Market Bowl
Dig Inn
Rye Brook
Amid all the hearty salads out there using quinoa, beloved for its complete protein, make sure you don’t miss this build-your-own option. So take note: quinoa with preserved lemon, cashew kale Caesar, lemon-snap peas, and grilled organic tofu make a bundle that we just want to eat up.
Farm Tomato Salad
273 Kitchen
Harrison
When they’re in season, July through September, we really love the farm tomato salad with goat-milk feta, cucumber, olives, and red onion. When the ingredients are top-quality, fresh, local, and in season, it’s salad simplicity at its best.
​Cauliflower Caesar Salad
Stone Fire Restaurant
Mount Kisco
A twist on a classic Caesar, this dish is chock-full of wood-fire-roasted cauliflower, plus baby gem lettuce, toasted hazelnuts, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, and a spicy sprinkling of cayenne. The dressing stays true to the original: an emulsification of egg yolks, garlic, anchovies, capers, olive oil, mustard, Parmesan cheese, and Worcestershire sauce.
Ensalada de Remolacha
Sonora
Port Chester
The beets, goat cheese, arugula, watermelon, blood-orange vinaigrette, and toasted almonds make a dramatic presentation. We love the daring yin-yang combo of the quenching summery fruit with beets, winter’s underground jewel.
Laab-Kai
I-Thai
White Plains
Not for the timid, we love to dig into this perfectly balanced, spicy salad of ground chicken, roasted rice, dried chili, shallots, scallions, and acidic lime. The spicy papaya salad, or som tum, is another favorite, but we prefer the laab kai as a main meal.
​Falafel Salad & Date-Arugala Salad
Shiraz Kitchen
Elmsford
​Both of these salads fit the bill when you want a dose of fresh produce from the Middle East. In the first, balls of fried chickpeas and parsley perch beside tahini sauce and pickled cucumbers; in the second, who doesn’t love the merging of sweet dates, walnuts, Gorgonzola cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette?