15 Healthy Gluten-free Salads

April 25, 2012 By Leanne Vogel March 29, 2017

Hello, my name is Leanne, and I’m addicted to salads. Wait, scratch that. I’m addicted to the dressings I create for salads. A perfect balance of spices, oil, and a splash of vinegar or lemon juice is usually all you need to unleash your inner salad goddess. Let’s get excited about veggies, shall we?

1. Cranberry Mango Millet Salad

*vegan* What better place to start than with a salad that has more fruit than it does veggies? Gotta ease ourselves into this salad business, right? Lighten up your lunch with this mango, dried cranberries, and spinach salad topped with a sweet lemon poppy seed dressing. Heck, come to think of it, cut out the onions and I bet this salad would be great for breakfast, too.

2. Creamy & Sweet Broccoli Salad

This salad is a breeze to assemble during the evening for a weeks’ worth of lunches and lasts for days in the fridge without wilting or spoiling. One of my favorite characteristics of broccoli is it’s ability soak up the dressing at the bottom of the bowl. My family used to eat a lot of stir-fries and I was always the one that picked out the soy sauce drenched broccoli pieces from my bowl, leaving the carrots behind. Now that I’m older I’ve learned that I can just create a whole darn bowl of broccoli, drench it in sauce and call it a meal.

3. Sunflower Cream Salad with Sweet Taters + Dill Chicks

*vegan* I’ve been rockin’ the baked chickpea for years but never thought to use them as a replacement for croutons… until now! The chickpea croutons are loaded with dill, the creamy dressing is made with blended sunflower seeds, and the yams are roasted to perfection. Oh my gosh, I’m really wishing I had this packed in my lunch today!

4. Creamy Vegan Coleslaw with Bean Mayonnaise

*vegan* You may snack on a cookie or handful of potato chips as a once in awhile treat. Me? I treat myself to mayo. No joke. Mixed with lemon juice and poured on veggies, spread on a couple of crackers, added to a warm bowl of quinoa, the opportunities are endless! But since we’re all here to figure out how we can incorporate more whole foods into our lives, I made it my mission to create a healthier/vegan version of my favorite condiment. Once I nailed the bean mayo, it was obvious what I needed to do with it – combine it with a light and fresh vegan coleslaw!

5. Spinach Salad with Tomato Vinaigrette

This salad is sweet, savory, with just a perfect lightness to it but I can’t promise that you’ll be able to control yourself around the tomato vinaigrette. While the salad itself isn’t vegan, the vinaigrette sure is!

6. Sweet and Savory Quinoa and Papaya Salad

*vegan* This salad is light and summery, right down to the chopped fresh kiwi. I love preparing these types of grain based salads and using them as a mix-in with my daily greens. Just combine 1 serving of salad with 2 cups of greens and you have one veggie loving meal. No extra dressing needed!

7. Vegan Creamy Honey Dijon Salad

*vegan* We did the chickpea crouton. Now we’re bringing in the bug guns – omega croutons. I wont take it personal if all you make out of this recipe are the croutons.

8. Sweet Nibbly Bits Potato Salad

*vegan* This salad is great served on it’s own, as a side to a thick and juicy burger, or wrapped in a brown rice tortilla. It’s loaded with ginger, raisins, and earthy tones of yam. I bet a dash of ground cinnamon would be good in it, too!

9. Dad’s Famous Potato Salad

This potato salad is a Vogel original, created by my Dad back in the 70s. He always claimed that there was a mystery ingredient that made this salad irresistible but was never willing to share it with anyone until now. (The secret’s in the pickle juice… shhhh)

10. Maple Balsamic Dijon Salad with Strawberries & Pecans

*vegan* This is my go-to potluck take-along. If there’s nut allergies at the party, I sub the pecans for toasted sunflower seeds. The dressing is really simple to whip together, the ingredients are fresh and inexpensive, and the colors pop right off the plate!

Maple-Balsamic-Dijon-Salad-with-Strawberries-and-Pecans

11. In a Jiffy Bean Salad

*vegan* When I’m in one of my anti-cooking moods (generally after the weekend when I’ve whipped up a weeks worth of recipes for the blog), I usually whip up a batch of this simple, protein-packed salad. Serve with rice wraps and melted cheese, as a topping on spinach, or mixed in with leftover grains like quinoa, rice or millet.