I’m the last person you’ll see eating a salad at most Thanksgiving dinners. In my experience, they tend to be bland, wilted or a strange collaboration of repurposed crudité platter and romaine. Salad is the dish that’s most avoided, paling in comparison to a steaming heap of mashed potatoes or a fluffy scoop of stuffing. Nobody wants the salad. So, when I started hosting Thanksgiving, I ditched it.

For a few years, my Thanksgiving table featured casseroles, meats and starches. But one year I found myself craving something with texture, with a sour bite, with raw elements—dang it, I wanted a salad. Not the salads of repurposed crudités, but something bright, chunky and a little weird, perhaps without a leafy green in sight.

What makes a salad great

A good salad isn’t just there to add nutritional value to the meal—though, that’s not so bad either. It should be an irresistible side dish that complements the others on the table, a forkful that cleanses the palate, a welcome bit of crunch on a plate full of soft sides. A great salad will have a different flavor profile than the casseroles and mashes, but still fit the theme.

For Thanksgiving, that means seasonal produce, punctuated with tart flavors and a variety of textures. (Overly fatty components, however, should take a back seat.) Crunchy or crispy ingredients are essential. Nuts, raw vegetables, frico-like parmesan crumbles, or shards of toasted pita all work, just to name a few. I’m partial to salads that take advantage of bold and unusual shapes—it’s eye-catching and inviting. Read on for examples.

Think beyond leafy greens

Under no circumstances should the salad be a throw-away bowl of who-cares. The goal is not to have “something green” on the table. A Thanksgiving salad is a chance to explore colors, textures and unusual flavor combinations, like the ones in this Cucumber Salad with Peanuts and Cumin-Mustard Tarka. Play around with shapes, too. We love irregular wedges, fine shreds and wide ribbons of veggies—check out our Moroccan Carrot Salad or this Shaved Carrot and Parsnip Salad with Gingery Hazelnuts to see how the prep method affects flavor.

Read the room

It’s crucial to know your audience. A Thanksgiving salad will only be successful if it appeals to those breaking bread with you. That’s not to say you’ll make everyone happy (a historically impossible feat), but consider ingredients that work for at least half of the group. I know there will be some beet fans at my table and I depend on the beets to reel them in. Beet fans at your table too? Try our shredded Beet and Carrot Salad with Horseradish. If corn is popular with your crowd, give our Charred Corn with Coconut, Chilies and Lime a try. And a table full of cauliflower fans will jump at this Cauliflower-Chickpea Salad with Dill-Lemon Dressing.

Might I recommend some acidity?

Thanksgiving is famous for showcasing the virtues of salt and fat, a winning combination if there ever was one. However, a bite of acid now and again acts as a much needed palate cleanser, clarifying the flavors ahead. Cranberry sauce sometimes is the only thing on the table that offers a tart, refreshing bite, but we all know how divisive that dish can be. Cranberry sauce deserves an ally in acidity.

You can provide a sour note in a couple of places, with tart components or a snappy dressing. In our Romaine and White Bean Salad with Feta, the lemon juice adds an acidic undertone throughout the dish, while the Kalamata olives and feta deliver briny-tart punches whenever you catch a crumble. Try big juicy segments of citrus, like in this Orange, Arugula, and Shaved Radish Salad. Our Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream and Dill is a creamy salad that drops the usual mayonnaise, using sour cream as the dressing’s base instead. This adds considerable brightness, and the crunchy cucumbers work well with the dill.

Herbs are salad greens too

Speaking of dill, fresh herbs are the easiest way to breath some life into a sea of beige offerings—and not just as a garnish. They can be a proper leafy component. You can opt for an aromatic salad that combines several different herbs, like with our Pita, Chickpea and Herb Salad with Tahini Yogurt, or highlight a single herb instead. Our Crispy Chickpea, Cucumber and Mint Salad, spotlights the refreshing, fruity-floral aroma of torn mint.

The last bit of advice I have for your Thanksgiving salad is to keep it straightforward. Two to four main elements and a dressing is usually the sweet spot. Not only does this shortened ingredient list reduce work on your end but, much like in writing or even fashion, a well-edited presentation often is the most attractive.

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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.