Simple Rocket Salad Recipe

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Total cost: $0.68/serving
Restaurant price of comparable dish: $5 – $10
Fast food salad price (McDonald’s side salad) avg. price/serving: $1.59

The first time I had a rocket salad was in London. The greens were topped with olive oil, tomatoes, and creamy burrata cheese.

I’ll admit: I ordered the salad for the burrata alone. I hadn’t planned on eating the greens.

But when the lion’s share of the burrata was gone, what was left was a creamy, crunchy mess of rocket lettuce coated in burrata. 

So yeah, I ate that.

What Is Rocket Salad?

Rocket salad is essentially arugula salad. Rocket lettuce is the British term for Arugula.

It’s known in Europe as Rocket, roquette, or rucola. But us Americans just call it regular old Arugula.

The Italians eat it on pizza (and I love topping flatbreads and frozen pizzas with it myself).

In a 2007 speech, then-presidential-hopeful Barack Obama used the inflation of the price of arugula in Whole Foods to appeal to farmers in Iowa.

It didn’t go well.

Arugula wasn’t a widely-eaten leafy green in Iowa (and the state didn’t have Whole Foods), so the speech was used by critics as evidence to prove Obama’s elitism.

Since, the peppery green has taken a hit in salad circles.

A 2019 Atlantic article entitled, “America Blew it on Arugula,” stated:

“Americans who heard about it for the first time via political gaffe apparently didn’t leap to give it a try, and it has also been usurped by more novel choices in the progressive corners of food culture that first embraced it as a European crossover. Arugula is neither enduringly trendy, like kale, nor so lame that Millennial irony breathes new life into it, as with iceberg-wedge salads.”

Easy Rocket Salad Ingredients

This rocket salad is perhaps one of my easiest recipes — period. It only has five ingredients that require practically no prep time to throw together: 

• Rocket lettuce
• Good olive oil
• Fresh lemon juice
• Parmesan cheese
• Fresh ground pepper

Of course, you can always zhuzh up your rocket salad with other ingredients, including roasted veggies, different cheeses, flavorful dressings, and proteins of your choosing.

How to Make Easy Rocket Salad

This rocket salad takes just a few minutes to throw together. 

1. Toss the rocket greens into a bowl.

2. Drizzle some good olive oil over the top.

3. Squirt some lemon juice on to taste.

4. Add a handful of parmesan and a few grinds of fresh ground pepper.

How to Serve Rocket Salad

You can serve this salad as a starter or side dish. Or, dress it up with proteins and more veggies to make it a meal.

I love to add the following ingredients to my rocket salad to make it a little more exciting

• Fresh veggies
• Roasted Garlic
• Roasted Carrots With Garlic Sriracha Sauce
• Sheet Pan Dinner ingredients
• Cooked pasta 

Don’t Make It Ahead

This is one of those dishes I don’t recommend making ahead of time. It only takes a few minutes to throw together and won’t break your meal prep time budget.

Also, rocket lettuce tends to wilt in the fridge when mixed with other ingredients. The LAST thing you want is soggy salad.

Related: Make-Ahead Garlicky Kale

To Dairy or Not to Dairy

If you’re dairy-free, please feel free to use a dairy parm substitute — or leave the dairy out altogether. This simple salad works well with just olive oil, salt, and pepper. To add a little salty kick without the parmesan, you could always add some bonito flakes, bacon bits (if you eat animal products), or umami mushroom powder.

Add Meat (if you please)

If you want to make this salad more of a meal, you can always add some protein. This salad works with any protein you’d add to a caesar salad, including tofu (about $0.50/serving), roast chicken (about $1.50/serving), shrimp (about $1.50/serving), roast beef (about $1.25/serving), or bacon (about $0.75/serving).

Easy Rocket Salad Recipe

Prep Time: <5 min.

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Disclaimer

Hey, hay! Guess what, guys? I’m not a nutritionist, nor am I a doctor. Even worse, I’ve never even played one on TV. Please check with your doctor or nutritionist before switching up any diet. Most of my recipes/recommendations include known allergens. If you have an allergy or food insensitivity, please don’t use those ingredients in your cooking.