Friday, June 19, 2009

Foodie Friday - Substantial Summer Salads

Over the past few months I've been on the look out for summer salads to add to our repertoire. If it ever stops raining here in the hills, (it's rained on 18 of the last 25 days!), there are now two new recipes that will come in handy during the summer barbecue season. Earlier this spring, we gave each side dish a trial run, and declared them keepers.

Potato Salad with Grainy Mustard Dressing was the first success. Because it's best served at room temperature, it's a good make ahead salad, and I suspect that it will adapt to whatever vegetables are in season. The version shown here included red potatoes, grape tomatoes, roasted bell pepper, asparagus and green beans. Steam, boil, or roast the vegetables that require cooking until crisp-tender.

Dressing:

Zest and juice of a large lemon

1 1/2 t. whole grain mustard, or more to taste

a clove of minced garlic

A dash or two of white wine vinegar

1 T. olive oil

2 T. finely chopped parsley

Sprinkle of dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingedients together, pour over prepared vegetables and gently toss.

The recipe, Asparagus with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette, became a salad side dish with the addition of pasta, in this case elbows.

Substantial enough for a main dish vegetarian meal, it's also a nice change of pace pasta salad. You can find the recipe here. Just remember to add the pasta!

Now, I hope you join me as I pop over to Designs By Gollum to see what else is cooking on this Foodie Friday. I know for sure that our hostess, Michael Lee, has whipped up a lovely dessert. Have a good weekend.

9 comments:

  1. The potato salad sound so good with the grainy mustard dressing. This would be a nice change from the mayo I usually use. Thanks for the recipe.

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  2. What wonderful summer salads. I really like the grainy mustard dressing.

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  3. My coffee group was just talking about how you have to put mustard into a potato salad. Yummy.

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  4. I am always looking for summer salads too.. and these sound great! Happy Foodie Friday! Have a great weekend ~ Susan

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  5. The salad looks wonderfu.
    I will have to try this. I'll need to get my steamer back out.

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  6. Hi Nancy Jane...wow, you really hit my spot with these recipes...
    asparagus is my all time favorite!!
    Thanks so much for sharing these...
    ;-) Bo

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  7. Yummy salads. Both versions. Your right they both would be great for a BBQ. ~ Robyn

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  8. That potato salad recipe looks delicious! And it looks pretty to take to a party too! Thanks!
    Have a wonderful weekend!
    ~Really Rainey~

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  9. I am also on the lookout for good cold summer food like these salads. If you check out my blog next week you will find a very tasty salad that you might like to add to your recepiebook.I am going to write yours down too.

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