Summer foods!

Cafe Society
1

In South Florida, we’re already experiencing the full swing of summertime heat. Today it was 84 around 4pm, and hotter toward the middle of the day; it definitely switched my food cravings from “soups and hot food sound awesome” to “I need stuff that’s not going to make me sweat in hot weather”. All my food cravings for the past three or four days have been: salad, tacos, burger with giant salad on the side, salad, and more salad.

What are your favorite salad ingredients, and do you guys have some good recipes or suggestions for summer foods? I’m always looking to increase my recipe collection. :smiley:

2

I usually make a salad when I go food shopping! My ingredients:

Lettuce
Cherry tomato
Cucumber
Red onion
Broccoli
Carrot
Feta
Grilled Chix.

3

I had a great salad in New Orleans, and they gave me their dressing recipe when I emailed them. (The recipe is posted somewhere. Search for ‘Shaved beef salad’.)

Shaved roast beef. Not just thinly-sliced. Shaved. As in, it falls apart if you’re not careful. Arrange some beef to cover the bottom of a plate. Cover with Spring greens. Add the mayo/horseradish/Creole mustard/hot sauce dressing, and top with French’s fried onions. Very tasty and refreshing.

4

Wow, that does sound great, Johhny L.A.! I’ll have to search for it, as that may end up being in the summer food repertoire.

Etv78, the only things out of that list that aren’t in my regulars are broccoli and red onion. I do tend to stock up on feta at the grocery store, as it makes for great salad cheese. Mmmmm.

5

I found it.

ETA: It’s really better if you get shaved beef (though TJ’s is quite acceptable). Recently I’ve been getting Boar’s Head from the supermarket, and having them shave it on their finest setting.

.

6

I usually add Bell pepper as well, and I use italian dressing BTW.

7

I LOVE Thai salads when it’s hot. Here’s a recipe for Thai beef salad, which is just amazingly good, and surprisingly easy to make.

If you like the flavours in that one, you could try more salads from the region, like larb, or green papaya salad, mmm, yummy. That one really needs an Asian grocery nearby, though, unless you have a papaya tree…

8

The Russian “holodnik” (here is one recipe) is heaven-sent for hot days. There is nothing better.

9

In South Florida, every grocery store carries papaya. :smiley: I can get that and a bunch of other stuff easily.

10

My favorite summertime dish (which is deceptively easy to make) is a fruit trifle.

Something like this.

Of course you need a proper trifle bowl to make it right.

Other than that, a simple fruit salad will do; it’s what I had for breakfast not ten minutes ago.

mmm

11

Chilled watermelon, feta cheese and ouzo with ice water. Take a bite of the first, a bite of the second and a sip of the third. Repeat until you achieve bliss.

12

Oh, but it has to be unripe. Not just a bit green, but actively crunchy!

13

No mention of Caprese salad yet?

14

I thought that’d be too obvious. We’re no longer in Florida tomato season, but one can still easily get tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil in the grocery store.

I also like to make an Asian fusion type salad with kimchi, avocado, and cucumber. Thoroughly chop the last two ingredients (sans peels), then mix with kimchi. The fat and sweet from the avocado and cucumber meld pretty nicely with the kimchi. If you’re not a fan of kimchi, using the avocado and cucumber, then mixing in a bit of mirin and sesame seeds works just as well.

15

I can’t wait till my cukes and tomatoes come on. We slice cukes and sweet onions and put them in a big gallon jar with a brine of 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar stirred together with enough sugar to take the whang off. Marinate for a few hours. I just keep topping the jar up all summer long.

16

Here’s my apple salad recipe. It’s very flexible, you can add other kinds of fruit or flavors of yogurt to make it just the way you like it. Raisins, orange segments, drained pineapple chunks, pears…just make sure the fruit is drained well if it’s canned.

I semi-peel and core a couple of apples (one crisp and one more tender), sprinkle with lemon juice, and mix with chopped dried apricots, red seedless grapes, walnuts or pecans, and maraschino cherries if I have any. Then I fold in a carton of vanilla or honey yogurt, maybe a spoonful of sour cream if I have any. Sprinkle with a few more nuts, chill, and there you go!

17

Mmmm, shrimp marinated in garlic and Sriracha, then stir-fried. Or squid, I’m not picky.

Kefta and all the trimmings–tomato salad, tzatziki, hummus, chili sauce, and pita.

Chicken skewers and peanut sauce. Spring rolls full of rice vermicelli in sweet vinegary sauce. Ground beef cooked with lime juice and fish sauce, eaten in lettuce leaves.

Grain salads. Wheat berries with green onion, tomato, cucumber, and balsamic vinegar. Or tabbouleh. Or bulgur wheat with feta, tomato, and fresh oregano. Or brown rice with black beans, green onion, red peppers, cilantro and lime juice. Or corn, skillet-fried with garlic and onions, then, mixed with black beans, cilantro, red pepper, and mango.

A slab of salmon with mustard-sour cream sauce on top of baby greens and sliced radishes, with roasted beets and a dill blossom on the side.

Salads with Ranch dressing made from the packet, instead of winter Good Seasons Zesty Italian made from the packet. Cole slaw. Garden tomatoes with just salt. Grilled eggplant rolled up around feta, chili, and mint. Greek salad. Sweet peas pureed with pesto.

Fried catfish with hush puppies, cole slaw, and green tomato pickles.

Melon balls in prosecco. Caipirinhas. Mojitos. Crystal Light and Franzia. Corona.

Fresh strawberries, macerated with sugar, piled on top of pound cake and whipped cream. Cream and wild black raspberry pie. Rhubarb crunch. Tiramisu with macerated plums and apricots instead of coffee and liqueur.

I really could go on…

18

Elvis Salad

Salad base
2-3 med. zucchini, slice or cubed, steamed until tender but not soggy,
2 cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 cup roasted red pepper, cut up in strips (can use jarred)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 med tomatoes chopped (use canned diced tomatoes if good tomatoes aren’t available fresh)

Dressing
juice of two large lemons
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup oil
2 Tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

topping
4 oz crumbled feta cheese

Put the salad ingredients into a large bowl. Mix the dressing ingredients separately and pour over salad ingredients, mix well and rerigerate for 2-24 hours. To serve, sprinkle crumbled fe ta cheese on individual servings. If using fresh tomatoes, try adding them at the last minute to preserve their flavor unrefrigerated.

PS:amounts aren’t critical. Experiment!

19

Straight up corn on the cob.

20

Nava’s lazy salad: tomatoes, canned tuna (preferably in vinegar; if it was canned in water I let it “marinate” for a day in white vinegar before using it), hardboiled egg, canned white asparagus ends, green olives. All the seasoning it needs is a bit of olive oil and salt.

And gazpacho (no cucumber for me).