16 Tips For Giving Your Salad A Creamy Upgrade

The word "salad" may for some people invoke the image of a sad plate of wilted lettuce, an obligatory side dish, or the order of a friend who's always on a health kick. For others who play around with ingredients and dressings and aren't afraid to add a little more, they can be an exciting and satisfying dish that one can look forward to or even crave. One way to make a salad a bit more filling and more delicious is to add ingredients or dressings that give it extra creaminess

Creaminess and salads have always gone together — just think of the bottled Italian dressing in your fridge, a classic Caeser salad, or your favorite potato salad. Creaminess means adding extra richness, substance, flavor, or all of the above and doesn't always have to be achieved by adding cream (although that's always an option, too). Gone are the days when salads are limited to just greens, or cut-up cucumber and tomatoes, there are multiple ways to give your salad a creamy upgrade. Some have existed in different cultures for ages, and some are because of new internet trends, but all are bound to take your salad to the next level. Here are a few of our favorite ways to do so.

Avocados are an obvious choice and probably the easiest way to add a bit more substance to a salad. It doesn't involve making a new kind of sauce or dressing — just cut up some avocado cubes or slices. While mild in flavor, avocado flesh, especially at the perfect ripeness, is like Mother Nature's creamy gift to the world. They add a perfect amount of velvetiness to a salad without overpowering any other ingredient, and as a source of beneficial fats, it's actually recommended that you eat more avocado.

Avocado is a versatile ingredient that you can even grill and add to a warm salad, like in this grilled avocado BLT salad recipe that involves adding avocado slices to your grill along with bacon and romaine lettuce halves. It can be eaten in both savory and sweet ways, so you can also go the sweet route with it and add some creaminess to a tropical fruit salad like in this watermelon and avocado fruit salad.

Ever since the creation of this dish in a New York City hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a Waldorf salad has been synonymous with elite diners or pretentious restaurants. In truth, it's quite an easy salad to make, and the original Waldorf salad dressing was exceptionally simple. The salad was originally made up of just apple, celery, and mayonnaise. This means that all it was dressed with was mayo, salt, and pepper. It might not seem like enough to make a good salad dressing, but along with the apple and celery, (and now more commonly, walnuts) of the Waldorf salad, it adds a silky balance to all the crunch and sweetness.

While this simple dressing is often the starting point in many hotels and restaurants today, it still works as is, in all its simplicity. It can also be a starting point for other mayonnaise-based salad dressings. Add it to the intended Waldorf salad ingredients, in Coleslaws, or with other crunchy vegetable and fruit-based salads.

Tahini, a paste made from sesame seeds, is perhaps most popularly known for being added to hummus and drizzled into your shawarma or falafel wrap. What you may not know is that tahini sauce is one of the most common sauces in Middle Eastern and North African cuisine, and is often used on grilled fish and meats, flatbreads, and as a salad dressing.

If you've ever bought a jar of tahini and tasted it as is without dressing it up, you might have wondered why so many people love it, as it's not very nice on its own. However, when you mix up the raw sesame paste with vinegar, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and some water to thin it up, you get a tangy, nutty, and milky sauce that you might want to pour over everything.

There are lots of ways to use tahini paste. One of our favorites is this tahini goddess dip which you make by whipping it up with a bunch of herbs, greek yogurt, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper, ready to serve with your next crudité platter.

If you really want to ramp up the richness, look no further than salatsauce. This simple creamy German salad dressing is one you need to start using, and it isn't your typical salad dressing.  Most dressings contain vinegar, oil, or mayo,  but this German recipe is as unrestrained as it gets, using a simple but potent ingredient; heavy cream. Adding just sugar, and lemon juice to it, it's the perfect balance of sweet, buttery, and tangy. It goes well on every type of salad from green salads, to grain bowls, to a warm roasted root vegetable salad.

This dressing is incredibly adaptable and can be jazzed up with some herbs, dill pickles, or Tabasco sauce. If you don't have heavy cream, you can also use whatever you have on hand that will add the same butteriness like sour cream, cream cheese, half and half. To make this using the traditional method, start by mixing the dressing ingredients in a bowl before adding your vegetables to it. This will ensure an even consistency. Then mix well to make sure everything is evenly coated.

Creaminess can be achieved in many ways, and it doesn't always have to involve cheese, cream, or mayonnaise. Mustard is an obvious salad dressing ingredient because it adds not only a distinct punch but also emulsifies into your vinaigrette, turning it into a milky yellow concoction that lathers your greens in the most luxurious way. In fact, in most restaurants in France, that's exactly how your salad will be served: with a simple mustard vinaigrette.

To make one, you can use the jar-shaking method or blend together your favorite mustard with some vinegar and oil. You can use that as-is, or you can play around with different herbs, vinegar, garlic, spices, and oils. The trick to a really good mustard vinaigrette is to use a quality mustard that you personally love the taste of.

Ranch is a wildly popular American sauce that has become more associated with dipping your chips, spicy chicken, or pizza into. Going back to its roots, though, ranch has always been the perfect salad dressing. Even though it's so easy to pick it up at the store, we think making it at home is as easy as can be and while people may have their own secret recipe, we love including buttermilk to take the lush texture to the next level.

Make our buttermilk ranch dressing by mixing up yogurt, buttermilk, and lemon juice, along with spices like onion powder, mustard powder, red chile flakes, and herbs like flat-leaf parsley and dill. Add it to your chopped salad and you, and your guests, won't be able to get enough.

Green goddess dressing is a way to give herbs the spotlight they deserve. Using everything from cilantro, parsley, basil, tarragon, and chervil, this vibrant sauce is like a buttery herb garden on your tongue. It's also a great way to use up a lot of herbs before they begin wilting just a few days after you get them from the farmer's market, and you can improvise according to the herbs you like and have available.

After blending olive oil with your herbs, this classic dressing gets its creaminess from making a simple mayo by whisking egg yolks while slowly adding in your herb oil. The mixture will emulsify into a herbaceous mayo and you can add a little water if needed to adjust the thickness. Drizzle on your salad or serve as a delicious dip alongside some vegetables.

Everyone loves potatoes for all the right reasons, but we think sweet potatoes deserve just as much love. For everything a potato brings, a sweet potato can match it, plus more! They have more earthiness, sweetness, and color. This means sweet potato salad is just as satisfying as regular potato salad and their texture when cooked through makes for a silky mouthfeel. 

The best thing about sweet potatoes is all the exciting flavor pairings you can play around with because they have a more distinct taste. We love this grilled sweet potato salad recipe that tosses in ginger, turmeric, and basil leaves to make a fragrant dish that's quite a departure from the traditional potato salad. The soft sweet potato flesh along with the mayo makes this an incredibly velvety salad that can rival any barbecue side dish.