Bright, Bold, and Anything But Basic: Your New Favorite Salads

While there's something about the idea of salad for dinner that seems particularly groan-worthy, that's only because all too often our idea of a salad doesn't match up with what salad, as a category of food, actually has to offer. The 19 options below not only represent some of the best salad recipes Serious Eats has developed, but they also pull from a range of countries, cultures, and cooking techniques. In addition to the dressing-on-greens rendition we're all familiar with, you'll find crunchy shaved vegetables, plump beans, beautifully dressed noodles, rich mayo-bound sandwich fillings, and all kinds of herbs. Forget salads you need; these are salads you want.