This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our affiliate policy.
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!
Table of Contents
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
- 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.
- 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.
How to Make Croutons
Learn how to make croutons in the oven or on the stove. They’re ready in just 15 minutes and add the perfect crunch to all your favorite soups and salads!
View Recipe
Favorite dressings for garden salad
Salad Dressing Recipes
Thousand Island Dressing
Salad Dressing Recipes
Caesar Salad Dressing
Salad Dressing Recipes
French Dressing
Salad Dressing Recipes
Blue Cheese Dressing
Join Us
HUNGRY FOR MORE? Sign up for our weekly newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for our latest recipes! Tag all your glorious creations #culinaryhill so we can eat vicariously through you.
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!
Ingredients
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
- 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.
- 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.
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 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.
Thank you for this recipe. l love cooking and I want to be a chef someday.
Thanks for the tips! I am making this over the weekend, I have never tried this mix of ingredients and am excited.
Easy indeed! Thank you!
Easy to make, easy to follow. Thanks.
Major thanks for the blog article. Much thanks again. Will read on…
This site was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I have found something that helped me. Cheers!
Thank you for the keeper of a recipe! Love it!
I wanna learn more
Love that fresh crunchy taste to this salad! Really like that this recipe makes me feel full afterwards, too!