These salad recipes will be the star of your spring picnic or summer barbecue. They make delicious dinner ideas too. Make the most of seasonal ingredients like juicy mangoes or tomatoes and impress your friends and family with these scrumptious recipes.
The beauty of a salad is that it can be anything you like: main course, nourishing bowl, side dish, desk lunch, barbecue buffet or picnic fare. It can be casual or elegant, warm or cold, vegetarian or not. It’s the perfect one bowl meal you can design to suit your personal tastes and hunger level. Or if you’re catering for a crowd, a fuss-free way to accommodate multiple dietary requirements.
How to build salad recipes
So how do you build a salad? The Test Kitchen breaks salads into six main components, but you can add or remove these, depending on the type of salad you’re making. The components are: the leaf base, alternatively the grain base; pick your protein, add some vegetables, sprinkle on some toppers (coconut flakes, nut and seed mix, cheese, pomegranate seeds etc), and bring all the elements together with a drizzle of dressing.
Just start from your base and work your way up to the dressing, selecting the ingredients in each category as you go to create a unique salad every time. You have complete flexibility to pick and choose each component – or whether to include a component – to suit your mood and the occasion.
Salads boring? No way!
Looking for a more specific salad? Try some of these:

Chicken and watercress pasta salad

Thai beef salad

Lamb fillet salad with green pesto dressing

Couscous, red cabbage and walnut salad

Ultimate Greek salad

Chicken, olive and fetta salad

Julie Goodwin’s brown rice salad

Five grain salad with feta and oranges

Grilled broccoli and barley salad

Jewelled couscous salad

Lentil, green bean and fetta salad

Chicken and green mango salad

Peachy asparagus and mozzarella salad with pistachio mint pesto

Corn and mixed bean salad

Burrito salad bowl

Chicken, burghul and pomegranate salad

Bean and tomato salad with hazelnut dressing

Salad Niçoise

Red salad

Potato and salmon salad with mustardy dressing

Mediterranean grain salad

Bean salad with creamy basil dressing

Roast pumpkin, spinach and fetta salad

Beetroot, asparagus and fetta salad

Haloumi, asparagus and cherry tomato salad

Cobb salad

Crispy potato salad with aioli

Chicken caesar salad with asparagus and kale

Quinoa salad with zucchini and fetta

Roasted brussels sprouts and lentil salad

Quinoa salad with char-grilled vegetables and tuna

Broccoli, pea and quinoa salad

Roast pumpkin, capsicum, lentil and quinoa salad

Duck and fig salad

Julie Goodwin’s prawn and mango salad

Zucchini Greek salad

Pork fillet salad with beetroot & blood orange

Prawn salad with chargrilled watermelon & haloumi

Zesty yoghurt potato salad with salmon

Julie Goodwin’s easy potato salad

Shaved Brussels sprout salad with pecorino

Cherry & herb jewelled rice salad

Green salad with red currants & orange dressing

Mediterranean steak salad with farro

Watermelon feta salad

Salmon and quinoa salad

Farro & green bean salad

Smashed cucumber salad

Korean beef salad with kimchi crunch slaw

Spinach, haloumi and potato salad

Air fryer pork belly salad with ginger & soy dressing

Prawn cocktail salad

Roasted capsicum salad with labne

Haloumi & mango salad

Grilled corn salad

Burrata salad with crunchy bread, zucchini & mint dressing

Roast vegetable salad with garlic mustard dressing

Chicken & potato salad with zesty yogurt dressing

Prawn & watermelon salad with fetta & sumac onions

Crispy crackling pork belly salad

Prawn and mango salad with rice paper crisps

Bloody Mary tomato salad

Ocean trout salad with edamame miso dressing

Thai beef salad with chilli lime dressing

Pearl couscous salad with turkey & pomegranate

Minestrone pasta salad

Spicy potato salad

Green bean salad with lemon & parsley dressing

Watermelon salad with labne

Orzo pasta salad

Tomato salad with creamed fetta

Prawn Caesar salad

Perfect potato salad

Pasta salad with tomato and crisp prosciutto



Chilli chicken with BLT salad

Grilled pork with quinoa and kale salad

Avocado and mandarin chicken noodle salad

Lamb with heirloom tomato and almond salad

Lime and coriander beef salad

Barbecued squid salad
