Warm Weather Salads
Lemon Chickpea Salad
For a vegetarian-friendly dash of European flavor, there’s Jeanine Donofrio’s lemon chickpea salad. Donofrio, who runs the Austin, Texas-based blog Love & Lemons with her husband, Jack Mathews, uses chickpeas, Dijon mustard, cumin, chopped lettuce and (befitting her blog’s name) a lot of lemon juice to create a healthy chickpea salad in next to no time.
MORE: Zesty Taco Salad Recipe
Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad
Fire up the grill! Christin Mahrlig of Fort Mill SC Living suggests marinating a chicken breast in lemon juice, rosemary and garlic before grilling it with some ears of corn. Slice up the chicken and remove the corn kernels from the cobs. Serve them both with avocado and Parmesan cheese on top of baby spinach.
Melon and Prosciutto Salad
Satiate those salty-sweet cravings with thin slices of prosciutto and seasonal melons, says Justine Sulia, of Boulder, Colo., who runs the website Cooking & Beer. She makes hers with watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe and tops it with red onion and crumbled feta cheese. Her website being all about food and beer, Sulia suggests pairing the meal with Dogfish Head's Aprihop, a pale ale brewed with apricots.
Thai Shrimp Salad
Kick your meal up a notch with a Thai shrimp salad. The blog Bev Cooks suggests using vermicelli, a little fish sauce, lime juice, sugar snap peas and, for a bit of spice, minced red peppers and sambal oelek chili paste. (Spice lovers should feel free to indulge their cravings with that last ingredient).
Couscous Salad
San Diego-based food blogger Liz Hughes, who runs the site Virtually Homemade, has (appropriately) made a virtual sunset in a bowl by livening up a couscous salad with sliced oranges and feta cheese. She makes sure her kids get their vegetables by also using asparagus, frozen peas and a chopped shallot.
MORE: Sugar Snap Salad
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Spring is usually strawberry season, but those red fruits are good for more than just jams and shortcakes. After a day of picking fresh berries, either from a garden or the grocery aisle, toss them into a salad. The blog Cheerios and Lattes suggests mixing strawberries with spinach, candied walnuts and poppy seed dressing.
