Great Summer Salads

istockphoto

Summer’s here and the time is right for great salads.  If you aren’t a salad fanatic, I bet you can still find some salads in this list that will interest even the salad haters.  Many of these are dinner salads or can be made into dinner salads by adding chicken, turkey, shrimp or tofu. With packaged salad greens, most of these salads can be ready in 5-10 minutes. Most of these salads are low-fat and low calorie. 

Tips for keeping a salad low cal/low fat:

• Instead of pouring dressing over your salad, dip a fork or teaspoon into the dressing and drizzle it over the salad. You’d be surprised how just a small amount of dressing can still add flavor.
• If you want more dressing, dilute the dressing with a bit of water.
• Don’t add croutons, or limit them.
• When cheese is used, slice it thinly then break it into ½ pieces, big enough for flavor,  and sprinkle it on the top. For softer cheeses, put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes to make it easier to slice.
• When using store-bought dressing, buy the lower-fat version.

Tips for speedy chicken or turkey preparation

• Grill several chicken breasts or turkey on the weekend to have it ready for weeknight dinners
• Purchase frozen pre-grilled  chicken strips (they come in many flavors)
• Buy a roasted chicken at the grocery, remove the skin and slice the meat
• Slice a chicken breast in 1/2 lengthwise to speed cooking time

Here’s a roundup of my favorite salad recipes. I’ve listed the ingredients here, so you can pick the recipes that look intriguing to you based on the ingredients. Of course, you can eliminate or add ingredients and change the dressing, based on your own tastes. Click on the salad name for the recipe.

Sizzling Salad – A favorite where I used to work.  Stir fried ingredients: pick which you want (chicken/beef/shrimp/tofu, mushrooms, red onion), tossed with romaine lettuce, carrot slivers, broccoli bits. Caesar or Honey Mustard dressing.

California Spinach Salad – My aunt, a wonderful hostess, made this salad for us back in the 80s from a California Wine Cookbook. We loved it! The curry dressing adds great flavor and makes this salad a welcome change from the usual salad. Ingredients: Spinach, bacon or facon, mandarin oranges, white wine and vinegar dressing with curry powder.

Roasted Red Potato Salad – One of the five top potato salads from the Good Morning America 2008 Best Potato Salad Contest. Served warm or room temperature. This isn’t totally healthy but you can substitute facon for the bacon (or reduce the amount of bacon) and use low fat mayonnaise. Ingredients: red potatoes, green onions, bacon or facon, rosemary, regular or light mayonnaise.

Gianni’s Salad – One of my favorites, served at a great little trattoria in Chicago. Ingredients: greens, topped with thin apple and pear slices, caramelized pine nuts, mixed goat and gorgonzola cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.

McDonald’s Asian Chicken Salad – Ingredients: lettuce, mandarin oranges, edamame, snow peas, topped with sliced almonds, grilled chicken breast (optional).

Houlihan’s Honey Lime Blue - We make this at Thanksgiving and people would ask for seconds and thirds, bypassing some of the traditional Thanksgiving fare. Ingredients: romaine lettuce, red onion, mandarin oranges, glazed walnuts or pecans, golden raisins, crumbled blue cheese, honey lime dressing (or raspberry vinaigrette or honey mustard).

Chili’s  Chicken Caribbean – Ingredients: Chicken breast marinated in teriyaki, chopped lettuce, chopped red cabbage, chopped red bell pepper, pineapple chunks, tortilla chips, pico de gallo, honey lime or honey mustard dressing.

Bon Appetite! Let us know about your favorite salad.