Main Dish Salads

This recipe has been updated (again) with paleo/Whole30 adaptations! Scroll down to find the adaptations in the recipe notes. 

This guacamole chicken salad was a very happy accident. Well, not entirely. I was trying to make a salad (and not, say… trying to paint my nails.)

This salad is so hearty and filling I have a hard time remembering it is, in fact, a salad. It starts off with what looks like a great salad by itself… shredded chicken, chopped tomatoes, avocados and bacon crumbles over a giant bowl of baby spinach. Would be great with a light vinaigrette or buttermilk …

I know I just posted a bunch of salads, but I think this one deserved some attention on its own. I think it’s clear that I really like bacon. I also really like avocados. Guacamole, thanks to my dad, was one of my first solid foods as a baby. I’ve loved guacamole since before I …

One day when my husband was out of town I had a hankering for roasted broccoli. I know, weird. That’s proof that roasting vegetables does magical things to them. I wanted something more substantial than that for a meal, though. Armed with my favorite recipe for roasted broccoli, I dug out a red bell pepper, …

When I was going to college in Utah, I fell in love with Cafe Rio salads and discovered the “layered salad” which can be any variation of rice, protein, vegetables, greens, tortillas, etc. This particular salad is adapted from one of my current favorite cookbooks, The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman, and I am officially in …

I have a lot of grilled chicken recipes on my site, but one of my favorites is balsamic grilled chicken. I’m kind of in love with balsamic vinegar anyway (and my kids like it more than ranch — what?!) and using it as a marinade makes me even more in love with it. I’ve seen …

  This is a really, really good salad, but only if you’re hopelessly in love with goat cheese like I am. This salad is like a cross between a green salad and a potato salad with some fresh green beans thrown in. It’s quite a strange-sounding combination, but the goat cheese dressing is what brings …