Easy No Cook Healthy Southwest Camping Salad Recipe Make Ahead For Camping Potluck Side Dishes (2024)

We just love no cook camping meals that give us more time for other camping activities on our busy trips. Our Southwest flavor-packed cold camping salad is one of those easy make ahead camping meals you can prepare at home and refrigerate up to 2 days; but it’s one of those super easy camping side dishes that can be thrown together in minutes at the campsite.

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How To Make This Healthy Southwest Salad For Camping

This recipe is a great option for camping potluck side dishes when you’re camping with a crowd but we also make it as a meatless main dish when we want fresh and light camping meals for two.

Camp Cooking Tip: One of my favorite ways to easily add a crazy amount of flavor to my camping recipes is to use the zest and juice of fresh lemons and limes.

I always carry aCitrus Zester With Protective Cover and aLemon Lime Squeezer in my camp kitchen gear box for this very reason.

Citrus Zester With Protective CoverLemon Lime Squeezer

Southwest Camping Salad Side Dish Can Be A Main Dish

If a cold salad sounds like a great idea for hot summer easy camping lunches, this Southwest salad is one of our great vegetarian camping recipesoptions.

In addition, it is GF … perfect for those with dietary restrictions, check out all of ourgluten free camping food.

If you are looking for something more substantial for meat lovers for dinner, just toss in a cubed grilled chicken breast or two for a well-rounded main course and serve with a nice crusty loaf of bread and eat it with a fork … or … stuff it in a tortilla and eat it as a wrap!

Camping Potluck Side Dishes

This is one of my favorite camping salads to take to a camping potluck party! It is a real crowd-pleaser and ridiculously simple to scale up when you need easy camping meals for large groups.

The Southwest flavors are fresh and bright but not overwhelming. This is one of those easy make ahead camping recipes that goes with an All-American burger or a Mexican feast!

Best of all, because you can make it ahead, you get to enjoy the party! Just make sure you don’t mix in the cheese and corn until right before you are ready to serve … they will stay a nice bright color that way.

Tips For Prep Ahead Camping Salads

Camp Cooking Tip: If our camping trip happens to be an extended extra-long weekend and I want to do most of my camping recipes prep at home, I will transport ingredients in separate Food Storage Containers and just toss everything together right before we are ready to eat. For this particular salad, I prepare the dressing and salad ingredients and refrigerate in separate containers. I toss everything together right before we are ready to eat. If you toss the cheese and corn in too early the color gets ugly … the bright colors begin to take on the color of the dressing and those bright colors turn dingy and unappetizing.

Make sure you have a container set that nests when not in use and has various sizes too. This is how I keep our meals fresh (and not all soggy and gross) but I still don’t have a ton of work to do at the campsite.

Rubbermaid Easy Find Vented Lids Food Storage Container Set

Cold Make Ahead Salads For Camping & Food Safety

When you have make ahead camping recipes on your camping menu, make sure you keep everyone healthy by employing ourCamping Food Safety Tips because no matter how easy it is to make your food at home, it is never easy rushing to the emergency room because a camper got food poisoning!

The two most important things are maintaining a safe temperature in your refrigerator or cooler and avoiding cross-contamination with raw meats.

Pairings For Easy Camping Salads

I love serving a cold side salad with grilled meats like this Grilled Flat Iron Camping Steak Recipe that uses a quick homemade marinade to tenderize a pretty tough cut of meat, making it tender and juicy.

Sandwiches are always nice with a side salad that isn’t just plain lettuce. Try a hot sandwich like this easy Pastrami Reuben Sandwich.

On really hot summer camp trips, we want to eat entirely cold meals so this Southwest salad is the perfect side to our Basil And Prosciutto Sandwich.

The southwestern flavors in this salad pair well with this Chicken Fajitas Freezer Meal that you prep & freeze at home, then, dump & cook at camp.

This is also great when you’re making Dutch oven Mexican recipes.

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