Summer Salads Recipes | The Nibble Webzine Of Food Adventures

TIP OF THE DAY: Summer Salads

July 15, 2019 at 7:38 am · Filed under The Nibble, Tip Of The Day, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

Summer Salad With Nasturtium Leaves
[1] A salad of farmers market ingredients, from mache to nasturtium leaves (both photos © Good Eggs).

Summer Salad Yogurt Dressing
[2] Even if you think you don’t like tomatoes, try a lush, ripe heirloom tomato. They’re practically a different species from regular supermarket fare.

For salad lovers, summer is the season to revel.

Many traditionally summer fruits and vegetables are available year-round. They may be imported from far away, picked before their time.

For the best-tasting selections of the year, head to your farmers market and load up on heirloom cucumbers and tomatoes, and every other tempting veggie.

For fruit salads, load up on juicy stone fruits: apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, plums and hybrids like a and pluots. You can also add some sliced fruit and berries to a green salad.

Every week, pick something that you haven’t had before. Nasturtium leaves, for example, are a popular salad ingredient and garnish among fine chefs.

SIMPLER IS BETTER

When the produce has so much flavor, it doesn’t need a heavy dressing to add flavor.

In fact, they may not even need dressing: a bit of salt and pepper, maybe a dash of balsamic or a squeeze of lemon or lime, or a vinaigrette, if you want something more substantial.

Classic Dijon Vinaigrette Recipe

Asian Vinaigrette Recipe

Save the romaine for fall or mix it with summer lettuces, like Little Gem, bibb and butter lettuces (the latter two are varieties of Boston lettuce, and also make the best lettuce cups [the different types of lettuce]).

Create a mix of flavors and textures: crunchy, salty, tangy, even sweet (berries, small dice of melon).

Snip in herbs, as many as you like. Basil, chives, dill, mint and parsley can be used singly, doubly, triply, or all together.

Summer squash is ready to slice or julienne raw, and toss in. Add yellow squash with the green, for more color.

Add corn to your salad. Sweet, raw corn is great, but if you have cooked corn, use it.

Like heat? Add arugula, radishes watercress, chiles.

Slice or chop? If you typically slice salad ingredients, try chopping your salad—and vice versa. You may already have the tools you need to easily chop a salad. Here’s a video using a mezzaluna. Or check Amazon for a “chopped salad chopper.”

Make a dinner salad by adding cheese, meats and/or seafood.

Keep garnishes light. Our favorite summer salad garnish is sunflower seeds.

CHECK THE CHART FOR RECIPE IDEAS

Good Eggs created the infographic below to help you blend ingredients from six different categories into a creative luncheon salad.

We recommend that you add additional vegetables beyond what’s in the chart, and try new ingredients. For example, if your go-to lettuce year-round is romaine or iceberg for most of the year, branch out to its less common relatives.

Summer Salad Ingredients