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These DIY salad bar ideas are easy to prep for a satisfying meal! Load up a plate with salad toppings for an easy dinner on a weeknight or feeding a crowd.
Not everyone loves vegetables, but almost everyone can get behind a good salad bar! We love the concept of salad bar for an easy dinner idea—something about calling it a “salad bar” makes it more fun than just salad for dinner!
There are certain salad bar toppings that are super classic, like peas, hard-boiled eggs, or cottage cheese. Here are all our favorite salad bar ideas so that you can recreate this simple weeknight dinner yourself!
Top salad bar ideas
The key to making a salad bar into a filling meal is to offer good protein options. If you’re making a vegetarian or vegan salad bar, use ingredients with plant based protein like beans, legumes, and nuts. Here are our top salad bar ideas for building your own at home (or jump to the recipe):
- Greens: Romaine lettuce, spinach, and mixed baby greens.
- Hard boiled eggs: With 6 grams of protein each, eggs are also one of the most nutrient-filled vegetarian protein sources around.
- Chicken: Make a recipe of pan seared chicken and slice it into strips of cubes.
- Cheese: Cheese is a great vegetarian protein: try shredded cheese, cheese cubes, or cottage cheese.
- Legumes: Try green peas, cooked lentils (like brown lentils or French lentils), black-eyed peas, and beans, like chickpeas, black beans, lima beans, white beans, or kidney beans.
- Whole grains: Try cooked quinoa, barley, farro, bulgur wheat, brown rice, or wild rice.
- Nuts and seeds: Try almonds, cashews, peanuts, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds.
- Raw veggies: Chop raw vegetables for toppings like carrots, broccoli, green onions, cauliflower, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers.
- Bacon bits or ham: Bacon bits and cubed ham are classic (for vegan, use coconut bacon).
- Salad dressing: Try our list of top homemade salad dressing recipes.
- Croutons: Top it all off with crunchy homemade croutons.
Tips for prep
The key to making a salad bar at home? Allow some prep time for all the vegetables; it does take a bit of time for cleaning and chopping. We like preparing extra veggies to use for lunches or dinners for days later. If you’re a hard-boiled egg fan like we are, make them in advance or leave enough time for easy prep (about 30 minutes total).
Salad dressings for a salad bar
Another key to salad bar dinner is a good salad dressing! We have a whole collection of delicious homemade salad dressings that are perfect for salad bar ideas. Often, we like leaning into classic salad bar nostalgia with ideas like Thousand Island and Blue Cheese! Here are some of our favorite salad dressing recipes to use on salad bar night:
Dietary notes
These salad bar ideas are vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant-based (depending on which ideas you use for your salad).
Frequently asked questions
Offer seasonal ingredients: berries in summer, apples in fall, etc.
Include cuisine-centered flavors: Mediterranean, Asian, Mexican, etc.
Provide a “build your own” option for customized salads.
Offer pre-made salad combinations for inspiration.
Include a “superfood” section with ingredients like quinoa, chia seeds, and hemp seeds.
Include kid-friendly toppings like grapes, raisins, and goldfish crackers.
Create a separate “kiddie corner” with bite-sized options.
Use colorful bowls and utensils to make it more fun.
Salad Bar Ideas
These DIY salad bar ideas are easy to prep! A plate loaded with salad toppings is perfect for weeknight dinners or feeding a crowd.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: Varies
- Category: Salad
- Method: Raw
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- Salad greens: lettuce, spinach, mixed greens
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Legumes: Cooked chickpeas, black beans, white beans, or pinto beans, cooked and seasoned
- Vegetables: carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers
- Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts
- Seeds: Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds
- Grains: Cooked and seasoned quinoa
- Cheese: cheddar or Colby jack cubes, shaved Parmesan
- Proteins: Tuna, pan seared chicken, prosciutto, bacon bits
- Homemade garlic croutons
- Cottage cheese
- Salad dressing:
Instructions
- Make the hard boiled eggs, according to the Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs or Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs methods.
- Wash and chop the vegetables; place them in serving bowls.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas or beans, if using.
- Make the salad dressing. Serve!
Notes
These salad bar ideas are a meal concept, not a recipe: get creative and customize your toppings based on your preferences and what you have on hand! Add cooked meat for a non-vegetarian option. For a vegetarian option, be sure to include enough protein-filled items to satisfy, like eggs, chickpeas, cheese, and nuts.
This is a perfect idea for a summer get-together! Thank you for sharing.
We do this for almost every family get-together and holiday meal. Everyone enjoys creating their own salad. Now people bring their favorite topping to share with others and we get to try new things.
Fun idea! I don’t know why I haven’t done anything like this with my kids. They’re usually so good about eating the salads I make but I can just imagine they’d have so much fun doing this! And really, who doesn’t love having so many delicious options? :D
What a fun idea! I am such a fan of salad bars. I love getting to add just enough of all my favorites and end up with a bowl loaded with tons of veggies and a few surprises.
what a great idea. we usually eat our meal in pieces like this any way so making it an official salad bar experience would not be a stretch… just would need more goodies to add to the mix.
Ooh, a home salad bar is a perfect idea for a sumer party! Everyone always loves the salad bar, and it’s definitely a great way to beat the heat. :)
I need to get on this! Love all the colours!
This looks amazing! So fresh and healthy. I love all the options!
This is such a fun take on lunch especially when it is so hot in summer. Fresh ingredients alway makes people happy; I am feeling good just look at this photo!
I find this idea works great at kids parties. I did this once for my niece and her garden theme party. So creative!