I’m trying to make more of an effort to start meals with a salad, inspired by various threads here — both about eating healthfully and about tasty salads.
Did you eat a salad today? What did you put in it? What dressing? What sweet / crunchy / salty elements?
Here are some of the related threads I was referring to:
Today’s SOTD was arugula with slivered almonds, crumbled parmesan, and a dressing of cider vinegar, lemon juice, honey, and olive oil.
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Yesterday’s SOTD was thinly shaved fennel with a dressing of lemon juice, cider vinegar, honey, and olive oil, with shavings of aged cheddar.
Good idea for a thread. I really enjoy salads and it will be nice to see the different variations that people are making. Dinner tonight was a Niçoise inspired salad with potatoes, green beans, olives, eggs, tuna, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and a mustardy, garlicky, olive oil dressing.
Your fennel salad has really given me a craving. Fennel has such a lovely flavour.
Totally agree, and it’s so complementary to many things. I like it best with citrus (as I’ve said often around these parts) but it’s nice with similarly shaved apple or pear too, and great mixed with arugula.
I also like it in a panzanella or fattoush for crunch instead of cucumber.
You nicoise sounds lovely, though I’ve been slow to like olives.
Right now I need to finish the bag of arugula 
— so going to look for some variations, or I’ll end up eating a version of today’s salad every other day this week 
I’m trying to eat salads for lunch most if not every day. Got a ton of butter crunch lettuces and kale coming out of the garden at the moment and just tossing in whatever veg odds and ends are drifting around the fridge. Today had a bit of beet green risotto left over from last night on the side.
Good idea!
I made a coleslaw today. Rough chopped the remainder of a head of cabbage (around 2 cups of chopped cabbage), a couple tbsp white sugar, a couple tbsp white condimento, a drizzle of tamari, a drizzle of sesame oil, a splash of vegetable oil, and some pepper.
I found this “Baby Romaine” lettuce on clearance today. I mixed it with a few chopped tomatoes and some shredded carrots to make a simple little side salad to go with dinner.
A small amount of light Italian dressing was added.
Please share! We need the prod / inspiration!
What is this?
I love a good “asian” slaw (which in my book is pretty much anything with toasted sesame oil, lol)
Also slaws with vietnamese-ish dressing (nuoc cham-esque).
But I need to finish this bag of arugula before I can switch to the next thing, or it will go bad 
Just curious - do people eat both - a salad and an entree/warm dish for dinner or either a salad or something else ? For us it tends to be either a salad or something else but rarely both
If you take a look at the discussion on some of the thread links I included, it was about starting with the vegetable component of your meal for various reasons – which is a new effort for me.
I sometimes make a big main course salad as my whole meal, but not often. In the summer, mostly cold components, in the fall & winter often including roasted vegetables.
The salads I shared above were very simple and only a part of my meal, followed by warm things.
Others have posted meal salads (@jammy’s nicoise above for eg).
So, whatever kind of salad you made and ate today is good to share!
Our dinner tonight was a small side salad and a slice of leftover Quiche (warmed).
Great idea for a thread!
Just curious - do people eat both
I do a salad as meal; most recently based on the remains ofa banh mi salad from Mendocino Farms. Husband does his salad as a side to a carb and a protein.
I have a salad with dinner almost every day. If I don’t have salad for more than two days, I crave it.
Also, who knew we can trademark our threads here now!
What a fabulous idea for a thread! One can never have enough salad-themed topics on a food site - just like one can never have too much salad.
Very much looking forward to sharing my daily salads here now, too (besides WFD, of course, and some of the other existing ones linked) 
One of my favorite fennel salads has very thinly shaved fennel, pomegranate & blue cheese in a zesty walnut vinaigrette (walnut oil, walnut mustard, sherry & champagne vinegars, s&p, very finely diced shallot, and chopped fennel fronds). Another version I make is with grapefruit when poms are not in season. I cannot count the times I’ve been asked to bring this to potlucks or share the ‘recipe.’ 
We often have what we call “bits and pieces” for dinner. Small amounts of various foods. eg:
Yesterday I learned that pesto and soba noodles play well together for cold noodle salads. Also, baby bok choy, thinly sliced, makes a perfectly fine salad green:
Unsure as to whether this is the type of salad OP had in mind, but it’s veg in vinaigrette, which counts in my book. French potatoe salad with potatoes, celery, onion tops, parsley and (OK…) a little bacon, tossed in your standard 3:1 vinaigrette. This will go with tonight’s dinner of oil-roasted salmon.
Last night it was cukes in an Asian-inspired vinaigrette:
1 T. rice vinegar
1/2 T. honey
A few drops of sesame oil
Parsley to garnish
May I introduce my favorite lettuce in the world?
It’s a lettuce of many names – known as mâche in France, songino in Italy, or lamb’s lettuce / corn salad in anglophone countries… but the most imaginative ones are its German, Austrian, or Swiss names – i.e. Rapunzel, Feldsalat, Vogerlsalat (bird salad), Hasenöhrchensalat (rabbit ear lettuce), Mäuseöhrchensalat (mouse ear lettuce), Sonnenwirbel (sun swirl), Schmalzkraut (!), and Nüsslisalat (nut salad) – likely for its wonderfully nutty flavor. It’s high in iron, folic acid, and vitamin C, and a relative of valerian.
It must be a bit of a bitch to grow in the Mid-Atlantic states bc I rarely see it around, but it is abundant in many parts of Europe. Don’t ask me why, I am not a gardener 
What I DO know is that it is also a massive PITA to clean: it grows in small clusters, so besides washing & spinning it well to remove any sand, you also should pinch off the tiny root holding the cluster together, as it can be tough and unpleasant to eat. My punishment for some lip I gave an asshole chef in a professional kitchen I apprenticed at briefly in my 20s was having to clean several kilos of it. It is not fun.
But it is so, so worth it. The leaves are tender, yet surprisingly meaty in nature. It is perfect on its own, but mixes well with Belgian endive, radicchio or arugula. It is a winter lettuce and can stand up to heartier ingredients like diced HBEs, avocado & walnuts for a satisfying dinner salad.
If you are lucky to find some back in the good ole US of A I recommend dressing the leaves lightly (I prefer a nut oil based vinaigrette) & toss them gently, as they bruise easily and wilt quickly (hold the Ranch for once, ya savages 
).
And so, I give you tonight’s mouse ear salad with baby plum tomatoes & chopped walnuts in a light walnut vinaigrette topped with pan-fried oyster mushrooms & crispy shallots & garlic.
Austrians also like to add a splash of pumpkin seed oil to finish their Vogerlsalat, and crispy bacon can always stand in for fried shrooms…. whatever floats your boat 
