There are so many traditional cookout foods – and so many of them are light on vegetables. I love a good potato salad but I also love my greens so I’m always excited when they find their way into an outdoor party menu. Thus, it seemed appropriate to wrap up #BBQWeek with a hearty salad that’s still perfect for an outdoor gathering.
This salad is full of the bounty of summer and make-ahead friendly which is perfect for entertaining. Simply dressed greens, tomatoes, and grilled onions are topped with grilled steak, avocado, basil, and almonds in this drool-worthy dish. It will serve four as a meal in itself – or more as part of a larger spread.
Lettuce has been in our CSA share every week. And it’s not a little bit – it’s always a big ‘ole head. We’ve also got some in our own garden. As such, salads are a staple. We have side salads nearly every night with dinner – and big, bountiful salads for lunch.
This salad was one I whipped up for dinner one night. Full of produce from our farm share and topped with a homemade dressing, it’s summer in a bowl.
It’s strawberry season here! The kids and I spent yesterday morning at one of our favorite local farms picking a whole flat of gorgeous berries – so now we’re making everything strawberry.
Do you want to take bets on how many things I can stick strawberries in over the next few days?
Did you know May is National Salad Month? It seemed like the perfect reason to round up some food blogger friends – today we’re sharing all kinds of awesome salads to celebrate!
The salad I’m sharing today has been one of my go-tos for the last few months.
Does anyone else crave fresh produce in the summer? I’d blame it on pregnancy, but this happens every year. Farmers’ markets become crazy dangerous because I just want to buy everything.
Summer also makes me lazy, though. I can’t tell you how many times I end up cooking up those impulse farmers’ market just before they go bad. Salads like this that require no cooking are always my best bet.
To my surprise, the toddler really liked this too. I fully expected him to just pick out the cranberries and apples, but the dressing was just sweet enough that he would happily eat it all.
4 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/4 cup diced red onion
2 large Gala apples, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
In a large bowl, toss together the broccoli, carrots, onions, apples, pecans and cranberries.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Pour over the broccoli mixture and toss until evenly coated.
So far, Jake is not a picky eater. I know we’re just getting into toddler-battle territory so it may change but for now we’re still happily surprised every time he tries and loves a new food. One of our recent finds is pomegranate. I bought one to make this salad and tossed him a few arils while I was prepping things. He devoured them and screamed for me.
At this point, the kid would probably eat his weight in pomegranates if we let him. I’ve bought more pomegranates in the last few weeks than I have in all my previous years of grocery shopping combined.
While the pomegranate was the standout for Jacob, he did eat some of the bacon, goat cheese and avocado too. The adults happily ate everything, of course! This salad is going to make a repeat appearance at our Thanksgiving table this year.
Pomegranate and Avocado Salad (Adapted from Gimme Some Oven) Serves 6-8
1 large head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 pear, diced
1 pomegranate, seeded
1 avocado, diced
6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup of goat cheese crumbles
Toss together in a large bowl and serve with citrus vinaigrette.
Citrus Vinaigrette
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil.
This weekend, Babywearing International of Central NJ celebrated their first anniversary of becoming a Babywearing International chapter. If there’s one thing that’s saved my sanity during the past year, it’s baby wearing. I feel incredibly fortunate to have found this community so early in motherhood and that my local chapter is so awesome.
Saturday’s celebration was a potluck picnic at a beautiful local park. This salad was my contribution to the feast. It’s something I’ve made before and have been meaning to make again since Jake is currently loving sweet potatoes and black beans. And this is one of the best potluck dishes I’ve found – it can be served warm, chilled or at room temperature and it’s gluten, nut and dairy free so it’s perfect for pretty much everyone.
Stuck with leftovers? It also makes an awesome burrito filling!
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Salad (slightly adapted from Beantown Baker) Serves 10-12 as a side
3 Tbsp. olive oil
5 large sweet potatoes
3 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
Juice of 3 limes
Zest of 1 1/2 limes
1 tsp. salt, divided
Pinch or two cayenne
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.
Peel the sweet potatoes and cube into bite-size pieces. Toss with olive oil and 1/2 tsp. of salt and spread on a baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes, until tender but not smushing, tossing halfway through. Remove and let cool for five minutes.
While the sweet potatoes roast, rinse and drain the black beans.
Whisk together lime juice, zest, remaining salt and cayenne in a large bowl. Toss with black beans and slightly-cooled sweet potatoes. Stir in cilantro.
While we’re really only a few days into October Unprocessed, I think I already found my favorite dish of the month. This salad is fantastic. I whipped it up on a day that baby boy was particularly needy so it literally took me all day to get it finished. When Mark walked in from work at 8 pm, he’s like, “Is that dinner?” and when I said, “No, its today’s lunch” he knew better than to ask too many questions (and graciously helped do the dishes when I finally finished). I had really thought about ditching these once lunch time passed and I didn’t have anything more than some burned sweet potato, but I’m really, really glad I didn’t.
Much like the oats I shared a few days ago, I suggest multiplying the recipe and making several at once – it’s just more efficient to cook a few days worth of sweet potatoes and quinoa in one shot if you’ll be eating this for several days.
Sweet Potato, Black Bean and Quinoa Salad Jar (from Popsugar Fitness) Makes 1
1 small sweet potato, unpeeled, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup quinoa
1/2 cup black beans
1/4 red pepper, diced
2 cups baby spinach
1 Tbsp. dried cranberries
1 Tbsp. pumpkin seeds
For the dressing: 1/4 cup mango, fresh or frozen
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 Tbsp. water
Preheat the oven to 400F degrees. Toss the diced sweet potato with the olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet and roast until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the quinoa to a covered pot along with half a cup of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the water is all absorbed and the quinoa is tender.
Make the dressing: combine mango, vinegar and water in a blender and pulse until smooth.
Assemble the salad in a jar: Place the black beans at the bottom and then layer on the quinoa, dressing, red pepper, spinach, sweet potatoes, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds.
Cover jar and refrigerate until ready to serve. When you’re ready to eat, shake the jar or dump it into a bowl and toss to combine.
The latest recipe swap theme was Summer Salads – I’m not sure there’s anything better than a great salad this time of year so I’m super excited to see what everyone made!
This simple salad came from Jaida at Sweet Beginnings. It was delicious. I made it for my summer book club meeting and everyone raved about it! The dressing was almost dessert-like, but paired with the bitterness of the spring greens it worked really well. And I’m not sure who wouldn’t like a salad with all that gorgeous summer fruit!
Berry Kiwi Salad with Sweet Balsamic Dressing
(from Sweet Beginnings)
Serves 4-6 as a side
4 c. Spring salad mix
1 c. strawberries, hulled and halved
1 c. blackberries
2 kiwis, peeled and cut into wedges
1/2 c. white balsamic vinegar
2 T. sugar
1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
To make the dressing: Whisk together the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium for 6-8 minutes, until mixture is reduced by half. Slowly whisk in the cream. Cook without stirring for 2 minutes. Removed from the heat and cool. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
To assemble the salad, toss the berries and kiwi with enough dressing to lightly coat. Top the spring mix with coated berries.
You can check out what the rest of the swap participants made below. And as always, thank you to Sarah for organizing!
Grilling is such a perfect theme for a summer recipe swap! I love using the grill during the summer – it just seems to make everything faster and easier.
I always think meat when I think grilling, but I was lucky enough to get a veggie-heavy recipe to shake things up. This easy salad is great warm or cold – which makes it the perfect dish for summer. Wrapped in lettuce leaves, it’s a great lunch or light dinner – but even on it’s own it’s a great side salad.
Thanks for submitting the recipe, Christine! We really enjoyed it.
3 ears of corn, shucked of their husks and silk
1 c. cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 c. chopped green onions
4 slices cooked bacon, diced
Juice of 1 lime
1 T. olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
A good sprinkling of chili powder and smoky paprika
Butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce leaves
Grill the corn and when it has cooled enough to handle, cut off the cob.
Toss the corn in a bowl with the tomatoes, green onions, bacon, lime juice and olive oil. Season to taste with salt, pepper, chili powder and paprika.
Serve with lettuce leaves as wraps.
You can check out the rest of the Grilling Swap recipes below. Thanks, Sarah, for hosting!
