10 Summer Salads You Need Now

First up in our summer salads: this strawberry summer salad! Oh yes. This salad accessorizes with just about every meal, and tastes incredible. It starts with a tangy and lightly sweet strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing (yum!), then spinach, strawberries, and thin sliced red onion. Top it off with a few crunchies: chopped pecans and a bit of salty feta, and you’ve got one extremely delicious side salad. We like it with pizza, with salmon, with pasta: ok it goes with just about everything!

Next up in our summer salads: watermelon salad! What could be more summer? This one takes only 10 minutes to throw together and is the perfect accessory to any barbecue or cookout. It features juicy sweet watermelon, salty feta cheese, and cool cucumber, topped with lemon zest and a bit of chopped basil. If you haven't had watermelon and feta before, it's a classic combination that's begging to be part of your summer traditions! Starting now.

Are you ready for the best summer salad to hit your plate? Because man is this Grilled Caesar Salad tasty! It sounds a little strange, but grilling romaine lettuce infuses it with an incredible smoky flavor that is irresistible. Think about how good Caesar salad is, for a moment. OK, now imagine it GRILLED: it takes it to a whole new level! This salad combines grilled romaine lettuce with grilled avocados and our creamy homemade Caesar dressing for an over the top good summer salad.

Here's another classic summer salad that's dying for you to try it: this orzo salad! Though it looks a little like rice, orzo is actually a small pasta in the shape of rice. It’s often used in Mediterranean-style recipes like Italian and Greek cuisine. Here, we’ve harnessed all the flavors of Greece for this orzo salad: salty feta cheese, red peppers, chickpeas, tangy Kalamata olives, zesty lemon, and of course, powerhouse herbs like mint and dill!

Next up in our summer salads: this no mayo potato salad is truly the best potato salad we’ve had. It tastes like your favorite deli counter potato salad, but more vibrant and delicious because it’s made from all real food ingredients. It's tangy and crunchy, filled with minced dill pickle, green onion, yellow mustard, and...no mayo? That's right: head to the post to find all our secrets! A few other potato salad options: Favorite Potato Salad and French Potato Salad.

What's a list of summer salads without a great bean salad recipe? This one is the most delicious, simplest one we’ve ever had. It’s based on a bean salad that my mom makes, but I made it even simpler. The secret to the flavor is the salad dressing: it’s made with a bit of tomato paste and ketchup, so it has an unexpected earthy undertone. And adding feta cheese brings in a savory flair! Finally, the combination of green onions and chives adds just the right amount of complexity. You've gotta taste this one!

Coleslaw is one of the most classic summer salads there is: and here's our best recipe for a creamy coleslaw! For Alex and I, while we enjoy the vinaigrette style coleslaws, our favorite are the creamy coleslaw recipes we remember growing up. This one features our Best Coleslaw Dressing. This recipe is totally balanced in sweet and savory flavors, and it has a healthy spin: there’s no refined sugar and less mayo than most coleslaw recipes. When we make this one, we find ourselves going back to the fridge for seconds and thirds!

Speaking of classic summer salads…this cucumber salad with vinegar is everything summer! It’s perfect for summer potlucks, patio barbecues and picnics, and works with everything from salmon to a grilled veggie burger. The thinly sliced cucumbers and onions are salty, tangy, and lightly sweet all at once, and totally addicting. This one is vegan, plant-based, and gluten-free, so it works for lots of diets too. Also try: Creamy Cucumber Salad

This black bean salad is seriously tangy and delicious, and when we make it we can’t stop eating it! It’s perfectly seasoned with cumin, garlic, and apple cider vinegar, and mixed with colored bell peppers, green onions and rice. This summer salad is a perfect easy potluck recipe to take to a barbecue or a cookout, and it doubles as a healthy lunch idea too. It’s totally plant based, vegan and gluten free, so it works for a variety of diets!

Of course, no list of summer salads is complete without a good old pasta salad! This vegan pasta salad is full of flavor, but with no meat or dairy, the Italian ingredients have to carry the weight. This pasta with Kalamata olive and capers is dressed simply with olive oil, so there’s no overwhelming dressing flavor: it’s just perfectly seasoned with a tangy dressing. It’s all about the Italian ingredients here! The crunchy romaine and savory sauteed zucchini make it perfectly refreshing.