Top 10: Salads

Thinly sliced raw collard greens form the foundation of this awesome salad recipe, which is jam-packed with goodies, like crumbled Stilton cheese, bacon and toasted walnuts.

This delectable poached-chicken salad, packed with Asian pear, cucumber and bean sprouts, offers a double hit of wasabi. First, Melissa Rubel whisks wasabi powder into the dressing—a blend of mayonnaise, rice vinegar and sesame oil—then she garnishes the salad with crunchy wasabi peas.

Nan McEvoy uses albacore tuna here, but any fresh tuna will do. In addition to spooning the salad into avocado halves, she also uses it as a sandwich filling and a topping for crostini.

Instead of spending time shredding cabbage and carrots, Grace Parisi uses prepackaged coleslaw mix. She tosses it with noodles and shrimp, then adds a spicy, gingery dressing prepared with other easy-to-find supermarket ingredients, like bottled teriyaki sauce and chile-garlic sauce.

Thai cooks typically serve meat already sliced so it's easier to eat. Here, Andy Ricker tosses pieces of soy-marinated flank steak with fresh mint, cilantro and roasted rice powder. The powder (a thickener in Thai curries) adds a fun crunch but is optional.

Grilling watermelon gives it a terrific sweet-smoky flavor, but the key to charring it properly is to sprinkle it lightly with sugar, which burns just a little on the fire. Here, Christopher Kostow combines the watermelon with delicately curried shrimp (he likes making the dish with lobster, too) and yogurt.

Cooks in Italy fry cauliflower to bring out its nuttiness. Here, Ethan Stowell deep-fries it for a salad with salty prosciutto and nubby farro (a variety of whole-grain wheat).

Chef Andy Glover uses smoked pork in this recipe, but prosciutto would work well too.

Warm chile, ginger, cumin and turmeric combine for a delicious dressing with a kick.

Giuseppe Tentori's quinoa salad is a delightful mix of cucumber, thin green beans, parsley and feta. What makes it special is that Tentori pickles the radishes in red wine vinegar and sugar before tossing them into the salad, where they add a puckery crunch.