8 Make-Ahead Salads for Fall

Food Friends: Home Cooking Made Easy

This episode of Food Friends explores eight make-ahead salad recipes perfect for the busy fall season, offering nutritious, flavorful option

Key takeaways

• Make-ahead salads can be prepared days in advance without losing flavor or quality when stored properly.
• Using ingredients like celery, fennel, and pomegranate helps maintain crispness and adds seasonal vibrancy.

Main topics

• Fall produce for salad making
• Prepping techniques to maintain crispness

Notable quotes

"A make-ahead salad can feel like a gift when you open your fridge to discover something delicious is waiting to feed you."

Conclusion

With eight seasonal, easy-to-prepare salad recipes and expert tips for ma

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) A make-ahead salad can feel like a gift when you open your fridge to discover something delicious is waiting to feed you in a moment when you need it. Hi, it's Keri. Fall is such a busy season. Slow summer days have been replaced with back-to-school activities, holidays, dinner parties, and potlucks, which is why we're sharing eight salads that you can make ahead for a quick lunch. to serve with a roast chicken at dinner, or to share at a gathering with friends. We're talking about bean salads that are packed with flavor and protein, a farro salad with a zippy dressing, and more recipes that will keep you happy, well-fed, and sane during this busy season. To get all the recipe links delivered straight to your inbox, plus original recipes, subscribe to our Substack. You'll find the link in our show notes or subscribe at foodfriendspodcast.substack.com. And find us on Instagram at foodfriendspod for more home cooking inspiration. Keep listening to hear eight great make-ahead salads for fall. Welcome to Food Friends, Speaker 2 (0:57) a podcast inspiring home cooks to try new dishes in the kitchen by sharing trusted recipes, tips, and Speaker 1 (1:05) friendship. Hi, I'm Sonia. And I'm Keri. We met in Los Angeles over 15 years ago as personal chefs and haven't stopped talking about food since. We're so glad you're here. Speaker 1 (1:19) Hi, Keri. Speaker 2 (1:20) Hi, Sonia. Keri, I feel like I never have enough make-ahead salad recipes in my life. Speaker 1 (1:25) I completely agree with you. There's never enough of them. Having some make-ahead salads that I can stick in the fridge for when I just feel like so many unexpected things happen so I can feed myself and feel good. Speaker 2 (1:37) Yeah, and this time of year, there's so many Jewish holidays too. And make-ahead salads is such a part of my holiday table or even my dinner party table. Both having something for your fridge that you... you can whip out for lunch that you've already made ahead is such a gift. Having something that you can make the same day or ahead of time or two days ahead of time that you can serve to guests is also such a gift. So we're sharing some fall make-ahead recipes we rely on. There's one that I've been making for several years, especially this time of year. It's a make-ahead friendly fall fennel, Speaker 1 (2:10) apple, celery, and pomegranate salad. And Speaker 2 (2:13) while some people might not feel like apple and fennel is so make-ahead friendly. I have found that this salad holds up pretty well for at least a full day. Yes, things do soften a little as they sit. That's normal in a make-ahead salad, but it doesn't turn brown. It doesn't taste weird. It keeps all its vibrancy. And it's really embracing this change in the seasons, right? The apples are really good in September. Pomegranate is in season, which is my favorite thing in a salad. So it's as simple as can be. It's a couple heads of fennel, some celery, which also helps it hold up well. Apples, pomegranate. arils or pomegranate seeds, lemon juice to keep it all from turning brown, a handful of parsley or mint or both if you want salt and pepper. And then the dressing is one of my simple dressings, lemon juice, whole grain Dijon mustard. You know, I have to add it. Honey. I also like to add dried tarragon to this dressing, which is optional, but I think it gives it a real lovely kind of maple-y, nutty flavor. And then kosher salt and olive oil. That is your whole dressing. And the key to this is the way you slice things. So I think this is where a mandolin is really nice for your fennel. It gives you those nice, even, thin slices. But you could absolutely do this with a knife. And you're just slicing your fennel, slicing your apple, slicing your celery at a cute angle, you know, on the bias, which makes it visually attractive. It looks Speaker 1 (3:31) pretty. Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:32) celery has all that great texture. It actually has a nice saltiness. It's a flavorful vegetable and it's good here. And it's also going to help bulk it up. And then you dress your salad and you can serve it right away if you want. But it keeps, I found, up to four days in the fridge in an airtight container. And Speaker 1 (3:48) I also think you can... I've shaved these vegetables ahead of time. And then we've talked about this before. We wrap them in a little bit of wet towel or wet paper towel, and you can keep them crisp in the fridge overnight for a couple of days and then combine everything at the same time if you want. Speaker 2 (4:02) That's a really good point. So yes, if you're someone who wants that firm texture, you don't have to dress the salad. But if you don't mind it softening, it's almost like the way things get a little pickly, right? They get a little marinated. If you don't mind that texture, then you can dress it ahead of time and let it sit. When Speaker 1 (4:17) you were talking about the celery and just, you know, sort of cute on the bias, it reminded me of something you shared in one of our early episodes that how you cut something, especially something like carrots or celery makes a difference in how it tastes. We have a mutual friend named Perry, who always is calling me and texting me about when he's eating grated carrots. And he's like, Sonia's the one who taught me that grating carrots makes them so much sweeter. And these different textures. It really adds so much flavor to what you're making. Speaker 2 (4:47) Absolutely. It really does. And it's not just about sweetness. It's about the way it holds, its texture, it's the softness. If you want it softer. I mean, all these things matter. It's also its visual appearance. And as we know, we eat with our eyes. So Carrie, what's your first salad? A Speaker 1 (5:02) salad I'm really excited to make this fall reminds me a lot of you. It's actually something I feel like you would share with us. It's a Smitten Kitchen recipe and it's her honey and harissa farro salad. What's really... interesting about this salad because I'm not a big cooked carrot person, but it has roasted carrots and roasted parsnips in it. You're roasting them with harissa, so you're adding a lot of flavor to them. And both of these are sweet vegetables. And so balancing out that sweetness with a little bit of spice is really necessary. And what she says when she's talking about this recipe is actually based on a different recipe that she would make, like a cooked carrot recipe that her family loved. And she said we would all eat it and we would eat it until it was gone. And two hours later, we all be really hungry. So she kind of bulked it up with some farro. This is one of those, again, that you can make ahead, stick in your fridge. You're really just roasting vegetables. You're making a simple dressing. You're adding a little bit of harissa, a little honey, a little bit of lemon juice. You can add a pinch of cumin. And then you're adding some... farro and feta and fresh mint leaves or like in your salad, mint or parsley. Speaker 2 (6:09) Harissa and honey is one of my all-time favorite combinations. I make a mixture of that for salmon all the time and I've also done it on carrots. This Speaker 1 (6:17) is totally up my alley and I think this also Speaker 2 (6:20) what's so great is what you pointed out, which is sometimes you want something to bulk it up, especially if you're making this for lunches. That farro combined with the roasted vegetables combined with the feta is almost a meal until itself. It's a really hearty salad. And then, of course, it would also go well on a table full of other dishes because it's so beautiful and so fall friendly. This is a