These Salad Bar Ideas are a great easy dinner or a fun way to serve salad for a party. Just like a salad bar, all of the ingredients are piled on the board, so it’s customizable for everybody. It’s a fun and easy way to eat a healthy salad for dinner.

A round wooden board holds a variety of salad ingredients in separate bowls: shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, kidney beans, cucumbers, celery, sliced almonds, sunflower seeds, croutons, shredded cheese, and diced bell peppers, with lettuce in the center.

A Salad Board is one of my favorite things to serve at any party or even for dinner because people can pick exactly what they want on their salad! Kids love this recipe because they feel cool being able to make their own dinner! Plus it looks impressive and gorgeous and wows everyone you’re serving. Just like a charcuterie board or cheese platter, a salad board is not hard to do and makes a great option if you’re looking for a quick and easy 30 minute meal to make!

Salad Bar Ingredient Ideas

  • Lettuce: We love romaine lettuce in our house! If you want to use a variation of leafy greens that is fine too – spinach or spring mix or even arugula or red cabbage.
  • Protein: You can use leftover cooked chicken or beef, or make a taco salad board! Or add deli turkey, shrimp, crumbled bacon, bacon bits, or hard-boiled eggs.
  • Vegetables: Cherry tomatoes, celery, shredded carrots, diced bell peppers, olives, red onion, avocado, cucumbers, broccoli, or any veggies.
  • Beans: We love using kidney beans or garbanzo beans for salad bars but black beans are great too.
  • Something Crunchy: Like tortilla strips, croutons, wonton strips, or sunflower or pumpkin seeds.
  • Cheese: We love adding cheddar cheese or even mozzarella or Monterey Jack, or crumbled like feta cheese or blue cheese.
  • Fruit: Grapes, strawberries, oranges, and apples all go great on salad.
  • Nuts: Thinly sliced almonds or even chopped candied nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashews) would be amazing or peanuts!
  • Dressing: Balsamic vinegar, Caesar, ranch dressing or any favorite vinaigrettes are great options to be put on the side!
A round wooden board with fresh salad ingredients: chopped lettuce, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, kidney beans, cucumber slices, celery, and small bowls of sunflower seeds and chopped nuts.

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How Do You Make a Salad Bar?

  • Put all your toppings in small bowls around the edge of a large serving platter. Place lettuce down the middle of the board. Add each ingredient in a pile down the sides of the board.
  • Make a THEMED salad bar board: Taco Salad, Greek Salad, Italian chopped, Asian, anything you like. Take your favorite restaurant salad recipe and deconstruct it onto a serving platter.
  • Clean out the fridge salad bar: This is great for leftover night. Use up cooked chicken and vegetables, even apples or other fruit, before they go bad.

Storage

Put all the ingredients into individual airtight containers in the fridge or pantry! Then when you want to have it again, you can bring it back out!

A round wooden board holds bowls of cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, kidney beans, sliced cucumbers, celery, nuts, seeds, croutons, shredded cheese, diced bell peppers, and a pile of chopped lettuce. Two wooden utensils and a striped towel are nearby.

Salad Bar Board Recipe

5 from 2 votes
Creating a salad bar board is a fun twist and an easy way to eat a healthy salad for dinner. We love doing this for dinner parties or get togethers!
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Yield 4 servings
Serving Size 1 serving
Save RecipeRate RecipePrint Recipe

Ingredients
 

Chose a Lettuce

  • Romain (chopped), Spring Mix, Arugula, Spinach

Choose Toppings

  • Chopped avocado, grated carrots, cherry tomatoes
  • Chopped bell peppers, celery, red onion, etc.
  • store bought tortilla strips
  • Shredded or crumbled cheese
  • Chopped nuts, seeds, olives, etc.

Choose Protein (optional)

  • Chopped cooked chicken or beef, ham, taco meat
  • Crispy cooked bacon, hardboiled eggs, salami, etc.

Choose Dressing(s)

  • Balsamic, Salsa, Guacamole, Asian, Greek, Caesar, Ranch, etc.

Instructions

  • Put dressings, vegetables, nuts, proteins and other toppings in small serving bowls. Place around the outer edges of the board.
  • Place lettuce down the middle of the board.
  • Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

Mel’s tips:
  • Have fun with this and use the ingredients you love. Maybe sunflower seeds instead of almonds. Add in some mushrooms.
  • Serve with some good bread. We like sourdough or a French baguette.
  • You can pick up a rotisserie chicken and shred it to eliminate cooking it. You can change up your protein as well. Maybe some quinoa.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 53g | Fat: 71g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 121mg | Sodium: 497mg | Potassium: 1502mg | Fiber: 16g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2391IU | Vitamin C: 68mg | Calcium: 406mg | Iron: 5mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Main Course, Salad
Cuisine American
Keyword dinner salad, easy salad, salad bar, salad for group
A round wooden board holds bowls of cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots, kidney beans, sliced cucumbers, celery, nuts, seeds, croutons, shredded cheese, diced bell peppers, and a pile of chopped lettuce. Two wooden utensils and a striped towel are nearby.
Don’t forget to share a pic of what you made!
Tag me @easygoodideas on Instagram

Other Salad Recipes

5 from 2 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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