Quick and Easy Cold Salad Recipes

Your Favorite Salad Recipes

"What's your favorite cold salad?" asks Beliefnet reader, Beliefnetsabee. Whether as a meal of its own or as a side dish, vibrant chicken, tuna, egg, potato, pasta, and fruit salads offer a welcome crunch on hot days. Plus, salads are an easy alternative to cooking over a stove, and they won't sacrifice healthy nutrients.

Our readers share their quick and easy salad recipes, a combination of favorite ingredients, that will inspire your tastebuds in any weather.

Read these favorite salad recipes and share your own.

Editor's Note: The recipes featured here have not been tested by Beliefnet.

Tuna and Chickpea Salad

We mostly make green salads with whatever looks good in the market, but we do have a favorite main course salad.

Recipe shared by rasphila
Add rasphila as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
1 can tuna, drained
1 lb. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 small onion, chopped
Freshly ground pepper

Preparation
Drain the tuna to cut down on the salt. Drain the chickpeas to also cut down on the salt. (This is essential if the salad is to be a salad instead of a soup.)

Once you've drained the main ingredients, flake the tuna into a big salad bowl. Add the chickpeas and chopped onion. Toss with the oil to coat the ingredients.

Add the vinegar and grind the pepper over the salad. Toss again.

If serving the salad from the bowl, sprinkle with parsley, or serve it on individual plates and then sprinkle each plate with parsley.

Variations:
- Red onion makes a good change, especially Vidalia onions.
- Chopped scallions add some color.
- If you don't have chickpeas on hand, make the salad with white beans such as cannellini or great northerns.
- Use balsamic vinegar instead of red wine. If you have fresh chives, chop them with the parsley. (Note: Do not attempt to use freeze-dried chives; they are just awful in the salad.)

Serves: 2 as a main course

White Tuna Fish Salad

My tuna fish salad has the following in it.

Recipe shared by MarleneEmmett5 Add MarleneEmmett5 as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
4 cans albacore white tuna (2 cans in water, 2 cans in oil)
1/4 cup or 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
3 ribs celery, peeled and cut finely
3 scallions, finely sliced
3 medium size cloves fresh garlic or 1/4 teaspoon garlic
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
1 teaspoon whole grain, or spicy brown mustard
1/2 tablespoon, drained pickle relish
3 turns black pepper, freshly ground
2 to 3 shakes of your favorite hot sauce

Preparation
In a large bowl, combine the tuna with the celery, onions, scallions, mustard, relish, and pepper and/or hot sauce.

Mix in 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise. See how the mixture comes together. If the mixture is too dry, add another tablespoon of mayonnaise and check the seasoning.

Add more tablespoons of mayonnaise if the mixture is still too dry.

Serve on toasted whole wheat bread with romaine lettuce between the bread and the tuna so the bread doesn't get soggy!

Enjoy.

Mom's Egg Salad

Mom's egg salad has been all over the country. In the 1960s, we knew four student rabbis. When each one was leaving New York, each wife asked my mom for the recipe.

Recipe shared by MarleneEmmett5 Add MarleneEmmett5 as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
1 dozen jumbo eggs, hard boiled and shelled, cut roughly
1 small box fresh button mushrooms, gently cleaned
2 whole scallions, sliced diagonally
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
3 tablespoons mayonaise
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
Dash of hot sauce (optional)

Preparation
In a large skillet, saute the onions in vegetable or canola oil until they are brown to golden. Drain the excess oil.

In the same skillet, saute mushrooms until they release their water. Drain on paper towels.

In a very large bowl, combine the eggs, onions, and mushrooms. Gently mix everything together.

Add the scallions, salt, pepper, paprika, and mayonnaise. Gently mix until everything is combined.

Taste and adjust the seasoning, including hot sauce if you prefer.

Tomato Salad with Feta Cheese in a Lemon Vinaigrette

Shared by MarleneEmmett5 Add MarleneEmmett5 as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients

Salad
4 pints of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1 pint of vine tomatoes, sliced into chunks
1 or 2 red onions (or white onions if you prefer), sliced
3/4 cup Greek black olives, pitted and halved
3/4 teaspoon fresh basil, chopped fine
Low-salt feta cheese, cubed

Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup juice from a fresh lemon
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon Greek oregano, dried
1/3 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt
4 grinds fresh black pepper
Large cloves minced fresh garlic

Preparation

Dressing
In a separate glass jar, combine the olive oil, spices, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, and Dijon mustard.

Cover the jar and shake well to combine all the ingredients.

Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.

Salad
Combine all the tomatoes, black olives, and onions except for the feta and chopped basil. Toss lightly to combine.

Pour the dressing over the tomatoes, onions, and olives and toss lightly again to make everything is coated nicely.

Just before you serve the salad, add the crumbled feta cheese. Garnish with the chopped basil.

Additions: Pair with a glass of Greek wine and grilled bread or grilled seasoned croutons rubbed with extra garlic.

Pineapple, Pepper, and Mushroom Salad

This isn't for the sensitive stomach.

Recipe shared by appy20 Add appy20 as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
1 can pineapple chunks, drained of juice
Peppers, sliced (green, yellow, or red bell peppers or sweet banana peppers)
Mushrooms (any variety), sliced
Vidalia onion, sliced
Provolone cheese (or any variety), shredded
A few cherries, without stems or pits

Preparation
Toss all ingredients together.

Add either a raspberry vinaigrette or Kraft's Catalina dressing or Russian dressing. The dressing should be sweet, just enough to coat all the peppers, mushrooms, and pineapples well.

Decorate with cherries.

Refrigerate for a few hours.

Sweet and Salty Couscous

We make a couscous salad. It's very fast and very easy.

Recipe shared by Pam34 Add Pam34 as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
Plain couscous or colored couscous
Orange juice (optional)
*
Cucumbers
Tomatoes
*
Garbanzo beans
Parsley
*
Dried fruits, diced
Nuts (I like pecans or hazelnuts), chopped
Honey
Butter

Preparation
Use some orange juice instead of straight water to cook the couscous.

There are some neat “colored” couscous--orange, green, and red--which really brightens up the table. It can be a side dish mixed with cucumbers and tomatoes or maybe garbanzo beans and a little parsley.

Try a “sweet” dish with dried fruits and nuts, all tossed with honey and melted butter (not too much).

Shrimp and Tri-Color Rotini Pasta Salad

I love making this when it's truly hot outside, and I want to eat something refreshing. When I bring this pasta dish to pot luck occasions, it gets gobbled up!

Recipe shared by -Much-Love-n-Peace- Add -Much-Love-n-Peace- as Your Beliefnet Friend

Ingredients
Tri-color Rotini pasta, cooked
Shrimp, cooked
Green peppers, sliced very thing
Red onions, sliced very thin
Red wine vinegar
Ranch dressing

Preparation
Toss everything together. I like to tumble the green peppers and red onions through the red wine vinegar and ranch dressing to give them a yummy tartness.

The pasta is very colorful and makes for a pretty presentation.

Yum!