I was surfing around for interesting salad ideas for our Memorial Day cookout, and this one caught my eye on Chowhound. It seemed like a pretty nifty one, and I really liked it. Very refreshing and easy. Plus I love anything that includes cucumber and mint, so there you go. I would definitely repeat this with any number of grilled main dishes for a nice summer side salad.
I was looking for a mayo-less potato salad…I’m not a huge fan of taters in the first place, and mayo salads even less. Though I do recognize that many people are fans of both ;), I didn’t feel like a salad of that type went with our Memorial Day cookout menu. I found this on Chowhound, and was very pleased with it – even I ate a serving! It has done well leftover too, and is even more flavorful. The only thing I did differently from the original recipe was that I served this cold, and the general consensus preferred it that way as well.
Not really a recipe, but a good starting point for a great summer side salad. We served this at our Memorial Day cookout, and I also frequently use it as a quick side with grilled meats. Especially delicious with fresh basil!
Combine sliced tomatoes, basil, parsley, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper and gently toss. That’s it! Alter to taste.
I can eat an army’s worth of pasta salad, seriously. It’s kind of ridiculous. This is a taken from something my mom emailed me about 10 years ago that I think *she* had on hand for 10-15 years. I could never get enough. I started mixing it with far less pasta and lots of greens (arugula or a spring mix are best…something a little bitter takes the dressing well and doesn’t get lost in the pasta) and using whole wheat pasta and here we are. No less delish, and it’s actually a complete meal or a nice cookout side dish, whichever works for what you’re doing. Very bright, adjustable, and great leftovers for lunches.
A quick lunch that was a nice break form all the sandwiches and fast food that come with crazy schedules and moving. It was nice to have our kitchen unpacked enough to make lunch. I saw something similar to this on Skinnytaste, though I left out the onion and halved the olive oil. We really enjoyed it – nice to have leftovers for lunches, too!
Panzanella has been one of my favorite things ever since my friend Missy first made it for a dinner party a few years ago. This was a fun way to use some roasted veggies, and it made a great side dish for some steamed mussels. Originally from Gourmet, I didn’t do too much to this…cut the olive oil to make it a little healthier, and I don’t care for capers so we substituted olives. I did leave out the beans because I really wanted a less filling salad. That said, beans included and this would be a full meal. Recipe below is as printed. This would be great with any vegetables you have on-hand. We’ll be repeating this one, and I think it will be especially good when the summer veggies grow.
A colorful and fun side salad, this is one I’ve served mostly with Latin or Mexican themed meals. It has a lot of flavor and dresses up chicken and pork especially well, I have found. This would be a good one at a picnic or BBQ. If you can do fresh corn with this, great – about 3 -4 ears. If not, a bag of thawed out frozen corn would be fine too.
This isn’t so much a recipe as a method of preparing salad, but this has made it super easy to bring salad to work. I’ve seen it all over the intarwebs and wanted to give it a try. I made 5 jars worth and it stayed fresh throughout the week. Note though that I did not add the dressing to the jars themselves, but kept it in little cups on the side. But for a half an hour of effort (including making two kinds of dressing), we had salad for lunch for the week! I did a Greek and an Asian variety, but the possibilities are pretty endless, and if you make your own dressing you can keep it pretty low cal.
This was a quick salad we made for lunch that was quite filling. Would be an easy thing to take to work as well. We had this with smoky lemon tahini dressing and it went really well.
Great side salad that you can adjust however you like. I’ve used walnuts, hazelnuts, cranberries, goat cheese, feta, etc. I do prefer that the oil used in the dressing go with the nuts, but you could play with that as well.
Om nom nom! 