Summer of Salads!

[callistra]

A few people have mentioned how they miss my Month of Food posts. I have an idea - with my backyard so shiny and clean still since the renewal, I want to spend some serious amounts of time outside this summer.

I want to post at least ten pictures for each month of Summer, and each of these pics must be a salad of some sort. They can be hot, cold, chargrilled, frozen, stacked, flat, tossed, whatever. To this end, I need to develop a shopping list and a growing list!

So, I want to know what your favourite salads are! I want to know what ingredients you keep on hand to make awesome salads with, what you like, what your partner likes, and any recipes, hints, tips and suggestions. We'll be holding regular BBQs on Sunday nights, I think, 2pm starts for a 5:30 fire-up of the BBQs, BYO meat. This is going to be a brilliant summer! 

Shocking List
- Redwine vinegar (lentil salad from jenny)
- balsamic vinegar
- Canned beans of various sorts (chick peas, cannelini, borlotti...) (a multitude of variations of "Fe's Salad")
- Fetta
- Lettuces! (Maybe I can grow some)
- Fresh Herbs (maybe grow some of these too. But what fresh herbs go into salads?)
- Tomatoes (These I know will grow! They still are growing!)
- Semidried tomatoes (be nice if I could make my own!)
- olives
- Pickled stuff - capers, onions, other stuff?
- good olive oil
- lemon(s)/lemon juice

ETA
- shallots and spring onions
- punkin
- almonds/cashews/pine nuts
- cherry tomatoes
- basil, mint, parsley and coriander, chives, dill, thyme.
....

More suggestions any one?

Growing List
- Tomatoes
- Herbs as above
- spring onions?
- eggplants
- lettuces

Comments

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

Fresh herbs to go into salads - basil, mint, parsley and coriander all jump to mind!

I never used to like tabbouleh but it has really grown on me in recent years, so that's my vote (assuming all involved can eat wheat).

[gotica.livejournal.com]

To add to your list: spring onions, challotes, chives, dill, thyme.

A lot of the fragrant leafy herbs go rather well in salads.

Though I don't know if the spring onions and challotes get classified as a herb.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I always buy spring onions (love my stir fries and spring onions) but yay for a list of herbs to look out for. I will add them to the shocking list.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I happen to have cracked wheat (burghul) already in the house. I'm a bit hesitant though, as I've had a few and none of them have been awesome. Do you have a good recipe you like to use?

[lizbyrd.livejournal.com]

I don't, I'm afraid! I used my mother's, and she is all the way back in Perth and not online at the moment.

I like it tangy with lots of lemon juice, which may not be to everybody's tastes.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Oo, lemon juice!

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

I have mum's (will have to look it out). It is awesome:-)

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

One of my favourite salads is baby spinach, roast pumpkin, cherry toms, a smidge of spanish onion and ranch dressing, topped with cashews.

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

Oh, and watermelon salad. Particularly in summer.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Yum!
I have also read recipes with char grilled watermelon.

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

Ooh - that'd be interesting to try.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Love love love punkin and baby spinach salads, but I prefer a sharp vinaigrette
:-)
Ranch is a new thing to our house.

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Pine nuts or almonds (toasted)... I'll see if I can root out my chinese salad recipe for you.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Oo, sounds good! Yes please!

[splanky.livejournal.com]

There's a layered garden salad in my recipe list (which you should have) which is yummy. It has bacon in it!!

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Oo, I will go through that
:-)

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

Sounds good:-)

I was going to say the Summer Chickpea Salad:-)

There's also the Chinese Fried Noodle Salad (Chinese Cabbage, spring onions, fried noodles [Changs have the recipe on the back], almonds, and a dressing of olive oil, sesame oil, caster sugar and soy sauce). It's _really_ yummy:-)

More-ish Crunch Salad. Carrots, apples, radishes, sultanas, mint, basil... Dressing of red wine vinegar, tahini, lemon juice and oil.

Mint and Basil would be the two I would call essential herbs for salads... actually, I'd add Marjoram—we do a 'greens' dish (beans of all sort and peas) which could come under that banner. A quantity of your greens, cooked in batches so they are all _just_ cooked, then refreshed in cold water... a dressing of honey, shallot, mustard, olive oil, white wine vinegar, marjoram. Then sprinkled with feta and pistachios. The recipe is for something like a kilo of peas/beans—to serve 4! Which seems _insane_... We did it though, serving them in the middle of the table. Everyone took a 'nice' serve with their food... and it sat there while we chatted after the meal—there was none left, it was _so_ good!

[redbraids.livejournal.com]

That is the most shocking list that I have ever seen! :-)

[fe2h2o.livejournal.com]

Oohh... and Redbraids White Bean Salad!

Ooh! And the Mediterranean CousCous salad:-)

More I'll have to send you:-)

[(Anonymous)]

Is that the one with cannelloni beans? Cooked from dried, and tossed warm with capers (salted, rinsed), olive oil, garlic, and a little red-wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Also, I am a fan of savory fruit salads. Things like cucumber, white nectarine, spring onions, and a dressing of rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil and a little olive oil, salt and pepper. That is a nice quick one.

[catundra.livejournal.com]

Is rocket on there? I have a fab recipe for a salad with pine nuts and bocconcini and tomatoes and stuff...will email it if you like...

[kpbarker.livejournal.com]

My fav salad is baby spinich, boiled pumpkn cubed, pine nuts and fetta all tossed together....ever so yummy!

[mynxii.livejournal.com]

Broccoli and asparagus! I love them in salads just lightly blanched.

Spinach, asparagus, broccoli, and whatever else you feel like in the salad that is not green (this varies for me), and some very lightly cooked lamb in balsamic vinegar. Dressing is balsamic, lemon juice and wholegrain mustard.

Awesome cookies.

[madradish.livejournal.com]

My salad essentials are baby spinach and green apples. I'm pretty partial to toasted pine nuts too.

I have some truly weird American salad recipies with jelly, creamed corn and marshmallows in them. I've never been able to eat such things though.

[foamiethegreeny.livejournal.com]

Lettuce is dead simple to grow,but you will need some shade cloth from late spring on to Autumn otherwise it will bolt to seed. Simples thing is to plant a bed direct with seed every 6 week (around 4 lots) and leave 1 in each batch to go to seed. You will only have to weed out the extras but saves on planting from then on. Cos is a really good lettuce for this type of system. Rocket is great but try to contain it to one area or it will try to takeover the universe. Basil, Mint and Italian parsley are great for salads as they are not woody. We have the asian mint that all the vietnamese restaurants use if you want a cutting ( but again got to contain it, Pot in a shady damp spot is the best).

[bugs-jenny.livejournal.com]

My favourite salad is salsa, because it's so easy & tasty!
1 large tin three bean mix, 1 red capsicum, 1 red Spanish onion, ½ cucumber, 6 tsp lime juice, 6 tsp red wine vinegar, ½ tsp ground cumin. Dice up the veggies, chuck everything in a bowl, stir it together - done!
My other favourite, if you've got the BBQ fired up, is chargrilled veggies - cut up (chunky-sized) veggies you like (I generally go with capsicum, carrots (sliced thin so they cook at the same rate as everything else), cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, sometimes also zucchini, eggplant, cucumber), put them on the BBQ until soft. Chuck them in a bowl as they are ready (doesn't matter if they are ready at different times, since this tastes just as good cool as warm) with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp lemon juice, some mixed herbs (dried or fresh), & pepper. Stir it all up, then eat it - yum!

[kitsune-iii.livejournal.com]

Cabbage and limes to make a mexican salad with cabbage, red onion, lime juice, coriander, olive oil and cucumber.

The sesame dressing from Korean namul (? sp) on bean sprouts (namul) or anything else - see Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook for details.

I have this great roasted potato salad recipe from a Dunedin coffee shop called Arc, which I've never done because it makes about 3 kg of salad. It would be great for something like this.