A table full of salads not only looks beautiful, it also tastes great and lets you linger with your guests.
If you cook for a crowd intimidating, you are not alone.
A dinner can test the nerves of even the most confident chefs and hosts. Enlighten the tension by changing how you think about party food. Remove a picky Hors d'Oeuvres and let it serve multiple courses. The ultimate spread, with ease and without stress, is not only the easiest to throw together, but it is also the most visually attractive and affordable – a table full of salads.
Salads that can be reached ahead and served at room temperature that shows your creativity as a cook. Continue with raw leaves with vinaigrette. Consider smoky roasted vegetables, pantry-friendly legumes, comforting noodles, thick dips and conversation tires.
The best of all is that entertainment with salads achieves something that often feels impossible: freeing the host to add the entire meal to the table.
Here are five tips for a salad festival.
Choose make-ahead dishes that only taste better over time.
Although most salads do not have to be dressed until they are ready to eat, some benefit from composed, causing the flavors to harmonize. This cauliflower salad, a vegetarian view of the British chicken dish, has a spiced yogurt base and loves a little time to hang around. Although it can be eaten immediately, a day in the fridge makes the flavors, more complex and more exciting – and it greatly simplifies the party preparation.
Recipe: Coronation cauliflower and chickpeas
Change favorite hot dishes to room temperature salads.
You can still get inspiration from a hot dish, even if you don't serve there. Noodle salads are a great option for a meeting because they fill, are economic and adaptable to the seasons. Loan elements of a crowd comforting comfort like then noodles to make a sturdy salad. Here sesampasta, chili fresh and black vinegar form a lush, spicy dressing that is unmistakable then.
Recipe: Then vegan then noodles
Trust Pantry ingredients to make Prep even faster.
The pantry is your friend to feed a crowd – just like it is when you feed your family on a week evening. Driven by canned chickpeas and lentils, this salad, inspired by flavors of the North African soup Harra, is made almost entirely on a leaf pan. Subsequently, a robust base of roasted spiced vegetables is thrown through the legumes and becoming the dressing. A generous shower of herbs brings vital freshness and aroma.
Recipe: Seasoned chickpeas and lentil salad
Make a great dip or two.
Dips can easily come up with your entire party menu, effortlessly scaled up for larger groups or future meetings. Take them even further by using them as a basis for roasted vegetables. In this beaten feta, the salty cheese becomes a creamy, spicy and nutty dip for threw turnips from Miso-Butter. Don't forget the bread, or even a few atrocities, to sweep.
Recipe: Breaking with beaten pistachio feta
Prepare make-ahead sauces and connections.
Making connections and sauces early is one of the best ways to get ahead in your party planning. Most connections can be cooled for two to three days. This Mexican Mol Encacahuatado, a spicy peanut sauce, is robust enough to be frozen for up to three months. Just like other rich sauces, it is an excellent way to emphasize the elegance of daily vegetables, such as carrots.
Recipe: Carrots with mole encacahuatado
These recipes are adapted from “Linger: salads, sweets and stories to smasure” by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Knopf, 2025).
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