Garden Salad

This fresh Garden Salad recipe features Romaine lettuce, red cabbage, cucumbers, carrot, tomatoes, and avocado all tossed in a delicious light creamy vinaigrette. It’s a great salad to serve as a starter or turn it into a meal by adding grilled chicken or a scoop of chicken salad or tuna salad. 

Our garden salad recipe is quick and easy to make any night of the week. It’s also a great salad to prep ahead of time. Just whisk together the vinaigrette and store in a mason jar in the refrigerator. Then chop a few ingredients and toss it all together in an airtight container until you’re ready serve. 

Garden Salad Recipe Ingredients

• Romaine Lettuce. We use Romaine lettuce for this salad, but you could use another type of lettuce or use a mix of Romain with Spring Mix, or Romaine with Spinach.
• Cabbage. Shredded red cabbage adds flavor and a pop of color to this salad.
• Tomatoes. We like to use Roma or vine ripe tomatoes, but you can also use cherry or grape tomatoes if you like.
• Cucumber. Cucumber adds a nice crunch to this salad. We use English cucumber for this salad, which adds a lot of crunch to the mix. You can also use garden cucumber or Persian cucumber, but if you use a garden cucumber, you will want to peel it and remove the seeds first before slicing it. The skins are thick and bitter tasting and the seeds are bitter tasting as well. English and Persian cucumber have thinner skins and fewer seeds and they have a more delicate flavor
• Carrot. We sprinkle in grated carrot into this salad.
• Avocado. Buttery avocado adds a nice buttery texture to the mix.

Find printable recipe with the measurements below.

Variations

• Greens. We use Romaine lettuce for this salad, but you could use spring mix or a combination of Romaine and spring mix greens.
• Protein. You could toss in homemade chickpeas (you can also use canned chickpeas for convenience), cannellini beans, cooked chicken, salmon or canned tuna for some added protein.
• Beets. Add raw, roasted or steamed beets (grated or chopped).
• Onions. Add red or green onion.
• Mushrooms. Add sliced mushrooms.
• Salty Add-ins. Add kalamata olives, black olives, artichoke hearts or pepperoncini.
• Sweet Add-ins. Sprinkle in raisins, dried cranberries or chopped dates.
• Cheese.  Toss in grated Parmesan, cheddar, Jack, pepper Jack, Feta, Gorgonzola or blue cheese to the salad.
• Nuts. Add walnuts, almonds or pistachios. 
• Herbs. Sprinkle in chopped mint, basil, parsley or cilantro.
• Croutons. Simple homemade croutons like these Herbed Croutons, Parmesan Croutons and Basil Pesto Croutons make any salad extra special.
• Dressing.You can also toss this salad with Ranch Dressing, Buttermilk Dressing, Thousand Island Dressing, Mediterranean Salad Dressing,  Honey Mustard Dressing, or Lemon Olive Oil Dressing. Or check out all of our Salad Dressing Recipes. We have over 60 of them for you to choose from.

How To Make Fresh Garden Salad

1. Make Dressing. Add the ingredients to a wide mouth mason jar and use an immersion blender (stick blender) to blend the ingredients. You can also add everything to a mason jar, seal the lid and shake vigorously to blend the ingredients. Or simply add the ingredients to a bowl and whisk them together
2. Prep Ingredients. Rinse the lettuce and spin to dry. Chop the lettuce, shred the cabbage, grate the carrots, slice the cucumber, chop the tomatoes and add everything to a bowl.  Give it all a gently toss. Add the chopped avocado last or plate the salad and add sliced avocado on top of the salad on each individual plate.
3. Dress Salad. Drizzle the dressing along the inside of the bowl and fold the ingredients into the dressing. Gently toss so the ingredients are lightly coated. Add the avocado and give another gentle toss.
4. Serve. Divide the salad evenly on salad plates. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Tips For Making The Best Garden Salad

1. Rinse produce. Give your salad vegetables a good rinsing under cold water.  A salad spinner isn’t a necessity, but it’s sure handy!  It leaves the lettuce fresh, perky and crisp.  I use mine daily!
2. Variety. Use a variety of tossed salad vegetables to make your salad really enjoyable. Pick a good hearty lettuce like Romaine to start with, then add in any combo of vegetables.
3. Large Bowl. Use a relatively shallow bowl that is and enough to give you room for tossing.  You can use the same bowl to mix and serve with.  A pair of nice wooden spoons or decorative serving spoons is always a nice touch and will help you to gently toss the salad without smooshing the leaves. 
4. Dressing Salad. Drizzle dressing along the outer edge of the salad and toss lightly. Pouring dressing right over greens can weigh them down a bit. I like to drizzle the dressing along the inside of the bowl and then gently toss the ingredients so they’re lightly coated
5. Seasoning. Season sparingly with salt (like sea salt or Himalayan) and freshly ground black pepper.  Chopped herbs like flat-leaf parsley, cilantro and basil are also nice to add to salads for both the flavor, eye appeal and nutritional benefits.  If you’re on a low-sodium diet, adding fresh herbs is a healthy substitute for salt.
6. Serving. Don’t dress the salad until you’re ready to serve it. Be sure to store the tossed salad ingredients and dressing separately in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve to prevent soggy leaves.
7. Storing. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If properly stored the salad may last up to up to 5 days if it has not been tossed with dressing and only 1 day (maybe 2) if the salad has been tossed with dressing.  
8. Vinaigrette. Because of the olive oil, the vinaigrette will solidify a bit in the refrigerator, so you’ll want to take it out of the refrigerator to sit for 10-15 minutes to liquify before tossing with salad.

Why You Will Love This Garden Salad

• Fresh and Flavorful. The combination of ingredients makes for a fresh, flavorful and pretty salad. 
• Quick and Easy.We pull this salad together in about 15-20 minutes by using just a few simple ingredients.
• Perfect Starter Salad. This salad is a perfect starter or side salad to serve with just about any main dish you’ll want to serve it with.

More Salad Recipes

• Lemon Kale Salad
• Spring Mix Salad
• Romaine Salad
• Kale Caesar Salad 
• Lemon Arugula Salad
• Simple Kale Salad
• Italian Chopped Salad
• Everyday Mediterranean Salad

Continue to Content

Print

Yield: 8 servings

Garden Salad

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

This fresh Garden Salad recipe features Romaine lettuce, red cabbage, cucumbers, carrot, tomatoes, and avocado all tossed in a delicious light creamy vinaigrette. It’s a great salad to serve as a starter or turn it into a meal by adding grilled chicken or a scoop of chicken salad or tuna salad. 

Ingredients

• 1 large head Romaine lettuce, rinsed and chopped
• 1 cup red cabbage, shaved or sliced thin
• 1 large carrot, peeled and grated
• 1 English cucumber, sliced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 Haas avocado, peeled and chopped

For The Creamy Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons real mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinaigrette
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Add the Romaine lettuce, cabbage, carrot, cucumber and tomatoes to a large bowl and toss.
2. Drizzle dressing along the inside of the bowl and fold the ingredients into the dressing. Gently toss so the ingredients are lightly coated. Add the avocado last and give another gentle toss or slice the avocado and add it on top of the salad on each individual plate.
3. Store leftover salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If properly stored, leftovers should last up to 5 days (if not tossed with dressing) and a day or two if tossed with dressing.

For The Creamy Vinaigrette

1. Add the ingredients to a wide mouth mason jar and use an immersion blender (stick blender) to blend the ingredients.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 192Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 392mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 6gSugar: 5gProtein: 4g

theharvestkitchen.com attempts to provide accurate information, however, this nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. The nutritional information provided comes from online sources and calculations. See full disclaimer on About page.