Salad

Cooked lettuces? Yes—but barely. When they hit the pan, they’ll pick up flavor from the chicken drippings, gently wilting and taking on the buttery sauce.

Look for pea shoots at the farmers’ market or at Asian markets (though any tender green will work in a pinch).

The dressing for this salad is on the less acidic side: Once the tart pickled vegetables are in the mix, it will be perfectly balanced.

Make sure to have fresh bread on hand to soak up any extra dressing in the bowl.

This lemony dressing is the classic vinaigrette, and the recipe is too easy not to make.

A blend of chiles, arugula, mint, and lime, this dressing brightens up everything from salads and grains to fish and meat

A Thai restaurant classic, this peanut dressing makes an equally great dipping sauce for dumplings and summer rolls.

“This hits all the notes of a great slaw: creamy, tangy, and crunchy.” —Claire Saffitz, assistant food editor

Done well, this should be crunchy, fresh, spicy, sour, and a little bit funky. Taste as you go and adjust as needed.

Salt will dissolve more easily before the oil is added, so make sure to season at the beginning.

This simple, palate-cleansing salad looks great with different types of radicchio—some are deep burgundy and round; others have spotted, ruffled leaves.

If you can’t find freekeh, use another whole grain, like spelt or rye berries.

In addition to being deliciously nutty, quinoa is a complete protein—but you knew that already, right? If you can’t find red, the white variety will work just as well in this tangy, wilted salad.

These cool, crisp, truly modern salads by Estela chef Ignacio Mattos will remind you that good produce DOES exist in the dark days of deepest winter

Soaking the onion mellows its sharpness. If you can’t find fresh horseradish, add 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish to the crème fraîche mixture.

Chef Ignacio Mattos says to get both the walnuts and the breadcrumbs very toasty and dark brown; he loves the contrast between the rich, crunchy bits and the bright, juicy endive on top.

A version of this salad has been on Estela’s menu since its opening; chef Ignacio Mattos has tried it with summer squash and apples in place of the kohlrabi. In any case, make sure not to cut your slices too thin—they need to stand up to the nuts and cheese.

It might seem fussy to separate the vegetables when pickling, but if they’re combined, the colors will bleed and they won’t be as vibrant.

Think of the crunchy, granola-ish sesame clusters as seedy croutons for this juicy and bracing salad.

Grain salads, like this herb-spiked one made with smoky freekeh, come together instantly with leftovers—reason enough to cook off a batch on Sundays.

The salad spinner—once a novelty item—has earned its place in the pantheon of essential kitchen gear. Sweetgreen co-founder Nicolas Jammet explains the 180

Tuscan kale, also called black kale, dinosaur kale, Lacinato kale, and cavolo nero, has long, narrow, very dark green bumpy leaves; it is available at farmers’ markets and some supermarkets.