Salads

Spring Panzanella

I was looking for something with more vegetables to add to Easter brunch, and this pretty salad was perfect! I adapted this from a BA recipe. The original called for a buttermilk dressing, but that seemed heavy for such a light salad, so I went with a simple lemon vinaigrette instead. I did actually do this with gluten-free bread, and it was pretty good! I’ll probably make it with regular bread next time, as I’m sure that’s a bit tastier, and just skip, but it was nice either way, and looked pretty on the table. The leftovers tasted fine, but the veggies predictably lost their bright green shades.

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Spring Salad with Garlic Herb Croutons and Spicy Garlic Dressing

I was looking for a light salad to go with our Easter dinner, and ended up just deciding to toss some spring greens with these croutons and dressing.  I usually just toss croutons with some herbs and olive oil, but I liked infusing the oil for this and will do it again.  As a side note, next time I will skip the parm – the croutons didn’t need it, but you should give it a try to see if you like it.  I think next time I would just dress the salad with a bit of parm.  The dressing itself was very tangy…I do not generally care for salad dressing, but I really liked this vinaigrette!

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Recipe!

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Green Bean and Tomato Salad

This was a really tasty side salad using summer veggies – goes really well with a grilled entree! I got this from Chow and made as is other than halving it for two people. 🙂  At its original size, it would be a nice picnic/BBQ side dish.  Recipe below is for that portion size.

 

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Cucumber and Black Eyed Pea Salad

This was a nice base salad with which you could do a lot…we liked it a lot.  I’ve had my eye on this for a while since I love black eyed peas, and am always looking for new ways to use them.  I thought this could use lots more flavor and added more lemon, pepper and salt,  Some herbs tossed in would be great too.  This would be nice for a BBQ or picnic side.  It was nice with grilled pork chops.

 

Recipe!

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Asparagus, Green Bean, and Wax Bean Salad

I’ve had this one from Chow saved forever, just looking for the occasion to use it.  It makes so much that it’s not exactly a two-person meal.  I thought this was great though – light, flavors were good, and a pretty side dish for a BBQ or picnic.

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Greek Panzanella

I got this one from my friend Missy years ago, and it’s still one of my favorites.  If I didn’t try to stick to low carb, I’d make some variety of Panzanella all the time.  This is another Ina recipe, never gets old.  Went well with our BBQ last weekend.

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Chicken Shawarma Salad

I love shawarma, but doing the whole low carb thing isn’t really conducive to piling everything in delicious pitas smothered in garlic sauce.  But it works well over a salad!  I based this on a couple of different recipes I found (Cooking Light was where I got the base marinade), marinated it overnight, and had it with a lemon-sumac dressing.  I’m not usually very good about salads for dinner, but this was pretty tasty, and fairly low-maintenance as well.  We just used a bag of salad and tossed some tomatoes, cucumbers, and chickpeas in it as well.

 

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Recipe!

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Snap Pea Salad with Thai Vinaigrette

This was a really fun side salad – we had it with some Teriyaki wings.  You could definitely add some chicken or other protein to this to make it a full meal.  I think it would do well with noodles, too.  Either way, versatile and very tasty!  This came from Chow, I changed very little – subbed sesame oil for vegetable in the dressing, and Sriracha for chile garlic paste (I was out).  Made a ton, and stored separately from the dressing, it will be great left over!

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Orzo Salad

This is one of my favorite side dishes, and I especially like it with anything Mediterranean.  I made this to go with lemon-oregano grilled lamb chops for dinner, and probably could have hoovered the entire thing myself.  This is good warm or cold, so leftovers are very useful.  This could also be a main dish for a vegetarian night if you paired with a salad, etc.

Recipe!

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