck
Break out the melon baller! Jacques Pépin loves this recipe for summertime, when watermelons are at their ripest and most sweet. Cool mint, bright lemon juice, briny kalamata olives, salty feta cheese, and a hint of Tabasco sauce make this savory-sweet dish a summer staple.
Classic Potato Salad
Diana Chistruga
There are many variaties of potato salad out in the world, and this recipe aims to capture the archetype: a classic American potato salad. With a creamy mayonnaise base, it’s full of herbs, onion, and celery, with a hint of Dijon mustard.
Lemony Waldorf Salad
Quentin Bacon
The late Mark Peel, a 1990 F&W Best New Chef, shared his take on a classic Waldorf salad, which traditionally combines apples, celery, and walnuts. Here he adds minerally frisée, romaine lettuce, and sliced radishes alongside a lemon, walnut oil, and cumin vinaigrette in place of the standard mayonnaise-based dressing.
Cobb Salad with Roasted Sweet Onion Dressing
Con Poulos
Hearty, hetergenous Cobb salads classically feature chopped romaine lettuce, boiled eggs, avocado, blue cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and chicken dressed in a vinaigrette. Chef Sean Doty adds buckweat sprouts, corn kernals, toasted pecans, roasted sweet Vidalia onions, and garlic into the mix.
Baked Goat Cheese Salad
Food & Wine named this recipe from Alice Waters one of its 40 best in 2018. This dish of fresh, tender lettuce; baked goat cheese coated in thyme and breadcrumbs; and crunchy garlic croutons is both special and satisfying.
Taco Salad
Helene Dujardin
Fast and delicious, this taco salad is a great way to use leftover roast chicken or repurpose a storebought rotisserie bird. A Tex-Mex favorite, it boasts plenty of flavor from cumin, chili powder, and cilantro.
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