Make-Ahead Picnic Salads

By Food & Wine
Updated March 31, 2017
These easy recipes include potato salad with bacon and quinoa salad with sugar snap peas.
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Green Bean-and-Tomato Salad with Tarragon Dressing

John Kernick
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This supersimple bean-and-tomato salad, tossed with a tarragon-flavored dressing, is perfect for summertime picnics, like the kind Paul Virant’s mother would prepare when he was a child.

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Santa Fe Quinoa Salad

Stephanie Foley
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Chef Chad Aaland makes quinoa salad with three types of beans and house-pickled onions. This streamlined version with black beans and jarred cocktail onions is tasty, too.

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Moroccan Carrot Salad with Spicy Lemon Dressing

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Susan Feniger likes to make this salad early in the day, so the carrots marinate a bit in the dressing. Harissa, the North African chile paste, adds fiery heat.

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Quinoa Salad with Sugar Snap Peas

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Vegetable Rainbow Salad

CON POULOS
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This vibrant salad showcases a colorful mixture of pickled onions and radishes, roasted root vegetables, leafy greens and black quinoa.

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Antipasto Salad with Bocconcini and Green-Olive Tapenade

John Kernick
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This no-cook salad from Los Angeles chef Nancy Silverton, inspired by the antipasto in Italian-American restaurants, is a delicious toss of iceberg lettuce, mozzarella, salami and olives in an oregano-laced dressing.

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Lemony Bulgur Salad with Shrimp and Spinach

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Bulgur (a quick-cooking form of whole wheat) is usually boiled before it’s eaten, but for this terrific main-course salad, Melissa Rubel Jacobson simply softens it in warm tap water before tossing it with baby spinach and precooked shrimp.

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Layered Chicken Salad with Coriander-Yogurt Dressing

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Taking a cue from French verrines, these portable, layered chicken salads could also be assembled in one big glass bowl.

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Crunchy Cabbage Salad

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“Sometimes I make this simple salad with just one color of cabbage; sometimes I arrange it in alternating rows of color,” says Jacques Pépin. The tangy-salty anchovy dressing would also be delicious on other crisp salad greens, such as escarole or chicory.

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Chicken and Rice Salad with Pine Nuts and Lemon

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This Mediterranean-inspired salad can be served warm or slightly chilled. Be sure to check the seasonings, as cold dishes often need more salt and pepper than those served hot.

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Fusilli with Spinach and Sun-Dried-Tomato Pesto

© David De Vleeschauwer
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Feel free to use chopped walnuts instead of pine nuts, or add half a cup of roughly chopped pitted black olives to the salad.

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Eggplant Caponata

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Sicily’s caponata is a tangy eggplant salad served as a side dish or appetizer. This version adds bits of velvety avocado, full of monounsaturated fats that can help lower cholesterol.

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Barley Salad with Parsley and Walnuts

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Barley is versatile enough to be served warm or at room temperature, as in this terrific salad with walnuts, parsley and salty bits of ricotta salata cheese in a lemon-garlic vinaigrette.

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Potato Salad with Bacon and Barbecue Sauce

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The mayonnaise dressing for this potato salad gets pungency from mustard oil (store-bought spicy mustard works fine, too) and a hit of smoky-sweet flavor from bacon and bottled barbecue sauce.

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Rice Salad with Merguez and Preserved Lemon Dressing

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This boldly flavored dish is enticing, especially to those with a taste for heat. It can be prepared several hours ahead and served at room temperature.

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Couscous Salad with Zucchini and Roasted Almonds

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Barley and Grilled-Vegetable Salad

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Farro Salad with Squid and Chorizo

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The chorizo in this farro-and-squid salad makes it robust enough to pair with a ripe Australian red.

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Leek Salad with Walnuts and Tomme de Brebis

Tina Rupp
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Leeks turn sweet and luscious simmered in salted water and dressed with a simple red wine vinaigrette. Chef Armand Arnal heightens the flavor with fresh toasted walnuts and shavings of the firm farmstead sheep's-milk cheese Tomme de Brebis.

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Escarole and Roasted Broccoli Salad with Anchovy Dressing

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This salad offers an amazing array of flavors: sweet roasted broccoli, bitter escarole, salty anchovies, sharp cheese.

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Cranberry Bean Salad with Celery, Basil and Mint

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