Salads

Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad is healthy and delicious with maple balsamic vinaigrette, candied pecans, cranberries, and goat cheese.

Herby Greek Chicken Salad with baked chicken, spinach, avocado, red onion,pine nuts, and an amazing Greek salad dressing. This fresh and flavorful dinner salad recipe is a filling, clean meal worthy of putting on repeat!

The good news is, this spinach salad is cool, crisp and refreshing on a hot summer’s day (not to mention super nutritious and filling!).

The bad news is…we must cook chicken. From a scientific standpoint, this does require heat.

I don’t make up the rules. Nor do I often follow them.

But the good news is (part two), the chicken is crazy tender and lovely, and can just as easily be grilled or baked…pick your passion!

AND the good news is (part three) this salad is CRAZY herby and will take you away on a mental vacation to the beautiful Mediterranean.

At first glance, this recipe appears to call for eleventy billion ingredients; however, you’ll notice many of them are herbs or spices for the salad dressing and the chicken marinade, many of which cross-over to both the dressing and the marinade. 

AND most of which you likely already have in your spice collection!

Don’t worry, the process is easy – it’s a 3-stepper.

We..

1. Make the dressing
2. Marinate and bake the chicken (okay, that’s two steps, but three always sounds more enticing than four).
3. Assemble the salad.

Here’s how this plays out in detail:

Arugula Strawberry Salad with Pickled Red Onions, Feta, Pistachios, Avocado and Strawberry Vinaigrette is a fresh, ultra flavorful salad perfect for serving as a side dish! Add your favorite protein to turn it into a main entree!

What makes a salad amazing?  

Well. I have opinions.

There needs to be a sweet element, a tangy element, a creamy element, lots of bulk, plenty of crunch, and the whole thing needs to be vibrant and pretty.

For me, provided the above mentioned boxes are checked, I am SUPER into salad. If one of more are missing? Foggetaboutit. 

This strawberry salad with pickled red onions, feta cheese and homemade strawberry vinaigrette fills all my salad needs with flying colors. 

The best part? You can add grilled chicken for a filling, well-balanced meal that takes your taste buds for a real wild ride.

About 17,000 years ago, I posted a recipe for Pickled Red Onions. Have you pickled onions yet? It’s fun! And easy. And makes a salad extra pleasy (<- don’t punch me). There’s just something about the pickled version of an onion that takes the whole experience up a notch.

But don’t worry…I know we’re all short on time and attention span these days, so if you need to keep your onions un-pickled, I won’t judge you.

Let’s make this recipe!

Just a really great, easy green summer salad recipe with spring greens, avocado, sunflower seeds, carrot, cherry tomatoes, brown rice, and more! This nourishing, light yet filling entree salad recipe for dinners or lunches will keep you satisfied during the hot summer months. If it’s hot AF degrees where you live and you’re looking for …

The best Chicken Caesar Salad with balsamic baked chicken and homemade lemony Caesar salad dressing. This delicious Caesar is paleo and keto.

Black Bean Corn Salad with lemon poppy seed dressing is a fresh and vibrant side dish perfect for summer gatherings. It can also be used as a condiment for tacos, burrito bowls, or green salads!

I know. Corn.

I know.

Some folks love it, some folks abhor it, some folks love-abhor it because it is fantastically delicious but tends to be heavily genetically modified and – well – void of anything nutritionally meaningful.

Truthfully, I don’t consume corn often because I keep my diet low-inflammatory and choose my sources of inflammation with much scrutiny. BUT I do get a great amount of enjoyment out of the kernel, so I’ll cook with it on occasion. And when I do, I’m sure to get the most bang for my inflammatory buck. 

Meaning, I use it in a way that will bring me great joy. 

For instance: corn salad. Fresh and spunky, magical on, around, or in just about anything.

Corn salad is particularly amazing when combined with black beans, bell pepper, tomato, onion and a homemade lemon poppy seed dressing. Everything comes together in an incredibly fresh, crunchy, creamy, tangy amalgamation to make your taste buds swoon.

You can make it with fresh corn or canned corn!

How about we whip this out right quick?

Crispy Mediterranean Chicken Salad with a fresh, zesty lemon herb tahini dressing, cherry tomatoes, avocado, arugula, and cucumber. This nutritious dinner recipe is packed with flavor and is perfect for anyone who loves a big vibrant meal as well as those on a carb-conscious, paleo, or keto diet.

If you’re a fan of a.) zesty, briny Mediterranean flavors, b.) crispy, tender chicken, c.) big ol salads jam packed with goodies and/or d.) creamy salad dressings, this is the ultimate meal for you!

Perfectly crispy yet moist chicken is combined with all the good veggies, and everything is swaddled in the most amazing creamy zesty tahini salad dressing. 

If you’ve never heard of tahini, or if you have never made a sauce or dressing using tahini, lean in and trust me on this one! Tahini makes for an amazing creamy salad dressing with health benefits!

The concept behind the salad is simple: we bake up chicken thighs that have been marinating in goodness, whip up a zesty creamy tahini dressing while the chicken is baking, then throw everything in a big ol’ bowl and toss it all together.

Let’s make it!

All the Good Veggies Detox Salad with Lemon-Parsley Dressing is a clean and nutritious salad recipe that is vegan, paleo, whole30 and requires less than 30 minutes to prepare.

If you’re anything like me, you go off the rails every once in a while with food and subsequently feel the need to clean house. I find after consuming too much sugar, fat, or just food in general, my body naturally craves a variety of vegetables.

Sometimes cleaning out your digestive system via fibrous whole foods is just what you need to revamp your metabolism, regain your energy and lift any brain fog.

More often than not, I eat my vegetables cooked because I find they are easier to digest, but when the hankering for a big ass salad hits, I listen.

The best salads, in my humble opinion, are those that contain a variety of vegetables (and fruit!) with a citrusy herby dressing and some type of nut or seed for a little crunch. I also love adding goat feta to salads for that creamy tang, and/or animal protein depending on what I feel my body needs.

Let’s dive into this big bowl of delicious detox.

Roasted Sweet Potato Kale Salad with Quinoa is a nutrient-dense meal for when you’re craving something clean, or a marvelous side dish for the family.

Do you ever find yourself eyeballs deep in a massive craving for foliage?

Truth be told, my cravings are almost always centered around veggies.

This roasted sweet potato kale salad (or bowl, if you will) with quinoa, hemp seeds, and honey mustard dressing is one of those recipes you can default to when you’re feeling..

a.) A need for something green and light

b.) Low on vitamins and complex carbs

c.) Something crunchy!

d.) A big bowl of superfood that takes you time to power your way through

This super simple bowl is embarrassingly easy…to the extent that I almost didn’t post it. But after a conversation with my brother’s girlfriend when we both were jonesing for something big, fresh, and light yet filling, I whipped up this bowl and it was just what we needed. Sometimes those silly easy recipes are all you need for inspiration. 

Cod salad with basil-walnut pesto is so easy to make and a quick and delicious dinner that can be prepared any night of the week. This healthy recipe is all-things low-carb, low-FODMAP, paleo, keto, and Whole30.

As we all know, I’m a major salmon lover. Just check out my extensive salmon archives! 

In spite of the fact that I can put my Teriyaki Salmon Bowls, Mediterranean Salmon, and Pesto Salmon in Parchment Paper on repeat over and over, I’ve made it my mission to branch out to the other fishies.

Enter: Cod.

It’s no salmon, but it’ll do 😉

What I love about cod is it absorbs flavor of marinades really well, as it has a subtle, buttery flavor. For this recipe, I whipped up an easy coconut milk-based marinade using full-fat canned coconut milk, fresh basil, ginger, and lemongrass.

The result is magnificent! If you have your own favorite marinade, you can always whip that up instead, or just drizzle the fish with some avocado oil and lemon juice and a sprinkle of sea salt and call it bueno.

Serving the cod salad  with cherry tomatoes, avocado, and roasted pumpkin seeds, along with a homemade basil-walnut pesto as the dressing takes this fishuation (<- get it? fish…situation…buhdumching…??) up another 17k notches.

So let’s do it already!

Light and healthy Paleo Chinese Chicken Salad with sesame ginger dressing that is soy-free, sugar-free, and free of canola oil. This easy salad is filling and nutritious! Chinese Chicken Salad has always been one of my favorites – I love the crunch, the zestiness, the sweet and savory combination, and the fact that it is …

A quick, easy and filling spinach salad recipe with baked chicken, radishes, cucumber, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, carrot and feta. This low-FODMAP salad is a gut-friendly healthy meal.

If you follow a low-FODMAP diet to manage digestive issues, you know it can be nearly impossible to find certain products such as salad dressing or pasta sauce that don’t contain high-FODMAP ingredients like onions or garlic.

Sure, making everything from scratch is simple once you get the hang of it, but from time to time you want to throw together a meal that is both healthful and easy. Confession: I eat a lot of salad, but I don’t always make my own salad dressings. For those of you who love pasta or enchiladas, I’m sure you can relate when it comes to the sauce.

WELL. This just in!: