Spring greens are popping up, strawberries are ripe for the picking, radishes are ready to be plucked from the earth, and I couldn't be happier to taste the garden. While every season brings it own bounty of flavor, no season tastes more fresh than the spring. And what better way to enjoy all the fresh produce of the season than with a fresh spring salad!
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I admit it, I love salads, especially in the spring. With so many options ripe for the picking, a fresh garden salad is anything but boring. With combinations like asparagus and jammy eggs on top of arugula or radishes and fennel tossed in lemon juice, you can find tasty new inventive ways to brighten up what you may think as a boring salad. Enticing you with the flavors of the spring, we gathered up the best spring salad recipes you can make this season.
1. Spring Salad with Asparagus, Goat Cheese, Lemon, and Hazelnuts
One of the best things about spring produce is the asparagus. Whether you like green or white, try an asparagus salad paired with fresh goat cheese, crunchy hazelnuts, shaved parmesan, zucchini ribbons, fresh peas, thinly sliced radishes, and a handful of greens. This isn't just a salad, this is an extravagant spring salad. Get the recipe here.
2. Watermelon Radish and Cucumber Salad
Unlike the usual red radishes, the inside of watermelon radishes are bursting with color and a mild, slightly peppery, slightly sweet flavor. Just look how gorgeous this salad looks when combined with cucumber slices and delicate microgreens! I know you can't resist. Get the recipe here.
3. Strawberry Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
Speaking of gorgeous salads, this strawberry salad is precisely what you want from spring. Sweet, tangy, minty, and fresh, it encompasses all the best flavors of spring. While this is a vegetarian recipe, it would be the perfect bed for turning it into a grilled chicken salad. Get the recipe here.
4. Springtime Cobb Salad
Now this is how you do a Cobb salad. Keeping with tradition, it still has crunchy bacon bits and hard-boiled eggs, but it gets a spring makeover by piling on more veggies and crispy garlic chickpeas. Speaking of which, have you had a Cobb salad recently? Get the recipe here.
5. Avocado, Broad Beans, and Goat's Cheese
This is not your typical green salad. Fava beans, mint leaves, dill, goat feta, peas, watercress, avocados, chunks of fresh buffalo mozzarella, and a sprinkle of dukkah all topped off with a bright lemon dressing. Grab a large dinner plate, you'll want to pile this high. Get the recipe here.
6. Roasted Carrot Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing
While we are fortunate enough to get carrots all year, they technically have two seasons - late spring and fall. One way to spruce up your usual carrot salad topping is to skip the shredding and roast them instead. Then, toss them with a few radishes, sliced red onion, hearty lentils, and a homemade tahini dressing. Still think salads are boring? I didn't think so. Get the recipe here.
7. Arugula, Asparagus, and Avocado Breakfast Salad
There are two things I love to put in a salad and that's a jammy, farm fresh egg and slices of avocado. Plop it on a bed of arugula and you have the perfect breakfast salad. Sometimes, it's all about simplicity. Get the recipe here.
8. Potato Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing
Put down that mayo! It may taste comforting, but there are so many other ways to make a phenomenal potato salad. Take this recipe for instance. With some maple mustard dressing, spring onions, radishes, and a handful of greens you can try a new version of the traditional potato salad that you'll want to bring on all your springtime picnics. Get the recipe here.
9. Fennel & Radish Salad with Lemon & Olive Oil
Not all salads require a giant bed of greens. Take this radish and fennel salad for instance. Enhancing the wonderful pairing of the two with a hint of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil, the flavors really shine. Get the recipe here.
10. Spring Pea and Carrot Salad with Top Carrot Pesto
Did you know you can eat carrot tops? Did you also know you can use them to make a wonderful pesto? Utilizing the carrot in its entirety, whip up some pesto and smother it on a plateful of ribboned carrots, sugar snap peas, ciabatta bread chunks, crumbled feta, fresh herbs, and watercress. Get the recipe here.
11. Spring Salad with Sugar Snap Peas and Beets
I simply adore sugar snap peas. From their sweet flavor to how they pop in your mouth, they are my go to veggie. I'm also a huge beet lover. If you love snap peas and beets too, you really must try this recipe. Get the recipe here.
12. Pasta Salad with Asparagus, Mushroom, and Lemon Parsley Dressing
One of those dishes that makes me reminiscent of springtime is pasta salad. So naturally a springtime pasta salad had to make its way onto this list. A little zesty, a little umami, this comforting pasta salad is comprised of morel mushrooms, asparagus stalks, scallions, fresh herbs, al dente angel hair pasta, and a lemon dressing. The only thing that would make this taste better is foraging for the morels themselves. Get the recipe here.
13. Spring Green and Quinoa Salad with Garlic Sauce
If you're really looking to go green, try this salad. Broccoli florets, asparagus, green beans, and watercress are tossed with cooked quinoa and a pungent, scrumptious vegan garlic sauce. You can make it even greener by adding in some mixed greens. It's healthy, it's yummy, and it tastes like spring. Get the recipe here.
Want to find out what produce is in season near you? This app can help.
