7 Summer Salads You Can Make in 15 Minutes

Sweet and salty combine to create this summer dish. At face value, the combo may sound strange, but your taste buds will delight at this flavor medley, and your hydration status will benefit, too. According to the National Academy of Sciences, about 20 percent of our hydration should come from the foods we eat. Watermelon and cucumbers are two of the most water-packed produce choices out there, at 91 percent and 95 percent water, respectively, according to the USDA. Watermelon will also give you a healthy dose of the carotenoid lycopene, a powerful antioxidant linked to lower risk of cancer, heart disease, and age-related heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Broccoli salad usually starts off fine, but then its nutritional value plummets as it’s drowned in a mayo-based, sugary dressing with dried fruit. This lightened-up version uses Greek yogurt in the dressing to cut back on saturated fat and add some calcium and gut-friendly probiotics, per the USDA. Fresh grapes cut down on the sugar but still bring the flavor. Because they’re full of water, grapes are lower in energy density (calories in a given weight) than raisins. The CDC cites eating more low-energy-density foods as a great step toward cutting calories and reaching a healthy weight while keeping hunger under control.

The classic Italian combination of fresh tomatoes and basil joins another summer favorite, zucchini, for extra fiber. Zoodles are super quick to prepare, but if you’re short on time, you can buy them precut in the produce section. You can also roast the tomatoes slightly to deepen their natural sweetness. The healthy fat in the pesto, which comes from olive oil, makes the lycopene (which is a fat-soluble nutrient) more readily available to your body, according to research.

You’re likely to have most of the ingredients for this colorful summer salad already on hand. Black beans shine as a source of a plant-based protein, which a study published in February 2021 in the Journal of the American Heart Association found to be associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease and dementia in post-menopausal women. These legumes also contain fiber, folate, potassium, zinc, and iron, a nutrient that MedlinePlus says may be better absorbed in the presence of vitamin C, which you’ll find plenty of in bell peppers.

Greens don’t all have to be leafy. This one has kale, yes, but also edamame for soy protein and green lentils. These tiny, disc-shaped legumes (the family that includes beans and peas) come in many colors, but green, or French, lentils are popular because of their firm texture and nutty flavor. Add quinoa, which is often treated as a grain but is really a seed, and therefore, packs some protein, and this salad contains an impressive 13 g of the muscle-building nutrient per serving — not bad for a vegan dish.

This colorful fruit salad, served with a light lemon poppy seed dressing, is brimming with vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that helps protect your cells from damage caused by free radicals, compounds associated with aging and chronic diseases. Persian cucumbers, a smaller and more tender variety, keep it from getting overly sweet.

Spinach is an ingredient best served cold. That’s because it is the most common source of lutein, an antioxidant found in dark greens that is degraded by heat, according to one study. This salad also offers brain benefits, thanks to omega-3-rich nuts. A study found that eating a diet rich in walnuts may have neurocognitive benefits and protect against diseases like dementia.