Summer salads

[fancypants]

It's hot here and I'm still tired of all my summer salad recipes. What are your summer salads?

A couple days ago we had:
Grape tomatoes, halved
Feta cheese
Diced red onion
Good olive oil
Good balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt
Pepper, lots
Basil

We like this by itself or over stuff like grilled chicken.

Now you go.


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[caribougrrl]

it snowed here (briefly) yesterday

[fancypants]

it snowed here (briefly) yesterday

Well then you should stick with soups for a little while longer.


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[BonitaApplebum]

My go to salad is kind of a cooking pattern rather than a recipe. It consists of:

- 3 grains/pastas -- I typically do a combo of barley, quinoa, and israeli couscous, but sometimes I will swap orzo for the couscous and/or use a different grain. Red quinoa and tricolor couscous look pretty.
- dressing made of equal parts olive oil, orange juice, and rice vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste
- chopped veggies of varying textures. For crunchy I like cukes, red onion, jicima. For softer I like (anything) roasted or grilled -- zukes, eggplant, cauliflower.
- chopped herbs -- I love this with cilantro, but haters get oregano instead or maybe chives/scallions

I make the grains first and cool them off. Then I chop all the veggies and toss everything together with the dressing. You can modify the ratio of grains/pasta to vegetables depending on how carby you want it to be.

People love this recipe -- I bring it to potlucks/bbqs all the time, and someone always asks me for the recipe. I love it because it's so versatile -- I can throw in anything I have and it always turns out great.

[fancypants]

That looks/sounds delicious! 


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[seattlegirl]

Broccoli-peanut salad

6 cups broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
4oz peanuts, chopped

1/2 cup lowfat mayo
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
1 Tablespoon honey
pinch ground ginger
pinch ground white pepper

Peel the broccoli stalks, then chop them into 1/2 inch pieces.  Cut the broccoli tops into small florets.  Combine broccoli, onion, raisins, peanuts in a large bowl and toss well.
Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.  Toss the dressing with the salad.

[Run Amok]

LOVE the dressing for this one! I often just do kale, tofu, edamame, and a few other things topped with the dressing. But the original suggestions are good too! http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/wild-seaweed-salad-recipe.html

I like the sauce for this one: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cold-Sesame-Egg-Noodles-354710
If I use noodles, I usually just use itallian style or soba noodles. I usually mix in tons of veggies to make it more like a salad: broccoli, julienned pan fried tofu, edamame, scallions, broccoli slaw if I'm in a hurry. I like to add lime.

Like this one as a Mexican themed salad: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/mexican-chopped-salad-with-honey-lime-dressing-230154 I like to use a smoked cheese or a cumin one. Toasted cumin seeds are a nice addition. I mix up the veggies based on what looks good and what I like. Watermelon or some citrus.

During nectarine season we love this one: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/peach-and-pistachio-salad I like to add ricotta salada or burratta

Panzanella with grilled bread-- tomatoes, cukes, lettuce, cheese, grilled pieces of bread chopped up and all tossed in a very garlicy balsamic vin

Greek salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, red onions, feta, kalmata olives, dressing of oregano, red vin, Dijon (sometimes), lemon, garlic, olive oil, cracked pepper)

[BonitaApplebum]

RA -- I will totally try that seaweed salad one. It looks like it's right up my alley!

And I agree that the sesame noodle salad sounds better with soba. I have a good cold soba/peanut sauce recipe somewhere I should dig out. Yum!

[witchypoo]

greens
chopped red onion
grapefruit sections
mint
grilled swordfish
oil + vinegar

[diablita]

Yum!  So many good looking salads in this thread.

My Go To right now is Israeli salad:
(small) cubed tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, parsley and lemon juice and I make tahina to eat with it.

When strawberries are in season I like spinach, arugula, sliced strawberries, yellow/orange peppers (for color contrast), some kind of nut (for crunch) and crumbled goat cheese.  I usually wing a fig balsamic dressing w/ the fig balsamic vinegar I buy or I just buy the fig dressing at whole foods if I'm feeling lazy.

[BonitaApplebum]

When strawberries are in season I like spinach, arugula, sliced strawberries, yellow/orange peppers (for color contrast), some kind of nut (for crunch) and crumbled goat cheese.  I usually wing a fig balsamic dressing w/ the fig balsamic vinegar I buy or I just buy the fig dressing at whole foods if I'm feeling lazy.

I don't always love sweets in my salads, but a friend of mine makes a spinach/strawberry/balsamic variation of this and it's awesome! I like the goat cheese addition here, and the peppery arugula.

[fancypants]

Yum!  So many good looking salads in this thread.

My Go To right now is Israeli salad:
(small) cubed tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, parsley and lemon juice and I make tahina to eat with it.

When strawberries are in season I like spinach, arugula, sliced strawberries, yellow/orange peppers (for color contrast), some kind of nut (for crunch) and crumbled goat cheese.  I usually wing a fig balsamic dressing w/ the fig balsamic vinegar I buy or I just buy the fig dressing at whole foods if I'm feeling lazy.

Oh man! We just passed through strawberry season here and the strawberries were so good you could smell them from the frozen food aisle.


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[nadra24]

Summer only lasts for like 5 minutes here, but these are my faves:

Quinoa, diced tomatoes, diced cukes, feta cheese, and lots of fresh parsley with a dressing of olive oil/balsamic/touch of dijon mustard.

Salmon, roasted asparagus, sliced strawberries, feta or goat cheese. Mix with spinach or romaine lettuce, dress with raspberry vinaigrette or the above olive oil/balsamic/touch of dijon dressing.

Cowboy caviar: 1 can each of pinto and black beans (drained), 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 1 cup corn, 1/2 chopped red onion, 1-2 diced avocados. Dress with italian dressing and the juice of a lime. You can add cilantro if you don't think it's the devil's herb, and a shot of hot sauce if you like it spicy. We usually eat this as a dip with tortilla chips but it's also really good tossed with finely shredded lettuce and eaten as a salad. It makes a pretty big batch, the avocado stays ok for about 24 hours but if you think you'll have leftovers then it's better to just add avocado to the portion you're going to eat that day and then add more to the leftovers when you eat them.

[BonitaApplebum]

 
Cowboy caviar: 1 can each of pinto and black beans (drained), 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped red bell pepper, 1 cup corn, 1/2 chopped red onion, 1-2 diced avocados. Dress with italian dressing and the juice of a lime. You can add cilantro if you don't think it's the devil's herb, and a shot of hot sauce if you like it spicy. We usually eat this as a dip with tortilla chips but it's also really good tossed with finely shredded lettuce and eaten as a salad. It makes a pretty big batch, the avocado stays ok for about 24 hours but if you think you'll have leftovers then it's better to just add avocado to the portion you're going to eat that day and then add more to the leftovers when you eat them.

I love this one! My MIL makes it. Cilantro haters gonna hate!

[rocketgirl]

There's one I do where you boil asparagus for 2 minutes then rinse in cold water and put on ice.  Then slice grape tomatoes in half.  It is supposed to have avocado but we normally don't do that although it's good that way.  We do add spinach. (We do usually at least cut the asparagus in half because it's easier to eat later.) 

The dressing is olive oil, a little dijon mustard, salt, pepper, powdered garlic,a ton of basil and some lemon juice.  We usually top with Feta or some kind of Blue Cheese.  It is REALLY good.

I think it's this recipe or close to:  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cherry-tomato-asparagus-salad

[Run Amok]

In other news, I brought this to lunch today, y no me gusta. http://inspiralized.com/2014/03/21/mason-jar-zucchini-noodle-salads/

It just didn't do anything for me. One of those times it feels like you wasted perfectly delicious ingredients.

[BonitaApplebum]

In other news, I brought this to lunch today, y no me gusta. http://inspiralized.com/2014/03/21/mason-jar-zucchini-noodle-salads/

It just didn't do anything for me. One of those times it feels like you wasted perfectly delicious ingredients.

Were the zoodles (ugh! horrendous word!) cooked or raw? Raw zucchini = no bueno for me.

[Run Amok]

Raw. I hate the word zoodle also! The whole thing was just bleck.

[BonitaApplebum]

I HATE when I think I've found the Next Big Thing that's going to be healthy and delicious and make my life easier, and then it's meh. I've been waffling on trying the salad in a jar things myself.

[diablita]

raw zoodles = ick