Nutritional tips and recipes for complete summer salads

Summer salads can serve as nutritious and complete meals by balancing freshness with satiety. Incorporating nuts and seeds—such as walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or cashews—adds healthy fats, plant-based proteins, fiber, vitamins, and minerals to vegetable bases. These ingredients also provide a textural contrast to juicy summer produce like tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, peaches, and nectarines.

To create a substantial main dish, salads should combine a vegetable base with carbohydrates (such as rice, pasta, potatoes, couscous, or quinoa) and a protein source (including tuna, chicken, egg, salmon, shrimp, cheese, chickpeas, or lentils). Rice-based salads are noted for being practical for picnics and meal prep, while pasta variations using macaroni, orzo, or tortellini offer versatile, filling options for warm weather.