Summer salads are the perfect way to highlight seasonal ingredients and keep things fresh for a backyard cookout or outdoor party. Just in time for summer, there’s a new way to plate your salad—and it’s taking social media by storm.
The checkered salad trend doesn’t require lettuce. Instead, it focuses on cubed or sliced ingredients (think cucumbers, melons, feta cheese, or olives) laid out in an adorable checkerboard grid on a serving tray.
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How to Make the Perfect Checkerboard Salad
Instagrammer @alexawhatsfordinner makes a gorgeously vibrant salad with cubed watermelon, cucumber, feta cheese, and cantaloupe, and another user creates a plate full of cubed feta and green olives in a checker pattern.
Once you’ve got your ingredients squared away (pun intended), arrange them in an alternating block pattern however you see fit. You could opt for small cubes of beefsteak tomato, cheese, and cucumber, or use larger ingredients like feta and watermelon to create a sweet yet savory party appetizer.
Or take inspiration from one user’s roundup and pipe different toppings onto your cut ingredients to create a checkerboard look. Think cucumbers with cream cheese and garlic spread, or blocks of cheese with alternating toppings like fig jam and herby dips.
Dressing Ideas
Is a salad really a salad without dressing? In many cases, cheese is enough—but don’t think you have to skip the dressing to create a Pinterest-worthy checkered salad. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle fresh herbs, and shake spices all over the top of your salad; this will add flavor without taking away from the beauty of the plating.
You could also opt for flavorful dressings that won’t change the look of your dish, like a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, honey, or lemon. If you want to add an opaque dressing without covering up the checkerboard, carefully drizzle it across the entire dish in a diagonal pattern. You could even serve dressing on the side for guests to add to their own plates.
And don’t forget to add a side of baguette slices or crackers for guests to use as an edible salad spoon. This will turn your checkerboard dish into a charcuterie-inspired appetizer everyone will rave about.
If you’re serving checkered salads for an outdoor party, make sure you have plenty of skewers. This will allow guests to eat outside without balancing a plate, and everyone can take enough salad without double-dipping.
