Marinated Vegetable Salad
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Summer veggies are at their finest right now, so this marinated vegetable salad with tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, and avocado is perfect for dinner! This veggie salad is easy to make and full of healthy, fresh produce.
2025 Update: This recipe is still a family favorite! It has been updated to simplify the recipe instructions and to include helpful tips for our readers. We hope you love it as much as we do!
Marinated Vegetable Salad Recipe
Are you ready for the best foods of summer? Nothing tastes quite as good on a hot day as a crisp veggie salad with tons of fresh garden produce and herbs!
Not only is this marinated salad super easy to make, it tastes great with everything from grilled chicken drumsticks and turkey burgers to spare ribs and garlic steak bites.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy to customize. If your kids are picky eaters, let them help choose which veggies to include.
- Perfect no-cook dinner. The last thing you want on a hot summer day is to heat up the kitchen.
- Make-ahead meal. The longer you let the veggies marinate, the better the flavor will be.
- Fabulous side or main dish. It can be served as a side dish or a complete vegetarian meal.
Ingredients
Feel free to customize these ingredients to fit whatever you have on hand. There are plenty of options for delicious marinated vegetables.
- Tomatoes: You can use any variety and/or size that you like. Heirloom tomatoes add a lot of color to the salad.
- Cucumber: If you want to keep things super simple, use slicing cucumbers. My kids love seedless mini cucumbers.
- Avocado: A ripe avocado is firm, but gives a little when squeezed.
- Shallots: If you have picky eaters, shallots are a great choice. They are in the same family as onions, but they are much smaller (easier to hide!) and the flavor is milder.
- Fresh herbs: Basil and thyme leaves add bright flavor to the marinated vegetable salad!
- Marinade for the vegetables: I make a simple balsamic vinaigrette with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and mustard. If you don’t want to make it yourself, you can use any store-bought vinaigrette dressing.
Salad Recipe Variations
Here are a few ideas to bulk up the meal:
- Include other vegetables, like shredded carrot, celery, thinly sliced zucchini or summer squash.
- Add some fruit. Maybe fresh sliced peaches, plums, or apricots.
- Cheese: mozzarella pearls, goat cheese, or crumbled feta
- Add a protein like grilled salmon or chicken for a complete meal. If you want to keep the meal meatless, include some protein-packed seeds or nuts.
Tips for Success
This veggie salad recipe is simple to make, but these tips will ensure that it’s super tasty, too!
- Use fresh herbs. Fresh herbs add a bright and fresh flavor that you can’t get from dried herbs.
- For extra flavor: Just before serving, sprinkle the entire salad with flaky sea salt. The tiny bit of salty crunch is an amazing surprise!
- To prepare in advance: You can prepare the marinated vegetable salad up to two days in advance. However, wait until just before you serve it to slice and add the avocado. Otherwise, it will turn brown and mushy!
Marinated Vegetable Salad Recipe FAQ
It’s perfectly fine to let the veggies marinate for up to two days, but even 15-20 minutes will allow some of the flavors to meld together.
Other Healthy Salad Recipes
I’d love to hear about your experience making this recipe! Please leave a comment and rating below!
Marinated Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups mixed heirloom tomatoes
- 2 small cucumbers
- 1 shallot or red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 avocados
- 8-10 basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1-2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 teaspoons mustard
- ½ cup olive oil
Instructions
- Wash, peel and thinly slice all the vegetables, except for the avocados. Add vegetables and fresh herbs to a bowl and toss to combine. *Wait until just before serving to slice and add the avocado to the salad.
- In a small bowl, whisk to combine the balsamic vinegar, garlic, and mustard together. Slowly drizzle the oil in, a few tablespoons at a time, continuing to whisk, until combined.
- Drizzle as much of the vinaigrette as you'd like over the veggies. (I use about half of what this recipe makes). Toss well to combine. Cover the veggie salad with a lid or plastic wrap and transfer it to the fridge. Allow the vegetables to marinate and chill for up to 2 days, until you are ready to serve.
Notes
- Just before serving, sprinkle the entire salad with flaky sea salt. The tiny bit of salty crunch is an amazing surprise!
- You can prepare this salad up to two days in advance, letting the vegetables marinate in the vinaigrette. However, wait until just before you serve it to slice and add the avocado. You don’t want it to get brown and mushy!
