A Trio of Summer Salads
Like most people, our repertoire of meals changes with the seasons. We have some new favorite salads to share.
This is a quinoa salad made with tomatoes, sauteed onions, basil, avocado, toasted pine nuts, and a vinaigrette. Every adult we've shared this with has raved over it.
The children are newly fond of a curried chicken salad. I poach chicken in the morning. Later in the afternoon I mix it with a curried mayonnaise and grapes. I serve it on lettuce and often offer a muffin or some cornbread with it.
Another favorite hearty salad involves grilled lamb chops, pepper and red onion placed on a bed of greens and white beans which have been drained, rinsed, and mixed with a vinaigrette.
Do you have a favorite summer salad to share?
My girls love curry chicken salad too. I haven't put grapes in it - they'd love that. The quinoa Quinoa salad looks yum - my 6 yr old is gluten free so I need more ways to put gluten free grains in her diet. I have some quinoa but haven't done much with it. THANKS for the idea.
Our favorite salads? Simple fruit salad with whatever we have. Spinach salad with sliced strawberries and toasted pecans with a light vinegarette.
Can you share your recipes with us?
-Phyllis
I'd love to provide a recipe, but really it's just combining the ingredients listed with a vinaigrette--sometimes I make it, sometimes it's Newman's from a bottle :) So, no additional recipe to share.
Those salads sound delicious. Last night I had salad greens with imitation crab meat, kohlrabi, and sugar snap peas.
Yum. We love to do a quinoa salad with a ponzu dressing and avocado. Simple but delicious and beloved by the entire family.
Also, a favorite summertime treat is avocado halved and heaped with fresh crab and just the slightest mince of shallot.
Thanks for sharing your favorites!
The chicken salad sounds great and your quinoa salad is very similar to mine, I add roasted onions and corn to mine instead of tomatoes. My daughter and I were just saying how much we love these summer foods...but only in the summer, there is much delight in the first soups of the fall as there is the first salad of the summer.
Grape Tomatoes, Fresh basil snipped in strips, Fresh Mozzarella cutin squares, with Balsamic Ceasar dressing.
Shoe peg corn, Black eyes peas, Black Beans, sweet Peppers - whatever color we have, Tomatoes, Jalapenos cut small, onions chopped, Dress with olive oil, lime juice, cilantro if you desire. Make ahead to let the flavors mingle, serve with pitas/cornbread
Those are 2 of our simple staples of summer!
That quinoa salad looks good enough to make me try quinoa again. Years ago, I had a job cooking for a group of apple pickers in N.H. and I was given a 50 lb. bag of quinoa that I had no idea how to cook. I really came to hate the stuff. I have never had it since, but that was about 12 years ago. Maybe I should try it again. Could you explain exactly how to cook it?
We also love quinoa salad, your recipe sounds fantastic! also wheatberry salad made in a very similar way, tabouli salad, waldorf salad from the Moosewood cookbook, the kids find it humorous when we eat that one ; ) and just pasta with a dressing and fresh veggies...
I'm going to try the one with corn, black-eyed peas, beans, etc.
I make quinoa similarly to rice. 1 c quinoa in 2 cups water. Bring to boil. Cover. Cook for about 15 minutes on low. Check it. Sometimes it seems done, other times I have needed to add a touch more water and cook a little longer.
I'm loving these salad ideas!
Kitten is ready Sarah. Do you still want it? Pic on my blog today.
These all sound so good! I just bought quinoa for the first time this weekend--haven't cooked it yet, but I'm excited to see what all the fuss is about. I've been loving Bluebirdbaby's chicken salad this summer and plan to make it again this week.