The Most Delightful Salad

Make this salad. Recreated from a recent meal at Prezza in Boston.

Mediterranean Rice Salad

This is a great summer dish to feed a crowd. Bring it to your next BBQ or potluck – people will love it!

BLT Salad with Buttermilk Chive Dressing

I’ve had bad cravings for a BLT sandwich lately. You know the kind. Toasted, crusty white semolina bread, big slather of mayonnaise, crispy bacon, juicy fresh tomatoes, and crisp romaine lettuce. Gah, I die. Well, this is my summertime (aka lighter) version of the classic BLT. This salad makes a super easy and fast first course and it manages to accomplish the oh-so-rare combination of satisfying, yet still light. And it has bacon.

Grilled Chicken and Sausage Kebab Salad

This is my FAVORITE dinner salad. I was so excited making it tonight because somehow I had forgotten about it. This recipe was heavy in my repertoire a couple of years ago and for good reason – it’s awesome. Grilled skewers of pork sausage, chicken breast, and fresh bay doused in olive oil and lemon all tossed around with romaine lettuce (the most boring part, but necessary), fresh garlic croutons and THE BEST dressing ever. The Best. Best part is that it’s such a simple meal and perfect for a summer night.

Roasted Romaine: Caesar Style

I’m not sure where this craving came from, but I really wanted some sort of warm salad. Hot lettuce may sound like an odd choice, but I tell you, it was delicious. It may be my go-to salad from now on.

Lia’s Pasta Salad with Salami, Pecorino, and Broccoli Rabe

*Content and photos updated July 2012*

This was first inspired by a salad made for a BBQ by a new addition at my  team at my former place of work. Follow that? No need, really. All you need to know that this salad is yummy, travels well, and I’ve made it a half a dozen times for cook-outs and the like. Both the simple and bold flavors make it a perfect summer party salad.

Massaged Lacinato Kale Salad

I am OBSESSED with this salad. Obsessed. To be fair, I love kale, but I’m convinced someone not familiar with kale would love this too. This is the first time I’ve ever tried kale raw, and now I would like to eat a gallon of this salad every day. Dressed simply with a lemon and garlic dressing, this salad is a perfect side dish for summer as it requires virtually zero cooking.

Curried Wheat Berry Salad

I’m feeling a little under the weather today, so I wanted to make a nutrient-dense lunch to hopefully perk myself up a bit. Also, I received a big bag of wheat berries from my CSA this week and had no idea what to do with it. Eventually, I’d love to sprout them to make sprouted grain flour/bread, but alas, today is not the day for such strenuous efforts.

This salad is so good! Chewy wheat berries are a nice change up from couscous or other grains, and pack a nice nutritional punch, too.

Tabouleh

I can’t believe this is my first time making tabouleh. I have been eating this parsley salad since I was a kid, and I loooove it with sliced red onion and baba ganoush all smooshed together in a pita. SO GOOD. This recipe is easy and authentic — and A LOT cheaper than buying it pre-made in a tub!

Cod with Greek Panzanella

Isn’t “panzanella” the prettiest word ever? Probably because it means bread salad, which is pretty by itself if you ask me. I loved this dish. Run, do not walk, to your grocery store right now and make it.  And while I’m almost always an anti-fish and cheese combination person, the mild fish with the salty creaminess of the feta paired with the other ingredients really works. Yum!

Mixed Greens with Grilled Salmon, Avocado, Egg

This salad is perfect in every way. Easy to make, beautiful, delicious, simple, healthy and hearty. This year, skip the resolutions and make more food like this.

Spatchocked Cornish Hen Salad with Sourdough Croutons (and pictures of butchery)

I was strangely excited about performing surgery on these cutie little cornish hens. Normally, I’m less than thrilled dealing with raw chicken, but there was something fun about “spatchcocking”, and it wasn’t just saying “spatchcock” every 3 minutes, which I did.

Chicken Paillard with Figs, Gorgonzola, and Pancetta Salad

I am whole-heartedly convinced that figs are a miracle fruit. They literally make everything else taste better, and they’re so pretty!

This meal was so delicious. I love the sweet figs, stinky cheese, peppery arugula, crispy pancetta all together. Add in the tarragon, and this is a really special combination.  YUM.

Squash Ribbon Salad with Goat Cheese and Pine Nuts

Week after week, I find myself with a lot of squash to cook because of my CSA, so be prepared for more squash recipes! This one is a great cold (or room temp) salad.

Panko Crusted Pork Caesar Salad

Yet another amazing recipe from Now Eat This! It’s kind of brilliant actually. I’ve made Caesar-style dressing before and it calls for a lot of olive oil, anchovy paste, lemon, egg yolks. Mayo is made with very similar ingredients, but you can buy that reduced-fat. Brilliant use for this easy, easy dressing.

Cucumber and Radish Salad

I love radishes. They’re kind of sassy, but not as spicy as you might think. They’re perfect in this summery salad, but I also like to eat a whole radish dipped in sea salt or kosher salt. That’s right – try it!

Mediterranean Tuna Salad

First, I apologize for the picture. My poor little camera finally died and this was taken with my phone. New camera is on the way…

Now, THIS is a tuna salad. I’m typically not a fan of conventional tuna salad (I think it’s the goopy mayo with the fish…ew), but this is something I can get behind.

I’m trying to enjoy more salads as dinners, but I realized that I really hate lettuce. It’s just so boring. This tuna salad uses olive oil instead of goopy mayo and leafy celery hearts instead of lettuce. So good and perfect for summer.