Easy Salmon Salad Recipe - Gotta Love Those BLT Flavors! (2024)

You’ll love this easy Salmon BLT Salad with creamy homemade ranch! It combines the classic flavor of bacon, lettuce, and tomato with healthy broiled salmon for a scrumptious, satisfying meal.

I love a good BLT salad. There is something so satisfying about the mixture of bacon, tomatoes, and ranch over a bed of lettuce. I used to always treat myself to chicken BLT salads. And then one day, it dawned on me – why am I not using my leftover salmon in this?! My friends that’s when this salmon BLT salad was born, and I’ve never looked back.

Why You’ll Love This Salmon Salad Recipe

• Classic Flavors: You won’t find any surprises in this salad. A traditional BLT will call for bacon, lettuce, and tomato. You’ll find each of those here in addition to croutons (think, bread), a mayo-based dressing, and my secret weapon – avocado!
• Super Easy: When it comes to easy salad recipes, they need to be … easy. This Salmon BLT salad definitely fits the bill. Everything comes together in about 10 minutes and you’re ready to eat!
• Fresh Veggies: I love adding lots of veggies to this salmon salad base in the middle of summer. With all that fresh produce around, it’s hard to stay away! Keep this recipe just as it is to mimic the classic BLT, or add whatever veggies strike your fancy.

What You’ll Need

For the Salmon Salad

• Cooked Salmon: This easy salmon recipe is perfect, or you can use whatever cooked salmon you might have on hand.
• Salad Greens: I adore crunchy romaine lettuce for this, but feel free to use any salad greens.
• Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes are great – so juicy!
• Croutons: Optional, but so good.
• Avocado: Avocado adds a luxurious creamy element.
• Bacon: Pre-cooked.

For the Homemade Ranch Dressing

You can absolutely use your favorite store brand, but here’s how to make my favorite homemade version.

• Yogurt: Plain yogurt is the base of the dressing.
• Mayonnaise: I don’t recommend using “salad dressing” style mayo here – it’s a bit sweet. Regular mayonnaise is best, although keto and paleo versions are also good.
• Sour Cream: Yum.
• Lemon and White Wine Vinegar: To give the dressing that ranch tanginess.
• Honey: To balance out the flavors.
• Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

How to Make Salmon BLT Salad

1. Chop: Chop up your cooked salmon and set it aside. Cut tomatoes in half and slice your avocados.
2. Toss: In a large salad bowl, toss together the lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, avocado, and bacon. Set your salad aside.
3. Mix: In a mixing bowl whisk together the yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper. Whisk everything until thoroughly combined. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly.
4. Combine: Add your chopped salmon to the salad. Then, gently toss the salad with your salad dressing.
5. Serve.

Tips and Tricks

You’ll love everything about this salmon salad, I swear, but these simple tips could make it even better!

• Avocado: While I love it, feel free to hold the avocado if it doesn’t do it for you. Replace it with your favorite cheese, like cheddar or blue.
• To Bread or Not to Bread: If you are watching carbs, simply omit the croutons.But they really do add a lovely crunch that mimics the bread in a classic BLT.
• Chopped Salmon: I prefer to chop my salmon and mix it right, but feel free to serve with your whole broiled salmon fillets on top. You do you.
• Load It Up: Go ahead and load it up with any additional veggies you love, like cucumbers, radishes, or peppers.

What to Serve With Salmon Salad

What I love about this salmon salad recipe is that it can be a whole meal in itself. You have protein, great fat, and loads of veggies. With salmon, bacon, and avocado, it’s even more filling than you might imagine. If you need something easy to grab and go, this salad is perfect in a wrap.

I will also serve it with a soup. The flavors in this salad go great with any potato-based soup like our creamy potato leek soup or loaded baked potato soup. It’s also pretty great with another classic – roasted tomato basil soup!

Or, you could simply serve it with a slice of rustic bread (I’m pretty partial to this no knead skillet cheese bread!) on the side. Perfect for sopping up any of the tangy dressing left on the plate.

How to Store and Reheat Leftovers

While I don’t think this salmon salad recipe makes great leftovers mixed together, you can store and assemble various parts of it another day. This typically isn’t a problem here, as we gobble it up in one sitting. I’d recommend making just about as much as you and your family plan on eating.

But if you do want to store leftovers, keep your cooked salmon in its own container. The homemade ranch dressing will store well in the fridge in a glass container or mason jar for about 3-4 days. And you can bake and crumble the bacon in advance as well. Assemble everything when you’re ready toe at!

More Easy Salad Recipes

• Big Mac Salad
• Jennifer Aniston Salad
• Italian Antipasto Salad