Pick a salad, any salad. Go for a meaty salad, sweet salad or creamy salad—whatever you choose, it will be no sacrifice. You won’t feel cheated on taste or satiety. From start to finish, you will be enchanted by innovative combinations and traditional favorites alike. These days, salads come in just about every size and shape. Have a salad as a side, an entrée or as a sweet ending. Best of all, eating green doesn’t have to cost a lot of dough!
HARVEST SALAD
Agra Culture Kitchen & Press
Don’t wait until fall to enjoy a harvest salad. Agra Culture’s signature salad is always in season. The gluten-free, almost vegan toss shines with healthy ingredients and organic trimmings. Enjoy a bit of romaine, Napa cabbage, kale, beets, squash, cauliflower, apples, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, candied walnuts, quinoa and smoked Gouda. The housemade Agra vinaigrette enlivens every savory-sweet component. “This is a fresh salad that gives you a lot of flavors and textures to make a very satisfying meal,” says Diana Bassett, executive chef. “For a vegetarian salad, it’s very filling.” Plus, the harvest salad has an eye-catching look with a tapestry of shapes and colors. “It’s a very beautiful salad. We cater with it all the time,” says Bassett. $11. Add chicken $4, salmon $7.
(The colorful harvest salad from Agra Culture Kitchen & Press is hard to resist.)
DINNER SALAD
Carbone’s Pizzeria
Salad and pizza make good tablemates. A dinner salad with the works complements a pizza with the works. With a garden of vegetables and toppings, the Carbone’s dinner salad is the perfect pizza companion. “We load up with a lot of veggies,” says Dawn Holm, owner. Lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers and onions are topped with cheese, croutons and your choice of dressing. Go for the ranch—among the seven dressing options, Carbone’s housemade ranch is a longtime favorite. Creamy buttermilk and mayonnaise turn the dressing into a comfort-food topping. The ranch also has a wholesome richness that keeps customers coming back for more, according to Holm. Add more sustenance to your salad with your choice of deli sliced ham, turkey, salami or pepperoni. Holm says Carbone’s salads are a bargain. “We are one of the best values for salads in the area” of 50th and France. $5.25. Add meat, $2. Larger sizes available.
SALAD BOWL
Dino’s Mediterranean
Create your own meal in minutes and make it a salad. The Dino’s lineup resembles a traditional salad bar, except they build the salad for you. Variety makes a salad whole. Go down the line and find your ideal selections. Not sure what to put on your salad? Just say “Greek salad!” and your helpful salad builders do all the work. Watch as your salad bowl takes shape and overflows with layer upon layer of veggie delights. The salad bowl proves that simple goodness can be remarkably satisfyingly and filling. Begin with a humble bed of romaine. Choose from nine veggies including pepperoncini, cucumbers, Kalamata olives and garbanzo beans, to name a few. Get a sprinkle of feta, Parmesan or Swiss cheese. Add your favorite protein: hummus, falafel, Greek grilled chicken, rotisserie chicken shawarma or beef gyro. Sauce it up with cucumber sauce, hummus, spicy feta or pico de gallo. Top it off with pita croutons, and your super-salad bowl is complete. Better still, fresh-grilled flat bread comes alongside. $6.75, $8.75 with protein.
TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD
Jerry’s Foods
Refreshing and light with a pretty tint of pink, the tropical fruit salad blooms with the airiness of spring. Tropical fruit enrobed in creamy dressing is as sultry as an island breeze. No need to travel far, you can nab the salad from Jerry’s deli case. Bursting with a medley of fruit and the smell of citrus, the salad makes a nicely sweet side salad that borders on dessert. The recipe succeeds in its tropical theme with exotic tastes from a toss of pineapple, guava and papaya chunks, along with bananas and maraschino cherries. Satisfy your sweet-salad cravings here. $6.99/pound.
GRILLED SHRIMP HOUSE SALAD
Tin Fish
You don’t have to be a golf pro to enjoy the grilled shrimp salad from Tin Fish at Braemar Golf Course. Fresh seafood is on the menu year-round for anyone to enjoy. Still, a view of the greens rolling through Braemar Park is befitting for March. “The view is very peaceful. You’re 500 acres from anything,” says Sheffield Priest, owner. This hearty seafood salad anchored by power greens can be just the thing to get you in the mood to play a round of golf (or maybe just watch). Contrasting flavors abound, from fresh grilled shrimp, chewy Craisins, tart mandarin oranges, crunchy almonds and crisp carrots. Housemade dressing draws together the beautifully bright seafood-veggie mix with artful good taste. “The whole Tin Fish experience is the same as the shrimp salad—made from scratch to order,” says Priest. $6.
EGG SALAD SANDWICH
Wuollet Bakery
At a beloved bakery, it could only be expected that a salad would involve an abundance of tantalizing carbs. While Wuollet has more of a sweet reputation, savories sparkle here too. Expand your epicurean horizons with an egg salad sandwich snuggled in Old World-crafted bread or on a feathery, buttery croissant. A hint of celery seed and frilly lettuce leaf set off the eggy creaminess of the filling. Lovingly made from scratch, the result is light but filling and a pure pleasure to eat. The elegant egg salad sandwich is the stuff high teas are made of—irresistibly cute and tidy, down to the last tidbit. Maximize the joy with the addition of an indulgent chocolate brownie enormous or blonde brownie enormous. Now there’s a salad pairing anyone could love. Call for availability or to preorder. $5.95. Brownie, $3.10.
SALAD BAR
Q. Cumbers
“March is a good time to start eating salads and start getting ready for spring,” says owner Mickey McCabe. “Of course, I think salads are great all year long.”
The Q. Cumbers’ spread is an all-you-can-eat marvel with impressive numbers. This 50-foot-long double-sided salad bar has five dozen toppings, four varieties of lettuce, 20 oils and vinegars, eight dressings, four deli-style salads and unlimited helpings. Presented buffet-style, the options are almost overwhelming. Just dig in and go back for more. This is a place where salad loathers are easily converted to aficionados one helping at a time. “Salad has always been the centerpiece of our restaurant,” says McCabe. Healthy salad goodness comes at an affordable price, as it has since 1990. The one-price buffet deal also includes a hot bar, soup bar, fresh fruit and dessert bar, beverage, and tax. $11.75 with special pricing for children and seniors.
PANZANELLA SALAD
Mozza Mia
The panzanella salad’s flavor profile hails from the gastronomic capital of Bologna. The secret ingredient: cherries. And not just any cherries, but preserved Neapolitan Amarena cherries plumped in a bath of sweet burgundy-red syrup. The cherries have all the sophisticated sparkle of vintage wine, and the fruity essence is like an edible perfume. Rich, salty gorgonzola cheese and fresh-grilled Tuscan bread are in play on this traditional tomato-based panzanella salad. The surprise additions of toasty, crunchy baked hazelnuts and sweet Amarena cherries transform the salad into something regal. It’s a magnificent meal on its own or a spot-on Italian starter. $11; half, $6.50. Add grilled chicken, $4.
(Cherries and gorgonzola help to make the panzanella salad at Mozza Mia a flavor-filled delight.)
