5 Easy Summer Salads for Lunch and Dinner

No meal’s more refreshing than a summer salad on a hot day. With crisp veggies, pops of sweet fruit, crunchy garnishes, filling proteins and a flavourful dressing to balance it all out, how could you possibly go wrong?

Why we love summer salads

Salads are not only delicious, but they’re also loaded with nutritious ingredients that are great for your body. Plus, they’re easy to throw together, needing significantly less cooking than most other meals. All these things make them the perfect meal for both lunch and dinner – not just as a side dish!

HelloFresh tip: You can add extra servings of our Summer Salads recipes to your boxes so you have leftovers to take for lunch the next day.

How to pack summer salads for lunch

Nobody wants to eat a soggy salad for lunch! Sadly, this is one of the biggest barriers to packing a vibrant salad for work. How you store your salad could be the difference between bringing in a nutritious and delicious lunch or overspending on takeaway instead. 

Sometimes avoiding the sog is as simple as storing your dressing pre-portioned in a separate container and adding it to the rest of your salad when it’s time to eat. But, if you want to prevent your other ingredients from sogging up your salad, you’ll have to take it a step further:

• Specialty containers: The best kind of salad container is one with lots of compartments. This allows you to separate your salad leaves not just from your dressings but also from your wetter ingredients, like tomatoes and cucumbers. Plus, you can keep your proteins separate and heat them up without ruining the fresh elements of your salad.

• Stacking: If you don’t have a salad container with many compartments, layering your ingredients is the way to go. First, put your dressing in (or put it in a separate container), then layer in your salad ingredients from sturdiest and wettest (least likely to wilt, e.g. grilled chicken or chopped tomatoes) to flimsiest and driest (most likely to wilt, e.g. baby spinach leaves). This keeps your wettest ingredients away from your wilt-prone ingredients, ensuring everything remains fresh until it’s time to tip it all out into a bowl and eat.

5 easy Summer Salads for lunch and dinner

Sri Lankan-Spiced Chicken & Roast Veggie Toss with Mayonnaise & Flaked Almonds

Who said salads have to be boring? This Sri Lankan-inspired salad proves all the salad haters wrong. With chicken and veggies coated in a complex blend of spices and tossed together in a riot of colour, this Summer Salad is a delicious feast for every sense.

Cannellini Bean & Roast Veggie Salad with Feta & Dijon Dressing

Craving something earthy? This Cannellini Bean Salad has earthiness in spades. From the beans to the beetroot, cauliflower and potato, this salad is like a warm hug from Mother Nature. Throw in some mixed salad leaves for freshness, crumbled feta for a hit of tang and a luscious dijon dressing, and you’ve got yourself an excellent meal.

Lamb Meatballs & Lemony Roast Veggie Toss with Capsicum Relish Mayonnaise

Now this is a Summer Salad to go wild for. Starring tender lamb meatballs and a colourful roast veggie toss, it’s as filling as it is flavourful. The real star of the show? Capsicum Relish Mayo – you won’t be able to get enough of it!

Balanced Greek-Style Beef Bowl with Cucumber Freekeh & Garlic Yoghurt

It’s time to get freaky with freekeh! Okay, maybe not that freaky, but you’re guaranteed to have a good time with this delicious Balanced Greek-style salad Bowl. It’s bursting with garlicky beef strips, a riot of vibrant veggies and our favourite grain, freekeh. Yum!

Mediterranean Salmon & Summer Veggie Toss with Balsamic Glaze

If you like salmon, you’ll love this Summer Salad. Piled high with roasted summer veggies and drizzled in a deep balsamic glaze, it’s the perfect backdrop for a piece of beautifully seared salmon. 

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