Most Popular Summer Salads – Salad Recipes Our Readers Are Loving

The most popular summer salads with our readers include recipes for everything from my Russian salmon potato salad based on a family recipe, a refreshing Shan tomato salad from Myanmar, our bang bang chicken salad inspired by the tongue tingling Sichuan dish, a Spanish tapas potato salad and an Italian panzanella that makes use of stale bread.

With some of the hottest days ever recorded recently, it’s no surprise our recipes for summer salads are currently the most popular recipes. While we’ve got a collection of 46 summer salad recipes – and lots of new salad recipes to add – I thought I’d compile a round up of the 10 most popular summer salads right now.

Because who can make important decisions like what salad to make in these scorching temperatures? I, for one, am happy that I have our readers to guide us, as not only is the heat frying my brain, I’m suffering from brain fog from a recent bout of Covid, so thank you.

But before you scroll down to browse our most popular summer salad recipes right now, can I ask a small favour? Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo.

Some ways to support the work we do here is to donate to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or use our links to book accommodation, rent a car, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide.

Alternatively, you could purchase something on Amazon, such as these James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or cookbooks for culinary travellers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay extra.

Or you could shop our Grantourismo store on Society6 for gifts for foodies, including fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images.

Now let’s tell you about our most popular summer salads.

Most Popular Summer Salads – Salad Recipes Our Readers Love

Our most popular summer salad recipes with our readers right now.

Shan Tomato Salad Recipe with Shallots, Sesame and Coriander

Topping our list of most popular summer salad recipes is this Shan tomato salad recipe with shallots, sesame and coriander, which will make you a sweet tomato salad textured with crunchy purple onions, sesame seeds and crispy fried shallots and garlic, and fragrant fresh coriander.

Hailing from beautiful Shan State in northeastern Myanmar – a fertile region of forested mountains, rolling hills and serene lakes – this delicious Shan tomato salad is mostly made with crunchy green tomatoes, although we’ve also had it with red tomatoes in Myanmar, and a mix of both red and green. It’s terrific with either – or both.

It’s typically eaten as a refreshing accompaniment to rich curries and rice, but I can easily eat a whole plate of this salad on my own. If you enjoy this, you should like our Shan vermicelli noodle salad recipe and Burmese raw cabbage salad. This Burmese street food-style fried chicken is also fantastic with this salad.

Shan Tomato Salad Recipe with Shallots, Sesame and Coriander from Shan State, Myanmar

Spanish Potato Salad Recipe for Ensaladilla Rusa

This Spanish potato salad recipe makes ensaladilla Rusa or ensalada Rusa, one of the most popular Spanish tapas dishes found in tapas bars in Spain and abroad, and it’s another of our most popular summer salad recipes.

‘Ensalada’ means ‘salad’ in Spanish and when you see ensalada Rusa on a menu, it will usually come as an appetiser size that’s called ‘raciones’. ‘Ensaladilla’ means little salad and is a smaller size potato salad in the typical tapas snack size. And ‘Rusa’ of course means Russia.

My recipe is based on an ensaladilla Rusa recipe by British born chef Marc Fosh who has lived in Spain for decades. In his original recipe, the chef boils the potatoes, carrots, peas, and beans. I don’t love soft olive-coloured peas and beans, so I blanche the beans and peas so they’re still bright green and firm.

Spanish Potato Salad Recipe for the Popular Spanish Tapas Dish Ensaladilla Rusa

Panzanella Salad Recipe for the Tuscan Bread and Tomato Salad

This easy panzanella salad recipe makes the delicious Tuscan style bread and tomato salad that tastes of summer in Italy. It’s another of our absolute most popular summer salad recipes.

A bread salad that was made with onions and cucumbers before tomatoes arrived in Italy, it makes use of stale bread, the hallmark of povera cucina, the no-waste cooking of the countryside. A traditional recipe, it’s versatile – just don’t tell your Italian friends we said that.

While this panzanella comes together quickly in around 15 minutes, Italian cooks recommend making panzanella at least 2-3 hours ahead of serving and letting it rest in the fridge so the bread really soaks up the extra virgin olive oil and vinegar.

We had leftover panzanella the other evening, which I returned to the refrigerator, and it tasted even better the next day.

Panzanella Salad Recipe for the Tuscan Bread and Tomato Salad that Tastes of Summer in Italy

Bang Bang Chicken Salad Recipe

Our bang bang chicken salad recipe is based on one of our all-time favourite Chinese dishes, the classic Sichuan bang bang chicken typically served as one of an array of starters at Sichuanese restaurants.

It was while testing poached chicken breast recipes that the idea of transforming the delightfully tongue-tingling, spice-laden bang bang chicken into a lighter yet still filling salad came to us, and it’s been on repeat ever since.

Crisp lettuce, crunchy cucumbers and fresh coriander really lighten it up, turning it into a salad as addictively delicious as its mother dish.

It’s a cinch to make, too, and comes together quickly, making it another of our most popular summer salad recipes.

Bang Bang Chicken Salad Recipe for a Fresh Light Take on the Spicy Sichuan Speciality

Classic Russian Garden Salad Recipe

My classic Russian garden salad recipe makes another of our most popular summer salad recipes. It’s a simple tossed green salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and onion that my baboushka served with every family meal when I was growing up in Sydney in the Seventies.

The addition of fresh dill and pink radishes add fragrance and crunch, setting it apart from other classic European garden salads. As simple as the salad sounds, it was the perfect companion to heartier dishes she served, such as Russian cabbage rolls, borscht, beetroot and potato salad, and vareneki and pelmeni (Russian dumplings).

My baba’s garden salad was exceptional, because most of the ingredients were just picked from papa’s backyard vegetable garden. Baba and papa had a market garden in Seven Hills when they were younger, and papa grew vegetables in their backyard at Blacktown. Papa’s tomatoes were the sweetest I’ve ever tasted, his radishes the zestiest, and his cucumbers the crunchiest.

This Classic Russian Garden Salad Goes on the Table for Every Russian Meal

Cambodian Green Papaya Salad Recipe

Our Cambodian green papaya salad recipe makes Bok Lahong or Nhoam Lahong, one of our most popular summer salad recipes. A fresh, aromatic, crunchy papaya salad that is a little funky, a little spicy, a little sour, a little salty, and a little sweet, it’s a well-balanced salad.

This is arguably what sets it apart from its bolder cousins in Laos (where pounded salads are called Tum Som), Thailand (Som Tam), and Vietnam (Gỏi Đủ Đủ), which are, respectively, a lot funkier, more fiery, and more fragrant.

‘Bok’ and ‘pok’ are ancient Khmer words that mean to smash or beat against something, such as a pestle pounding a mortar, and you’ll need a big mortar and pestle to make this. ‘Bok’ is also the sound that’s made by the pestle hitting the mortar, as in ‘bok, bok, bok, bok’ – and it usually applies to papaya salads, of which there are countless, as well as dips and relishes.

Cambodian Green Papaya Salad Recipe – How to Make Cambodia’s Bok Lahong

Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs

One of my favourite summer salads, my family’s salmon potato salad recipe with soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill makes a filling salad that you can eat year-round. In the cool season, you can serve it with warm potatoes and seared salmon straight from the pan, while in summer it can be refrigerated for warm weather meals, such as barbecues and picnics.

In summer and spring, I suggest dressing it with little else but extra virgin olive oil, quality sea salt and good ground black pepper, but in winter, I strongly recommend adding creamy mayonnaise and combining everything well. In that case, the runnier the eggs the better, but otherwise, in warm weather, soft jammy eggs are what you want.

Terence has an excellent guide to boiling perfect eggs every time. This salmon potato salad recipe was a bit special and generally only made appearances on holidays, such as Orthodox Easter and Christmas, when my family would top it with spoonfuls of caviar. If you enjoy this, you’ll find more of my family recipes here.

Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill

Thai Grilled Eggplant Salad Recipe

This Thai grilled eggplant salad recipe makes a delightful salad of smoky pieces of creamy eggplant with sweet red shallots, aromatic mint, the umami of fish sauce, a sublime soft-boiled egg, and a kick of chilli.

This salad is best when the eggplant is straight from the grill or barbecue, and combined with the other ingredients just before serving.

Light, fragrant and flavourful, this smoky grilled eggplant salad makes a fantastic side dish, one of an array of dishes if you’re cooking up a Thai feast, or a filling main course if you add a five-minute egg and a bowl of jasmine rice, as we do.

It’s another of our most popular summer salad recipes and comes courtesy of chef David Thompson. If you’re Australian, you may remember the salad from Sailor’s Thai restaurant in Sydney back in the day, Nahm restaurant in Bangkok when it was helmed by David, or you might also have spotted it in his Thai Food cookbook.

Delightful Thai Grilled Eggplant Salad Recipe with Red Shallots, Fragrant Mint and Soft-Boiled Eggs

Shredded Chicken Salad Recipe with Cucumber, Carrot and Daikon

This shredded chicken salad recipe with cucumber, carrot, daikon, and sesame chilli oil makes one of our most popular summer salad recipes. It’s a deliciously light yet filling salad that’s perfect for a casual lunch or dinner.

Like so many of our original dishes, this shredded chicken salad was the result of an experiment with leftovers. We had a little Sichuan sesame sauce left over from a bang bang chicken salad we’d had for dinner the previous night.

We also had loads of grated carrot and daikon from the char siu pork burger recipe with Asian slaw we’d just photographed and published, plus we had shredded poached chicken breasts in the fridge, plenty of crunchy cucumbers, and sprigs of fresh coriander I’d picked from our herb garden.

I threw it all in a bowl, added chilli oil to what was left of the sesame sauce, drizzled that over the lot, dished it up, and sprinkled on some sesame seeds. It was so good. Now it’s on repeat.

Shredded Chicken Salad Recipe with Cucumber, Carrot, Daikon, and Sesame Chilli Oil

Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds and Roasted Seaweed

This Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad recipe is made with quintessential Japanese ingredients. Roasted seaweed or nori sheets and black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds give it a fantastic texture.

The dressing of Shichimi Togarashi Japanese Seven Spice (we recommend the S&B brand), Japanese sesame oil, Japanese soy sauce, Japanese rice vinegar, mirin and grated ginger give it a delightful tartness.

It’s the perfect side to Japanese fried chicken, pork tonkatsu, katsu burgers, or any Japanese comfort food, really. it’s such a breeze to make, too, and can be made within ten minutes. Although let it sit longer and it tastes even better as the cabbage softens and the flavours meld together.

Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds

Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe

This Cambodian cucumber salad recipe for nhoam trasak – also spelt gnoam trasak or gnoam tra-sakk – makes a fantastic filling salad that you can eat year-round, if you’re lucky to live in warmer climates, such as Southeast Asia, or a colossal country like Australia, where you can source cucumbers throughout the year.

Traditionally shared in Cambodia, where, like most of our Asian salads, it’s eaten family-style with rice, and perhaps an array of other dishes, you could also serve this as a satisfying single-bowl meal for lunch or dinner.

Cucumbers are fantastic in summer salads. Keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to use them. Thanks to their high water content, they remain crunchy and cold for quite a while. Hence the expression “cool as a cucumber”. The addition of fried bacon, smoked dried fish and dried shrimp are what make this salad more filling and a great year-round salad for me.

Cambodian Cucumber Salad Recipe for Nhoam Trasak, a Fantastic Year Round Salad

Thai Larb Gai Recipe

Another one of the best summer salads you can make on a scorching day, this tasty Thai larb gai recipe makes a classic spicy minced chicken salad from Thailand. Gai or kai is chicken in Thai.

Laab, also written as laab, laap, larp, lap, and lab are the Thai, Lao and Khmer names for this type of minced meat salad that’s found right across northern Southeast Asia, in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar’s Shan States, and China’s southwest Yunnan. Vietnam has a similar salad but the pieces of meat are larger. It is super easy to cook, comes together in minutes, and is very versatile.

This recipe is adapted from David Thompson’s Thai Street Food cookbook, and it makes a gently-spiced ground chicken salad, however, you can easily heat things up with more chillies.

Made with minced chicken breast that’s quickly stir-fried in chicken stock, fish sauce, lime juice, salt, sugar, garlic, and shallots, this light Thai ground chicken salad is combined with loads of fresh fragrant herbs and sprinkled with chilli flakes and toasted rice. It’s served with crunchy vegetables such as cabbage, cucumbers, and snake beans, and eaten with steamed jasmine rice or sticky rice.

Tasty Thai Larb Gai Recipe for a Spicy Minced Chicken Salad from Thailand

Do let us know if you make any of our most popular summer salad recipes in the comments below. We’d love to know how they turn out for you.