Delicious and easy arugula salad drizzled with lemon juice, olive oil, and topped with shaved Parmesan cheese. Ready in 5 minutes!
My husband is usually not a big fan of salads, but he would eat them regardless since he knows salads are good for him. Several years ago, he came home quite excited after having lunch at his Dutch coworker’s house. He told me the coworker had served a simple and delicious easy Arugula Salad which he absolutely loved.
My husband then made the salad for me soon after and I knew immediately why he was so smitten by the salad. We enjoyed it so much that we had since served this salad for dinner at least once every other week now.
Quick & Easy Arugula Salad for Dinner Anytime
The wonderful thing about this arugula salad is it’s ridiculously easy to make. With just a few ingredients, you’d have a nice bowl of greens to go with anything really. Besides arugula, you are likely to have most of the ingredients in your kitchen – quality olive oil, fresh lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper, salt, and a trusty block of Parmesan cheese.
This salad might look simple, but the taste is fairly complex. The peppery bitter taste of arugula accented with tangy lemon juice, and blended with slices of Parmesan cheese is quite addicting. If you like arugula, I hope you’ll give this simple salad a try.
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Arugula Salad
Ingredients
- 6 oz arugla (roughly 7 cups)
- ¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese (and more if you like)
Dressing:
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice (roughly 1 lemon)
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp kosher/sea salt (I use Diamond Crystal; use half for table salt)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Rinse the arugula in cold running water and drain well. Place it in the serving bowl.
- For dressing, drizzle the olive oil, lemon juice, and sprinkle freshly ground black pepper and salt.
- Slice the cheese into 1 mm thickness and sprinkle over the salad.
- Toss everything before serving to an individual plate.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to a day. Enjoy it soon.
Yum! I love arugula. Interesting to know that what people are referring to as “rocket leaves” is actually arugula.
The ingredients used for this salad is similar to the ingredients of a kale salad I recently made. As my family isn’t a fan of cheese, would it be okay to omit it?
Hi Candice! Forgot where I saw it, but could be Trader Joe’s package… it says rocket leaves on package and that’s how I learned the different name. 🙂 Sure you can omit the cheese, but it’s my most favorite part of this recipe – spicy arugula and good Parmesan cheese! 😉
In Germany we call arugula/rocket rucola, reading English recipes calling for rocket confused me at first. I love to top my rucola sald with toasted pine nuts/sunflowers seeds.
In Japan, we call it Rucola (I didn’t know how to spell it as we write ルッコラ)!! I had no idea why we call it, and now you told me that’s how you call it in Germany! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
apaprently, in Italy it is called Rucola so I guess Japan and Germany just accepted it
That makes sense. Japan has so many Italian restaurants and probably this salad became popular from Italian restaurants! 😀 Thanks Asami!
Nami, we (my fiance and I) have been using your recipes in Italia! People here are amaaaazed at the Nama chocolate and surprised (probably not so pleasantly) with the green tea gelato! 🙂 Thank you so much for your blog!!!
xxx Catt
Hi Catt! So happy to hear my Nama Chocolate recipe is liked by the Italians! Haha, real matcha taste must be very bitter for someone who’s never tried matcha before…and it’s in sweets. Must be very strange concept. 😉 Thank you for your feedback, Catt!
We had arrugula with semi-dried tomatoes the night before and so had a bunch of arrugula leftover. It was way too bitter! But then I chopped up two of the tomatoes and added them to this recipe and it was divine! Thanks so much for such a simple yet delicious recipe! We used Himalayan sea salt and it was amazing! The salt/parmesan helps cover the bitter taste a lot!
Catt xxx
Hi Catt! I am sorry for my late response. I just found this comment in my inbox. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. I love Himalayan sea salt too! Thanks again!
Oh I made this last night for my friend’s dinner and it was well received. I added pomegranate seeds to it and it was really tasty!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Minh! I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for your kind feedback. I love pomegranate seeds! Such a great addition and thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Hi Nami, try adding avocado (3 or 4). It makes the salad even better.
I love avocado too. 🙂
Simple and absolutely delicious!
Thank you for trying this recipe, Rosalie! xo