Hearty salads remain an excellent summertime dinner solution. These five are refreshingly unexpected, delicious, and remarkably easy to make: There’s a Middle East–inspired wedge with tahini, sumac, and chickpeas. A light riff on the classic Italian pea and rice porridge risi e bisi. A hearty eggplant salad with salsa verde. Savory salmon over bitter greens. And a stunning version of the staple Indian carrot and mung bean salad dressed with warm mustard-seed-infused oil and lots of fresh cilantro and coconut. They’re all gorgeous to look at, and each makes a spectacularly simple all-in-one meal for a summer evening.
Carrot Salad with Sprouted Mung Beans
Full of texture and flavor, this salad is hearty and hydrating—and cooling and a little hot all at once.
Middle East–Inspired Wedge
Cool, crunchy lettuce + creamy dressing + flavor-bomb toppings = the magic formula that makes the classic wedge salad the all-star that it is. We kept the formula but played with Middle Eastern ingredients like tahini, sumac, and chickpeas to reimagine this favorite.
Miso Chicory Salmon Salad
A pleasure to look at—and eat, because it’s so well balanced: It’s got rich, savory salmon; bitter greens; and a creamy, umami-packed dressing with bright lime zest. It’s impressive enough for company but easy to pull off as a dinner for one.
Risi e Bisi Salad
This is classic Italian comfort food (“risi e bisi” means “rice and peas”) made over for summer. It’s the perfect combination of raw and cooked—it works great as a side dish or with a seven-minute egg for a main dish.
