Our House Salad Recipe

Our house salad recipe that we make almost every night! It’s so simple, you don’t even need to make the dressing separately, it just mixes all in the bowl. We don’t even measure the ingredients anymore – just a drizzle or two over the lettuce, a sprinkle of the seasonings, toss and enjoy!

Why We Love Our House Salad Recipe

When I say that someone in our family is eating this every night, I’m speaking the truth. This salad is so easy, there’s no reason not to get some vegetables in with your meal. It’s really more of a method than a recipe, and once you get the feel for it you don’t even have to measure.

• NO need to make the dressing separately: For this salad, we drizzle and sprinkle and mix everything in one bowl!
• Totally adaptable: You can swap out the seasonings or even the vinegar that you want to use.
• Easy clean up: Since you don’t have to make the dressing in a separate container, or use whisks or measuring spoons to put it together, we’re talking a one bowl recipe here.

Ingredients You Need

These are the basic ingredients (with some swap outs) you need to make our house salad. We don’t show salad toppings here because you can add what you like or what you have on hand. Sometimes we just use lettuce and it’s just as delicious!

• Balsamic vinegar: The key here is to use a good quality balsamic vinegar, one that’s been aged at least 12 years seems to be a good range. Because this dressing is only made with a few ingredients, one bad one will definitely make a difference in flavor.
• Olive oil: Again, use a good quality olive oil, this is the time to use extra virgin olive oil.
• Seasonings: We like using garlic powder, dried oregano, salt and pepper. We’ve also substituted Italian seasoning or onion powder in a pinch.

How To Make Our House Salad

Like we said before, this is really more of a method than a recipe. While we do follow some basic proportions, it’s more of a taste and feel as you go type recipe.

• Add your lettuce of choice to a bowl. We typically use about 2 cups of lettuce for a single serving but you can make this for a larger portion as well.
• Drizzle the balsamic vinegar and the olive oil over the lettuce, then add the seasonings.
• Use a fork and knife to cut the lettuce as you mix it, then taste a piece of lettuce for seasonings. Adjust if needed and serve. If using salad toppings you will have to add a more of vinegar and olive oil and possibly more seasonings as well.

Ideas For Salad Toppings

Even if you don’t have anything but lettuce, this house salad is still going to be a delicious side dish to any meal. When our kids were younger, we could only get them to eat salad if it was plain – and that was good enough to start! Now they eat everything that isn’t nailed down.

• Cucumbers: You can peel them or leave the skin on for more flavor and nutrients.
• Tomatoes: Any tomatoes you have, grape or cherry or a beefsteak cut up into wedges.
• Carrots: We like using grated carrots instead of diced or sliced for texture.
• Onions: Soak sliced or diced red onion in cold water to mellow the flavor.
• Olives: Kalamata, green olives, black olives or our favorite Castelvetrano.
• Croutons: Make your own or grab a bag from the store.
• Artichoke hearts: Marinated artichoke hearts in brine or oil.
• Cheese: Mozzarella, parmesan, feta, goat cheese, even cheddar.
• Beans: Garbanzo beans, white or black beans.
• Nuts/Seeds: Sunflower seeds, pepitas, pine nuts, walnuts, slivered almonds, pecans.
• Meat: Add some leftover chicken or steak to make it a meal. Tuna, hard boiled eggs or tofu.

Tips For Best Results

Even a simple salad recipe like this one could become a fail if you don’t follow a few basic steps. But we promise, once you start making your salads this way you’ll never have to measure.

• Taste for seasonings: Don’t forget to taste a piece of lettuce to see if the seasonings need to be adjusted.
• Use good quality ingredients: Using good quality balsamic vinegar and olive oil will make all the difference in the flavor of this salad.
• Dress & toss right before serving: We like our greens crisp! Because this salad is so simply dressed, doing it right before serving will only take you a minute or two.

Try A Few More Of Our Salad Recipes

• Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
• Arugula Salad with Creamy Maple Dressing
• Greek Chickpea Salad
• Mexican Street Corn Salad

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