How To Serve A Salad Bar Salad Without A Salad Bar

I love, love, love a great salad bar! All the delicious options to choose from, the different textures and flavors you can combine to create your very own, perfect salad. It was one thing I sorely missed when all my favorite pizzerias and restaurants were shut down. Even grocery stores closed down their salad bars. It was a sad, dark time in my life. No salad bars too be found, anywhere. My favorite healthy meal had become but a distant memory over the last two years, until I ran across an image online a while back that got my brain going. What if I could create a salad bar style salad with all my favorite salad bar toppings…but, without a salad bar?

Let’s face it, lettuce is so very boring on it’s own. We all know it’s good for us and that we should incorporate more of it into our diet. This salad makes it easy to eat more lettuce, especially when you can add all your favorite toppings to make it taste great! The lowly salad can easily become an entire, delicious meal unto itself! The trick is in how you assemble it.

The beauty of this salad is that you can use all your favorite veggies; it’s extremely easy to customize it. Don’t like mushrooms? Leave them out. Do you love beets, then by all means add them to this salad. There is no right way or wrong way when it comes to what veggies to use. When I created this salad I just thought back to all the veggie options I love that I typically found at my favorite salad bars. Prepping the veggies, slicing and dicing is the hardest part to making this salad. Below is a list of veggies that all work beautifully with this salad, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list. Can you think of any more options?

Veggie Suggestions:

• cherry tomatoes, or sliced roma tomatoes
• bite sized broccoli spears
• sliced pickled beets
• sliced carrots
• sliced celery
• sliced red, green, orange or yellow bell peppers
• sliced black olives
• sliced or whole pepperoncini peppers
• kidney beans, drained
• garbanzo beans, drained
• sliced mushrooms
• sliced red onions
• sliced green onions
• sliced cucumber
• sliced zucchini or summer squash
• bacon bits
• shredded cheddar cheese
• blue cheese crumbles
• shredded Parmesan cheese
• sliced hard boiled eggs
• alfalfa sprouts
• sliced radishes

Make Ahead Tip: Chop, shred, slice and dice all the veggies, toppings and lettuce. Store each ingredient in a ziplock baggie in the fridge. When ready to serve, assemble the salad in just a few quick minutes.

The only hard-fast rule you need to keep in mind is that it’s important to use a study lettuce as the base for this salad. Iceberg and Romaine lettuce are the perfect combination. Iceberg is nice and crunchy and will hold up well under the weight of all the veggie toppings. Romaine will do the same and adds a wonderful flavor. Spinach would be another great addition and holds up well, but I would avoid the more fragile spring mixes and arugula that will wilt quickly and not hold up well under the weight of all the toppings.

To start chop lettuce into bite sized pieces. Combine the chopped Iceberg and Romain lettuce and place it in the bottom of a very large shallow bowl or oversized platter.

Top the bed of lettuce with sliced mushrooms, cucumber, green bell pepper, red onion, pepperoncini, tomatoes, broccoli, hard boiled egg slices, shredded cheese and crumbled bacon bits. These are my favorites, use your favorite toppings.

Arrange each ingredient around the platter so everyone can choose the toppings they like best on their salad.

Top with freshly cracked black pepper and croutons if you like.

Serve with your favorite salad dressings on the side. I personally love this salad with Ranch dressing and recommend making it fresh for the best flavor, but you can certainly use a bottled version.

My husband loves the tangy zip from a tart Italian vinaigrette dressing.

Learn how easy it is to make your own vinaigrette salad dressing. I personally think Every Home Cook Should Know How to Make Dijon Vinaigrette. It takes just a couple of minutes and tastes a thousand times better than anything you can buy in a bottle. Plus it costs just pennies to make and you know it’s a healthy option because you are in control of what ingredients go into it.

Flavor Tip: If you are serving this salad with a vinaigrette instead of Ranch dressing, swap out the shredded cheddar cheese and substitute with blue cheese crumbles. It’s a DELICIOUS flavor profile!

No matter what veggies you end up using everyone will love this easy to make salad. Not only is it endlessly customizable to suit everyones tastes, but it’s beautifully colorful and will be the star dish on the table! It’s really hard not to eat healthy when you serve this up at your next get together. I think this salad is going to be making an appearance at my table next Thanksgiving! Everything can be prepped beforehand and assembled quickly when it’s time to eat. Are you going to give this salad a try? You will love it…I guarantee it!!!

Did You Make This?

Be sure to snap a pic and tag it @naturewayblog I love, love, love hearing from my readers!  Don’t forget to leave a comment and a review below, and tag me on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, or TWITTER!

May I ask a small favor?  If you enjoyed this blogpost would you be so kind and like the page?  It lets me know what you are enjoying the most.  It also helps me focus my attention on creating content that will be most meaningful and beneficial for you, my readers.  And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so you never miss out on all the latest that’s happening here at Nature Way.  Thank you!

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

John 6:35

Remember…Jesus ❤️’s you!