Big Salad With Grains

Name: Big Salad With Grains
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: 2 cups sturdy salad greens, such as romaine, iceberg, escarole or kale; 1/2 cup cooked grains, like quinoa, farro, bulgur wheat or barley; 1 cup roasted vegetables, like potatoes, sweet potatoes or winter squash; 1/4 cup thinly sliced raw vegetables, like bell peppers, celery, carrots, fennel, mushrooms, onions, radishes, snap or snow peas, summer squash or tomatoes; 1/4 cup salad dressing, like yogurt, tahini or a vinaigrette, plus more to taste; 1/2 avocado, thinly sliced; 1 hard-boiled egg, peeled and halved; 2 teaspoons snipped chives, plus more to taste; 2 teaspoons sliced or chopped nuts, like almonds, walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts, plus more to taste; Whole-grain bread, for serving

By Julia Moskin

Total Time: 10 minutes
Rating: 4(1,233)
Notes: Read community notes

There's no true recipe for a big salad, but for this robust green meal, you will want to keep a few rules in mind. Skip the soft lettuces, which tend to get squashed in a big salad, and start with sturdier greens, like kale or escarole. Add fruits and vegetables, a protein, like a hard-boiled egg, and a starch or two. You want a total of six to eight ingredients, before toppings. Too few, and it could get boring; too many, and the bowl gets crowded and confusing. Finish it off with a substantial dressing, like avocado, yogurt or tahini, and add a couple of toppings, like chives or chopped nuts. Serve with a side of whole-grain bread for a filling and healthy meal.

Learn: How to Make Salad

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Ingredients

Yield:1 serving

2cups sturdy salad greens, such as romaine, iceberg, escarole or kale
½cup cooked grains, like quinoa, farro, bulgur wheat or barley
1cup roasted vegetables, like potatoes, sweet potatoes or winter squash
¼cup thinly sliced raw vegetables, like bell peppers, celery, carrots, fennel, mushrooms, onions, radishes, snap or snow peas, summer squash or tomatoes
¼cup salad dressing, like yogurt, tahini or a vinaigrette, plus more to taste
½avocado, thinly sliced
1hard-boiled egg, peeled and halved
2teaspoons snipped chives, plus more to taste
2teaspoons sliced or chopped nuts, like almonds, walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts, plus more to taste
Whole-grain bread, for serving

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Place greens in bottom of serving bowl. Add grains in an even layer over greens. Repeat with the roasted vegetables, then the raw vegetables.
Step 2
Top with dressing, and toss gently. Fan out avocado on top on one side of bowl.
Step 3
Place hard-boiled egg pieces on the side opposite the avocado. Top with chives and nuts. Serve with whole-grain bread.

Ratings

4 out of 5

1,233 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Marcia6 years ago

A rather fun thing to do with eggs and salads is to put a hard-boiled egg in a cheese grater and grate it onto the salad after it's been dressed and tossed - lovely to look at and everyone gets a bit of the egg that way.

Cynthia6 years ago

When I was in Sweden years ago, they served salads similar to this - with roasted potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, chickpeas and olives. They also added lightly steamed green beans, which go with this very well.

Clark5 years ago

Kale. 1c Farro, rinsed and in instant pot with 1c water 1c Apple cider and bay leaf. 10min high pressure, 5min natural release. Roasted cubes of sweet potato. Hard boiled egg in instant pot 5min with 5min release. Cut up carrots. Walnuts. Dates. Dried cranberries. Made a Soy Ginger salad dressing: 2parts olive oil, 1part rice vinegar, A garlic clove, 1” ginger minced, 1T soy sauce, 1T almond butter, 1T honey, 1tsp sesame oil. Blend to make smooth. RIDICULOUSLY good!

Kyle Nachtigall5 years ago

Round 1: Farro, Lacinto Kale, Roasted Sweet Potato & Cauliflower, Red Pepper, Goat Cheese, Sunflower Seeds, Red Wine VInaigrette 6/10 Round 2:

Jane6 years ago

Very useful recipe since it's so general and can use whatever you have (which is probably what you like..) So I used chickpeas for grain (close enough), roast cauliflower, toasted pecan pieces and a left over asian dressing..

maeve5 years ago

Could we please agree not to issue blanket -- and very scary -- advisories about particular foods? Let's leave that to NYT to research, okay? For example, the warning about raw mushrooms is inaccurate as written. It did make me look up what's known, and it seems advisable not to eat (many) raw mushrooms, but to say "most contain carcinogens" is not helpful. If you want to advise us to look up what's known, fine, but please don't be inflammatory.

Sarah Gregson6 years ago

I try to be as vegan as possible so I would make a vegan dressing to go with this, using the aquafaba from a can of chickpeas or beans, then adding a clove of garlic, a dollop of mustard, lemon juice and vegetable oil and whisk with a stick blender. It can be varied with maple syrup, chipotle sauce, soy, sesami, wasabi, whatever flavour you like. I know it sounds weird but it's yummy and creamy without the cholesterol.

dede.heath5 years ago

I'm not planning to invest in an instant pot (at the age of 79, going on 80).

AK6 years ago

We loved this flexible salad recipe!

We multiplied x4 to make dinner & have leftovers for lunch, and the portions were really large and filling. Used romaine for the lettuce, bell pepper for raw veg, sweet potato for the roasted veg, and almonds.

Was really good with green goddess dressing!

Gina Wilson MD5 years ago

Mushrooms are, in fact, protective against breast cancer.

Melina6 years ago

This is a really winning formula! I used kale as my sturdy salad green, wild rice as my grain, sweet potatoes as my roasted veg, red cabbage and red onion as my raw veg, cilantro as my herb and pepitas instead of nuts. I massaged olive oil, lemon and lime juice into my kale, then added plain Greek yogurt for additional overall dressing. I also added chickpeas for a little extra protein since I didn't use egg.

scarpet6 years ago

So simple, yet absolutely yummy. Prep time was much longer than 10 minutes, more like 50 minutes, especially if you’re roasting the vegetables, cooking the grains, etc. I used romaine, quinoa, roasted red potatoes, roasted cauliflower, raw radishes, raw porcini mushrooms, avocado, egg, chives, walnuts, and dressed it all with Melissa Clark’s anchovy-mustard vinaigrette.

s5 years ago

Angela6 years ago

This is a great salad to use up leftover roasted or steamed vegetables and brown rice or a chicken breast. We usually reserve one night for a big salad, and this formula makes it easy to use up the leftovers that before would just accumulate in the refrigerator.

beetee5 years ago

What's an instant pot?

Laura6 months ago

We use this as a recipe template all the time. Found a new favorite combo tonight—romaine lettuce, barley, roasted sweet potatoes, slivered sweet peppers, simple maple syrup vinaigrette, boiled egg, sliced almonds, green onions and avocado. Served with homemade leek and potato focaccia. *chefs kiss*

dylan olivia7 months ago

So good! I used organic Tuscan kale as the base and then quinoa as the grain, skipped the roast vegetable part as I was short on time, did organic cucumbers, organic onions and organic parsley as my added vegetable, made the vinaigrette with red wine vinegar, mixed everything, did several eggs, two avocados and then added a ton of pepitas. Perfection.

me1 year ago

Made this with baby kale, roasted sweet potato, red pepper, a hard-boiled egg, chives, and toasted walnuts with a tahini dressing. Delicious!

Lizzette2 years ago

Made this tonight and it was delicious! Followed guidelines and used a ginger dressing. So versatile and flexible, it will become part of my rotation. We used romaine lettuce, quinoa, chickpeas, kalamata olives, red and yellow peppers, shredded carrots, thinly sliced radishes and steamed baby green beans. It was very filling!

Jeremy K.3 years ago

Made this with the Tahini Ranch Dressing recipe for the dressing and it ended up being a pretty filling dinner. The quinoa is very satisfying. Because a lot of the prep is quick and easy, this is a new hit for the household we'll be making frequently.

Kluski3 years ago

Leftovers in our fridge, on which we built this: roasted beet, quinoa, pomegranate seeds, orange vinaigrette, avocado. Adds: fresh veggies, toasted spicy pepitas, egg, butter lettuce (inner, firmer leaves). It had a sweetness and spiciness to it and it was delicious.

Jane4 years ago

Fantastic versatile recipe. Used Tejal Rao’s tahini ranch dressing on this site. So yummy. Frisée, roast baby potatoes and zucchini and tomatoes and radishes. Good for a steamy night in NYC.

Gerry4 years ago

This is my weekly "schnoodles with salad" recipe. It's always a healthy and grounding, back to basics meal. You won't feel bloated or blah after eating it. I often use spaghetti noodles instead of the (also good) cooked grains listed, thus schnoodles! Indispensable is a good quality blue cheese when using vinaigrette.* Kalamata olives and green onions too. No thank you to the bread. *1TLBS balsamic vinegar, 2TLBS olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder on the bottom of the bowl, mix, add the rest

Barbara4 years ago

I make dinner salads three or four times a week in the summer. This has way too many calories, at least a half-day's worth. To slim it down, use a non-fat Greek yogurt dressing or simply a good vinegar, skip the root vegetables in favor of roasted carrots. Omit the avocado or have a single slice.

ctan4 years ago

So yum!! Made with avocado dressing: 1 avo, 1 lime, 2 cloves of garlic, handful of cilantro, 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, 3 tblsp evoo, small handful of chopped onion, salt, pepper, paprika and ground red pepper all in food processor

Christa4 years ago

You can hardly go wrong with this winning and satisfying combination--I used lacinato kale, farro, roasted chickpeas and sweet potato tossed with smoked paprika, and dressed the whole thing with tonnato.

Juliet Jones4 years ago

I'm in the process of making this right now. I've just finished cooking some sweet potatoes to use, and I've come back to the recipe because I'm not sure if the vegetables (and the cooked grains, which I've also just made) should be cold or hot. The recipe doesn't seem to say! Any advice will surely come too late for tonight's dinner, but I'd still like to know.

rkurk4 years ago

Excellent!! Def make again. I made with barley, Romain shredded carrots (2), Persian cucumber, snap peas, tossed with dressing then plated with a sliced avocado and hard boiled eggs as directed. The dressing was terrific; I made a lemon anchovies parsley, canola oil recipe from Melissa Clark

Joey4 years ago

A lovely, easy and filling meal.

Valerie4 years ago

A good hearty salad to make in advance for workday lunches! It was great with kale, quinoa, roasted sweet potato, red bell pepper, almonds and vinaigrette (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018740-basic-vinaigrette?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share). Raw kale is still a little bitter for me even underneath all these ingredients, so will try romaine next time.

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