In the hot summer months, the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven to prepare baked potatoes, mac n cheese or a veggie casserole…etc. The meat part is easy, just fire up the BBQ and toss on a steak or a piece of chicken or fish, maybe a burger or sausage…whatever…and your kitchen stays nice and cool.
What I like to do instead of turning my kitchen into an inferno, is prepare one of these amazing salads for a side dish. I have made all three salad recipes below many times, to go with all different types of meat. But they can also be eaten alone if you aren’t feeling particularly carnivorous.
This Broccoli Cauliflower Salad recipe below is one of my favorites. I love the crunch of raw broccoli and cauliflower and it’s a great way to use up the rest of those Craisins you bought to make cookies.
What’s that, you say? You don’t always have leftover Craisins like I do? Well, I guess that’s alright (weird…but alright). I suppose you can always buy some especially for this recipe. It’s definitely worth it. You won’t regret it!
Broccoli Cauliflower Salad with Honey Lemon Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 medium Head of Broccoli
- 1 medium Head of Cauliflower
- ¾ cup Dried Cranberry Craisins
- ½ cup Pine Nuts or Almond Slices toasted on a dry skillet until golden
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 2 tbsp Fresh Squeezed Lemon approximately half a large lemon
- ½ cup Real Mayonnaise not Miracle Whip
Instructions
- Cut the head of broccoli and cauliflower into small florets.
- Transfer the cut veggies into a large mixing bowl along with the cranberry craisins and the toasted pine nuts.
- Stir together the honey, lemon juice and mayo until smooth. Add to the salad a tablespoon at a time. Stir to combine.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
Now this next recipe below, because it has tuna and hard boiled eggs in it, makes a great stand alone dish. You get your veggies, carbs and protein all in one. If you aren’t a tuna lover, you can always substitute cooked and shredded or cubed chicken and it’s still just as tasty!
This is just happens to be one of my favorite salad dishes to take along to a BBQ or Potluck. You can combine all the ingredients the night before and just add the Miracle Whip dressing an hour to two before you head out to the party. You could even take the dressing along with you and add it once you arrive. Perfectly portable!
Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 box Tri-Colored Pasta
- 4 hard boiled eggs peeled and mashed or chopped
- 2 sticks celery finely diced
- ½ small yellow onion finely diced (or use green onion for milder taste)
- 1½ to 2 cans flaked light tuna
- 1 cup Miracle Whip
- 1 squirt mustard
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions. Strain in colander and run cold water over the pasta until it is no longer warm.
- Place pasta in a large mixing or serving bowl.
- Add mashed eggs, celery, onion and tuna into the pasta and mix gently until everything is evenly distributed. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix a squirt of mustard in with the Miracle Whip, just enough to slightly color it. Add the Miracle Whip mixture into the bowl with the pasta and mix gently until thoroughly combined..
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Store in fridge until ready to serve.
Notes
And last, but certainly not least, let’s talk about that favorite combination of tomato and cucumber. Funny story! One day, I was all set to make a garden or tossed salad. You know, the traditional lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad with a shot of ranch dressing? Well, it seems my fridge had other plans. Or maybe it was just my faulty memory…but I couldn’t find the head of lettuce that I KNEW was in the fridge. I took everything out from the produce drawer. I reached way in the back of all the shelves…Nope…no still no lettuce to be found.
Well, wasn’t that a kick in the pants! I didn’t have the time (or energy) to make a trip to the grocery store to get some lettuce. And truthfully, with the way my day was going, I figured the store was probably out of lettuce too.
I was determined that I wasn’t turning that stove on to cook something, so I was going to have to get creative with the ingredients at hand.
While ransacking the fridge for the lettuce, I did discover that I had some leftover feta cheese that needed to be used up. Cheese is always good in salad! And what about that avocado that I bought to make quacamole and just didn’t…Uh huh…now we’re talking.
So, as the saying goes “Necessity is the mother of invention.” And because of my evil, lettuce eating fridge (or bad memory), this amazing summer salad was born!
Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Cherry or grape tomatoes chopped
- 1 English cucumber peeled, seeded and diced
- 1 Avocado diced
- 4 oz Feta cheese cubed
- 2 tbsp red onion minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 handful fresh parsley minced (about 2 tbsp)
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 6 to 8 twists black pepper from pepper mill
Instructions
- Cut cherry/grape tomatoes in half and add to a mixing bowl.
- Peel and seed the cucumber and dice it. Add to the mixing bowl.
- Add the diced avocado, minced red onion, feta cheese and minced parsley to the bowl.
- In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the olive oil, read wine vinegar and the black pepper. Pour this over the salad and toss very gently to combine.
- Serve immediately.