I need a recipe for a fancy leafy green salad and dressing

November 20, 2024 8:47 AM

This seems silly, because doesn't one just....make a leafy green salad? But I'm making one for a crowd and my salad preferences are not universal.

I need to bring a large, leafy green salad and dressing to Thanksgiving so it should be fancy and well-balanced. My normal salads for home consumption are basically arugula and more arugula plus onions plus an idiosyncratic jammy vinaigrette of my own invention and I would not expect normal salad-eaters to enjoy it.

This should be a fresh-tasting greens-focused salad that will be a vegetable side, not a heavier or main salad like a Waldorf or a Caesar. And although I know that iceberg lettuce wedge salads are back, baby, I'm looking for dark green greens. What should it include, and in roughly what proportions? And how should it be dressed?

It should yield fairly large portions - like, I can think of small composed salads of endive and so on, but this should really be a way to get a decent serving of greens more than a way to eat a particular vegetable. (Endive would be fine if it's in a larger salad.)

posted by Frowner to Food & Drink (36 answers total)

I love this endive and avocado salad!
posted by wheatlets at 8:57 AM on November 20, 2024

How adventurous are these people? I like to do a pomegranate seed forward Greek salad for a dark green joy because you only need to add a little bit of seed/syrup for a lot of greens, but some people are like "fruit? salad? noooo"
posted by corb at 8:59 AM on November 20, 2024

If you need to accommodate different tastes, I don't think you can go wrong just dressing your greens with a good EVOO, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Arugula, spring mix, cucumber, radish, maybe some avocado, maybe some carrots or peppers. Sometimes I love a dressing with garlic, mustard, balsamic and maple syrup, but I think with a huge meal, the brightness, freshness and simplicity of the oil and lemon really work
posted by kate4914 at 9:05 AM on November 20, 2024 [6 favorites]

I have a theory of leafy green salads, which is that the best such salads contain:
- mostly greens
- a soft-ish vegetable or fruit (e.g. cooked sweet potato, mushrooms, sweet corn, avocado)
- a crunchy vegetable (e.g. carrots, cucumbers, raw beets sliced thin)
- a crunchy dry thing (e.g. croutons, nuts/seeds, crispy onions)
- for a main dish salad, grains and protein (warm or cold)

The salad should be half or more greens, and the crunchy dry things are more of garnish, like 10:1 or 20:1 greens:crunch. The vegetables, grains, and proteins you can go heavier on, like up to 1/5 or 1/4 the amount of greens (although obviously at some point the greens start to fade into the background).

For a side dish I agree that a light, bright dressing is the way to go. If you're making salad for a crowd, I recommend keeping the dressing on the side if possible because a lot of people have very strong feelings about dressing quantities. Also this way people can take home leftovers if there are any.
posted by mskyle at 9:09 AM on November 20, 2024 [6 favorites]

Personally, for something like this, I really enjoy a greens-only mix with a champagne vinaigrette. There are lots of pre-made mixes but if you want to do your own, I do a "measure with your heart" combination of arugula, tender lettuces (green leaf, red leaf, butter), baby spinach, and whatever else seems nice for more color and texture - endive, radicchio, baby kale, etc.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:19 AM on November 20, 2024 [5 favorites]

In my local grocery stores you can find plastic boxes of "mixed baby greens" or "spring mix" or "mesclun" (example) which is typically a mix of small young leaves of romaine, arugula, frisée, radicchio, mizuna, chard, etc. and works great as a base. Since the leaves are young, they're tender and pretty mild while still having a bit more character and "green-ness" than lettuce alone. I think it falls well within the "normal salad-eater" range.

Some of my favorite additions are (in no particular order) shaved carrots, diced pickled beets, walnut or pecan pieces, sliced radish, sliced cucumber, capers, quick-pickled onions, mandarin orange pieces... pick and choose to match what you think the tastes of your fellow diners might be. Things like croutons, diced avocado, crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese, etc. might be too heavy for a Thanksgiving salad, given the rest of the menu? You can decide that for your group better than I can.

I also agree that a simple vinaigrette-ish dressing (or kate4914's suggestion) would be the way to go.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:23 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

My go-to large crowd green salad is:
- a head each romaine, butter lettuce, red leaf (+ more if needed), cut, washed, and spun really dry. Sub any bitter or dark baby greens as you like.
- thinly sliced red onion quick-pickled in lemon juice & a pinch of salt
- Dijon mustard and olive oil vinaigrette, using some of the salty lemon juice from the onions for the acid. (+ white wine vinegar; don't use all lemon juice). Whip it good, make an emulsion with mustard and a little oil first, then add the rest of the oil and finally the acid - follow a good recipe if you are not sure on the proportions.

The keys are basically prep of the greens and making sure they are nice and dry, then tossing well in less-than-you-think vinaigrette. You can add edible flowers as a nice touch for drama.
posted by niicholas at 9:28 AM on November 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

This salad is always a hit and is good to counterbalance heavier foods - my ex and I used to serve it at latke parties.
posted by centrifugal at 9:30 AM on November 20, 2024

I love love this apple cheese crisp kale salad and it is always a hit!
posted by inevitability at 9:31 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

I've made this salad for Thanksgiving dinners and other fall/winter celebrations and people love it. The arugula plus the maple roasted carrots and goat cheese and cranberries are so delicious with the orange vinaigrette. Might be more involved than a simpler green salad, but thought I'd recommend it anyway. Ina Garten's Maple-Roasted Carrot Salad
posted by little mouth at 9:34 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

I once ate a salad of mesculin mix (with some bitters), peeled mandarin orange segments, crumbled goat cheese, toasted pecans, and a light poppy seed dressing. It was the best! It would work well with thanksgiving dishes.
posted by MiraK at 9:47 AM on November 20, 2024 [4 favorites]

I've shared this before, and I am bringing it to our Thanksgiving gathering: Kale and Brussels Salad. Its a delicious, sophisticated salad that people who say they don't like kale or brussels LOVE.
posted by atomicstone at 9:55 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

I know you wanted dark greens butttt your description of what you want is screaming "butter lettuce" to me. Maybe mix in some arugula or watercress for contrast but all butter lettuce would be fine. Tomatoes are so-so this time of year so I would put in sliced radishes, diced avocado, feta, and (most crucially) fresh herbs. I always want dill so that's what I would choose but basically anything works. Instead of (or in addition to) radishes I might try apples for crunch.

My most crowd-pleasing vinaigrette is as follows: 2 parts olive oil to 1 part white balsamic to 1/2 part water, dollop dijon mustard, generous salt and pepper to taste (more than you would expect), finely minced shallot, vigorously emulsified. For a large 2-person entree salad I would use 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon (eyeballed) water, half a shallot, maybe 1/2-1 teaspoon oil. If using lemon or a less strong vinegar you can leave out the water. I think that probably works out to ~4-6 side salad servings so scale up as needed depending on how many people you need to serve - it scales up quite well.

The only caveat for this (and maybe other) salad suggestions is the possibility of dressed greens wilting too quickly and becoming unappealing if it takes people too long to get plates etc etc. To that end, I would like to suggest this brussels sprouts, apple, and pomegranate salad which is delicious, does not wilt, can be almost entirely assembled in advance, and is sturdy enough to eat the next day as leftovers. Endorsed by even the brussels-sprout haters in my family as a Thanksgiving option - something about the acidity and crunchiness really works with the other dishes.
posted by sparkling at 9:57 AM on November 20, 2024 [4 favorites]

I think I have the base recipe you want — Via Carota's Insalata Verde. It gives proportions for a variety of greens and is a subtle beautiful green tangle of butter lettuce, little gems, and chicories. I had it a month ago at a dinner party — where a "plain" green salad was enough to draw comments and recipe requests — and it immediately came back to my mind when I read your question. You could add things that aren't greens but it really didn't need them imho.
posted by felix grundy at 10:06 AM on November 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

(it's not dark dark green but you could def add something in the dark green spectrum to that mix of greens and textures)
posted by felix grundy at 10:09 AM on November 20, 2024

This is my standard salad:
little gem lettuces (romaine hearts are fine but little gems are better) - nice thing about the little gems is that you can still kind of do a semi composed salad at scale
supremed ruby grapefruits, caracara oranges are good if people don't like grapefruit or may be on statins, a combo of these is good too
candied pecans (I like the sweet and spicy ones from Trader Joes)
dressing of good olive oil, champagne or white wine vinegar, little bit of dijon or grainy brown mustard, little bit of maple syrup)
You could also add jicama, fennel, persian cucumbers, good quality croutons, watercress, avocado if you like (I don't like avocado in my salads, in particular if the salad is tossed), perhaps an agreeable cheese, perhaps olives. You could also go funky on the nuts elements, for example little candied seed clusters.
posted by vunder at 10:11 AM on November 20, 2024

On the other hand, my mom's go-to fancy salad is the Chez Panisse salad with breaded baked goat cheese and it IS really nice. It's from the actual Chez Panisse cookbook, and the online recipes I can find are nice but the one in the book uses walnut oil in the dressing and I think that make all the difference. Actually I think this one is the right one.
posted by vunder at 10:15 AM on November 20, 2024

I would probably bring two salads because people have so many dietary restrictions, so here are two recipes, but you know your crowd. You need a head of whatever looks best where you shop for each of them. Lettuce is one of those things where you get insanely more value for your money at a farmers' market, so you might even be able to buy just one and split it up, even though we are at the very end of the season now. Or buy two big tasty heads of lettuce and adjust the other elements to fit.

Recipe 1: A modernized Danish granny salad
1 head of lettuce
1/2 avocado (optional)
1 cup of blueberries (or any other berries you like, even dried cranberries)
1 cup of peeled and diced cucumber
1/2 cup of cream
Juice of half a lemon
salt and white pepper to taste
Rinse and dry the lettuce, tear up the leaves with your hands
Make the dressing: if using avocado, use a blender or mini processor: mix cream, lemon juice, optional avocado and seasoning. If you don't have an avocado, you can just mix the ingredients in a cup. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Using your hands, gently mix the lettuce, berries and cucumber. Just before serving ,mix in the dressing.
This dressing gets really thick with time, you might have to thin it a bit with water.

Recipe 2: classic French
Lettuce
1 part white wine vinegar (this depends on the size of your lettuce - perhaps 1 tbsp)
3 parts fine olive oil
1 very finely chopped shallot
1 tsp (or to taste) Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
Rinse and dry the lettuce, tear it up with your hands.
Combine the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and the chopped shallot in a cup and leave to rest for ten minutes
Pour in the olive oil while stirring vigorously. Taste and adjust the seasoning
Mix the dressing and lettuce just before serving. You may have to shake the dressing in its container to re-emulsify it.

I know, both these recipes are ridiculously simple, and thus they require the best lettuce you can find. And you might find it unimpressive. But every time I've brought them to any type of potluck, they have been the first to go. Sometimes I haven't even gotten a bite myself and I've been stuck with that store-bought potato salad someone always brings.
posted by mumimor at 10:42 AM on November 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

If not two salads, consider more than one dressing, and on the side.
If including feta, goat cheese or other dairy, I would also keep this separate for those who don't eat dairy. Same for nuts if you include them. (Candied pecans or similar are so good!)

For dark green greens, a box of mixed greens as mentioned, plus a small bag of spinach?
For extra veg, some flash steamed brocc/cauliflower/sliced brussel sprouts are always good.

I have no doubt whatever you decide, it will be appreciated!
posted by Glinn at 10:48 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

If it’s any help, I actually think your salad sounds delicious, and part of the joy of thanksgiving is tasting other people’s favorite foods. So I like your go-to salad idea!

That said, I may be jaded, because I have brought fancy salads to Thanksgiving in the past, and in my experience most people don’t take much greens so that they can save space for extra potatoes/stuffing/etc. So I wouldn’t over-worry it!
posted by samthemander at 10:49 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

Caramelized Pear Salad With Warm Pancetta Vinaigrette
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:04 AM on November 20, 2024

This summer I went on a biking trip and on my rest day I wanted to eat salad instead of as many carbs and protein as possible. There was a delightful restaurant on Manitoulin Island where they had a salad with a base of greens, beets, orange, goat cheese, and maybe walnuts with a vinaigrette. I've made it a couple of times since and while it hasn't been exactly the same it's still been pretty good.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:09 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

I know people who find arugula too bitter. I think it is fine to include it but I would balance it with some spinach if you want to stick with dark leafy greens.

When I take a salad to share with a group, I usually use romaine lettuce as my base - super easy to chop up into manageable bite sized pieces that can share a plate with other foods. (If people will have separate salad bowls this is less of a consideration.)
posted by metahawk at 11:19 AM on November 20, 2024

I’m taking this NYT green salad with apples and toasted pecans for Thanksgiving to balance out an otherwise rich, heavy menu. Pretty easy to put together and seasonal, to boot.
posted by lovableiago at 11:27 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

My family's go to not super fancy, but very tasty (and charmingly retro) and goes with thankgiving foods well salad is Best of Bridge Committee Salad. It's got a nice amount of crunch and the dressing is very good.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 11:35 AM on November 20, 2024

Perhaps Maple Roasted Butternut Squash & Apple Salad would do the trick.

I've made it and people loved it. You could leave out some ingredients if you want..
posted by jgirl at 12:31 PM on November 20, 2024

Popping back in because I just remembered Smitten Kitchen’s yummy kale, pecorino, and walnut salad (if you really want to go with dark greens).
posted by lovableiago at 12:59 PM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, the greens for the salad I had was kale.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:36 PM on November 20, 2024

I'm making this salad as my Thanksgiving dinner (note: I am just one person and not a big fan of Thanksgiving anyway so a fancy salad appeals to me). I may sub another nut for the hazelnuts, though.

(I do like the suggestions of putting the cheese & nuts on the side so people can add them if they'd like.)
posted by edencosmic at 2:08 PM on November 20, 2024

This is a truly excellent salad, but it is a lot of work
posted by potrzebie at 6:08 PM on November 20, 2024

There are so many amazing ideas here! My only suggestion is to keep onions on the side--I personally hate raw onions with a passion and they ruin a salad for me. I like pickled onions, but some people may not. Raw onion is SO strong.
posted by bookworm4125 at 7:25 PM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

so many excellent ideas, yum!

i am a crunch snob and so for me, a leafy salad gets sad after it sits dressed for a while.

i'd go the route a couple others have mentioned and do a raw kale salad with a vinaigrette, which will soften somewhat but still hold up well even if it sits out, e.g. this one.
posted by pgoat at 8:40 PM on November 20, 2024

Spinach + arugula with quartered hard-boiled eggs, mandarin oranges, thin sliced red onion, sliced almonds, croutons, and a lemon-honey-olive oil dressing. Magic Pan Restaurant served this; it's my favorite salad. Not too elaborate, not too simple.
posted by theora55 at 6:14 AM on November 21, 2024

Yummy ! My usual salad doesn't include vinaigrette (vinegar, garlic, thyme, a mix of oils : squash, olive, walnut) which is to be added according to one's taste. The salad itself : lettuce, some sliced cucumber, diced apple, diced emmental, walnut, some toasted seeds, slices of toasted bread either rubbed with garlic cloves or topped with a slice of goat cheese plus a drop of honey.
posted by nicolin at 12:41 PM on November 21, 2024

I forgot : the vinaigrette is built upon a spoon of mustard.
posted by nicolin at 10:17 PM on November 21, 2024

also, marinated artichoke hearts and good croutons elevate any salad. For a plain vinaigrette, Nora Ephron's is my fave, and you can casually say I learned it from Nora Ephron and feel just a smidge smug.
posted by theora55 at 10:53 AM on November 26, 2024