Fresh and Delicious Spring Salads

Warm weather seasons are perfect opportunities to serve heartier salads as entrees. Not only is this usually a time of year when people start watching their figures, but also the added daylight hours and rising temperatures call for quick and easy meals that don’t require you to waste precious free time sweating over a hot stove. All you really need to make filling, healthy salads this spring are fresh ingredients, some giant bowls and a dash of creativity.

Who knew cold cuts and chopped veggies could be so exotic? The Ticked Red food blog from North Carolina shows how to embrace the Mediterranean lifestyle just by perusing your grocery’s produce section. A bonus: This salad is also a good way to get in some protein and fiber without worrying about heavy dressing.

For a vegetarian-friendly dash of European flavor, there’s Jeanine Donofrio’s lemon chickpea salad. Donofrio, who runs the Austin, Texas-based blog Love & Lemons with her husband, Jack Mathews, uses chickpeas, Dijon mustard, cumin, chopped lettuce and (befitting her blog’s name) a lot of lemon juice to create a healthy chickpea salad in next to no time.

MORE: Zesty Taco Salad Recipe

Fire up the grill! Christin Mahrlig of Fort Mill SC Living suggests marinating a chicken breast in lemon juice, rosemary and garlic before grilling it with some ears of corn. Slice up the chicken and remove the corn kernels from the cobs. Serve them both with avocado and Parmesan cheese on top of baby spinach.

Satiate those salty-sweet cravings with thin slices of prosciutto and seasonal melons, says Justine Sulia, of Boulder, Colo., who runs the website Cooking & Beer. She makes hers with watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe and tops it with red onion and crumbled feta cheese. Her website being all about food and beer, Sulia suggests pairing the meal with Dogfish Head's Aprihop, a pale ale brewed with apricots.

Kick your meal up a notch with a Thai shrimp salad. The blog Bev Cooks suggests using vermicelli, a little fish sauce, lime juice, sugar snap peas and, for a bit of spice, minced red peppers and sambal oelek chili paste. (Spice lovers should feel free to indulge their cravings with that last ingredient).

San Diego-based food blogger Liz Hughes, who runs the site Virtually Homemade, has (appropriately) made a virtual sunset in a bowl by livening up a couscous salad with sliced oranges and feta cheese. She makes sure her kids get their vegetables by also using asparagus, frozen peas and a chopped shallot.

MORE: Sugar Snap Salad

Spring is usually strawberry season, but those red fruits are good for more than just jams and shortcakes. After a day of picking fresh berries, either from a garden or the grocery aisle, toss them into a salad. The blog Cheerios and Lattes suggests mixing strawberries with spinach, candied walnuts and poppy seed dressing.

Indian food doesn’t stop at curries and paneers. The website Veg Recipes of India suggests making the raw vegetable salad kachumber—often a side dish but certainly something that can be eaten in large quantities—with onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint and cumin. Spice the salad with red chili powder—unless you’re daring and want to use raw green chilies.