Now marks that magical time of summer when just about everything tastes delicious. Farmers’ markets are overflowing with produce and flowers, backyard vegetable gardens are producing in abundance, and grocery stores seem to have doubled the amount of produce on hand.
Now is the time to embrace vegetables and salads as if making them were an extreme sport: just how many salads can one person make in a week? Watch me!
With peaches and watermelon also in peak season, we rounded up some of our favorite salad recipes, many of which feature these two fruits. Make a plan to try all of these 12 salads if you can. I promise that you won’t be disappointed and will likely find some new meals to make over and over and over again.
Summer Peach Tomato Salad
This time of year, if you are making a dish with tomatoes, you can pretty much always throw some peaches in as well. You can’t go wrong with the combination, and this salad proves that! See the recipe here.
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Butter Bean Corn Salad
This salad is one that you can make for dinner and then store, and it’s better the next day – kinda like how soup gets better with age. Make it without the toppings for a stellar salad/side. See the recipe here.
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Raw Zucchini Squash Summer Salad
Raw zucchini and squash are delicious, especially when you slice them paper thin to make these “ribbons.” This salad is super light and refreshing, and it’s finished with one of our favorite toppings, salted pistachios. See the recipe here.
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Spring Roll Noodle Salad
This recipe came from a #recipefail when I started making homemade spring rolls and made a huge mess. But, it ended up being the proverbial lemonade out of lemons situation as, to this day, this salad is a favorite for family and dinner guests alike! See the recipe here.
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Shaved Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad
I love Brussels, like so many others, and this salad came about from trying to prove to my uncle and dad that they could eat Brussels and like them! I knew they didn’t like them cooked traditionally, so I came up with a part-raw Brussels salad that is just so good. And they ate it and liked it! It’s also been shared almost 16,000 times on social media, so I’m not the only one who thinks this is a winning recipe! See the recipe here.
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Peach, Sausage, and Avocado Salad on Arugula
When you make a charcuterie board, adding sausage and peaches to your cheese selection works well. The same holds true for this salad, but instead of cheese, avocado is used for delicious results. I didn’t add cheese to keep the salad a bit lighter, but feel free to improvise! See the recipe here.
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Spicy Watermelon, Strawberry, and Jicama Salad
Jicama adds some extra crunch to this very refreshing salad that can be served with just about anything that comes off the grill. Like the salad above, I didn’t add cheese to the original version, but you’ll see feta added to the photos as you scroll for a delicious variation. See the recipe here.
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Grilled Peach, Bacon, Corn, and Grilled Onion Salad
Man, oh man, I do love a grilled peach. This salad is a meal and doesn’t need anything else. Well, you could add chicken, perhaps. But the corn, peaches, and bacon balance each other so well! While I served it with a homemade buttermilk goat cheese dressing, it’s really quite delicious with just a little olive oil and lemon juice or vinegar and some salt and pepper. See the recipe here.
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Avocado, Fresh Corn, and Tomato Salad
Corn and tomatoes are the classic vegetables of summer. Add everyone’s favorite avocado, and there is a reason this recipe is loved so much! The surprise with this salad is that the corn is actually raw, which is both delicious and nice on a really hot day when you don’t want to boil that water and get your kitchen hot. This salad is entirely raw and easy to make. See the recipe here.
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Heirloom Tomatoes with Burrata Cheese and Pesto
In all transparency, this salad started out as an appetizer that I still make. But the appetizer then became a vegetable side. And then it became the main course … there are times when you just want to eat tomatoes in volume, especially if you happen upon a whole bunch of Cherokee Purples, perhaps the finest of all heirloom varieties. This recipe is super fast to make, and obviously, from this description, it can be your appetizer, side, or salad! See the recipe here.
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Spicy Watermelon Onion Salad
Last summer, this was the salad I made over and over again. I just couldn’t stop. Putting this list together, I rediscovered this salad, and I can already tell you I’m making it at least five times in the next month. How I forgot about it, I do not know … See the recipe here.
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Greek Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Now, this salad is really one that you can make year-round. But with so many cucumbers and peppers ready to eat in gardens and tomatoes at their prime, why not make it now as well? Top it with shrimp or chicken or eat it without added protein; it’s delicious and filling. See the recipe here.
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