Summer
and salads, they really go together.
As
I write this, it is a very hot summer here in Ontario,
where I live, the hottest on record. And when the weather
is hot, I don't want anything to do with hot foods,
so I pretty much live on salads. Which is okay, because
salads are usually full of vegetables, and heathy ingredients.
If
you are watching your calorie or fat intake, stay away
from dressings with a lot of oil, or reduce the oil
called for, and use light mayonnaise when mayonnaise
is called for in your favorite recipe.
The
great thing about salads is that anything goes: take
a fresh tomato or two from the garden, drizzle with
a little olive oil or balsamic vinegar, snip a little
basil over top; that's a salad. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber,
bottled salad dressing; that's a salad. One of my favorites
is Greek salad: maybe some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers,
red pepper, green onions, black olives, crumbled feta
cheese. Drizzled with a dressing of lemon juice, balsamic
vinegar, a touch of olive oil, oregano, honey. The point
is, you can whip up a salad in a few minutes with whatever
you have on hand.
Most
salad recipes are very flexible, it's not like a cake
recipe where if you don't follow it exactly the cake
won't rise. You can adjust - add or subtract from them
depending on your taste (and what you've got in your
fridge).
So
try out some of these recipes as a starting point, experiment,
and stay cool!
