9 Trader Joe's Salad Kits, Ranked From Worst To Best

A salad kit from Trader Joe's is a beautiful thing. You've got all of the ingredients you need for a complete salad, right there in the bag with zero thinking required. All you need to do is mix them up. Whether you're shopping at Trader Joe's for the first time or you're a seasoned patron, the bagged salad kits are always a must-buy.

Not all Trader Joe's bagged salad kits are the same, however — some are better as sides, some as main courses. Some are more prone to going bad quicker, and it's hard to trust the expiration dates. Many are good on their own, while some of the salads require improvement by adding protein or other ingredients. Some of them simply taste better than the other ones. All of these factors will go into consideration when comparing them to each other — and finding out which ones come out on top. Here are nine Trader Joe's salad kits, ranked from worst to best.

This Sweet Chili Mango Complete Salad Kit comes packed with shredded veggies, sunflower seeds, toasted quinoa, dried mango, and a Thai sweet-and-spicy vinaigrette. And it is one confusing salad, from the idea of it to the actual execution. First of all, it smells sweet but also slightly off. Many of the ingredients are impossibly tiny and clump together, sticking to the side of the bowl rather than the veggies, and when you do actually get them onto your fork, they fall back off, as if magnetized to the bowl.

It tastes exactly as it smells. It's both sweet and also doesn't taste like much at all — I know I'm eating food, but none of the flavors belong together, so it's like I'm eating nothing. There is a sourness that seems out of place, as well as a spicy aftertaste that sticks around and gets stronger as time goes on. I tried a bite with more dried mango, hoping that would balance it out. It made it worse; the mango just sticks out on its own. Honestly, all of these ingredients seem like they're trying to hop out of the salad because they hate each other. It dawned on me that the dressing tasted just like Trader Joe's Sweet Chili Sauce, which made everything make sense — I do not like this sauce. This salad, like its sauce, tastes like sweet-and-sour water.

The Organic Mediterranean Style Salad Kit mixes Romaine lettuce, shredded broccoli, radicchio, celery, seasoned flatbread strips, dried tomato, feta cheese, roasted chickpeas, and a red wine vinaigrette. On paper, this is a pretty great group of ingredients. Unfortunately, there are some major quality control issues with this option. The expiration date was two weeks away when I bought it, and after a mere couple of days, it was already looking a little battered. The lettuce was covered in pink dots — it wouldn't be edible within a few days. If you buy this salad, don't forget to utilize the different ways to keep bagged salads fresh.

Despite its lack of freshness, this bagged salad wasn't bad, taste-wise. There are a lot of good veggies in there, despite catching them at the last second of being okay to eat. The feta cheese and dried tomatoes added an interesting and tasty punch of flavor — they are definitely the best part of this salad. As long as you get those two ingredients on your fork, it's going to be a good bite. If you don't, though, the salad is slightly boring, flavor-wise. Also, I counted seven roasted chickpeas total, which is a bit sad. Adding Trader Joe's Chili Onion Crunch to this salad would give it a spicy flair and make it much more exciting.

Trader Joe's Dill-icious Chopped Salad Kit 1 contains chopped cauliflower, radishes, red and green cabbage, green leaf lettuce, kale, TJ's "Chips in a Pickle" dill-flavored potato chips, and a dill cucumber ranch dressing. Many other grocery stores have their own variation of a pickle-flavored bagged salad, and this one is definitely the best of them. This is mostly because of the "Chips in a Pickle" potato chips, Trader Joe's very own tasty dill-seasoned creation. The addition of these chips makes this salad a singular Trader Joe's specialty.

As for the other ingredients, they are all fresh and crunchy. In particular, the large radish chunks are very pleasant. It's not overly pickle-flavored — actually, the dill is the more prominent flavor of the two. It's generally a good salad, but it ranks a little further down the list because I'm just sort of over the great pickle craze of 2025. Pickle-flavored things were everywhere, and, frankly, it oversaturated the market a bit for me. This salad is perfectly fine, but I would reach for the ones higher on this list before I pick this one up.

Trader Joe's Cranberry Orange Spinach Salad Kit is a fun one, made up of cranberries, honey-roasted pecans, blue cheese, and spinach, topped off with an orange-based dressing. Right off the bat, this one is a little more work because of the spinach — it needed to be cut up in order to be eaten and mixed easily. Speaking of mixing, even when cut up, a salad with a base of just spinach is going to be a little awkward. The leaves are thick, and it's hard to distribute the dressing properly. Eating it is sort of a game of trying to make sure the spinach leaves actually have ingredients on them (otherwise they all wind up at the bottom).

The expiration date says it has a week left, but I can tell by the slightly wilted spinach that this salad won't last longer than a couple of days. Despite all of this, though, it's an extremely tasty and sweet salad. Typically, I'm not even a fan of sweet salads (or cranberry or orange), but this mix of ingredients really made it impossible not to like, which is why it ranks above the others. It's the blue cheese crumbles that really make the whole salad, complementing the acidity of the orange dressing and sweetness of the cranberries in a way that almost neutralizes them (in a good way). Eat it quickly, though — within 24 hours, the spinach turns into a wilted, watery, inedible mess.

The Avocado Ranch Salad Kit combines leafy greens, veggies, cheddar, and lightly salted corn chips with an avocado ranch dressing. This is another bagged salad kit that other grocery and big-box stores have their versions of, but once again, Trader Joe's version is slightly better than the rest. This is primarily because of the lightly salted corn chips, which pretty much taste like Fritos. They add an extra punch of flavor and pleasant saltiness that the other salads don't have (as they're made with tortilla strips).

The avocado ranch dressing is also very good — it's more focused on the avocado than on the ranch, unlike other versions. This salad would make a great full meal with the addition of protein or warm veggies. On its own, it's not too exciting — tasty but a tad plain. This is why it lands right in the middle of our list. It might not be anything to write home about, but it's a good, middle-of-the-road bagged salad choice. Plus, it seems to stay fresh longer than some of the others, making it a reliable item, generally.

The Sweet Onion Salad Kit is a newer addition to the Trader Joe's bagged salad family, and it's a welcome one. It contains Romaine lettuce, peppery radicchio, kale, grated sharp white Cheddar cheese, fried onion pieces, garlic croutons, and a sweet onion vinaigrette. There is nothing like this salad — it's very different. It's also basically a pile of onion variations that somehow complement each other. I was shocked not to be sick of onions when I was done eating a serving of it.

This is basically French onion soup as a salad. The big strips of cheese and fried onion pieces punch you gently in the face with flavor. The dressing is very sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. As I took my first bite of the salad, a Chili's Awesome Blossom (RIP) flashed in my mind, reminding me to be sad that it no longer exists. This salad has major onion ring vibes, which I don't think a salad has ever had. Sure, it's maybe the worst salad for your breath with all of those onions and garlic. I will say that I wouldn't want this as a main course and would want something more neutral (like bread or a protein) to eat alongside it. As good and interesting as it is, you're very aware as you eat it that you are essentially piling onions into your mouth.

Like many of the salads on this list, most stores carry some sort of variation of Trader Joe's Southwestern Chopped Salad Kit, but none of them quite match its quality. It's made up of green cabbage, carrots, radish, Romaine lettuce, green onions, cilantro, pepitas, tortilla strips, cotija cheese, and a spicy avocado dressing. This salad is very thoughtful — the ingredients, more so than any of the salads above it, mesh so well together and cultivate a singular Southwestern salad experience. The vegetables are crunchy and fresh, the pepitas add a fun texture and taste, and the cilantro adds amazing flavor. The cotija cheese is cut up into perfect little cubes and adds bursts of flavor throughout.

The dressing is also quite singular. Unlike other versions of this salad that usually contain a spicy ranch dressing of sorts, this spicy avocado dressing is lighter, brighter, and more tasty. It's just a heightened overall experience. I didn't expect to like it so much, but it's now one of my absolute favorites. My only complaint is that the cotija cheese and the cabbage look identical, so you never know which one is on your fork before eating it. This is the most flavorful Southwestern salad out there and rounds out the top three Trader Joe's bagged salad kits for this reason.

The Lemony Arugula Basil Salad Kit is such a fun salad, made up of arugula, shredded Parmesan cheese, carrots, almonds, and a basil lemon vinaigrette dressing. First of all, it smells incredible — that basil and lemon vinaigrette might just be one of the best-smelling dressings ever. It tastes great, too — it's extremely lemony, in a non-overwhelming way. The basil really balances out the flavor.

The salad itself is one of the best bagged salads I've ever tasted. It's very light, and there's a lot going on, ingredient-wise. It's almost as if every flavor was in a friendly competition with each other to be the most prominent taste, and all of them won. Every ingredient has a good crunch to it; the arugula is wonderfully crisp, and the Parmesan is the perfect cheese choice. This salad is so good that adding protein to it might take away from the flavor profile. There is only one salad at Trader Joe's that beats it. 

The Miso Crunch Chopped Salad Kit is made up of green cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, kale, chowmein noodles, cashews, sesame seeds, and a sesame miso dressing. It is also the star of the Trader Joe's bagged salads, hands down. The ingredients perfectly complement one another — the chow mein noodles add a delicious crunch, the cashews are pleasant, and the sesame seeds are an intricate addition that adds so much flavor.

The dressing is both sweet and salty, but not overly so of either one. It's a delightful, light miso flavor that really pulls together the entire salad. "This is a great salad," I kept saying, over and over again to no one, as I ate it. Also, for a salad that has so much cabbage, which I've found sometimes goes bad quickly, it really had some longevity. I tasted this one later in the week, and it was still completely fresh, unlike a few other of its siblings (earlier on the list). It really lives up to the "miso crunch" in the name. This is a reliable and delicious salad that I will return to again and again.

I taste-tested these salads over the span of a week. They were ranked according to overall flavor, most of all, and how well the ingredients tasted when mixed together. I also took into consideration the overall quality and freshness of each salad. Since Trader Joe's keeps its prices so cheap and all of these salads are about the same price, value was not taken into consideration.