Easy Side Salad recipe alert! This salad is scrumptious and adaptable to suit your family taste preferences and age. A family favourite!
* This post was updated February 2022 with new content, recipe updates, and image adjustments.
How to Build a Kid-Friendly Salad is the salad we enjoy 2-4 times per week.
It’s the salad my kids ask for (yes, all 3), it’s quick and easy to loaded up at least half your plate with vegetables, and above all else, it tastes really freaking good.
No other vegetable dish goes down as easy as this side salad recipe does.
Why is that? I think it’s because I truly love it. It’s fresh, packed with different flavours and textures, and is so easy to customize that everyone gets a bowl of vegetables they enjoy.
As my girls are growing I let them make this salad as often as they’d like or are able to. This buys in their desire to eat the salad as well since they’ve lent a helping hand.
There’s deep satisfaction in filling at least half your kid’s plate (and your own!) with salad. Bursting with nutrients, these salads are customizable to a certain extend making them an ideal alternative to the usual steamed vegetable.
What do you put in a salad? The ingredients shown below are included in all our salads. Some we love more than others, but they all have their nutritional value so we try to eat the whole variety when we can.
One child adores tomatoes so we load up her side salad with those, another bell peppers, and finally my toddler who gets a bit of extra cheese (because she’s a toddler and since she’s eating a salad she can have as much cheese with it as she wants in my opinion). We customize each salad to taste, but only within the parameters above, ensuring I’m not a short-order cook.
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What goes well with a side salad for dinner?
A couple of pro-tips for introducing salad to babies, toddlers, and kids:
- serve salad first before any other food hits the table (and don’t serve anything else till it’s gone, hardcore but effective);
- cut down on snacking between meals to make sure kids are hungry;
- don’t include any vegetable they detest (especially at first);
- cut all pieces into age appropriate sizes (very small for babies and toddlers);
- use Romain, Bibb, or Green/Red Leaf Lettuce in much smaller bites than what seems normal, almost shred the lettuce. I know this comes off as weird, but ice berg lettuce isn’t substantial enough and spinach or arugula can come off as too strong;
- use softer vegetables with peel removed for babies/toddlers (e.g. cucumber); and
- garnish with kid-favourites such as cheese or fresh herbs, and favourite vinaigrette.
When my older kids originally became interested (they were 2 years old), I would make myself this side salad recipe and relish over how amazing it was to them. They of course wanted in on the delicious dish I was enjoying … and voilà. Kids addicted to salad.
How to build a kid-friendly salad
Prep Time
20 mins
Total Time
20 mins
Easy Side Salad recipe alert! This salad is scrumptious and adaptable to suit your family taste preferences and age.
Course:
Salad
Cuisine:
American
Keyword:
dinner salad recipe, easy side dish recipe, easy side salad recipe, side salad recipe
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 242 kcal
:
Ingredients
Salad:
-
1
head
romain lettuce
trimmed and cut into 1/4″ wide stripes (or chopped smaller for babies/toddlers) -
1
medium
bell pepper
preferably red, orange, or yellow, cut into thin stripes -
1/2
long English cucumber
quartered and chopped into 1/4″ wide pieces (remove skin for younger babies and kids) -
1
stalk
celery
sliced into 1/4″ wide pieces -
1/2
pint
cherry tomatoes
or other smaller tomatoes, halved or cut smaller for younger babies and kids) -
100
grams
feta or other cheese
crumble over salad (optional)
Vinaigrette:
-
1/2
cup
olive oil -
1/3
cup
red wine vinegar
or white wine vinegar -
1/2
clove
garlic, finely grated -
2
pinches
sea salt -
1
pinch
ground black pepper
Instructions
-
Combine salad ingredients in one large bowl or into personal sized bowls/plates.
-
Place all vinaigrette ingredients into a small jar or container with lid and shake until combined. Drizzle over salad (may be extra leftover, can be stored in refrigerator for 1 week).
Recipe Notes
Be sure to check out the pro-tips for building salads for kids in the post above. The bullet on cutting down the vegetables to age appropriate size is probably of the upmost importance.
Nutrition Facts
How to build a kid-friendly salad
Amount Per Serving
Calories 242
Calories from Fat 198
% Daily Value*
Fat 22g34%
Saturated Fat 5g31%
Polyunsaturated Fat 2g
Monounsaturated Fat 14g
Cholesterol 15mg5%
Sodium 336mg15%
Potassium 457mg13%
Carbohydrates 8g3%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 4g4%
Protein 4g8%
Vitamin A 10028IU201%
Vitamin C 40mg48%
Calcium 131mg13%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Enjoy! xo
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