What are your favourites salads to make at home?
I’ve been making an adaptation of this Spinach Salad with Chicken, Mango and Raspberries salad since 2004. I often omit the chicken, and use peaches, nectarines or pears instead of mangoes. Sometimes I use arugula. I use white balsamic condimento instead of raspberry vinegar and regular balsamic. I don’t even buy regular balsamic anymore, the only balsamic I use is the white balsamic condimento.
Sandy Szwarc’s salad (posting the screenshot since there’s often a paywall )
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For a starter a couple of nights ago. Handful of watercress, thick slices of ready cooked beetroot (the sort from the supermarket that lasts for months in it’s packaging), chopped hazelnuts. Standard vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vinegar & Dijon.
Another starter is watercress, slices of chicory and slices of orange. Oil & vinegar dressing.
Our normal salad to accompany a tortilla is nothing more than lettuce, onion and tomato - cos that’s the salad we had at the SiL’s house in Mallorca, the first time we ever ate tortilla. Dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and a few dashes of Tabasco.
Does a classic celeriac remoulade count as a salad for this conversation?
I think the only main course salad we do is Delia Smith’s marinated prawn salad. The prawns get warmed through in a marinade of oil, spring onions, dill (or fennel) and ginger. It sits in the fridge for several hours or over night. Then it’s drained off and mixed with mayo. That sits on lettuce, sliced black olives, tomatoes and more spring onion. It needs bread unless we’re being virtuous.
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Sure, I’d say celeriac remoulade counts in this salad discussion.
The more dishes, the merrier 
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For planned leafy salads I’ve been on a Caesar salad kick for quite a while now.
Otherwise, unplanned leafy salads usually just chopped up romaine hearts and whatever is handy and sounds good. I always have cheese in the drawer and almost always have basil in the window so those would be the minimums. If I have cauliflower it’ll go in…but cauliflower has a short life expectancy here. 
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While I get the impression you’re probably talking about adding cauliflower to a mixed salad, you reminded me of 2 cauliflower salads I order, that I’ve not made at home.
One is a roasted cauliflower salad with a sweet soy sauce dressing that is served at Little Sister, a Dutch Indonesian restaurant and bar in Toronto . I’m friends with the owner, and I should see if her husband might share his recipe. This is the description on the menu:
Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Rujak, green onion, puffed rice and crispy onions
I don’t see anything quite like it online.
Photo credit to The Toronto Star
The other cauliflower salad I like is a Lebanese cauliflower dish served at a restaurant called Tabule in Toronto, which has a few locations . The cauliflower is fried, and the dressing is made with lemon and tahini.
This looks similar. Najib’s Special Cauliflower
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There are only two leafy green salads I use an actual recipe for, but both are terrific.
Every time I serve this to people, they can’t stop talking about it. I usually skip the pita, and also the butter, and just fry the almonds in olive oil. I also recommend cutting the dates smaller.
This dressing seems like a lot (two oils, two vinegars, two fruit juices), but it is perfectly balanced and works so well with the salad.
And speaking of cauliflower salads, this one from the cookbook Falastin is excellent.
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Someone’s copycat recipe for the Tao Tao Chinese Chicken Salad from Tao Tao in Sunnyvale. Tao Tao Chinese Chicken Salad
This was what I ordered at Tao Tao on my last visit, around 9 years ago.
- Sunnyvale
Tao Tao
We lunched at Tao Tao, which is famous for their Chinese Chicken Salad. It was unlike other Chinese Chicken Salads I’ve tried. This one included rice in the mix. We also shared Wor Won Ton Soup, Tao Tao Beef and Lemon Chicken. I really liked their Wor Won Ton. Very reasonably priced. We shared the lunch specials of each dish, rather than ordering a la carte.*
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I’ve recently been buying boxes of baby spinach for two different salads that we like as our side dish when we cook steaks. We usually forgo any other sides. Here are the outlines for 2 servings:
A large handful of baby spinach on each plate
4 strips of bacon, cooked drained and chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
3-4 cremini mushrooms, sliced thin
Freshly ground black pepper
Warmed poppyseed dressing drizzled over all
A large handful of baby spinach on each plate
Thinly sliced red onion (I soak in ice water and then dry)
Gorgonzola cheese
Dried cranberries
Candied walnuts
Balsamic vinaigrette
Cracked black pepper
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This. I almost always have red/yellow bell peppers, sugar snap peas, radishes, olives of some type, etc. - so those usually find their way in. Thinly sliced fennel is also common. DH is partial to Newman’s Own Light Caesar vinaigrette so I buy that for him and make my own dressing according to whim - often enough it’s my cheater Caesar (mayo, fish sauce, lemon juice, garlic, pepper, parmesan), but it varies. I made a creamy preserved lemon and dill dressing a few weeks ago that I was obsessed with - I think I had a salad every night for a week just to have an excuse to eat it.
The most common “planned” salad I make is fennel slaw - it’s about half and half fennel and purple cabbage, plus a ton of chopped cilantro. Sometimes radishes. Dressing is mayo, lime juice and cider vinegar, fennel pollen, ground coriander and a pinch of cumin.
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I really love a good kale salad. I’ve been riffing on this recipe for a good while now, I especially like it with cubed roasted sweet potatoes:
https://www.101cookbooks.com/genius-kale-salad/
@biondanonima mentioned fennel slaw, this is my all-time favorite version. A great lunch all on it’s own:
Shoot, now my mouth is really watering. Last one!
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That’s a wholllle lot of my favorite things in one recipe, I can’t wait to try this.
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I’m interested in hearing more about the preserved lemon and dill dressing. What else is involved?
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I combined mayonnaise and Greek yogurt (about two parts mayo to one yogurt), added fresh lemon juice, chopped preserved lemon, dill, cracked pepper and a bit of onion powder and kept adjusting until it tasted good. Probably one quarter of a preserved lemon to 3/4 c of mayo, plus a tablespoon of the salty preserved goo from the jar. Addictively tangy!
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@Harters
This looks good: Apple, Celery, Celeriac and Cashel Blue Slaw (or other favourite Blue)
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Spinach with apples, blue cheese and toasted walnuts with just a light coating of vinaigrette. Heaven.
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Some interesting salads and essays here:
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I like this salad which I started making when someone here on CH mentioned it. It’s simple but is a nice combo of ingredients that I tend to have on hand. I would have never thought to eat a salad which is mainly celery.
Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan Recipe | Bon Appétit (bonappetit.com)
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