Healthy Salad Bar Ideas Plus My Favorite Salad Dressings

These healthy salad bar ideas, with all the varying ingredients you can try, come together and taste like a dance party in your mouth.  They're so full of flavor and you can just taste the nutrition!  There are many different ideas, so I'll list all the options I can think of for you to choose from, and I've bolded the main points to make it easier for you skimmers.

If you know of others ingredients you like or have more healthy salad bar ideas that I forgot, be sure to comment below. 🙂

Healthy Salad Bar Ideas:

• Always start with the best greens you can find.  The darker greens have more nutrients, but iceberg lettuce does also have nutrients too (I'd always been told that iceberg had very little benefits, but that was wrong!). I always choose organic, as salad greens are often highly sprayed with chemicals. I love it when I can get local organic lettuce at our farm market in the summer–I'll usually choose a couple of different varieties for more flavor and nutrients. In the winter I'll use the organic greens from the grocery store.  You could also use napa cabbage or regular cabbage instead of greens.

• Fresh fruits in season are always delicious: apples, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries…

• Other fruits that are never in season near us, but I still love them in my salad: mangos, orange slices, grapes, pineapple.

• I'll often mix in organic dried fruits like dried cherries or dried cranberries, especially in the winter.

• I love something crisp in my salad, so here are some options for that:
  • Nuts like crispy pecans, almonds, or cashews.
  • Try these candied pecans (or almonds or walnuts)!
  • Also, try these rosemary walnuts.  
  • Check out how I make fried wontons over at this recipe.
  • Try lightly baking or frying the noodles (in butter & sea salt) from the organic Ramen packages if you can find them and toss out whatever else is in the package.  (Check the ingredient label first though to make sure there isn't canola or soy oil or anything else gross in the noodles.)  Be careful to heat these slowly because they will burn!
  • I often make homemade croutons from the bread ends that no one around here wants to eat!  It's so easy:  cut bread into cubes, toss in plenty of melted butter, some sea salt, and some herbs or garlic powder if you'd like, spread out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and bake at 350* until they're crisp.  You'll need to keep checking it and pulling out the smaller ones that will be done first.  Once cool, I put them into a baggie and keep in the freezer to grab them anytime.

• Fresh veggies in season, there are so many options: chopped cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, shredded carrots, green onion, regular onion–red or white, chives, just whatever you like.  If I have cabbage, broccoli, or celery in the fridge I'll chop that up into small pieces and add it in too.

• Lately I love freshly grated parmesan cheese on everything, especially my salads!  Others like cheddar, feta, or goat cheese is always good.  I can't stand blue cheese but some love that too.

• Sliced hard-boiled eggs are another delicious and healthy option.  Read at this post how EASY it is to peel hard-boil eggs in cooked the pressure cooker –look at this picture of how the shells start to fall off before I even touch them:

• I don't like mushrooms on a salad, but you might…

• Different meats like:  Cooked & crumbled bacon–from a local farm if possible, or any other type of meat like shredded seasoned chicken or beef, shrimp, etc.  If you have any leftover meat in the fridge, that's nice and easy to throw in.

Anything goes when it comes to healthy salad bar ideas! 

Experiment and let us know in the comments if you find something new and yummy.

Homemade Salad Dressings

So many think they're eating healthy when they order a salad in a restaurant, but because of the seed oils that are in almost ALL restaurant dressings (mostly soybean or canola oil), you're not doing much better than if you had ordered fast food fries!  Homemade dressings are so easy to make, and lately I've even mixed up my own dressings and popped them into a small container in my purse before we go out.  I just can't stand putting seed oils in my body!

There are many great homemade salad dressing recipes out there and they really are simple, just throw ingredients in and shake or stir!  Here are three of my favorites. Keep in mind, amounts may not be exact, I often play around with the recipe and taste-test to get it just right.

1. Berry Vinaigrette: mix together 2 heaping Tablespoons of jam (preferably organic or homemade so it has no high fructose corn syrup), 1/2 cup virgin olive oil and/or avocado oil for a lighter flavor, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds. Makes over a cup of dressing. (Approximately)
2. Garlic Vinaigrette: (Warning: this has a really strong garlic flavor that I love, but Kent can't stand it!) 1/2 cup olive oil and/or avocado oil for a lighter flavor, 1/3 cup sugar (organic cane sugar), 1/3 cup raw apple cider vinegar, 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds, 1 Tablespoon garlic powder, 1/2 Tablespoon mustard seed, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt. (For this one serve it with lettuce, grapes, bacon, cucumbers, parmesan & almonds–it's SO good, even though it doesn't sound like it would be!)
3. Raspberry Vinaigrette: (A variation from #1) 1 c. olive oil and/or avocado oil for a lighter flavor, 3/4 c. raspberry vinegar, 1 t. sea salt, 1/2 c. sugar (I use organic cane sugar, or you could use local honey.)
4. Easy Citrus Dressing: If I'm in a hurry, I'll make this super easy dressing for my salad-on-the-go.  Squeeze lime (or lemon) juice over your salad along with the juice from one can of pineapple bits — make sure you get the kind with ONLY pineapple.  Drizzle a little olive oil and/or avocado oil for a lighter flavor (or sesame oil) over the top.  I also add a dash or two of sea salt.
5. Mixed Berry Maple Vinaigrette Dressing:
   • 1/8 cup organic olive oil 
   • 1/4 cup avocado oil
   • 1/4 cup any vinegar you like, ACV or balsamic or red wine, etc.  Even just lemon or lime juice is good.
   • 1/8 cup real maple syrup 
   • 1/2 tsp. organic dijon mustard
   • 1/2 T. organic blackberry jam
   • 1/2 T. organic raspberry jam
   • 1/2 T. garlic powder
   • 1/2 tsp. sea salt (more to taste)
   • 1/4 tsp. pepper (or more to taste)

   Whisk/shake up really well. Makes 1 cup.  To make it extra berry-licious, add another 1/2 T. of either jam.

6. Homemade ranch salad dressing or ranch veggie dip
7. Creamy Lime Dressing (for a yummy cucumber tomato salad, or for any lettuce salad!)
8. Olive Garden Italian Salad Dressing Copycat Recipe!

Now just mix and match whichever ingredients and dressings above you think your family will like – enjoy!

• More salad recipes and dressings are here in my salad index!

More posts you may have missed:

• My latest favorite kitchen gadgets!

• Have you heard of all the MANY health benefits of colostrum?  Learn more about colostrum here.

• Read all the ways the Bosch makes my life easier!
• Support from your spouse in the kitchen
• What kind of milk should you buy?

What healthy salad bar ideas did I miss?