I Tried Every Salad Kit at My Aldi—This Was My Favorite

Listen, I'm a big from-scratch kind of cook. Ours is an "ingredient household," to borrow from the social media trend, where the pantry and refrigerator are always full, but not much is ready to eat (and yes, we do snack on the occasional handful of chocolate chips). But I'm also the busy working mom of a toddler, so I appreciate the occasional quick-and-easy meal.

Enter the salad kit.

There are a lot of reasons to love these kits, which spare you the time and energy of chopping up a bunch of different veggies and greens, and come with all the accouterments packaged up and ready to go, all in one convenient bag.

There are also a lot of reasons to love Aldi, the discount grocery chain and my personal favorite European export. Aldi offers a pretty good variety of salad kits under their private label Little Salad Bar. At the risk of totally burning myself out on salads, I tested them all over the course of about a week. For some of the kits, one taste-test was plenty for me. But others have found a place in my regular Aldi rotation.

Here they are, ranked—at least in my personal opinion—from least enjoyable to most delicious.

Sunflower Chopped Salad Kit

Like almost all of Aldi's salad kits, this one begins with a base of finely chopped cabbage (both green and purple), green leaf lettuce, kale, carrots and scallions. It's a good, well-balanced mix, and a solid vehicle for the mix-ins and dressings—in this case, that means sunflower seeds, bacon pieces and sweet onion dressing.

The bacon is a high point; according to the tiny print on the package, it's just bits of Aldi's uncured bacon, a product I frequently buy. The sunflower seeds are, well, sunflower seeds.

Things started to go awry for me as soon as I opened the dressing packet. It had a super-thick, sticky consistency that made it difficult to even squeeze over the salad. I had to toss for what felt like forever to get anything approaching an even coating. And while I know this is supposed to be "sweet onion" dressing, sweet is an understatement. I choked down enough to say I'd tried it, and tossed the rest of the salad to my (indiscriminate) chickens.

Caesar Salad Kit

I should admit that I'm kind of snobby about Caesar. I typically make my own—anchovies and all—and so my bar really is set pretty high. This is a super-basic Caesar, and there's not a ton to say beyond that. It has romaine lettuce, croutons, some shredded Parmesan, and a packet of—what else?—Caesar dressing. Aldi's Caesar kit is fine. I didn't dislike it, and it also didn't excite me. It's second-to-last on my list not because it's bad, but simply because it's boring.

Bacon Avocado Ranch Chopped Salad Kit

Things began to improve quickly once I moved on to the Bacon Avocado Ranch salad. It uses the same base of cabbage, lettuce, carrots, kale and scallions, and comes with individually wrapped packets of bacon bits (the same yummy, uncured kind as in the sunflower salad above), shredded taco cheese, crispy corn and avocado ranch dressing.

The pièce de résistance of this salad, for me, is the corn, which is seasoned and then, it would seem, freeze-dried to create this perfectly crispy consistency that really adds to this salad. I wish Aldi sold this amazing crispy corn on its own; I'd buy three bags at a time. The dressing on this one is good. It's nothing mind-blowing, but who doesn't enjoy a ranch? Add all the elements together, and I'd call this one middle-of-the-road.

Chopped Caesar Salad Kit

Yes, I know what I just said above about being unimpressed by Caesar salad kits, but hear me out. This kit isn't all that different from its un-chopped cousin, but I liked it way more. The romaine is shredded, and while it comes with the same Parmesan and dressing, instead of croutons, this version has delicious crunchy crumbles that really take it up a notch.

I have a vision for a cold pasta salad recipe in which I'd mix this kit with some fusilli or farfalle, some diced cucumbers and a generous twist of black pepper. I haven't tried it (yet), but feel free to swipe the idea for your next BBQ.

Southwest Chopped Salad Kit

The last three salads on this list are the ones I really enjoyed, starting with this Southwestern flavor bonanza. Again, the base is cabbage, lettuce, kale, carrots and scallions (are you sensing a pattern?), though I did notice that this kit seemed to be heavier on the scallions than the others. The mix-ins are super basic—just shredded white Cheddar and crispy tortilla strips—but the star is the dressing, a delicious chipotle ranch with just the right tang and a heat that sneaks up on you in the best way. I did taste this salad kit on its own, you know, for science, but then I topped it with a generous scoop of pulled pork and—holy mackerel!—was it great. If you want to do the same, you could make your own pulled pork or pick up a package of Aldi's heat-and-serve version.

Sweet Kale Chopped Salad Kit

The sweet kale salad became a go-to of mine long before this experiment, and I'm happy to report it stacked up admirably against the other salad kits in this test. Aside from the Caesar, this is the only chopped salad that switches up the base. According to the package, this one's made with kale, shredded broccoli, green cabbage and "other vegetables," which looks like red cabbage and shaved Brussels sprouts. The fixings are classics: tart dried cranberries and crunchy roasted pumpkin seeds, and the whole thing comes together with a poppy seed dressing.

The dressing's a bit thick and sticky, but instead of being overwhelming like on the sunflower kit, on this salad the texture helps the dressing to coat the larger veggie chunks, ensuring you get a little bit of everything in each bite. This salad kit makes a great side, but I prefer to top it with grilled chicken and call it a well-rounded lunch.

Asian Chopped Salad Kit

I didn't expect my long-standing favorite, the sweet kale salad, to be dethroned, but this turned out to be my uncontested top pick. It goes back to that same base—cabbage, lettuce, kale, carrots, scallions—this time topped with sliced almonds, crisp wonton strips and an Asian sesame dressing. This is just a phenomenally balanced salad. The almonds are a touch of sweetness, the wontons are the perfect salty textural element, and the dressing is an umami bomb with surprisingly nuanced flavors.

Again, this salad is great on its own, but here's how to really take it over the top: add a nice slab of Aldi's unbelievably buttery Norwegian salmon, and you've got dinner. I marinate the fish for an hour or so in soy sauce, olive oil and lemon juice with a bit of brown sugar, then cook it on a cast-iron griddle on my grill. It's the perfect complement to this Asian chopped salad, which has now officially entered our weeknight meal rotation.