Summer Salads

Cold salads are the perfect summertime side item! These easy to make salads are great dishes to bring to summer BBQs, pool parties, or beach bashes. Both can be made ahead of time and popped in the fridge or cooler, and both recipes can be changed to suit your tastes. Use the ingredients you have laying around- it's a super simple and delicious way to use what's left from your garden!

Summer Pasta Salad

Here’s the easiest pasta salad ever that uses whatever you have in the refrigerator! It makes weeknight dinners, weekend lunches, and late night snacks easy and healthy!

Ingredients

• Pasta

• Assorted vegetables

• Dressing

Start by cooking the pasta - any shape will do! The amount depends on how much salad you want. For our recipe here we used about one cup of uncooked pasta.

Assorted raw vegetables cut into bite sized pieces. For our recipe we used: carrots, cucumbers, radishes, celery, and a few spicy peppers.

Use whatever veggies you have in the fridge- we used carrots, cucumbers, radishes, and bell peppers here

Here’s the dressing we like but you can use whatever you have - Italian dressing, simple oil and vinegar, or even ranch. Use what your family likes!

• 2 tablespoons of fresh garlic

• 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

• 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard

• 6 tablespoons of olive oil

• 1-2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese

• Salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in a food processor or blender and whirl until the garlic is well incorporated and the dressing is creamy.

Add bite sized pieces of whatever vegetables you have on hand. Tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, soy beans, and nuts would all be delicious additions.

The important thing about this salad is to make sure it is easy! Leftover bits and bites are always a great addition. If you have a smidge of chicken, a few strips of cooked bacon, some salami, or a small piece of roast beef or steak you can add them all!

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Cucumber and tomato salad

• 3 cucumbers, sliced and de-seeded

• 4 medium tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

• 1/4 of a medium red onion, diced

• 3 tablespoons EVOO

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (balsamic works, too)

• Pinch of red pepper flakes

• Fresh herbs, chopped (we used basil and parsley here, but you can use whatever you like)

• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl; cover and place in fridge for at least one hour for flavors to come together.

To de-seed the cucumber, simply scrape out the insides with a spoon, like so:

Deseed a cucumber using a spoon