These Hearty Salads Are the Perfect One-Dish Dinner

The ever-popular Chinese chicken salad is not Chinese. Wolfgang Puck created it for his Chinois restaurant in Santa Monica in the ’70s. This is my veggie version. Deep-frying rice noodles makes them puffy, and they add delicious crunch to the salad.

A vegetarian variation of the classic salad dressing gets tossed with thinly sliced and lightly sautéed Brussels sprouts in this wonderful fall salad inspired by Los Angeles chef Josef Centeno. Instead of adding the traditional coddled egg to the dressing, the salad is topped with a perfectly poached egg. Enjoy the salad with a glass of chilled Chenin Blanc—the hints of apple and pear will pair nicely with the funky Brussels sprouts, and the wine’s high acidity will balance the richness of the egg and Parmesan.

This colorful and bursting-with-flavor salad will easily sway fans of the classic salami, cheese, and head-lettuce mix served at your local red-sauce spot. Lots of satisfying crunch comes from cabbage and fennel, while the chopped lemon, inspired by a memorable sandwich eaten in Sicily, adds unexpected zest. The taste and texture combo of salty, chewy lupini beans and fiery, fermented Calabrian chiles will trick your brain into thinking that you’re munching on Calabrese salami. Look for jars of lupini beans and Calabrian chiles at well-stocked Italian delis, or purchase them online.

Buckwheat groats can be “popped,” transforming them into a crunchy and nutritious addition to salads. This recipe has a few convenient do-aheads, making it great for weeknight menu planning. Russian kale is excellent for grilling, as the leaves are flat and the edges don’t curl from the grill to the fire, but as it’s less common, any kale will do—just take extra care to avoid charcoal edges.

Cacio e pepe is a traditional Roman pasta dish. The “sauce” is made by emulsifying generous amounts of grated pecorino into pasta cooking liquid and seasoning the results with a hefty amount of freshly cracked black pepper. The results are boldly satisfying for just a few ingredients. The Roman flavor combo translates well to other foods like salads, breads, and especially pizza.

I use all-purpose flour, not fancy Italian ‘00’ flour, because I like the flavor of the less-refined flour. The addition of orange zest comes from a pizzaiolo who told me the hint of sweet citrus was a secret ingredient in Nancy Silverton’s Mozza pizza dough. Perhaps he was pulling my leg, but no matter—it’s delicious and a nod to my home state, California.