You did it well. Great post. I make a lot of salad meals when I'm not cold, as well as salads as sides. This year, I've been making shrimp salad regularly because a store was running regular specials on a box meant as shrimp with cocktail sauce (sans the platter looking container). I'd buy and just sit in front of the kitchen TV and work the tails off, using a bar sized cutting board to make chunks. Plus scallion, avocado, bell pepper, chili pepper, celery and whatever else volunteered. Fancied up mayonnaise and whatever spices or herbs take my fancy. Served as dump into green salad, sandwich filling, or just on its own. Maybe all three if its a big batch. Loss leader season is over, though, and I had a bag of wild caught-shrimp patties in the freezer. They're made of the same sized chunks as I was cutting, and cost less than the same cooked shrimp not in the cicktail box, so I thought I'd try to make them into salad. They're defrosting ever so slowly in the meat drawer. I think it'll work best if I disassemble thawed, then cook the bits. Shouldn't take much past a minute...

In general, however, my thing is a basic, big green salad which I'll add goodies to, as well as egg or meat/poultry. It's a good vehicle for leftovers, but in a pinch I've even used deli sandwich meat. Recently, I've been thinking about trying to make a spicy peanut spaghetti salad I like. That'll take some experimenting...

Shrimp salads, yay! I'm glad you had a plethora for awhile ! Repurposing shrimp patties, clever, I imagine that'll be super savory in a salad, let me know how that comes together !

It's been ages but we have a Hugh Carpenter recipe for a shrimp papaya salad and I have papayas on the way for dh birthday .

https://hawaiipapayadirect.com

I love sitting to chop, although my tv is at my back in that scenario ... I have been known to pull the chair around as needed but it's awkward...

We did spinach tofu peanut sauce thai dish (pra ram) recently with soba noodles, which was very good! Kind of salad-like !

It sounds delicious. It's too cold here for salad dinners at the moment. I love a big mixed salad like a salade Niçoise with lettuce hard boiled eggs, green beans, tuna, anchovies, tomatoes,..... but it's not the season. Where do you live? It's not that it's so cold here as it is in parts of the US at the moment! But, we have wet and windy stormy weather that calls for comfort food LOL

Soba noodles in a salad are my favourite at the moment. Actually Asian style salads are what we like best. There doesn’t have to be lots of Asian ingredients, I always have Vietnamese mint and Thai basil growing to ”spice” things up along those lines. I usually make a nuoc cham style dressing ( fish sauce, citrus, soy, sugar and water). Throw on some crushed peanuts, a sprinkle of cold fried onions (packet) and we are happy.

Of course an Italian style Caprese salad is delicious as is an ordinary green salad with tomatoes add crumbled feta, a few olives and Voila a Greek salad.

Photo is of a salad I had for lunch recently at a restaurant, which has lots of my favourites with chicken as the main ingredient.

We often have a Caesar salad with cooked chicken added to it for dinner, especially in hot weather. I cook the bacon, chicken and hard boiled eggs the day before and chill them before assembling the salad the next day.

At the moment we’re eating pasta salad with lots of pesto, chopped sun dried tomatoes, marinated artichokes, kalamata olives and diced red capsicum. Also a Mexican street corn salad, which is corn kernels sauteed in butter and a smidgen of garlic, with a dressing of mayonnaise, green onion, sour cream, parmesan, jalapeño, red onion, lime and coriander/cilantro.

There’s a salad made of cooked vegetables we eat in Bali called japchae, but I haven’t found the right recipe for it yet.

This Ina Garten grilled tuna and avocado salad is wonderful. I don't have a grill, just make it on the stove top or as a quick oven roast. I bet you could substitute shrimp or chicken and it would be great too. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/tuna-salad-recipe-1944937

My grandmother used to make a wonderful salad with avocado and pink grapefruit sections. Throw some chicken or shrimp on top for protein.

@colleenoz - The japchae I ate in Bali was a noodle dish not a salad. Did you have it in many restaurants? Is it possible that you had it at just one restaurant that made it up as a salad dish and that is why you are not finding a recipe?

For me, the only thing that restricts having a main dish salad is the availability of the ingredients. But since most ingredients are available year round, I am happy to eat them year round as well :-))

Taco salad is my favorite, followed by a steak salad (with blue cheese). Also a Cobb salad, both traditional or seafood, or a shrimp or crab or lobster Louis. I tend to save salads like Niçoise, Chinese chicken or avocado and shrimp salad for the warmer months. They appeal to me more then.

A main dish salad in my world requires a substantial portion of protein so no pasta or noodle salads, Caprese salads or Panzanella.

lat62, I thought tabbouleh was a preparation for which parsley is the main ingredient. Did you leave it out of the description or leave it out of the salad?

I haven't made tacos in ages, rather a hearty, spicy taco style filling of ground meat, peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, corn and beans, along with a green salad, then top the hot filling with cheese, chopped-up salad, salsa and crushed corn chips - I often feel like I could eat that forever without getting tired of it.

I add finely grated carrots to my 'taco' filling as well - they disappear into the mix and add moistness, umami, and extra nutrition 🙂

“…followed by a steak salad (with blue cheese).”

Yes!👍🏻 I sometimes make a salad with greens, grilled steak, sauteed mushrooms and blue cheese. I also love grilled steak (especially tri-tip!) added to Caesar salad…more than grilled chicken.

Grilled chicken is delicious added to an apple, pecan and blue cheese salad. I can also make a meal out of a panzanella salad.

Thanks to everybody for sharing, such great ideas:) We have leftover ribeye from Saturday night, just need to decide whether to get through the fresh snow to pick up some blue cheese, love that, versus do a thai style with fish sauce, limes, ginger that are all in the house at the moment

I am in Alaska and am being spared the nasty weather that so much of the country is experiencing (my mother is handling it with aplomb in Michigan where they have been at -15F but not too much snow)... take care everybody and best wishes the power outages are resolved sooner than later... our snow is appreciated, manageable, and lovely at the moment , fingers crossed - we had nasty north wind for weeks over the holidays and last winter not much snow at all which was terrible for the garden

We ate kind of heavily over the holidays, our 35 anniversary was November 20 (duck) and I attempted a terrine for my birthday dinner at the end of November while dh was sick (most of it is in the freezer), then came Thanksgiving (turkey) and Christmas (prime rib) and the prime rib was so good we had a New Year's party and did another very large prime rib. So I'm more than ready for salads, but hearty ones !

The tabbouleh did have parsley, probably not enough - I just had a small bunch that was used in both salads ... I keep forgetting to use my mint that I'm overwintering upstairs under lights, that would've been perfect - the tabbouleh salad was an afterthought to add carbs to the situation. It's what prompted me to make this thread, because I forget sometimes about the great savory salads out there... thanks again everybody, I'll be making a list of all of these ideas to tuck in my cookbook shelf .. I'm not a stickler for recipe following, so forgive me for a lack of authenticity if I use incorrect terminology for what should be very specific recipes...

You think like I do! Love a good salad. We're using up chicken breasts, putting diced chicken on our salads. I like shelled sunflower seeds, Feta cheese and croutons or tortilla strips.

Just thinking about this one, too.

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo Salad

ETA - Haven’t tried this version but like the addition of corn and avocado.

Steak and Gorgonzola Salad

@Kendrah, Ah, I misspoke, It wasn’t japchae but Gado Gado (which is yummy).

Japchae sounds like a Korean salad that I've made - glass noodles, and many vegetables - that would fit the bill here ! I don't think I made a great version (the glass noodles were tough) but I'll try it again - need to come up with my cookbook 'Everyday Korean' (where has it gone!) by Kim Sunni, an excellent local food writer here in Anchorage. I tried my hand at Korean and it was interesting but challenging for me - sundubu and japchae were my contributions and dh made several banchans. but we have great Korean restaurants so they do it better :))

Found my book, Everyday Korean, by Kim Sunee and Seung Hee Lee

Will share the Japchae recipe:

And here's our salad for tonight with the leftover ribeye turned into our version of a Thai salad

There's more beef in there than it might look like :

Thanks again for your company and ideas!

Editing: I wish I had thought to add toasted sesame seeds , haha

It looks delicious lat62.

Yum!!!👍🏻

Yes, we keep cabbage on hand too, it's a wonderful staple ! I love the idea of refrigerator clean-out salads .... preferably before going shopping and overbuying which I tend to do this time of year because it looks so colorful - lucky us to have access to that in our snow country

Tonight was out-food, but a nice big barbeque salad. They're very popular here. This had a lot of romaine and some other lettuce, diced tomato, corn, black beans and sliced avocado, with barbequed chicken (though one could have any of their meats). This comes with sweet barbecue sauce and ranch to dress it with (some versions have spicy enough to cry sauce), but I added sriracha and hot (temperature) soupy poultry chili (better on salad (as in really good and superior to the sauces) than as its own thing). I guess this sounds less than lovely, but it was a good and tasty salad, nonetheless, and one can easily make it at home to one's own taste. When I do something similar, I add bell peppers, scallions, carrot and whatever else looks good and improvise a spicy bbq dressing (I don't do Ranch at home and it's not needed). Sorry this is so disorganized. :)

Oh pllog, that sounds really good - I'm making notes about remembering to incorporate corn and beans in a salad, ala 'texas caviar' although I realize yours was not that - care to share the restaurant? It'd be fun to look at the menu :)

Last night we had a rich dinner - pork shoulder roasted with carrots/onion/celery/garlic and a side of red beans with a simple orange slices salad ... so tonight back to a salad, I think I'll use my red quinoa and add pepitas, the leftover oranges that were sliced, lots of parsley, green onions, ginger, lime juice, whatever else comes to mind...

(to be completely honest, we also have pork chops on the menu tonight , we are overdoing the pork from our favorite butcher shop this week but a I'll just have a few delectable bites and then repurpose the remainder to soups or salad - others in the house can devour a whole chop!)

https://www.theoutdoorgrill.com/

In summer I make a lentil salad I'm very fond of.

laceyvail, would that be boiled lentils, strained and tossed with vinaigrette? I used to make such a salad, only I think of it as a side dish.

For me salad is veg and veg only. If there's cheese in it, then just a smattering/sprinkling so that the cheese functions as seasoning. I'd eat cold pasta only with a gun to my head, but there are still lots of nice side dishes in this thread :)

DH makes this embellished Greek salad. The fresh blueberries are a delicious addition for flavor, texture and color.

And, QUESTION, in the salad below, what are the black seeds? (I have two guesses.)

They look like black sesame seeds.

^Yes.

Thanks. I figured black sesame seeds or nigella seed.

Get this, youse guys (I love to say ‘youse guys’):

A few years ago, I had a red onion that was sprouting, so I decided to plant it. It grew and bloomed, and that was where my gardening know-how ended. I might have posted here…? What was I supposed to do? Duh me, did not, do not know if the onion produced underground or above ground. (I am embarrassed to admit, I still do not know; I just figured out part 1 of The Birds and Bees last week).

I cut off one of the dried flowerheads and it contained a bajillion little black seeds.I figured they were edible and plantable, but then got busy with fatigue nd pain and forgot whereI put them. There we so many, they were so pretty. I may try this again. BTW, that onion plant lived through the winter. It woud probably still be growing If I’d not instructed someone to till the “back 40.”

So, I could have used those black onion seeds for what foodstuff? Sprinkled on…?? Salad? Crackers before baking? Icecream? Lobster? <—- scratch that.

I have a lentil salad that's a favorite, roasted red peppers, lots of mint, lemon etc... it's called a salad in the Green's cookbook by Deborah Madison, but easily served as a side... just semantics?

Not even that. People have different lines for what they call salad. True of most meals words, but salad seems even less defined than most. A salad is a side dish if it's served alongside a main dish. At it's base level, a salad is a bunch of pieces of ingredients hanging together in one dish. In some parts of the world, prepared dishes like hummus and baba ganouj are also called salads. In other places "salads" are only cold. Here, if they're not, they're usually modified as "warm salad". In this case, many of the ingredients are warm right from cooking; the difference, is each ingredient is separate, wheras if they were cooked together, they'd be stew, hash or some similar word.

Just call it a salad if you think it's a salad...

Possibly semantics. I don't know. Perhaps the mixingness of it makes it salady.

Here are two lentil salads, the summer only one first. It's only summer for me because I eat tomatoes only in season and from my garden.

Lentil Salad with Tomato and Dill

1 c. dried lentils

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 t salt

3/4 lb tomatoes, diced (about 2 c)

4 large scallions, thinly sliced (3/4 c)

1/4 c. chopped fresh dill weed

1/4 c thinly sliced fresh basil

3 T red wine vinegar

1/4 c olive oil

1/4 t black pepper

Simmer lentils with garlic and 1/2 t salt until just tender. Drain then transfer to large bowl. Toss with rest of ingredients. If planning to eat later, I usually add the tomatoes before serving.

Lentil Salad with Sausages

2 c brown or green lentils

2 qts water

Cook lentils until just done, drain and spread out to cool. Add 1/4 to 1/2 lb cooked sausage (of any type you like) and 4 finely chopped scallions. Add:

1/4 c red wine vinegar

1/2 olive oil

1/2 T dijon mustard

2 T finely chopped parsley

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Lat62, those sweet potato cellophane noodles are pricey.

I used to make a Thai beef salad with cellophane needles. So yummy.