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This Spring Mix Salad will become your go salad for any dinner party, or any night of the week. Light yet bold, it’s simple to prepare, flavor-packed, and absolutely beautiful! Made in partnership with my friends at Little Leaf Farms.
Spring Mix Salad Recipe Everyone Loves
This spring mix salad recipe is probably one of my favorite salads ever, and I have a lot of favorites like My Everyday Chopped Salad Recipe, Mediterranean Turkey Salad, and Easy BBQ Chicken Salad, to name just a few.
This is the salad that I now serve whenever we have guests over and I want a salad to impress! It’s packed with crisp lettuce and topped with fresh beautiful tomatoes, creamy avocado, onions (marinated in the yummy dressing), a fabulous crunch on top, and a zesty homemade dressing to boot. It’s a knock-it-out-of-the-park kind of salad!
Ingredients Needed:
This list includes ingredients for the salad and the dressing. The full list of ingredients and the recipe instructions are listed at the end of this post!
Spring Mix Salad Blend: A spring mix salad blend is typically made up of greens like red leaf, green leaf, and arugula.It’s the perfect blend that truly everyone enjoys and Little Leaf Farms makes a killer blend!
Heirloom Tomatoes: You can absolutely use any tomatoes here. I love the vibrant color of local heirloom tomatoes, but any will do. Use what ya got!
Avocado: A ripe avocado adds the perfect creaminess to this salad!
Red Onion: Crisp with a ton of flavor, these get a fast marinade in our quick and easy dressing and are kind of the star of the show, in my opinion!
Fresh Parmesan: You can omit this for a dairy-free and vegan option, but it really makes this salad pop.
Gluten Free Panko: This crunch is everything. We toast them up for extra flavor, which takes just a minute or two! Don’t want to use panko? Grind up pecans to a breadcrumb-like consistency and toast them! This will be your paleo-friendly option!
Dressing: A blend of olive oil, lemon juice, gated garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. It’s easy and the grated garlic adds the perfect bite.
Customize it with other add-ins/toppings:
- Chickpeas or Crispy Chickpeas
- Banana Peppers
- Roasted Bell Peppers
- Orange Segments
- Other Nuts of Choice (toasted or not): Slivered Almonds, Sliced Almonds, Pecans, Walnuts, you name it!
Add cheese: While I use grated parmesan here, a variety of cheeses would work so well as a salty component to this spring mix salad. Leave cheese out to keep this salad vegan and dairy-free.
- Feta Cheese
- Goat Cheese
- Sharp Cheddar
- Manchego Cheese
Add a protein:
- Steak
- Chicken: Shredded Chicken (or Rotisserie Chicken) or a Spatchcock Chicken
- Grilled Chicken
- Shrimp
- Salmon
The Dressing
Let’s talk about this dressing, because I kill two birds with one stone here. I make the dressing and marinade the onions at the exact same time!
- I slice the onions into thin rings and place them in the bottom of a mason jar (or a bowl).
- Pour over the oil, lemon, garlic and spices.
- Give it a mix and set aside while preparing the rest of the salad!
How to Build The Perfect Salad
- Salt your greens.
- Make your dressing/marinated onions.
- Toast your bread crumbs of choice (see above for a note on a paleo option).
- Assemble your salad.
- Toss with remaining dressing.
- Serve immediately!
Why you should salt your greens
The key to a restaurant-worthy salad… salting your greens! Most restaurants add salt and pepper to the greens and not just the dressing, so you should to!
The Best Lettuce For Salad
Any good salad must start out with the freshest lettuce, and for a while now I’ve been loving and buying the lettuce from Little Leaf Farms. Little Leaf Farms grows truly the best-tasting baby lettuce, that is grown locally on the East Coast. Their lettuce is grown hydroponically in a modern greenhouse that prides itself on sustainable growing practices that are both good for our environment and for our bodies.
You can notice right away that their lettuce is different because on the package it doesn’t say “triple-washed”. Instead, Little Leaf Farms lettuce is “clean from the start”. Because their lettuce is grown inside of a greenhouse, without dirt (hello hydroponics!), and never comes in contact with human hands, they don’t need to use chemical washing agents or chlorine baths like most field-grown lettuce products do. This means there’s no need to wash! Just open the container and add to your salad! This means you get clean lettuce that hasn’t ever come into contact with any chemicals or pesticides.
Little Leaf Farms lettuce is harvested and shipped to your local store in one day, so it stays fresh for two weeks or more, and this might be my favorite part about this lettuce. It makes it so easy to always have a box available for fresh salads since it keeps so well! You can find Little Leaf Farms in all major grocery stores in the Northeast as well as on Amazon Fresh and Instacart. Check out their store locator to find one near you!
How do I Scale This Spring Mix Salad Down for 2 People?
You’ll note this makes a salad that serves 4-6. That’s because it’s truly the most crowd-pleasing, dinner party salad ever. But you can absolutely scale it down for two. Simply use one box of your spring mix salad blend and top with your desired amount of add-ins and dressing.
Prepping Salad Ahead For Meal Prep:
You can totally prep components of this salad in advance, or even the day before! Just make sure everything is prepped, and then dress just before serving.
Prep ahead:
The Dressing! You can make this a day or two ahead and store in the refrigerator, or even on the counter as long as the onions are completely covered. Dress the salad just before serving.
Day of:
Slice everything and toast the panko! You’ll wait to assemble and dress your lettuce until serving.
If you prefer to eat this salad with a protein like chicken, go ahead and meal prep this salad to have a separate container for the salad components and another for the chicken, that way the meat can be heated up on its own. And of course, with most salads, you’ll want to keep dressing separate and add right before serving.
Keeping all of this in mind, this salad will keep well in an air-tight container for 3-5 in the refrigerator.
If you love this salad recipe, try some of our other popular salads:
- My Favorite Chopped Greek Salad
- Mediterranean Turkey Salad
- Easy BBQ Chicken Salad
- Cheeseburger Salad with Mustard Dressing
The Best Spring Mix Salad Ever
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1/2 red onion sliced thin
- 2 boxes Little Leaf spring mix salad blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 avocado sliced
- 2 large heirloom tomatoes sliced
- 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese more as desired
- 1/3 cup gluten-free panko breadcrumbs or finely ground pecans toasted
Dressing:
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 garlic clove grated
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Make marinated onions and salad dressing: Slice the onion into thin rings and place them in the bottom of a mason jar (or a container or bowl). Pour over the oil, lemon, garlic and spices. Give them a toss, cover and set aside until ready to assemble.
- Toast Breadcrumbs: Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add panko. Toast for 2-3 minutes until golden brown, stirring often to avoid burning.
Assemble:
- Add Spring mix blend to a large bowl or serving dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Arrange avocado and tomato on top of lettuce.
- Add your marinated onions with a fork, leaving dressing remaining to dress the salad.
- Top with freshly grated parmesan and toasted panko.
- Dress the salad and serve immediately!
Notes
- Don't want to use panko? Grind up pecans to a breadcrumb-like consistency and toast them! This will be your paleo-friendly option!
- You'll note this makes a salad that serves 4-6. That's because it's truly the most crowd-pleasing, dinner party salad ever. But you can absolutely scale it down for two. Simply use one box of your spring mix salad blend and top with your desired amount of add-ins and dressing.
Only two bites in and had to stop and leave a review – this is delicious! Love everything about it!