Simple Microgreen Salad Recipe for Every Season

Microgreens are all the rage right now and for good reason, they’re healthy, grow quickly, and can be easily grown indoors. While microgreens can be used in a variety of ways, microgreen salads are fantastic for filling in the gaps that happen with seasonal eating.

What Are Microgreens?

Microgreens are the young seedlings of vegetables and herbs, harvested when they’re just 1–3 inches tall — usually within 7–14 days of germination. They’re not the same as sprouts (which are grown in water and eaten root and all). Microgreens are grown in soil, snipped at the stem, and eaten just like salad greens.

What makes them special is their nutritional density. Because the plant is putting all of its energy into those first few leaves, microgreens are often significantly more nutrient-rich than their full-grown counterparts — and they pack a lot of flavor into a very small package. They’re also one of the easiest and fastest things you can grow indoors, which makes them a great option for filling in the gaps when your garden isn’t producing.

Best Microgreens for Salads

While almost any microgreen can work in a salad, some varieties are better suited to it than others. Here are some favorites:

Sunflower — Mild, slightly nutty flavor with a satisfying crunch. One of the most beginner-friendly microgreens to grow and one of the best for salads.

Pea shoots — Sweet and tender with a fresh flavor that tastes unmistakably like spring. These are especially good right now as the season turns.

Radish — Adds a peppery bite similar to arugula. A little goes a long way, but mixed with milder greens they add great contrast.

Broccoli — Mild and slightly earthy. One of the most nutritious microgreens you can grow and very versatile in salads.

Arugula — Bold and peppery, best mixed with a milder green rather than used on its own as a salad base.

Amaranth — Beautiful deep pink and red color that makes any salad visually stunning. Mild flavor that works well with fruit-based toppings.

You can use a single variety or mix a few together — a blend of sunflower, pea shoots, and radish makes a well-balanced base with good flavor, texture, and color.

Where to Get Microgreens

During the summer, it’s too hot for us to grow lettuce. If I’m being completely honest, my lettuce during the winter isn’t super great either since our winters are fairly warm which means our lettuce is often bitter.

Growing microgreens has helped fill in the lettuce gap that we often experience. Microgreens are grown exactly like micro herbs and can be grown quite easily in an indoor garden.

While you can buy microgreens in some grocery stores and farmer’s markets these days, they are fairly expensive. But when you grow them you just need seeds, a container, growing medium, and light.

Really, any plant that has edible leaves can be grown as microgreens but usually it’s those plants that have small seeds that are grown for microgreens. The most popular microgreen seeds are broccoli, amaranth, radish, cabbage, and mustard. But carrot, kale, and even peas and sunflowers are tasty as microgreens. MiGardener is a great place to seeds of all kinds, including microgreen seeds.

Making a Microgreen Salad

Microgreens are harvested when they’re just a couple of inches tall which means they’re going to be very tender. Because of this I like to thinly slice or chop any other salad ingredients so they don’t overpower the microgreens.

Grated carrots, beets, snap peas, onions, and chives all make great additions to microgreen salads. So do fermented foods such as lacto-fermented onions, cherry tomatoes, spicy beets, and cauliflower. Plus the brine from fermented vegetables can be used as a dressing.

I like to add some type of fruit to my salads, depending on what fruit is in season. In the spring it’s berries such as mulberries, blackberries, or strawberries. In the summer it’s passion fruit or even cantaloupe. During the fall, I usually use apples or pears. And in the winter, I add slices of citrus.

I also like to add a little protein and fat to my salads to make them a heartier. My favorite proteins are feta cheese, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, and garbanzo beans. I will usually add some pecans because we grow them and always have a bunch but other nuts such as walnut are good choices too. And, of course, some avocado.

As you can probably tell by now, no two microgreen salads are ever identical. Learning to use what you have and what’s available to you is part of the fun of growing your own food and eating seasonally.

Simple Dressings for Microgreen Salads

Because microgreens are more delicate than mature salad greens, heavy or creamy dressings tend to overwhelm them. Here are some lighter options that let the greens shine:

Oil and acid. The simplest option — a drizzle of good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon or a splash of apple cider vinegar is often all you need. Add a pinch of salt and you’re done.

Fermented vegetable brine. If you have a jar of fermented red onions or other fermented vegetables in the fridge, save the brine. A spoonful mixed with olive oil makes a tangy, probiotic-rich dressing with zero effort — and it pairs beautifully with the fermented toppings in the salad.

Thinned pesto. Whisk a spoonful of pesto with a little lemon juice and olive oil to loosen it into a dressing. Especially good with sunflower or pea shoot microgreens.

Jam vinaigrette. This is an underrated trick — thin a spoonful of homemade jam with lemon juice and olive oil for a sweet, fruity dressing that pairs beautifully with whatever fruit you’ve added to the salad. Strawberry or berry jam works especially well in spring.

Honey lemon. A teaspoon of honey whisked with lemon juice and olive oil is simple, slightly sweet, and works with almost any topping combination.

Tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page. We always appreciate your feedback. You can also save the recipe for later by pinning it or clicking on the heart in the lower right hand corner.

Looking for more ways to use your microgreens beyond salads? See our full collection of microgreen recipes.

Thanks for sharing!