Salad Bar
Do you really need a recipe for salad with chicken? Probably not. But anyway, here is how I sometimes serve chicken and salad, and I call it a salad bar. This way, we can all have just what we want, and nothing we don’t. I like my salad fully dressed, so I take my portion and put it in a mixing bowl, toss it with dressing, and then put it on my plate. Ted and Maya aren’t as picky as I am, so they just put some dressing on top of their salad and call it done. Here’s a list of the options we had this time.
- Butter Lettuce with Green Onions (green onions are not optional I guess, because I mix them in with the lettuce)
- Roasted Chicken Breast
- Fake Chicken, sauteed
- Beets (I am the only one who eats these, so just a small bowl)
- Croutons (Maya and I both like these, but we were almost out, so just a small bowl)
- Marinated Artichoke Hearts (These are in a bowl, if I mix them with anything, it ends up kind of slimy the next day.)
- Mushrooms
- Cucumber – I like English Cucumbers, because the skin is thinner.
- Yellow Bell Pepper – I don’t like green bell peppers. I do like a colorful salad.
- Asparagus – I added this because they looked good, so tiny and thin. My hometown used to be known for its asparagus, but a lot of farmers are being pushed out of business due to competition from Mexican asparagus. Sad.
- Grape tomatoes
- Avocado
- Homemade Roquefort Dressing
- Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette
What am I missing? What would you put on your salad bar?
30 Comments
Nicole MacPherson
That looks yummy and colourful! I’d add roasted chickpeas and lentils too because I’m a crunchy kind of girl!
J
Mmm, roasted chickpeas I could totally get behind. I’ve never thought of putting lentils on a salad, might have to give that a try.
nance
Love this. I could eat salads of all kinds almost every single day for dinner.
Any leftover dinner veg has made an appearance in our Big Dinner Salads, like broccoli, green beans, roasted cauliflower. What we both really love is when I roast an onion with olive oil and thyme and then cut it up into a salad. So good!
J
Nance, that onion sounds amazing. How long at what temp do you roast? Does it caramelize, or just get soft?
nance
I cut off both ends and roast it at 375-400 for about 45 minutes. It gets soft and the top and bottom usually caramelize. You could do it at a higher temp or for longer, but we like it this way. I love the flavour of thyme with onion (and mushrooms).
J
Thank you, I’m going to give this a try! I agree, I love the flavor of thyme with onions (and mushrooms)
Elisabeth
I love this. I am such a huge fans of make-your-own loaded salads.
My husband and daughter like olives on theirs. I love something warm, especially roasted sweet potato. A little bit of diced up dill picked (or fresh dill) is lovely. I enjoy a dried fig cut up in salad. Pickled ginger, oddly enough, is delicious. And I’m a big fan of adding sliced hard-boiled eggs. Really anything goes with a salad. Sometimes if I have leftover rice I will warm that up and add it in. The more ingredients and flavours, the better for me.
J
Elisabeth, olives huh? I love olives, but I’m not sure I usually put them in salad. I wanted to try pickled beets, I haven’t had them before, but the store was out. I love hard boiled eggs in my salad as well, and bacon…like a Cobb salad.
Margaret
I love lots of things in my salads, including pickled beets, hard-boiled eggs, peas, garbanzo beans, etc. I used to love the old salad bars in restaurants.
J
Margaret, me too! Probably germ factories, and I once saw a staff member at a restaurant lick a spoon and then put it back in the dressing, so I haven’t eaten at a salad bar in years. But I loved all of the options!
NGS
I’m a fruit girl. I’d add some berries, probably blueberries, although I’m not adverse to strawberries or raspberries. I’d probably also add some slivered almonds, but that can be pricey, so maybe not. Like Nicole, some roasted chickpeas would be amazing, too.
But, really, if everyone in your house is happy, why mess with perfection?
J
Oh, fruit…I sometimes like apple in my salad. I used to make a pretty simple salad with butter lettuce, green apples, and avocados. I might need to make that again sometime soon. My daughter would want some candied walnuts added in. Sounds pretty good, right?
Ally Bean
This looks delicious. As a person who doesn’t like peppers, I’d suggest some thinly sliced radishes.
J
Ally, I could totally put those in for you, but I’m not a real fan of radishes. At least, I didn’t used to be…I haven’t tried them in awhile, might be a good idea to give it a try and see.
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
Yum! This is inspirational for me because I’m planning to serve a salad alongside the pizzas we are ordering for my son’s 5th birthday party with family (because pizza is one of the few things my son eats that I can feed to others at a party). This is a good way to present the salad that allows people to customize. I have also always liked a salad bar. I grew up in a rural area of North Dakota so when we ate out, we usually went to Pizza Hut since we had a huge family and limited options. I’d always opt to get the salad bar instead of pizza!
J
Glad I can help. We’re having pizza for dinner tonight, with leftover salad.
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Yum! I’d take a huge bowl, skip the real chicken and asparagus, fill up the bowl with everything else and toss it with the Roquefort!
J
Yum!
Max Ethan
I love lots of things in my salads, including pickled beets, hard-boiled eggs, peas, garbanzo beans, etc. I used to love the old salad bars in restaurants.
J
Me too! I am going to try pickled beets, I don’t think I’ve had them before.
Lux
I love it when my food is colorful. It’s a feast for the eyes and mouth. Complete experience.
J
Me too! I love the bright vibrant colors. Food that looks appetizing and is nourishing, that is a plus in my book.
Sarah
We do this at least once a week for dinner. Usually there’s some kind of theme that guides the toppings, but it’s a real crowd pleaser.
J
Yes, I like a theme…like a southwestern theme maybe, with black beans and corn. Delicious.
Suzanne
This looks delicious! Such a lovely colorful assortment! I need to amp up my cucumber game. I only recently came around to eating them at all and have discovered that so many are Not Good. I just haven’t figured out yet what makes the difference??
J
Interesting…do you mean if you buy two cucumbers of the same kind, one will be good and one not? What don’t you like about the ones you don’t like? I like a good, crunchy cucumber, thin skin, not too many seeds. The ones called English Cucumbers are my favorite.
Melissa
We had a BBQ on Monday and I had the salad seperate like this so everyone could pick what they wanted.
Extra ideas – corn or snow peas.
J
Melissa, I love corn and snow peas, great additions!
Stephany
Yum! Thank you for this salad inspiration. I would love to eat more salads but it’s just never something I think to do when I’m at home. I love dried fruit on salad, especially dried pineapple. And cheese, of course!
J
Stephany, I don’t think I’ve ever had dried pineapple on salad, that’s interesting. I do like dried cranberries sometimes.