I love a green salad for a side to almost any summer meal. You can also make a green salad your main dish! This summer, with having all of the lettuce we get from the garden, my intention is to have one day a week be salad day, so I would love to hear your favorite salads. As a side note, if you enjoy making salads and don’t own a Salad Spinner, it is well worth your investment.
There are many variations to a green salad we enjoy. Here are some.
Vegetable Salad:
We just put in whatever we have around to go in the salad. We enjoy:
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Cheese
- Red onion
- Crumbled bacon
- Boiled eggs
- Olives
- Black beans
- Grilled chicken
- Something for crunch, like sunflower seeds, croutons, or slivered almonds
Mandarin Orange Salad:
This one is a bit more fruity. Here are some things you can add:
- Crumbled bacon
- Red onion
- Swiss cheese
- Mandarin oranges
- Mushrooms
- Slivered almonds, toasted
Strawberry Spinach Salad:
This is another fruity one:
- Spinach
- Slice strawberries
- Red onion
- Slivered almonds, toasted
Poppy Seed Dressing
You must have a good dressing to go with your salad. This poppy seed tastes great with a vegetable salad or a fruit salad–I usually half this recipe:
- 3/4 cup vinegar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp dry mustard
- 1 1/2 cups oil
- 1 1/2 T poppy seeds
Blend vinegar, sugar, salt, and dry mustard. Then add oil and blend. Pour into serving cup/dish (I use this Salad Dressing Shaker–you can just make it all in there if you can shake hard enough to mix it) and then add poppy seeds and shake well.
What are your favorite salad combos?
My go-to salad formula is fruit + cheese + nut. My current favorite is tomatoes + feta + sliced honey roasted almonds (Trader Joes) with feta dressing (also Trader Joes). This goes great with arugula. But any leafy green works.
We like to add baby corn, artichoke, hearts of palm plus any other veggies you listed. Radishes are also good. I also like the tri- colored pasta with Italian dressing on my salads.
Thank you ladies for your ideas! I will try them out.
Angela I am loving feta cheese right now, too.