15 Salad Recipes That Aren't Boring
Get ready to ditch those sad desk salads and embrace a world of flavor explosions and veggie-licious goodness (that's a thing, right?). We're challenging you to upgrade your salad game with recipes that are anything but boring. We're going for vibrant colors, crunchy textures, and dressings so good you'll want to drink them straight from the bowl (we won't judge!).
From protein-packed powerhouses to BBQ-worthy masterpieces and everything in between, these salads are here to prove that healthy eating can be fun, exciting, and seriously delicious. Get ready to meet your new favorite meal.
Nutrient-Packed Colorful Super Salad
Move over, boring resolutions! This super salad is here to rock your world (and your tastebuds). It's bursting with so many vitamins and good vibes, you might actually turn into a superhero after the first bite.Recipe: Nutrient-Packed Colorful Super Salad
Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Roasted cauliflower, vibrant veggies, and a creamy tahini dressing? Consider us all aboard.Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Shredded Teriyaki Chicken Salad
This teriyaki chicken salad is bursting with fresh veggies and a sweet and savory dressing that will have you saying, "Pass the salad fork!" It's basically summer in a bowl, but you can totally eat it year-round. Recipe: Shredded Teriyaki Chicken Salad
Peanut Noodle Pasta Salad
Buckle up, because this peanut noodle pasta salad is about to become your new go-to recipe. It's the perfect blend of sweet, savory, and totally delish (you might not want to share, just sayin'). Recipe: Peanut Noodle Pasta Salad
Miso-Glazed Tofu and Noodle Salad
Get ready for a flavor journey to *adds echoing voice effect* Flavortown! This miso-glazed tofu and noodle salad is here to satisfy your umami needs.Recipe: Miso-Glazed Tofu And Noodle Salad
Summer Vegetable And Fonio Salad
This salad is about to become your new BBQ bestie! It's bursting with summery goodness, ancient grains (so fancy!), and a lemony vinaigrette that will make your taste buds sing. Recipe: Summer Vegetable And Fonio Salad
Southwestern Salad With Avocado Dressing
Fresh, flavorful, and packed with protein, this is basically a party in a bowl. Ready the cold beverages!Recipe: Southwestern Salad With Avocado Dressing
Rainbow Veggie Salad
This salad is like a rave in your mouth — but with way less questionable fashion choices. All your fave colorful veggies are here to party, and trust us, your tastebuds will thank you.Recipe: Rainbow Veggie Salad
Protein-Packed Roasted Vegetable Salad
Hold up, is your salad making other salads look weak? This protein powerhouse is here to fuel your daydreams AND your day-doings. Roasted veggies and power moves for the win!Recipe: Protein-Packed Roasted Vegetable Salad
Avocado Chicken Salad
Move over, boring salads! This chicken and avocado dream team is here to satisfy. It's basically a party in your mouth, and everyone's invited (especially your appetite). Recipe: Avocado Chicken Salad
Summer Vegetable Pesto Ribbon Salad
Get ready to spiralize into a summer daydream with this pesto-licious masterpiece. Zucchini, squash, and carrots never looked so good! (Spoiler alert: It tastes even better than it looks.) Recipe: Summer Vegetable Pesto Ribbon Salad
Tomato, Avocado, and Egg Salad
Tomatoes, avocado, and egg walk into a salad...and it's the BEST joke ever (told by your tastebuds). This salad is here to prove that healthy can be super delicious. Recipe: Tomato, Avocado, and Egg Salad
One-Pan Roasted Veggie Salad Bowl
Sheet-pan, meet your match. This recipe shows that one pan is all you need for a flavor explosion. Roasted veggies never looked (or tasted) so good. Recipe: One-Pan Roasted Veggie Salad Bowl
Rainbow Grilled Chicken Salad
You're not dreaming, this salad really is this vibrant! We're talking grilled chicken and a rainbow of veggies — because who says healthy can't also be a party in a bowl? Recipe: Rainbow Grilled Chicken Salad
Chopped Mediterranean Salad
Calling all feta fanatics! This Mediterranean masterpiece is here to transport your tastebuds straight to a sunny Greek isle. Warning: May induce serious drooling.Recipe: Chopped Mediterranean Salad
Want more salad recipes that you'll actually want to eat? Download the Tasty app to browse all of our favorite non-boring salads — no subscription required.
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Buzz Feed
16-05-2025
- Buzz Feed
15 Salad Recipes That Aren't Boring
Get ready to ditch those sad desk salads and embrace a world of flavor explosions and veggie-licious goodness (that's a thing, right?). We're challenging you to upgrade your salad game with recipes that are anything but boring. We're going for vibrant colors, crunchy textures, and dressings so good you'll want to drink them straight from the bowl (we won't judge!). From protein-packed powerhouses to BBQ-worthy masterpieces and everything in between, these salads are here to prove that healthy eating can be fun, exciting, and seriously delicious. Get ready to meet your new favorite meal. Nutrient-Packed Colorful Super Salad Move over, boring resolutions! This super salad is here to rock your world (and your tastebuds). It's bursting with so many vitamins and good vibes, you might actually turn into a superhero after the first Nutrient-Packed Colorful Super Salad Roasted Cauliflower Salad Roasted cauliflower, vibrant veggies, and a creamy tahini dressing? Consider us all Roasted Cauliflower Salad Shredded Teriyaki Chicken Salad This teriyaki chicken salad is bursting with fresh veggies and a sweet and savory dressing that will have you saying, "Pass the salad fork!" It's basically summer in a bowl, but you can totally eat it year-round. Recipe: Shredded Teriyaki Chicken Salad Peanut Noodle Pasta Salad Buckle up, because this peanut noodle pasta salad is about to become your new go-to recipe. It's the perfect blend of sweet, savory, and totally delish (you might not want to share, just sayin'). Recipe: Peanut Noodle Pasta Salad Miso-Glazed Tofu and Noodle Salad Get ready for a flavor journey to *adds echoing voice effect* Flavortown! This miso-glazed tofu and noodle salad is here to satisfy your umami Miso-Glazed Tofu And Noodle Salad Summer Vegetable And Fonio Salad This salad is about to become your new BBQ bestie! It's bursting with summery goodness, ancient grains (so fancy!), and a lemony vinaigrette that will make your taste buds sing. Recipe: Summer Vegetable And Fonio Salad Southwestern Salad With Avocado Dressing Fresh, flavorful, and packed with protein, this is basically a party in a bowl. Ready the cold beverages!Recipe: Southwestern Salad With Avocado Dressing Rainbow Veggie Salad This salad is like a rave in your mouth — but with way less questionable fashion choices. All your fave colorful veggies are here to party, and trust us, your tastebuds will thank Rainbow Veggie Salad Protein-Packed Roasted Vegetable Salad Hold up, is your salad making other salads look weak? This protein powerhouse is here to fuel your daydreams AND your day-doings. Roasted veggies and power moves for the win!Recipe: Protein-Packed Roasted Vegetable Salad Avocado Chicken Salad Move over, boring salads! This chicken and avocado dream team is here to satisfy. It's basically a party in your mouth, and everyone's invited (especially your appetite). Recipe: Avocado Chicken Salad Summer Vegetable Pesto Ribbon Salad Get ready to spiralize into a summer daydream with this pesto-licious masterpiece. Zucchini, squash, and carrots never looked so good! (Spoiler alert: It tastes even better than it looks.) Recipe: Summer Vegetable Pesto Ribbon Salad Tomato, Avocado, and Egg Salad Tomatoes, avocado, and egg walk into a it's the BEST joke ever (told by your tastebuds). This salad is here to prove that healthy can be super delicious. Recipe: Tomato, Avocado, and Egg Salad One-Pan Roasted Veggie Salad Bowl Sheet-pan, meet your match. This recipe shows that one pan is all you need for a flavor explosion. Roasted veggies never looked (or tasted) so good. Recipe: One-Pan Roasted Veggie Salad Bowl Rainbow Grilled Chicken Salad You're not dreaming, this salad really is this vibrant! We're talking grilled chicken and a rainbow of veggies — because who says healthy can't also be a party in a bowl? Recipe: Rainbow Grilled Chicken Salad Chopped Mediterranean Salad Calling all feta fanatics! This Mediterranean masterpiece is here to transport your tastebuds straight to a sunny Greek isle. Warning: May induce serious Chopped Mediterranean Salad Want more salad recipes that you'll actually want to eat? Download the Tasty app to browse all of our favorite non-boring salads — no subscription required.
New York Times
28-04-2025
- New York Times
17 Easy, Healthy Chicken Dinners That Are Anything but Boring
These recipes are light and nourishing and bring some weeknight dinner excitement to the table. Martha Rose Shulman's lemon and garlic chicken with cherry tomatoes. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Published April 28, 2025 Updated April 28, 2025 It's easy to hear the word 'chicken' around dinnertime and feel immediately bored. But what if, instead, we chose to see chicken in a more positive light? It's a nutritious main that can be transformed into thousands of healthy meals. Of course, healthy can look like different things to different people, but the recipes below are both light and nourishing, and prove that relying on an old standby doesn't have to mean meals that lack variety or excitement. Alex Lau for The New York Times Transform store-bought rotisserie chicken into something truly special with this Zainab Shah recipe. Smashing cucumbers, then salting them and letting them rest for 20 minutes, draws out their moisture, ensuring that they're crisp and well seasoned. This salad is even better after a couple days in the fridge, especially after soaking up the savory soy sauce, nutty sesame oil and spicy crushed red pepper. Recipe: Smashed Cucumber and Chicken Salad David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Store-bought sazón, a popular spice mix in Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America, can vary in flavor, but you can also make your own, with this recipe from Von Diaz. Use it as a marinade for chicken, and enjoy fragrant, well-seasoned breasts or thighs that can top salads or nutty grains like brown rice. Recipe: Sazón Chicken Breasts David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Here, Kay Chun makes use of the electric pressure cooker and boneless, skinless chicken thighs to speed up a normally long-simmering recipe. What emerges after a half an hour is tender, falling apart chicken in a creamy, savory rice porridge. Topping this with a fresh ginger and scallion sauce adds a fun zippiness. Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken Juk With Scallion Sauce Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Lidey Heuck uses avocado, rather than mayonnaise, as the base of this creamy green goddess dressing, run through with scallions, capers and garlic. Mix the dressing with shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken breasts. Recipe: Green Goddess Chicken Salad Sandwiches Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist; Hadas Smirnoff. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgepeth. This Sam Sifton recipe means you can have shawarma at home — no rotisserie required. The chicken is marinated for as little as an hour, but if you're really thinking ahead, make it in the morning and let the chicken marinate while you're at work, then serve with plenty of condiments: tahini sauce, chopped cucumbers and olives, and plenty of fresh herbs. Recipe: Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This simple recipe from Christian Reynoso is a perfect way to celebrate warm weather. A spicy marinade of brown mustard seed, soy sauce, garlic and ginger penetrates the meat and imbues it with flavor. Then, that sauce takes on charred depth after it's fired on the grill. Serve this with seasonal grilled vegetables or a punchy salad. Recipe: Hot-Mustard Grilled Chicken Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. The secret to making breast meat as tender and flavorful as dark meat, you'll see in this Eric Kim recipe, is pineapple. Fresh pineapple contains a group of enzymes called bromelain, which can break down the fibrous tissues. Make sure you marinate the meat for just the recommended 15 minutes. Much longer, and the meat will take on a gluey texture. Recipe: Pineapple-Marinated Chicken Breasts Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. When you're looking for a childhood comfort — or feeding an actual child — but want something lighter, go for these air-fryer chicken tenders. Eleanore Park's recipe has you start with a simple base of panko, paprika, and salt and pepper for the breading, but experiment with adding whatever herbs and spices you like. Recipe: Air-Fryer Chicken Tenders James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Yasmin Fahr's chicken thighs are tangy, spicy, creamy and sweet all at once thanks to honey, pickled jalapeño (both the brine and the pepper), and feta. Just make sure to cut the broccoli small, so it's ready at the same time as the chicken. Recipe: Spicy Honey Chicken With Broccoli James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Nargisse Benkabbou takes a popular Moroccan street food, tayb o'hari, and turns it into a salad. Canned chickpeas are warmed in olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper, and served over greens and herbs. Use canned green chiles or even mix in green salsa or hot sauce to streamline the dressing. Recipe: Chickpea-Chicken Salad With Green Harissa Dressing Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. The countdown to tomato season starts as soon as the weather warms up, but you can pregame with this Martha Rose Shulman recipe, which makes use of readily available cherry tomatoes. They get jammy and saucy when you cook them, bursting over the chicken breasts. Recipe: Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. It's rare to find salads that can hold up after being dressed, but the celery in Sue Li's recipe stays satisfyingly crisp for a few days under the tahini and wasabi based dressing. Feel free to dial it up or down — and to tuck any leftovers into a sandwich for lunch. Recipe: Chicken and Celery Salad With Wasabi-Tahini Dressing Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Here's another one for grilling season (though it can also be made on the skillet or in the oven). A combination of tahini, honey and olive oil takes on a gorgeous caramelized flavor, thanks to the sugar in the honey. Round them out, as the recipe's creator Yasmin Fahr suggests, with a side salad or roasted vegetables. Recipe: Grilled Tahini-Honey Chicken Thighs David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This Ali Slagle soup has enough tang to feel welcome even as the weather warms up. Boneless chicken thighs and greens get a bright punch from hot pickled peppers and their brine. Onion, tomato paste and cumin give the dish rich savoriness. Recipe: Quick-Braised Chicken With Greens Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. In this Alexa Weibel recipe, two big-league ingredients — punchy kimchi and sweet-savory hoisin sauce — team up beautifully to lend flavor to simple ground chicken, rice and lettuce. The kimchi has two jobs, getting cooked with the chicken and then serving as a garnish, while the hoisin sauce tames the tang and spice. Recipe: Kimchi Chicken Lettuce Wraps Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. The coconut broth in Ali Slagle's recipe takes its cues from Thai tom kha gai and adds gingery chicken meatballs, which can be made in the pot. Many commenters suggest instead using a sheet pan so you don't have to work in batches to brown them or worry about oil splatter. Lots of spinach tossed in at the end lends a vibrant green color. Recipe: Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Chris Lanier. Prop Stylist: Carla Gonzalez-Hart. This Yewande Komolafe dish proves that if you use powerful ingredients, you can get away with a short grocery list. Here, gochujang lends not just spice, but umami. Again, you can substitute whichever vegetables are seasonal or currently lingering in your refrigerator. Recipe: Sheet-Pan Gochujang Chicken and Roasted Vegetables Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
Buzz Feed
05-04-2025
- Buzz Feed
This Ridiculously Simple Recipe Is What I Make Whenever I'm Short On Time And Money, And I Guarantee It'll Be Your New Go-To
After a long afternoon on my feet spent cooking in a kitchen, the last thing I want to do is get home to preheat the oven and get to work chopping vegetables or brining a chicken breast. While my instinct tells me to pull up the first meal-delivery app that comes to mind, I try my best to stop myself and scour through my freezer to see what I can get creative with. This week, I found my favorite brand of soup dumplings hiding behind a quart of chicken stock and a bag of frozen peas — and I decided to whip up Tasty Resident Sarah Banh's (aka @grooviefoodiess) Spicy Peanut Sauce Soup Dumplings. Instead of the usual shower of soy sauce that typically accompanies my soup dumplings, I opted for Sarah's delicious and versatile spicy peanut sauce instead. Nutty, salty, and umami-rich, it was the perfect step beyond the usual simple soy sauce addition that I opt for (and honestly, just as easy). I always find this time of year to be one of the most hectic — the holidays are past, and so are the cold weeks of restful hibernation that follow. When my days are too busy to spend a lunch break preparing a thoughtful meal, but I don't want to pay for another $17 salad, sprucing up a classic freezer staple in this way is the perfect middle ground. Putting Your Pantry Staples To Work This recipe includes some of my most-used pantry favorites: creamy peanut butter, salty soy sauce, nutty sesame oil, spicy chili crunch, and tart rice vinegar. Freshly grated ginger and garlic and freshly chopped cilantro brighten up the dish, and honestly…I could eat this with a spoon if I had to. My favorite part of this recipe is that it's entirely what you make it. Add a bit more rice vinegar for some extra zing, or double the amount of chili crunch if you can handle the spice. If you find yourself leaning towards the latter end of the salty/sweet debate, a bit of brown sugar to taste would fit into this sauce quite nicely. If you're building up your pantry essentials, all of these ingredients can be found at your local Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. However, I highly encourage you to take the time to seek out your local Asian grocery store. I'm lucky to have an abundant Japanese grocer around the corner from my apartment that stocks imported ingredients, fresh produce, and frozen items like the soup dumplings in this recipe. I never leave without my favorite flavor of Pocky. No Microwave, No Problem I lived without a microwave for two years before I found one on the street outside my apartment building in perfect condition (true story). I love that this recipe doesn't instruct you to microwave your soup dumplings before serving but instead calls for quickly browning them in hot oil, then adding water before covering and steaming until cooked through. This leaves a crunchy exterior that you wouldn't be able to achieve from a quick blitz in the microwave. Alternatively, if you own a steamer basket, this would be a great time to use it! Tasty / Via The Party Doesn't Stop At Soup Dumplings For a sauce this versatile, there are countless uses that go far beyond a steamy soup dumpling. The next time I make it, I'm tossing it into a bowl of chewy ramen or udon noodles and finishing it with a fried egg and green onion. I might even use it as a saucy dip for crispy chicken cutlets breaded with crunchy panko, or thin it out with more water to create a bright and nutty salad dressing perfect for spring, tossing it into napa cabbage and radicchio. Make it the center of a colorful crudité platter for the first backyard cookout of the season. Want to try Sarah's Spicy Peanut Sauce Soup Dumplings or search for more easy, budget-friendly meals? Download the free Tasty app to browse and save 7,500+ free recipes — no subscription required. Tasty
