Dairy-Free & Lactose-Free Salad Recipes

Protein-packed quinoa pairs with creamy avocado in this refreshing grain salad. It's the perfect make-ahead side dish to bring on a picnic or take to a potluck. Or pack it for lunch or enjoy it as a light dinner.

We love fresh summer corn when it's in season, but frozen corn makes a great year-round substitute in this quick and easy side dish.

You can use most types of barley for this veggie-loaded grain salad--hulled, pearled (which will cook the quickest) or hull-less. Serve this salad as a side for grilled chicken, topped with grilled shrimp or as an impressive potluck dish.

Larb is a classic salad with roots in Laos and Thailand. It typically features seasoned ground meat and lots of herbs and vegetables, but our healthy vegetarian version swaps red beets for meat, reduces the sodium by adding more lime juice and makes it more substantial by serving it as part of a grain bowl. Spoon it over lettuce for a lighter take.

This power salad will keep you fueled for hours, thanks to 26 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber. Tossing the dressing and kale, and then letting it stand in the jar, softens it enough so you don't need to massage or cook it to make it tender.

Cooked couscous and canned chickpeas come together in this quick lunch salad. The basil vinaigrette makes it taste anything but basic! When in season, we recommend adding fresh chopped tomatoes for a spin on tabbouleh.

Slicing Brussels sprouts thinly creates the perfect texture for this raw salad that's made even more flavorful thanks to a little bacon. This easy side dish is perfect for a potluck.

Traditionally, the star of this famous Burmese salad, laphet, is made by fermenting just-picked tea leaves for several months underground. While laphet is starting to be imported, it is still hard to find. This version, using readily available green tea, offers a quick alternative. Mix the salad at the table so everyone can appreciate the diversity of ingredients--from crunchy to savory--that make it so special.

Spooned into small bowls to eat alongside the rest of the meal, citrus salads act as bright accents to rich curries in Myanmar. If you can find Meyer lemons, use a mix of grapefruit and Meyer lemons for a less bitter and more floral bite.

This easy Asian green bean salad recipe gets a deeply savory flavor from shallots and fish sauce. Part of the reason is time: after it's made, the dish is left at room temp for 20 minutes to allow the green beans to absorb more flavor. Serve with grilled chicken or shrimp.

Ginger salad is nearly as popular as tea-leaf salad in Myanmar and is just as crunchy. This version uses purchased pickled ginger; i.e., the same ginger on your sushi tray. This healthy salad recipe also has the nontraditional addition of romaine lettuce, which gives it a lighter bite.

We've kept it simple with just rice noodles in this healthy vegan noodle salad recipe, but if you want to go wild, use wheat noodles, glass noodles or even your favorite spiralized veggie noodles.

Keeping cooked chicken and prepared sesame-ginger dressing on hand means this healthy lunch salad comes together in a snap.

This crunchy salad is made with spiralized carrots instead of noodles. Make sure to use unrefined peanut oil, which is way more flavorful than its refined counterpart and is one of the trio of peanutty ingredients that makes this simple salad stand out. Look for it with other specialty oils or in the Asian section of your grocery store.

This supremely crunchy, quick side salad is best when spring vegetables are sliced as thinly as possible--a great excuse to pull out the mandoline or the slicing disk of your food processor, if you have one.

Make this satisfying salad in the evening and enjoy one portion for dinner, then pack the remaining portion for lunch the next day. Loaded with protein- and fiber-rich ingredients like chicken, sweet potato and quinoa plus power greens, this meal is nutrition-packed!

Toss the cooked chicken into this healthy 5-ingredient salad recipe while it's still warm to lightly wilt the kale, making it softer and easier to eat. Using store-bought salad dressing saves time, but you could also make your own Mediterranean vinaigrette.

All of the delicious guacamole flavors you love in a healthy veggie-packed salad. Want to pump up the protein? Add leftover roast chicken or sautéed shrimp. Serve with tortilla chips on the side (or crumbled over the top) to take it up a notch.

Rye berries are traditionally milled into flour to bake bread with, but we love their flavor in this healthy whole-grain salad, tossed with a caraway seed vinaigrette. Serve with roasted pork and an arugula salad for a complete meal.

Fragrant, crunchy Asian pears add a refreshing melon-like flavor to the healthy chicken salad recipe. Look for the large, brown, apple-shaped fruit in well-stocked supermarkets near other specialty fruit.