Romaine

What makes this salad so good? A secret ingredient we like to call "flavor flakes."

Sprouting and frying the sunflower seeds completely transforms their flavor. But just using salted, roasted sunflower seeds would also work fine.

Forget croutons: crispy kale adds all the satisfying crunch you need to Caesar salad.

Plenty of bacon and a quick trip under the broiler adds salty, smoky crunch to this cheeky casserole version of the classic sandwich.

This luxe burger gets its umami-packed richness from dry-aged steak. One bite of the juicy patty, steak sauce–flavored onions, and rich herb butter and you'll know it's worth every penny.

Get all the sweet, smoky, and spicy flavors of a Mexican-inspired cookout in this blissful steak salad.

This fresh salad was inspired by the elements of a Passover Seder plate.

This quick-cooking version of the street-food favorite features chicken that is crisp on the outside yet moist and juicy on the inside.

I get a lot of inspiration from staring at the supermarket shelves, and seeing what items are grouped together. I made this recipe because I found the smoked oysters next to the anchovies in the canned fish section and decided to try them out instead in my Caesar dressing. Once I did that, I decided to riff on the croutons a bit too. In this recipe, the smoky oysters complement the rich egg yolks, which in turn get cut by a healthy dose of lemon juice. Do you like other canned fishies? All are good Caesar salad material, providing they are packed in oil, which amps up their flavor almost to a condiment level of oomph. If you want to get real crazy, find the canned seafood section in an ethnic market.

Kohlrabi is underappreciated and misunderstood. But we've decided it's got our favorite crunch: sweet, dense, and snappy (think broccoli stem).

Sweet and spicy pork belly lettuce wraps—served with a refreshing cucumber salad—are a cool, crunchy dinner for sweltering August nights.

Creamy herbed avocado and edible flowers elevate a simple salad of mixed greens.

Not all tomato recipes require the fruit to be ripe. In fact, you’ll want unripe green tomatoes for this one (rather than green-hued heirlooms, which tend to be too delicate to grill).

This standard diner salad may have petered out in the early '90s, but this version reminds us why it was popular in the first place. Smoky chicken and pork stand in for the typical drab turkey and ham, and the addition of herb-packed chimichurri dressing makes this salad fresh again.

I live in New York, where Greek salads are a reliable diner staple. I love the combination of briny Kalamata olives and salty feta cheese mixed with crisp romaine lettuce and refreshing cucumbers. This somewhat deconstructed, twenty-first century version applies the "warm goat cheese salad" method to a Greek salad, coating fresh feta slices in egg wash and quinoa and then pan-frying. The result is incredibly delicious—and as good as it looks in the picture!

Look for celery root that is firm—not spongy—at the bottom end.

Charred to a crisp: Not a statement usually associated with salads, but delicious nonetheless in this Mexican-inspired romaine number.

"Don't try this with iceberg," advises Roberta's chef Carlo Mirarchi. Flavorful, robust lettuces work best, allowing you to get grill marks on one side while the rest wilts.

Not in a carnivorous mood? Just opt for large peeled shrimp instead of beef and cut the cooking time by a couple of minutes.