The weather has turned warmer or hotter or downright unbearable this summer, so summer salads are your go-to meal prep option!
Besides, using seasonal produce means fresh nutrition by the forkful in veggie summer salad recipes!
Think tomatoes, squash, zucchini, asparagus, cucumbers, peppers, greens, berries, corn, carrots, and okra, not to mention fresh herbs like basil making summer salads with veggies even better!
Also, most greens are very hydrating, so that can be a big help when the heat is trying to drain your energy and hydration levels.
Summer salads for dinner are a great option, with many having cold toppings or perhaps warm ones too.
At the usual get-togethers or reunions, summer salads for a party are always a hit, especially when complimenting a grilled main entree—like these recipes!
There are so many quick summer salads where the slicing and dicing can be done the day before or earlier in the day.
Maybe you are partial to summer salads with fruit.
That is wonderful because berries, peaches, grapes, cherries, apricots, and kiwi taste delicious in a salad!
Easy summer salads could come in the form of a lettuce salad, a fruit salad, a pasta salad, or a protein topped salad!
I love this Easy Arugula Salad as a simple side with a bit of lemon, a little honey… -chef’s kiss-
If losing weight is a goal with your preparation of salads, look for hidden sugars or calories that try to sneak in through dressings and sauces.
Summer salads with chicken are trendy, followed closely by steak, salmon, and ground beef!
So consider the sky the limit when putting together a summer salad, and may this list of forty-two summer salads serve as great inspiration!
Don’t miss #37, it might just be my favorite!
1. Cowboy Salad
Some lettuce-based summer salads are more toppings than lettuce, like this Cowboy Salad.
Just check out this list of ingredients, including corn, black beans, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, avocado, red bell pepper, red onion, and jalapeno are some serious add-ins!
Summer salad recipes can be dinner all on their own with veggies added in.
This Mediterranean Orzo Salad is loaded with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, chickpeas, and seasonings!
Great instructions on how to combine steps so it can be ready in as little as twenty minutes!
For quick summer salads, consider this asparagus, cherry tomatoes, chopped walnuts, and feta salad!
The colors alone of green, red, white, and brown make it an inviting dish!
The homemade balsamic vinaigrette is light and lovely.
Sweet and savory summer salads with fruit are the category this next salad falls into!
Plus it passes off as gourmet don’t you think?
Just look at this gorgeous combination of baby spinach, broccoli, avocado, blueberries, feta cheese, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds!
The homemade poppy seed ranch dressing adds just the right touch!
If you like summer salads with chicken, there are quite a few on this list!
Here we have chicken paired with quinoa.
Other ingredients include red onion, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach, cucumber, avocado, and red bell pepper.
Ranch dressing is great or uses your favorite!
Light side summer salads with veggies like this cucumber one are easy to make and pleasing to most!
It calls for sour cream, but Greek yogurt could be substituted, be mixed with vinegar, sugar, and chopped dill.
This salad does need several hours to chill before serving.
Low-carb summer salads typically will have protein of some sort and here it is shrimp!
It is mixed with celery, onion, mayo, lemon juice, and Old Bay seasoning.
Chill for the absolute best taste!
This shrimp salad could be enjoyed on a bed of lettuce or as a sandwich.
Creamy summer salads for a party are just perfect with some chicken thrown in!
Easily recognizable and the pasta invites everyone to give it a try!
Macaroni, red bell pepper, carrots, celery, chicken, corn, onion, and a homemade dressing combine beautifully and should stay chilled.
Filling summer salads for dinner can be amazingly tasty like this Grilled Salmon Salad.
The basic ingredients of lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, and salmon are easily customizable.
The champagne vinaigrette dressing is blended in a food processor.
When easy summer salads are found that are as stunning as this one, hang on to the recipe because it may become a favorite!
A very diverse collection of ingredients here from heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peaches, blackberries, mozzarella marinated cheese balls, and basil creatively arranged on a platter with a drizzle of balsamic glaze on top!
A great question most of us ask at some point is how do we get our kiddos to eat summer salads?
This post encourages us to get the kids in on deciding the ingredients, cutting them up, and spooning them in a jar.
Add a bit of dressing and let them shake it up!
FUN!
Fifteen minutes to make some summer salad recipes like this Grape Walnut Salad is a good thing since that is about all my attention span lasts some days!
Red and green grapes are cut in half, sour cream, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla are mixed together and the grapes are gently coated.
Top with chopped walnuts when ready to eat.
Perfect pairing!
The fun part about quick summer salads is that their name pretty much tells you what the ingredients are!
Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, avocado, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, and baby spinach comprise this salad.
A recipe for poppy seed dressing is included.
Beautiful!
DIfferent summer salads with fruit are all around, but this might come across this one more often.
Baby spinach, apple slices, dried cranberries, feta cheese, and walnuts.
A homemade dressing recipe is included.
Textures and flavors galore!
Lots of amazing Asian flavors shine in this summer salad with chicken!
The salad includes green cabbage, romaine, carrots, yellow bell pepper, chicken, scallions, and peanuts.
I love how everything is cut to bite-size!
The recipe for the spicy peanut dressing is included.
Summer salads with veggies can be gluten-free with Italian dressing and gluten-free pasta!
Bell peppers, grape tomatoes, peas, cucumber, radishes, parsley, gluten-free pasta, and “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning!
Vinaigrette recipe included.
Allow several hours to chill before serving.
Great choices for low-carb summer salads would be antipasto salads!
This recipe includes keto-friendly olives, anchovies, cheese, and meats.
It can be served in a bowl with lettuce, avocado, and olive oil dressing or all the ingredients can be laid out on a charcuterie board and served with toothpicks.
Either way is delicious!
As far as summer salads for a party go, this one is a great choice with quinoa, kale, avocado, beet, blueberries, and cucumbers!
Instructions are given on how to massage and soak the kale to soften it.
Lots of textures, colors, and flavors here!
I think food tastes better when it is colorful, and summer salads for dinner are no exception!
Here shrimp are cooked in Italian seasonings and olive oil.
The salad includes shrimp, greens, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, red onion, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese.
A lemony vinaigrette recipe is included.
If peaches are your special treat of summer then easy summer salads that include them will be what you are seeking!
This salad has peaches, blueberries, avocado, red onions, pecans, mint, mozzarella balls, and lettuce.
A balsamic vinaigrette recipe is included.
Toss together, add dressing, and serve!
Everyone is familiar with a BLT sandwich, but how about BLT summer salads?
Here a bed of crisp lettuce is layered with bacon, tomatoes, and chicken.
The mayo with sugar-free BBQ sauce and pepper is mixed into the lettuce before the toppings are added!
variations or substitutions are needed.
This might be how I feel about this Broccoli Cashew Salad!
Broccoli, apple, pear, and red onion are cut into bite-size pieces and combined with dried cranberries and cashews.
The homemade dressing is easy to make and stir in!
Crossing the Tex-Mex border for quick summer salads is a great place for inspiration!
Here lettuce, chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, green onions, black beans, cheddar cheese, cilantro, and lime juice are combined with a dressing made of the ranch with taco seasoning!
Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds, diced avocado, or jicama.
Ole!
Summer salads with fruit may as well just be called summer in a bowl!
Cucumber, watermelon, strawberries, squeeze of lime, fresh mint, and feta cheese make this a creative and colorful bowl, not to mention a fiesta in your mouth!
A must-try for the flavor experience!
Keeping it super simple with summer salads with chicken?
Then, this recipe is a great choice!
It is made with spinach, pecans, goat cheese, sliced strawberries, and avocado with sliced chicken added on top.
The strawberry balsamic dressing recipe is light and tasty!
Summer salads with veggies should not be bland!
This recipe incorporates pasta, cream cheese, spinach, corn, garlic, and chili flakes!
A deliciously flavored pasta salad indeed!
Adjust the spiciness to your liking, and let this quick cheesy pasta recipe fill you up!
Swapping potatoes with cauliflower is common practice for low-carb summer salads since it has a similar texture without the carbohydrates.
It is loaded all right, with hard-boiled eggs, bacon, cheddar cheese, green onions, mayo, mustard, and seasonings!
Excellent instructions will have you coming back again and again!
Peas are making a comeback in summer salads for a party!
So many other savory ingredients are included too like bacon, cheddar cheese, and red onion along with a simple mayo and sour cream dressing.
Petite peas, or baby peas, really bring this salad to life with their delicate sweetness!
If lower-carb Chinese summer salads for dinner are what you are craving, this recipe has done the work for you!
I think the low-carb dressing is the game changer here!
Finely shredded lettuce, red cabbage, carrots, green onions, cilantro, and chicken fill the bowl.
Add the dressing when serving along with a garnish of sesame seeds or almond slivers.
For simple and easy summer salads, look for ingredients that complement each other!
Here we have pineapple, jalapeno, and cucumber as the main salad with red onion, cilantro, and lime juice added.
Surprising but refreshing all at the same time!
Serve with pita chips or as a topping for a grilled protein.
Maybe summer salads where you simply add the toppings provides the break you need from the kitchen.
If so, this recipe is happy to oblige.
An iceberg lettuce head is cut open into four or six wedges, and the toppings of bacon crumbles, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and blue cheese dressing are added.
It provides a stunning presentation, and those who are partaking get to do all the cutting!
As you have deducted by now, the dressings or sauces are what set summer salad recipes apart!
This one starts by making a honey garlic sauce.
Next, the salad is lettuce, red bell peppers, red onions, cucumber, and cheddar cheese.
Lastly, the cooked chicken is coated with hot sauce and honey garlic sauce.
Mind the spiciness of the hot sauce chosen!
A mandoline is a great tool for some quick summer salads that need uniform slicing like the cucumbers and radishes in this recipe.
It also includes green onions, fresh dill, olive oil, and lemon juice.
Keep the salad and dressing separate until the time to serve so every bite is crispy!
Summer salads with fruit could really pass as dessert!
Here strawberries, kiwi, honey, minced mint, and a bit of lime juice make a luscious combination.
Have a gentle hand while stirring and serve fairly soon after making.
If serving as a dessert, a scoop of ice cream could be in order!
Bacon, avocado, tomatoes, corn, and red onions are found on many summer salads with chicken, but this one also has honey mustard!
Not only that, half the honey mustard dressing is the chicken marinade, and the other half the salad dressing!
Delish!
Summer salads with veggies have so many fresh options!
Corn, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, red onions, asparagus, peppers, tomatoes, basil, and a crumbly cheese of your choosing are the basics of this salad.
The dressing recipe with herb-infused oil is included.
Cobb-based, low-carb summer salads are delicious and straightforward with toppings added in sections on top of the bed of lettuce.
This is a great recipe but do note that to keep it low carb, simply use a sweetener substitute for the honey in the dressing or go with your own favorite low-carb dressing.
38. Broccoli Salad
Broccoli gets common billing for summer salads for a party!
This recipe could easily be doubled for sharing.
It includes broccoli, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, and cheddar cheese cubes all lightly tossed in a creamy citrus poppyseed dressing.
Great flavors and textures!
Try this Creamy Broccoli Salad option too!
Hearty summer salads for dinner are the best way to end a day!
This might be the best of both worlds being hearty and low carb all in the same salad.
It includes ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, pickles, and a mayo-based dressing with seasonings and an alternative sweetener.
I’d take this in the place of a Big Mac any day!
When a little crunch is added to easy summer salads, you know it’s fresh!
And in this case, it might be a bit of a splurge since chili cheese Fritos are used in this corn salad of corn, bell pepper, cheese, and mayo.
Talk about easy!
Many summer salads start with a bowl of greens, cucumbers, and herbs.
But the highlight of this salad is prepared in the oven on a sheet pan loaded with cauliflower, chickpeas, olive oil, chili powder, paprika, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
Once cooked, add to the salad base along with a homemade vinaigrette and diced avocado!
Top-tier dinner salad!
I am ending this list of summer salad recipes with a scrumptious dessert salad, a Hawaiian cheesecake salad to be exact!
Tropical fruit with a cheesecake filling sounds amazing, right?
The fruits used are mango, mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits, kiwi slices, strawberries, and bananas.
The “dressing” is cream cheese and cheesecake pudding with vanilla creamer!
Combine and chill!
Everyone is going to love this!
The bottom line
When it is hot, summer salads rule the kitchen!
I hope these easy summer salads find their way into your heart and onto your table often!
Top 42 BEST Summer Salads
The weather has turned warmer or hotter or downright unbearable this summer, so summer salads are the go-to meal prep option!
Ingredients
- Cowboy Salad
- Vegan Mediterranean Orzo Salad
- Asparagus, Tomato, & Feta Salad With Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Blueberry Broccoli Spinach Salad With Poppyseed Ranch
- Ranch Chicken Quinoa Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
- Maryland Shrimp Salad
- Chicken Macaroni Salad
- Grilled Salmon Salad
- Summer Fruit Caprese Salad
- Cooking With Kids-Salad In A Jar
- Grape Walnut Salad
- Very Berry Avocado Salad
- Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad
- Indonesian Chicken Salad
- Veggie Gluten-Free Pasta Salad
- Low-Carb Antipasto Salad
- Kale Blueberry Salad With Quinoa
- Shrimp & Artichoke Green Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette
- Summer Peach Salad
- BLT Chicken Salad
- Broccoli Cashew Salad With Apples, Pears, & Cranberries
- Tex-Mex Chopped Chicken Salad
- Cucumber Watermelon Strawberry Salad
- Strawberry Spinach Salad With Grilled Chicken
- Cream Cheese Pasta
- Loaded Cauliflower Mock Potato Salad
- The Best Pea Salad
- Chinese Chicken Salad
- Pineapple Jalapeño Cucumber Salad
- Classic Wedge Salad
- Honey Hot Chicken Salad
- Cucumber Radish Salad
- Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Salad
- Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
- Grilled Summer Vegetable Salad
- Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad With Honey Dijon
- Broccoli Salad
- Big Mac Salad–Cheeseburger Salad
- Fritos Corn Salad
- Roasted Cauliflower Salad With Creamy Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
- Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad
Instructions
- Pick one or more options from our list of Summer Salads here!
- Start creating your new favorite dish.
- Share and comment! Did you make any changes to make it even better?