Easy Garden Salad

This Easy Garden Salad is colorful, delicious, and completely customizable depending on the season, where you live, and what you have. It’s the perfect side dish to almost any meal!

Recipe ingredients

At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.

Ingredient notes

• Ranch dressing: If you don’t want to make your own, substitute a bottle of store-bought (or choose whatever salad dressing you prefer).
• Lettuce: Choose one or more of romaine, iceberg, mixed greens, spinach, arugula, Bibb lettuce, or butter lettuce.
• Endive: Belgian endive is a chicory lettuce with white, tightly curled leaves with yellow tips. Omit it if you can’t find it.
• Grape tomatoes: 1 ½ cup diced tomatoes may be substituted for the grape tomatoes. Seed your tomatoes if desired.

Step-by-step instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, sour cream, red onion, dill, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper). Refrigerate at least 10 minutes to blend flavors.

2. In a large bowl, combine lettuce, endive, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, and cucumbers. Drizzle with salad dressing and toss until evenly coated.

Recipe tips and variations

• Yield: This recipe makes about 12 cups of salad, enough for 6 generous (2-cup) servings.
• Storage: Store leftovers (undressed is best) covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• Make ahead: Wrap washed, dried lettuces rolled in a clean kitchen towel in the refrigerator. Peel and chop any vegetables the day before. The ranch dressing can be prepared up to 3 days in advance (whisk to recombine before serving).
• More mix-ins: Customize with your favorites such as bell peppers, onions, avocados, blanched broccoli, fresh herbs, croutons, bacon bits, black olives, sesame seeds, or blue cheese crumbles.
• Toss last-minute: To serve a large tossed salad for a crowd, wait until the last minute to add the dressing. The acidity in the dressing can wilt the greens.

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Easy Garden Salad

By Meggan Hill

This Easy Garden Salad is colorful, delicious, and completely customizable depending on the season, where you live, and what you have. It's the perfect side dish to almost any meal!

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 15 minutes mins

Servings 6 servings (2 cups each)

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Calories 204

5 from 36 votes

ReviewPrint

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

For the ranch dressing (see note 1):

• ▢ 1/2 cup buttermilk
• ▢ 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• ▢ 6 tablespoons sour cream
• ▢ 1 tablespoon red onion minced
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh dill minced
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced
• ▢ 1 clove garlic minced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• ▢ Pinch of sugar
• ▢ Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:

• ▢ 8 cups lettuce such as romaine, green leaf, or iceberg, torn into bite-sized pieces (see note 2)
• ▢ 1 blub endive cored and chopped (see note 3)
• ▢ 1 pint grape tomatoes halved lengthwise (see note 4)
• ▢ 4 radishes ends trimmed, halved lengthwise and sliced
• ▢ 2 carrots peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced
• ▢ 2 Persian cucumbers or 1 hot house cucumber halved lengthwise and chopped

Instructions 

• To make the ranch dressing, in a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, mayonnaise, sour cream, red onion, dill, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste (I like ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper). Refrigerate at least 10 minutes to blend flavors. Whisk to recombine before serving.
• To assemble the salad, in a large bowl, combine lettuce, endive, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, and cucumbers. Drizzle with salad dressing and toss until evenly coated.

Recipe Video

Notes

1. Ranch dressing: If you don’t want to make your own, substitute a bottle of store-bought (or choose whatever salad dressing you prefer).
2. Lettuce: Choose one or more of romaine, iceberg, mixed greens, spinach, arugula, Bibb lettuce, or butter lettuce.
3. Endive: Belgian endive is a chicory lettuce with white, tightly curled leaves with yellow tips. Omit it if you can’t find it.
4. Grape tomatoes: 1 ½ cup diced tomatoes may be substituted for the grape tomatoes. Seed your tomatoes if desired.
5. Yield: This recipe makes about 12 cups of salad, enough for 6 generous (2-cup) servings.
6. Storage: Store leftovers (undressed is best) covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
7. Make ahead: Wrap washed, dried lettuces rolled in a clean kitchen towel in the refrigerator. Peel and chop any vegetables the day before. The ranch dressing can be prepared up to 3 days in advance (whisk to recombine before serving).
8. More mix-ins: Customize with your favorites such as bell peppers, onions, avocados, blanched broccoli, fresh herbs, croutons, bacon bits, black olives, sesame seeds, or blue cheese crumbles.
9. Toss last-minute: To serve a large tossed salad for a crowd, wait until the last minute to add the dressing. The acidity in the dressing can wilt the greens.

Nutrition

Serving: 2cupsCalories: 204kcalCarbohydrates: 10gProtein: 3gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 16mgSodium: 179mgPotassium: 479mgFiber: 3gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 4740IUVitamin C: 17mgCalcium: 76mgIron: 1mg

Did you make this recipe?Tag @culinaryhill on Instagram so we can admire your masterpiece! #culinaryhill

Meggan Hill

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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.

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