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.