Summer salads you’ll love and a simple formula to make them easy

Don’t you just love a nice crisp cool summer salad?! As soon as the weather starts to warm up, they’re the first thing on my mind for lunch or dinner – maybe even breakfast. But usually, I’m so busy running around that I don’t want to take the time to do something really fancy or time consuming.

So I’ve invented a kind of simple formula to make them super easy to make, and I can have variety too!

The Simple Summer Salad Formula

I have either four or five ingredients in my summer salad formula. Four, if I’m not adding a protein; five, if I am. When I go to the store, I just buy my favorites in each ingredient category. Then when I’m ready for a salad, I just add one of each category, and I’ve got a fabulous summer salad!

The ingredient categories I like best are these:

• Salad greens
• Cheese
• Nuts
• Fruits
• Protein

Of course, you could vary or add to the categories if you like something different – like vegetables, potatoes, etc. The point is to have a simple formula so you don’t have to think about it too much – just make your delicious salad and leave more time to sit down and enjoy it!

So let’s look at our categories.

Summer Salad Greens

The foundation of our salad is going to be the greens. You can really use any green leafy vegetables for this – just one, or a mixture. Some of my favorites are:

• Spinach
• Basil
• Kale
• Butter lettuce
• Romaine lettuce
• Baby salad mix
• Arugula
• Beet greens

Some of these are sturdier than others – perfect for when you want a more substantial salad. I love kale and its cousins raw, but if you want, you could absolutely steam them for a few minutes to soften them up a bit.

Also, I like to wash the greens right when I get them. Then I pat them dry a little, and put them into a paper-towel-lined refrigerator drawer. It’s so super easy to just reach in and grab out a handful whenever I’m in the salad mood. And they actually stay really fresh this way – not bruised and mushy like they get in a bag.

The Cheese Portion

I love almost any kind of cheese! And so many varieties can add such a tasty and unexpected texture to your salad. If you don’t eat dairy, there are lots of fabulous cheese-like alternatives out there that would work just as well.

Some of my favorite cheese options are:

• Feta
• Gorgonzola or blue
• Gouda
• Delice de Bourgogne
• Fresh mozzerella
• Provolone
• Parmesan
• Goat
• Mexican shreds

Besides tasting great and adding texture, cheese can look really fun and gourmet on your salad. And it’s a lot of bang for the buck, since it’s so easy to just sprinkle or crumble over your greens.

Favorite Fruit for Your Summer Salad

My favorite part of the summer salad formula, is the fruit. Even with all the excellent produce you can get most of the year at the grocery store, there’s just nothing like fresh local summertime fruit! It’s often as unexpected as the cheese, and is so wonderfully cool and juicy.

The list of my favorite salad fruits is practically inexhaustible, but I’ll give you a few of them here:

• Grapes
• Pears
• Apples
• Plums
• Nectarines
• Oranges/Tangerines/Mandarines
• Cherries
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Kiwi
• Star Fruit
• Grapefruit

And, as I say, that list could go on and on. I suggest just checking out the seasonal fruits at your local grocery store, and grabbing a few different varieties each week. That way, you can experiment with new combinations.

Nuts for Salads!

And my sometimes-final ingredient is nuts! Just like fruits and cheeses, I love almost any kind of nut. And just like the others, they add their own special look, texture, and taste to your summer salad. I include seeds in the nut category, too. They all have an exotic, crunchy goodness that makes your salad extra special.

Here’s a partial nut list:

• Walnuts
• Pecans
• Macadamia Nuts
• Pistachios
• Peanuts
• Pinenuts
• Sunflower Seeds
• Almonds
• Hazelnuts
• Blackened Walnuts
• Candied Pecans

You can chop your nuts or not, blacken them or candy them. However you add them, they add just the right touch to your summer salad.

They actually work reallly well on a fall, winter, or spring salad too – just like all the other ingredients. As you experiment with your own salad varieties, you’ll probably gravitate toward your own favorites for the different seasons.

To Add or Not to Add Protein

Sometimes you want a side salad, and sometimes you want a main course salad. And most times, all it takes to turn a side into a main, is to add some protein. (Maybe make your salad a little larger too.)

Again, the protein options – both meat and non-meat – are practically endless. Here’s my short list:

• Bacon!!
• Avocado
• Summer Sausage
• Chicken
• Tuna
• Ham
• Beans
• Garden Patty
• Pork
• Beef
• Salami
• Panchetta
• Turkey
• Salmon

Part of the fun of this salad technique is matching up the various ingredients in a way you think will be most tasty. If I have leftover protein, I often start with that, and build my salad up from there. Of course, everything goes with bacon (!), but what – of the ingredients on hand – goes best with the leftover chicken? What about the bit of summer sausage? The one remaining serving of salmon from last night’s dinner party?

Trying different combinations is half the fun. And though sometimes I want an old standby, I really have fun making new pairings.

Top Off Your Summer Salad

If you like to dress your salads, you have one more option – the salad dressing. I make my own vinaigrette to have around, and we have our favorite jar dressings too. Just like with the other ingredients, choose the one you think will go best with your salad, and drizzle on top. Voila!

For my vinaigrette, I mix the following in a bottle and shake it up!

• Equal amounts olive oil & the vinegar of your choice.
• A bit of mustard to taste
• Salt
• Some ground herbs (usually I use oregano and sage, maybe thyme)
• Onion, garlic, or shallots – sauted or not.
• Honey (A lot of recipes call for this, but I like tangy, so I don’t use it very often)

If you don’t know what you’d like with this, just try different combinations until you find the proportions and ingredients that you like the best. You practically can’t go wrong no matter what, so feel free to experiment!

Example Summer Salads

Here are just a very few summer salad options – with protein and without.

Our first salad is mixed greens with gouda cheese triangles, pistachios, and two kinds of fruit because I just couldn’t decide – raspberries and nectarine pieces. Viniagrette dressing.

The same salad with ham, as a main course.

It was a little cool the night I made this next one, so adding some kale to my mixed greens seemed just right. The fun little mozzarella balls set off the deep juicy cherries and crunchy hazeluts. A creamy avocado yogurt dressing topped it.

Here, I added a garden patty for the protein.

This next one was really light, and contained one of my favorite greens, basil! I also put in spinach. Then super ripe plums – the flavor was especially wonderful. That’s one of the serious benefit of fruit that’s local and in season. A little crumbled feta and pecans finished it off. This is one of my favorite combinations.

The protein for this one is always bacon for me. And if I have the time or inclination, I’ll heat up some vinaigrette – maybe with a few pieces of bacon – to pour over it. This only takes a few seconds while I’m making the rest of the salad.

Next, another one of my all-time favorite summer salads – butter lettuce with gorgonzola, walnuts, and strawberries. Mmmmmmmmmm!

And finally, a little champagne vinaigrette with lots of shallots, and some chicken cubes, make it a complete meal.

There – isn’t that easy? And to make it even easier, I made us a printable graphic to hang up where it’ll be handy at salad time!

To get your own digital copy, just put your info in below, then check your email!

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For all the salad pictures above, I used my basic white salad plates because they show off any kind of salad so well. I’ve posted about these several times – for instance, HERE and HERE.

And if you’re interested in some for yourself or for a gift, you can check out the Strawberry Street White Salad Plates HERE.

My “Modern” matte gold flatware is from Amazon, and so is the rose patterned stainless.

Here’s the vintage-look gold stainless, and my original wedding silver, Wallace Rose Point.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of these – I’ve used and loved them all!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed the easy summer salad formula! Let’s continue the discussion in the Comments – I’d love to know which are your favorite salads!

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