Thursday, June 14, 2012

#214 Summer Salads, Salads and more Salads

Summer is never the same without a plethora of cool and refreshing salads!! In this modern age of pre-packaged salads and salad bars we have no excuse to stay away from eating healthy. With state-of-the art refrigeration, fresh farmers markets in every town and the plethora of salad sprays available in the market today salad consumption is becoming more and more easy...so go ahead make your dinner plate shine with imaginative nutritious salads! Last year I shared a layered summer salad with my readers. But this year I have been picking up fresh ingredients from the Farmer's Market, which inspired me to make a few interesting ones. Once the glorious greens are in my kitchen, I've found that if they are trimmed, washed, dried and re-packaged they'll keep for several days in the fridge. Whether its butter lettuce, Arugula, iceberg, romaine, escarole or radichio I lay them out over paper towels after a nice wash and they stay in a deep pan covered with a damp towel. When fairly drained of water, I wrap two sheets of fresh paper towels loosely over the leaves and refrigerate in plastic bags and store for 4 days. This comes in handy for me to pull them out as desired for salads every evening.

I've put together a collection of the salads I've made this Summer with a variety of vegetables right here for you. There's no excuse to avoid salads and if you don't like plain lettuce then you can spruce it up with the creamy "Green Goddess" dressing.  
Before we begin, I will take you back to a few of my previous posts

and here's my Greek inspired Tuna salad with cucumber, tomato and avocado http://chillilovesmalli.blogspot.com/2012/05/209-greek-inspired-cucumber-tomato.html
I must mention my refreshing beet and orange salad with goat cheese on a bed of Arugula
http://chillilovesmalli.blogspot.com/2012/05/208-roasted-beets-orange-and-goat.html


Here's a no-fuss veggie wrap without the carbs!!!
Thin slices of Mango, steamed asparagus, red pepper wrapped in thinly sliced cross sections of cucumber drizzled with honey mustard dressing!!


I love vinegar based dressings yet, I favor a few of the creamy dressings like Ranch. However, recently I've been shaking up home made emulsions and oils. I've discovered a new-found love for this creamy dressing that I've made many times over, each time modifying it to my taste and adjusting the measurements to make it less creamy. Many recipes for "Green Goddess" dressing asks for anchovies but I eliminated them altogetherand made it my own......


 Wedge Salad with Green Goddess Dressing


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup scallions chopped
1 cup fresh Basil leaves cut up
1 1/2 limes juiced
2 tspn chopped garlic
2 tspn salt
1 tspn freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sour cream

For the salad:
1 head of iceberg lettuce for making wedges (or any lettuce of your choice)  

1 tomato cut up
3 strips of turkey bacon cooked and crumbled.

How to make the Goddess:
1. Place all the ingredients except those for the salad in the bowl of a blender.
2. Process until smooth and use over a Wedge of Lettuce, some tomatoes and sprinkle with turkey bacon bits.


But that's not all...stay tuned for more and more innovative ways to incorporate Green Goddess Dressing and veggies in your diet!!


12 comments:

  1. Wow so many salads here... book marked...it will be quite handy :-)

    -Mythreyi
    Yum! Yum! Yum!

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  2. Awesome round-up, dear! Will know where to go if I need some salad ideas :)

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  3. Great compilation - just love the sound of the no-fuss, carb-free veggie wraps especially... I'll be trying those!

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  4. i love salads and this post is perfect for me. especially the goddess one. Summer and salads here i come

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  5. Hello everyone,
    So nice to hear from you. The weather is so hot these days it sure is cool to eat salads... I hope you will try at least one of these and let me know!!

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  6. Nice to reminisce about the salads and the latest one is a winner as well.
    I have been growing romaine lettuce and using it almost daily. I started having an over-abundance of it and made lettuce soup which was fabulous. The lettuce is now a lot higher but the leaves are much smaller now.
    Love that wedge salad with the green dressing.

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  7. Hi Malli ,

    Looks Awesome!!!!

    Neat presentation...

    Keep on Dear:)

    Inviting you to my blog Malli:)

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  8. Wonderful dressing, Malli. Of all the recipes, Green Goddess has always been a fave with me. Love your take on it with basil. And also am quite charmed by the lettuce wedge, very old-time Americana salad.
    Iceberg has fallen out of favor, but what a shame. It's just not chi-chi enough for today's palates and style. : |

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  9. varieties of salad....looking very refreshing....first time visiting your space and glad to be your follower....Do visit my space...

    http://eezy-kitchen.blogspot.com/

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  10. We eat salads a lot at our home.and your green goddess dressing with basil is amazing. I would have no problem trying this as we make spinach dip just by this method but do not thin it with lime juice.

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