Blackberry Walnut Feta Salad

I love that blackberries are wild and pop up around the DC area.  There are a few bushes not far from our apartment... though there are usually only enough for a passing snack and not to pick and take home.  These are big ones from a pick your own farm and they are delicious.  Candied walnuts are great - I remember the smell of them in Downtown Crossing in the freezing Boston winter, but they do almost as well in a summer setting and give a satisfying sweet crunch.  The recipe is a strange one, but good for light summer dinners and eating up your delicious blackberries in a way that is not pie.  That is not to say I could ever have enough blackberry pie, but one must have consideration for others who must dine in the same household.

Sweetgreen Bondi at Home

Hot summer days are great for making a meal out of a tasty salad, but unfortunately all my salads start to look the same after a while.  Enter some creative inspiration from local salad joint menus like Chop't and Sweetgreen.  Sweetgreen especially has some really interesting combination ideas.  This is the Bondi from their menu, you can find it here.  The killer ingredient here are the wasabi peas with a crunchiness that does not wilt and a bit of a cleansing spicy kick!

Baby Spinach and Mesclun.
Corn.
Hearts of Palm.  (Trader Joe's good for these.)
Avocado.
Wasabi peas.
Add chicken if you want.
Whip up some dressing with sesame oil base.  I would have loved to try the miso but we didn't have any on hand.  You could experiment with tahini or peanut butter.

Three Bean Salad

Remember 3 bean salad?  It's a classic American salad - maybe it's out of style, but it's a great idea.  Healthy, filling but light, tasty salad great for hot days or outdoor picnics.  Making your own make it taste fresher and more crisp, but is still easy.  Use canned chick peas, and canned kidneys.  Steam some green beans until just done - still bright green and crisp.  Then mix it all together with your favorite vinaigrette dressing.  Don't forget salt and pepper, maybe a mustard or some herbs.  I like to make a more vinegary dressing than with a conventional salad because the beans soak up the flavors.  Eat with crusty bread.

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Eating more super-grain salads is a resolution of ours for this year.  We got the idea when walking by the salad bar at Whole Foods and realizing that there are a million interesting possibilities with new kinds of whole grains.  And by "new," I mean ancient, as many of these grains have been around for a long time and are now making their comeback.  A lot is said about their healthiness, but I am more after their different-ness and the culinary possibilities.  There is a long list of grains to try: quinoa, amaranth, spelt, farro, wheatberry, all kinds of barley, red, brown, or black rice, the list goes on and on...and they make great salads.  We tried this one for quinoa and it's quite good for a one-bowl meal.

White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Broccoli

Warm salads are a great way to eat greens in the wintertime.  The slight warmth of the broccoli and the white beans wilts the baby spinach and has a satisfying effect.  We have made this recipe from Martha many times and it is still a favorite.  The roasting brings out the good flavors of the tomatoes and broccoli, and everything melds in the vinagrette, which has a hint of spice.  Serve on a piece of toast if you like.

Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

I wonder if you have gotten all you can out of this year's butternut squash season?  This is a nice little salad that makes a filling winter meal, but is still light.  The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, and though I don't rave about eating this one over and over again forever, I can see how it would be a good standby.  We actually did the make-ahead directions a little differently - we roasted a big batch of squash and used half of it in another recipe and saved half for this recipe.  When you do that it mixes up very quickly for a weeknight meal.  The salad does benefit from being a little bit warm.

Arugula Potato Green Bean Salad with Creamy Walnut Dressing

This is an arugula based salad with a salty yogurt-based vinaigrette, which tastes good when spread evenly over the salad. The potatoes and green beans can be cooked in the same pot for ease of clean up. It makes a nice dinner with some good, crusty bread on the side.

Cold Sesame Noodle Salad

Sesame oil is one of the magic asian flavors that can be really fun to play with. This recipe doesn't use it! It comes out great. The basic technique here is to toast and blend sesame seeds into a paste that then gets thinned with soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar (a few more of the magic asian flavors) and mixed into the salad. If you don't like spending big bucks on a McCormick jar of sesame seeds looks for a cheap bag in the international section. Add the veggies you want, or even chicken or tofu, and serve at room temp. When refrigerated, you don't get the right texture and the flavor is reduced.

More Bittman Salads

I can't get enough of these 101 Simple Salads. This is number 14 on the left and 9 on the right. Simple. Grated carrots in a vinagrette with cumin. Mango and jicama with coconut milk and curry. Jicama is the easiest thing to slice up, good crunch with a touch of sweetness, and not that expensive.

California Roll Salad

This is another of Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Salads. Its got cucumber, avocado, and rice just like a California roll. We added some furikake to substitute for the nori, and did without the lump crabmeat because it's expensive (but would be really good.) The dressing is a bit of mirin, rice vinegar and soy sauce. If you like sushi, you will shovel this down!

Simple Salads

101 Simple Salads for summertime is one of Mark Bittman's latest lists. I tried these two for the week. The twist on the tomatoes is that its a soy sauce-sesame oil dressing which is quite unexpected. The cabbage has an peanut-lime-cilantro dressing on it. Bittman doesn't do recipes, more like suggestions for combinations of ingredients. They are quick, tasty, and reading the whole list can be an overwhelming flood of ideas. Check him out on the NYTimes.

Peach-Beet-Tomato Summer Salad

This juicy fruit salad is slurpy and delicious. It's only for the best tomatoes and peaches, but it is great and quenching. The recipe is from Tasty by Roy Finamore. Slice up peaches, tomatoes, roasted beets, and mix with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. It's best if you let it sit at room temp for a couple hours for the flavors to mix.