Salad for Dinner: Quick Main-Course Recipes for Busy Weeknights

It's easy to love a salad packed with such familiar ingredients as turkey breast, avocado, and Monterey Jack cheese—and even easier with no-fuss buttermilk dressing.

A combination of half charred and half raw cabbage leaves gives this salad great texture. Thinly sliced pork, cucumbers, mint, peanuts, and a dressing made of red onion, fresh lime juice, fish sauce, and serrano chile take this Thai-inspired dish to the next level.

Here's a salad that, with its hearty chicken cutlets served next to crunchy blanched green beans, holds its own against any three-course meal.

What do you do with leftover steak? Why not make a beautiful, good-for-you salad with it? This springy version is lovely enough for company.

Toasted pistachios and spiced chicken elevate this winter salad to a special main course; salty feta complements the sweet oranges.

We've given the classic Caesar a down-home spin with homemade multigrain croutons and a buttermilk dressing used twice: once to marinate chicken breasts, then again to toss with the salad.

There's always something yummy on your fork in a good chopped salad like this one, which combines chile-rubbed pork, romaine lettuce, juicy tomatoes, corn, cheese, and a garlicky buttermilk dressing.

Once you've used our method to poach fillets of salmon, you'll never use another. The end result is creamy and supple, perfect for pairing with bold ingredients like the capers, parsley, and red onion in this salad.

Aromatic cumin, lemon, and scallions add Middle Eastern allure to this vegetarian salad. Chickpeas and whole-wheat couscous provide complete protein.

We use light mayonnaise and low-fat buttermilk in our blue cheese dressing, omitting the egg yolks to cut down on fat and calories in our version of this diner classic.

Amp up canned tuna in our version of the classic French salad. It's so elegantly dressed that you won't recognize the supermarket staple.

The classic steak and salad comes alive with a few easy, Latin-inspired twists like a fiery spice rub for the meat and a simple dressing of vinegar and store-bought salsa for the arugula.

Crumbled bacon stretches the smoky flavor further than whole slices might, while light mayonnaise and crisp veggies add fiber in this satisfying salad.

There's a secret ingredient in this salad of leafy spinach, thick ham, and hard-boiled eggs: thinly sliced radishes, which add a peppery crunch to every bite.

Cherries aren't only for jams and pies—these juicy, ruby-red summer beauties are ripe for the picking in this refreshing salad of Boston lettuce, goat cheese, walnuts, and sliced chicken.

Better than takeout, we promise! Thin slices of medium-rare rib-eye steak makes this refreshing salad feel downright luxurious.

We've pared down the traditional Cobb salad to what are arguably its main components—greens, egg, bacon, poultry, and blue cheese—and then taken it one step further, using turkey bacon to cover two of those requirements.

Feta and white beans provide plenty of protein in this main-course salad. If you don't have white-wine vinegar, you can substitute red-wine or balsamic vinegar.

Not every steak entrée can boast as much vitamin C as this one, with orange segments mingling with strip steak, red onions, and romaine lettuce in an OJ-based vinaigrette.

Grill the corn alongside the chicken to cut down on the prep time for this vibrant arugula salad.

Pound chicken breast into a thin cutlet, then top with a light, peppery watercress salad for a healthy supper.

Here's a quick and tasty pasta salad that's also gluten-free: soba noodles, red cabbage, shredded chicken, and scallions, tossed in a gluten-free soy-based sauce.

We like to heat white beans a touch before combining with the other, more pungent ingredients in this recipe, like tuna and olives. It helps to marry the flavors and makes the end result smoother and a little creamier.

Sometimes a surprising vinaigrette is all it takes to make a simple salad something special. This one, with lime zest, honey, minced chiles, and finely chopped pineapple, has lots of flavor and plenty of appeal.

Chopped veggies, crumbled feta, and a can of chickpeas are tossed with a red onion vinaigrette in a meatless salad so nourishing, we've repurposed the same ingredients to make a hearty sandwich as well.

Here's a meatless take on the taco salad that we've created with the harried shopper in mind. Most of the ingredients, like canned beans, frozen corn, and baked tortilla chips, are readily available year-round in grocery stores.

One of brunch's reigning combinations is served here in slightly different fashion on a crunchy salad of radicchio, red onions, and tomatoes.

Sauteed shrimp and strips of romaine lettuce get a bright, creamy blast of lime, buttermilk, and avocado in this summery salad, while toasted pepitas—pumpkin seeds—add an earthy crunch to every bite.

We've added a number of Asian-inspired touches that set this colorful and aromatic salad apart, including ginger, edamame, and sesame oil.