19 Thanksgiving Salads to Brighten Up Your Meal

When your table is covered with mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, and endless pies, everyone will be thankful for a fresh, palate-cleansing salad this Thanksgiving.

Rabi Abonour

Updated May 28, 2024

An overhead photo of 7 layer make-ahead salad with chickpeas, endive, and yogurt dressing. — Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

On a table sagging under the weight of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and who knows what other dishes, a salad can easily go ignored. And it's especially easy to ignore it if the salad is an afterthought—something thrown together in a couple of minutes right before people sit down to eat.

But Thanksgiving dinner is a meal full of heavy dishes, and an artfully prepared salad can be a welcome addition to the spread, as both a palate cleanser and a delicious attraction in its own right. Plus, if you eat something green on Thanksgiving, that cancels out all the unhealthy foods, right?

In that spirit, we've rounded up 19 Thanksgiving salad recipes worth saving room on your plate, whether it's crisp broccoli with a basil-pistachio vinaigrette, roasted cipollini onions with red cabbage and chicory, or an updated take on seven-layer salad.

Fall Harvest Salad With Roasted Brassicas, Fingerlings, and Radishes
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
If you're planning on making an elaborate Thanksgiving feast, you might well be wary of a salad with so many ingredients. The good news is that most of the work required by this recipe can be done ahead of time: You can cook the cauliflower, broccoli, and potatoes a couple of days in advance, then slice the radishes and sunchokes on Wednesday, leaving a very manageable workload for Thanksgiving Day.
Fall Harvest Salad With Roasted Brassicas, Fingerlings, and Radishes
Roasted-Beet Salad With Horseradish Crème Fraîche and Pistachios
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Beet and horseradish is a classic combination, and this salad makes the most of it with tender, deeply sweet roasted beets and a creamy crème fraîche–based horseradish sauce.
Roasted-Beet Salad With Horseradish Crème Fraîche and Pistachios
Beet and Citrus Salad With Pine Nut Vinaigrette
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
This pretty and colorful salad combines grapefruit, orange, roasted beets, and arugula for some peppery kick.
Beet and Citrus Salad With Pine Nut Vinaigrette
Winter Greens Salad With Flax Seeds, Shaved Beets, and Radishes
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
Here, we thinly slice the beets on a mandoline, leaving them crisp and lightly sweet, and mix them with winter greens, sliced radishes, toasted flax seeds, and parmesan.
Winter Greens Salad With Flax Seeds, Shaved Beets, and Radishes
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Broccoli Salad With Radicchio, Basil, and Pistachios
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Broccoli stems and florets are tossed with radicchio and a bold vinaigrette made from basil and pistachios.
Broccoli Salad With Radicchio, Basil, and Pistachios
Kale Salad With Oven-Dried Grapes, Toasted Walnuts, and Blue Cheese
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Blue cheese, dried fruit, and nuts are a classic combination of flavors, but plump, juicy oven-dried grapes make this salad extraordinary.
Kale Salad With Oven-Dried Grapes, Toasted Walnuts, and Blue Cheese
Warm Brussels Sprout Salad With Bacon and Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
The key to cooking sprouts is to use very high heat, giving them a nutty char. Here, we char the leaves in meaty bacon fat and dress them with a flavorful hazelnut and bacon vinaigrette.
Warm Brussels Sprout Salad With Bacon and Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Salt-Wilted Brussels Sprout Salad With Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
This salad uses shredded Brussels sprouts in two ways—half raw and half wilted. Both get paired with creamy goat cheese, crunchy toasted hazelnuts, and a winter-appropriate tangerine vinaigrette.
Salt-Wilted Brussels Sprout Salad With Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese
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Red Cabbage Salad With Roasted Cipollini Onions
Serious Eats / Emily and Matt Clifton
Cipollini onions are a Thanksgiving staple, and this salad gives them a fresh context in which to shine. We roast them until they're meltingly tender, then toss them with crunchy red cabbage and toasted walnuts for textural contrast. To offset the sweetness of the onions, we also toss in bitter chicory and aged goat cheese.
Red Cabbage Salad With Roasted Cipollini Onions
7-Layer Make-Ahead Salad With Chickpeas, Endive, and Yogurt Dressing
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
This sophisticated take on seven-layer salad can be made a day ahead of time, which means one less thing to do on Thanksgiving Day. The base is canned chickpeas, which we top with endive, cucumber, onions, celery, radishes, herbed yogurt, and crumbled feta. A sprinkling of pomegranate seeds is a festive touch.
7-Layer Make-Ahead Salad With Chickpeas, Endive, and Yogurt Dressing
Roasted Pear Salad With Endive, Pomegranate, Blue Cheese, and Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
This perfectly seasonal salad is packed with contrasting flavors and textures: sweet roasted pears, bitter endive, tart pomegranate seeds, funky blue cheese, and a hazelnut vinaigrette. The vinaigrette can be made a week in advance, and the pears can be roasted on Tuesday, but save everything else for right before serving on Thanksgiving.
Roasted Pear Salad With Endive, Pomegranate, Blue Cheese, and Hazelnut Vinaigrette
Beet and Wheat Berry Salad With Pickled Apples and Pecans
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Hearty grain salads don't just keep well; they actually tend to get better after spending a few days in the fridge. That's certainly true of this salad, made with chewy wheat berries, sweet roasted beetroots, sautéed beet greens, toasted pecans, and pickled apples.
Beet and Wheat Berry Salad With Pickled Apples and Pecans
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Carrot and Rye Berry Salad With Celery, Cilantro, and Marcona Almonds
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
This comforting, hearty salad starts with rye berries, a more flavorful alternative to wheat berries, which we combine with carrots, onions, cilantro, celery, and toasted Marcona almonds.
Carrot and Rye Berry Salad With Celery, Cilantro, and Marcona Almonds
Fingerling Potato Salad With Chorizo, Onion, and Arugula
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
In this fresh version of potato salad, creamy fingerling potatoes are tossed with Spanish chorizo, onions both pickled and sautéed, and peppery arugula and then dressed simply with sherry vinegar and olive oil—not a drop of mayo in sight.
Fingerling Potato Salad With Chorizo, Onion, and Arugula
Wild Rice Salad With Dried Cranberries, Pickled Apples, and Pecans
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
Earthy and flavorful wild rice meets two bright and fruity elements in this salad—sweet-tart dried cranberries and tangy pickled apples. Toasted pecans add a rich and nutty note, while sautéed onion and celery contribute aromatic depth. It's a perfect side dish for your Thanksgiving table.
Wild Rice Salad With Dried Cranberries, Pickled Apples, and Pecans
Wild Rice Salad With Mushrooms, Celery Root, and Pine Nuts
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
This version of wild rice salad complements the earthy nature of the rice with equally earthy ingredients: sautéed mushrooms, celery root, and toasted pine nuts. Add even more flavor to the salad by incorporating reconstituted dried mushrooms and cooking the rice in stock instead of water.
Wild Rice Salad With Mushrooms, Celery Root, and Pine Nuts
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Carrot Salad With Yogurt, Ghee, and Barberry Dressing
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
This gorgeous (and easy) salad incorporates carrots both as thin strips shaved with a peeler and in larger, crunchy quick-pickled pieces. A dressing of warm spices, rich ghee, and tangy yogurt balances out the vegetal flavors of the carrots and dill.
Carrot Salad With Yogurt, Ghee, and Barberry Dressing
Charred Brussels Sprouts and Leek Muchim With Coffee-Dijon Dressing
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
This Korean banchan-style fall salad features charred Brussels sprouts and raw leeks in a punchy coffee-Dijon dressing. For the dressing, the bitterness of the coffee and Dijon are balanced out with ingredients like honey, cider vinegar, and toasted sesame oil.
Charred Brussels Sprouts and Leek Muchim With Coffee-Dijon Dressing
Toasted Barley Salad With Kombu and Pepitas
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
For this grain salad, we reach for hulled barley and toast it in a dry saucepan to bring out its deep, nutty aroma. The barley is then simmered with kombu to give it a light seasoning. It's a warm banchan-style salad that will fit right in on your Thanksgiving table.
Toasted Barley Salad With Kombu and Pepitas

19 Thanksgiving Salads to Brighten Up Your Meal

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