Three Summer Salads to Enjoy Year Round

I love creating salads as much as I enjoy eating them. Perhaps it began as a youngster with my father’s garden salad . Ordinary iceberg lettuce well stocked with treasures from his vegetable garden: bright green cucumbers, cool carrots-pulled minutes before supper, crunchy radishes, and sun kissed tomatoes. He made his version: all ingredients soaked in a heavy dose of vinegar and oil, up until his death at age 78.

I no longer eat iceberg lettuce, but, I have an affinity for making a great salad. I love to experiment and add salads as a regular part of the menu-both as side dishes and as a main course.

I’ve served the following summer salads as main dishes. They are simple to make, require little or no cooking, keeping the kitchen temperature down on a hot summer’s day, and they are tasty and nutritious.

As the title suggests, the base of this salad is spinach. I prefer baby spinach, but should I use the larger leafed salad I tend to snap the long stem off. It is my personal preference that when I eat a salad it does not hang out of my mouth like a long tendril of pasta. That’s just my thing-you can let it all hang out if that is your choice.

Add to each bowl of spinach leaves:

Walnut pieces, (obviously optional if you are allergic to nuts), or candied walnuts.

Fresh strawberries, halved

1tablespoon of blue cheese, crumbled.

Serve with a light dressing, such as strawberry vinaigrette.

Option: for more protein-add grilled chicken sliced thin to this salad.

One of Michigan’s commodities is its summer cherries, grown mostly in the northern areas, such as Traverse City. In fact, Traverse City hosts an annual Cherry Festival. It’s always great to have a cool bowl of cherries to dive into on a hot summer’s day. It’s even better adding them to a fresh bed of lettuce. Here is one combination that is sure to satisfy.

A spring mix of field greens or the light flavor of a butter blend such as Boston or Bibb will be the base.

Add:

Chopped turkey

Cubed Swiss cheese

Chopped pecans

Michigan cherries, sliced in half, or dried cherries if fresh are unavailable.

Enjoy with a poppy seed dressing

Next to classic salads, such as Caesar, Chef’s, or Greek, this salad is a surefire hit with anyone who loves seafood.

For each individual salad use:

1 (4 oz) piece of sashimi grade ahi tuna fillets

Olive oil-enough to lightly brush on each side of the tuna

Salt and pepper to taste-lightly sprinkled on each tuna (low sodium diet-skip the salt)

1 cup of mixed salad greens

Mandarin orange slices-about a half dozen for each salad

Sliced almonds-a sprinkling for each salad

In nonstick skillet, cook tuna over medium high heat for 1 minute per side-for rare, longer for medium doneness. Place on plate and refrigerate for 5-10 minutes to cool.

Arrange salad greens on plate; top with orange segments; and almonds. Remove tuna from refrigerator and cut into ¼ inch slices.

Drizzle 3 tablespoons dressing* over tuna and salad leaves (recipe follows).

1 serving = approximately 220 calories.

*Citrus-Cilantro Vinaigrette:

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

½ cup fresh orange juice

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon honey

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

In small bowl, beat all ingredients together until well blended and refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.