Summer Salads to Celebrate
I love salads and there is never a better time to enjoy them than summer! Hot weather is ideal for breaking out the fresh veggies, not to mention it saves you from having to heat up your kitchen with cooking. Traditional green salads are always terrific, but I’ve pulled together a few other summertime salad recipes that are also ideal for lunches, dinners or for bringing along to your next BBQ, picnic or party.
This BBQ Chicken Entree Salad is exactly how it sounds–a meal in itself. The salad is the entree. There are plenty of other entree salad recipes, but what I liked about this one was how it included lots of flavors of the season–BBQ chicken, cooked corn, fresh tomatoes and the dressing is cilantro ranch, which goes perfectly with the BBQ chicken.
Macaroni salad is a popular summertime side dish, but the traditional dish contains mayonnaise, which adds fat and calories. It also doesn’t include many veggies outside of a bit of chopped onion and celery. This is why Grilled Summer Vegetable Salad with Roasted Garlic and Basil Vinaigrette is such a great alternative! This recipe uses penne pasta as its base and plenty of in season veggies like squash, tomatoes and asparagus. The flavorful dressing made with garlic, basil, dijon mustard and other spices tops the dish off perfectly.
Layered salads make for a beautiful presentation at parties. Fruit salads are a wonderful and healthy dessert during the summer. Put both of these together and you’ve got Layered Summer Fruits with Creamy Lime Dressing–the perfect party dessert! This recipe calls for in season, at-their-peak fruits like blueberries, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and strawberries. The top fruit layer is covered with a dressing made from cream cheese, frozen limeade concentrate, powedered sugar and whipping cream. It’s the perfect light dessert that will still satisfy your sweet tooth.
So, this summer while you’re enjoying your fresh garden salad, I hope you’ll also explore some of these other salad ideas as well. Discover how fresh produce can be used in so many other salad combinations.
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