Juicy cucumbers are one of my favorite summer vegetables, and I like to slice one up and eat it with a bit of salt for an afternoon snack, but using them as a base for salads is my favorite way to eat them. We’ve been on a cucumber salad binge lately, trying different vegetable combinations and vinaigrettes, and this is by far our favorite to date. The Thai vinaigrette gets a little kick from crushed red peppers (pepper flakes), which you can adjust to your taste. Make sure you use an unseasoned rice vinegar because the seasoned kind has added sugar and salt.

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CUCUMBER SALAD WITH TOMATO, BELL PEPPER, AND SPICY THAI LIME VINAIGRETTE

Serves 6 to 8.

Equipment

cruet or small jar with lid

Ingredients

2 cucumbers, peeled and julienned
12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 red bell pepper seeded and cut into thin strips
1/2 cup shredded or julienned carrot
cilantro sprigs for garnish

VINAIGRETTE
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lime juice
1/4 cup (60 ml) rice vinegar (not seasoned)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Preparation

1. Add the lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar, fish sauce, minced garlic, pepper flakes, and sea salt in a cruet or small jar with a lid. Cover and shake well.

2. Toss the cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper strips, and carrots in a serving bowl and drizzle with some of the dressing. Top with cilantro sprigs for garnish and serve with the remaining vinaigrette on the side.

More Summer Salads

More Thai Salad Recipes From Around the Blogs

What We’re Eating – Spicy Thai Jicama Salad

Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté – Thai Wild Mushroom Salad

The Perfect Pantry – Thai Beef Salad

Rasa Malaysia – Thai Pomelo Salad

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We make basic basil pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto with our homegrown basil, but you can also use purchased pesto. Just toss with the cooked orzo, tomatoes, and kalamata olives, sprinkle a little Parmesan on top, and it’s ready to serve.

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For us the Fourth of July is about celebrating our nation’s heritage as well as family, friends, parades, fireworks, and of course the annual Fourth of July cookout. Our cookouts vary somewhat from year to year, but we always have some kind of potato salad for the Fourth, and this potato salad recipe is particularly good for summer cookouts because it has no dairy, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling in the summer heat.

I used to peel potatoes and boil them when making potato salad, but now I steam them and then peel after they have cooled because they retain their nutrients better. They also less likely to get mushy this way.

The flavor comes from the fresh herbs in our garden parsley, basil, and chives, though you can mix it up with other herbs. This year we are growing basil all over the garden, including the tomato bed, herb bed, and in containers on our deck. Basil usually does well for us in containers, we just mix up some potting soil and seed directly into the soil about the third week in May, then we keep it in the sun and water daily. We trim the plants regularly and in a few weeks we’ll be ready to make our first batch of pesto.

Yes, we like our basil.

This summer herbed potato salad is my post for Grow Your Own, the blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. This is the fourth year for Grow Your Own, and we hope you will join us! Gudrun of Kitchen Gadget Girl is our host for July, so be sure to visit her blog for more information about submitting your post. You can read more about the event and the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. Posts are due on July 31.

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POTATO SALAD WITH SUMMER HERBS AND WHITE WINE VINAIGRETTE

Serves 8.

Equipment

large pot or pan, about 12 inches across
steamer basket

Ingredients

3 (1.3 k) pounds small red potatoes, scrubbed
1/2 cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (60 m l) white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
3 tablespoons minced basil
2 tablespoons minced parsley
2 tablespoons minced chives

Preparation

1. Add an inch or two of water to the pan/skillet and insert the steamer basket. Arrange the potatoes around the basket and cover the pot. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are just fork tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and allow the potatoes to cool until you can handle them. Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-size chunks. Chill or keep at room temperature.

2. Whisk the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper together and drizzle over the potatoes. Toss the basil, parsley, and chives with the potatoes and serve.

More Recipes for the Fourth of July

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Simply Recipes – Potato Salad with Apples and Bacon

Gluten Free Goddess Recipes – Red Potato Salad with Horseradish

Herbivoracious – Potato Salad with Feta Cream Dressing

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Sweet Potato Salad with Green Onion, Basil, Thyme, and Feta

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In 2007 we bought two blueberry bushes, the low bush variety that produces small berries like our favorite wild blueberries from Maine. We almost lost them due to flooding both the first and second year, but somehow they managed to survive, though they haven’t produced berries yet. It takes a few years for blueberry bushes to begin producing, and when they do it’s often small amounts at first, but growing as the bush matures. (The photo is a little off because I was trying to shoot through the protective netting.)

We now have seven blueberry bushes, and we deliberately chose a mix of low and high bush as well as a range of production times, so in the future we hope to have early, mid, and late season blueberries harvests. This morning we gathered the first blueberries of the season, though there weren’t as many as I had hoped. We had a little storm come through yesterday which knocked our blueberry cages about, and the birds found an opening and took advantage of it. We were happy to have enough for the salad, but now I have some work ahead to set the cages back in place. The birds and squirrels like ripe blueberries as much as we do, and hopefully we’ll beat them to the next round.

Fruit salads find their way onto our menus frequently during the summer, and we have a lot of fun mixing flavors and trying different combinations. Mangos are also in season and we tossed them with our fresh homegrown blueberries and a ginger syrup with rice vinegar. The boys really liked the sweet and slightly sour combination and devoured it with their afternoon snack. I wrote the recipe with a full batch of simple syrup because I like to keep it on hand, but you can also reduce it by a quarter to make the precise amount for this salad.

This is my post for Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. I hope you will join us! I am hosting the June event and you can send your post information to me at andreasrecipesgyo AT gmail DOT com. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. The deadline for sending posts is June 30.

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MANGO BLUEBERRY SALAD WITH GINGER VINAIGRETTE

Serves 4.

Equipment

small saucepan
small heat proof bowl
serving bowl

Ingredients

1/2 inch ginger root, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 mango, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 cup fresh blueberries

SIMPLE SYRUP (Makes about 12 ounces.)
1 cup (175 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (240 ml) water

Preparation

1. SIMPLE SYRUP: Mix the sugar and water in the sauce pan and bring to a boil. The sugar should dissolve completely. Transfer 1/4 cup of the hot syrup to a heat proof bowl and allow the remaining syrup to cool in the saucepan. (Makes about 12 ounces and will keep for up to 1 month in the refrigerator. I have some in the refrigerator all the time for cocktails.)

2. Add the sliced ginger root to the hot 1/4 cup of syrup, allow it to steep for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove the ginger slices. Let the syrup cool to room temperature, then chill.

3. Add the rice vinegar to the syrup and stir well. Toss the mango chunks and blueberries together in the serving bowl, then drizzle the ginger vinaigrette over the fruit. Gently toss again and put in the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes. Serve.

More Summer Fruit Recipes

More Blueberry Recipes From Around the Blogs

Use Real Butter – Blueberry Peach Crisp

FatFree Vegan Kitchen – Strawberry-Blueberry Tapioca Parfaits

eCurry – Blueberry Gelato

Kitchen Parade – Blueberry Salsa

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Our spring garden is not as full as the summer garden, but each year we add a little more with the hope that eventually we will have a large cool weather garden space. This spring we planted snow peas, sugar snap peas, rhubarb, three kinds of radishes, two kinds of radicchio, butterhead and romaine lettuce, red Russian kale, arugula, three kinds of chard, beets, green onions, shallots, dill, and cilantro. I still have a couple new rosemary plants (Arp variety) to put in the ground, but we need to finish prepping their new home first. And then there’s the blueberries which will finally go into their permanent home now that Michael tackled the enormous job of transplanting a dozen rose bushes to make room for the blueberries.

Tender young greens make perfect salads, which I like to embellish with pencil thin asparagus and young snow peas. The honey Dijon vinaigrette has a little bite to it, but you can sweeten it by using more honey.

More Spring Recipes

More Recipes with Spring Greens From Around the Blogs

Book of Yum – Portobello Spring Green Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

The Expatriate’s Kitchen – Chard Tart with Grana Padana and Goat Cheese

TasteFood – Bruschetta with Mixed Spring Greens, Lemon, and Ricotta Salad

101 Cookbooks – A Simple Spring Salad

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One of my favorite childhood memories is creamy fruit salads made with various combinations of grapes, cherries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, or apples, sometimes with crunchy nuts mixed in. The creamy part also varied, often made with sour cream and cream cheese or whipped topping, but all were sweet and sometimes tasted more like dessert than a dinner side dish. As far as my sweet tooth and I were concerned, creamy fruit salads were as good as it gets.

Don’t judge me.

Mom still makes one or two when we come to visit, and if my brothers and sister are present we inevitably go off on a nostalgic romp of our favorite childhood dishes. This week Mom served a classic grape salad during our visit, lightened up using less sugar. My version uses low-fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and I even tried mixing in some dill which added bright flavor. Some versions of this salad use both granulated and brown sugar, almost 3/4 cup total. Mom cut it back drastically, and we still enjoyed the sweetness without giving us a sweet toothache. I plan to continue playing with this recipe using stevia as a sugar substitute.

More Light Salads

More Spring Salad Recipes From Around the Blogs

Sassy Radish – Spring Salad with Roasted Asparagus

101 Cookbooks – Spring Wild Rice Salad

Taste Food – Spring Salad Three Ways

Life’s Ambrosia – Apple, Gorgonzola, and Pecan Salad

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My introduction to soba noodles was actually on a plane flying from Tokyo to Honolulu, admittedly not the best place to get good food. The flight attendants came around with breakfast and asked if I wanted the Japanese or the American breakfast, and I chose the Japanese because I could see the noodles that someone else already had on their tray. I swirled them in the sauce and enjoyed the slippery sensation and flavor while the American woman next to me eyed them with a look that said, “I can’t believe you are eating that.” I just smiled and enjoyed my breakfast.

Soba noodles also make a perfect light lunch on a hot day and I’ve got my 6-year-old, Builder Guy, hooked on them. Sometimes we have them plain with the traditional dipping sauce, but other times I like them as a salad tossed with some vegetables. This particular recipe has lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, grated ginger, scallions, and cilantro for flavor, and zucchini, carrots, and avocado for vegetables. I could eat this all the time, but it tastes best when zucchini is in season, so now is a perfect time of year for this salad. I follow Maki’s method for cooking soba noodles, and it works perfectly.

One common question about soba noodles is whether they are gluten-free because buckwheat is not actually wheat at all and is naturally gluten-free, and the answer is it depends. Many soba noodles have wheat flour added to act as a binder, but you might find some gluten-free soba such as Eden Selected Buckwheat Soba or King Soba Noodles in larger grocery stores, Whole Foods, or even an international grocery store. Of course, you can also make your own gluten-free soba. And if you cook gluten-free, make sure you also choose a gluten-free soy sauce.

I made this with our homegrown scallions, which have started to peak in production. Our ginger isn’t quite ready, but hopefully next month we’ll have fresh homegrown ginger root. Squash vine borers defeated our efforts to grow zucchini this summer, but there’s always next year.

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for the second anniversary of Grow Your Own is coming up on August 30. If you haven’t yet sent your post information, you still have time. Email me at andreasrecipesgyo AT gmail DOT com. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page. I’m excited about the anniversary event and can’t wait to see all your posts!

ZUCCHINI SOBA SALAD

Adapted from Epicurious.

Makes 4 to 6 large servings.

Equipment

5-quart pot
wire mesh strainer
large serving bowl

Ingredients

8 ounces (227 g) soba noodles
3 to 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
6 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons peeled and finely minced fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 carrots, cut into 1/8-inch matchsticks
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/8-inch matchsticks
4 scallions, thinly sliced crosswise
2 avocados, cut into chunks
sea salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
cilantro, for garnish

Preparation

1. Bring water to boil in the pot. Add the soba and reduce the heat so the water is simmering, not at a hard boil. Cook until soft and pliable, but not mushy. Drain and add very cold water back to the pot, add some ice if necessary. Stir the noodles with your hands or long chopsticks to loosen any remaining starches. Drain again and run cold water over the noodles until the water runs clear.

2. Whisk together lime juice, soy sauce, ginger, honey, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add the zucchini, carrots, scallions, and avocado chunks and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Serve immediately at room temperature with cilantro for garnish.

More Salads

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Kalyn’s Kitchen – Zucchini Carpaccio (Raw Zucchini) with Lemon, Herbs, and Goat Cheese

Closet Cooking – Grilled Asparagus, Zucchini, and Halloumi Salad

Almost Turkish Recipes – Zucchini Salad with Yogurt

A Veggie Venture – Tomato and Zucchini Salad

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We had traditional Swabian potato salad (Schwäbischer kartoffelsalat), a salad which has yellow potatoes and a very simple oil and vinegar dressing, a few times while in Stuttgart. It is often used as a base for salad greens such as arugula or lettuces, and in fact it was served beneath the green salad at every restaurant we visited, a warm golden surprise waiting at the bottom of the plate.

It didn’t taste anything like the German potato salads we’ve had in the U.S. and we initially thought the difference was in the type of vinegar used, and it turns out we were right. As I researched I found the German recipes specified white wine vinegar, not plain white or apple cider vinegar which is often used in the U.S. I also learned that traditional German recipes call for some kind of broth to be mixed in at the end, either chicken or vegetable, as well as a little sunflower oil, a neutral flavored oil that doesn’t overpower the other flavors in the salad.

Steaming the potatoes rather than boiling keeps them from getting waterlogged and also helps retain their nutrients rather than tossing them out with the water. Make sure all the potatoes are approximately the same size for even cooking, and allow the the steamed potatoes to cool a bit before peeling so your fingers don’t get burned. The potatoes should be very tender when cooked.

This potato salad is great for summer cookouts because there is no dairy in the dressing and because it makes a great palette for green salads, adapting well to a variety of additions, including chives, asparagus, chopped egg, bacon, or ham.

SWABIAN POTATO SALAD (SCHWÄBISCHER KARTOFFELSALAT)

Adapted from www.ChefKoch.de.

Serves 6 to 8.

Equipment

6 quart pot with lid
steamer basket
large mixing bowl

Ingredients

2.2 pounds (1 kg) small Yukon gold potatoes, all about the same size
1 small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
1 cup (240 ml) light vegetable broth (or chicken broth), hot
1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
1 pinch white pepper
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons neutral flavored oil, such as canola or sunflower

Preparation

1. Place the steamer basket in the bottom of the pot and add water until it touches the steamer. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes, arranging them evenly on the steamer surface. Cover and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. Drain. Allow to cool until you can hold the warm potatoes without getting burned. Peel and slice the warm potatoes.

2. While the potatoes cook, stir together the onions and the hot broth and set aside. When finished slicing the steamed potatoes, warm the broth mixture until hot.

3. Put the sliced potatoes in the large bowl. Pour on the broth mixture and sprinkle on the sea salt and pepper, then add the vinegar and oil. Carefully turn the potatoes to distribute the seasonings, but try to avoid breaking the slices. Typically served warm, but you can also serve chilled.

More Summer Cookout Recipes

More Potato Salad Recipes From Around the Blogs

Karina’s Kitchen – Champagne Vinegar Red Potato Salad

Albion Cooks – French Potato Salad

Just Hungry – Japanese Potato Salad

Laylita – Ensalada Rusa (South American) Potato Salad

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We truly enjoy strawberry season, and every time I start cleaning another batch of berries the boys are at my elbow begging for some of the juicy red fruits. I have to watch Monkey Boy and Top Gun because they will sneak the berries off to a hidden corner and get the sticky juice all over the furniture and floor.

Like many fruits, strawberries work well in both savory and sweet dishes, and I think they taste great with spinach. Even my picky boys will eat spinach salad if I add some strawberries to it, and I sprinkle a slightly sweetened vinaigrette made with champagne vinegar on top for another splash of flavor. This is a salad that makes a delicious treat for a family meal or guests.

STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD WITH AVOCADO AND CHAMPAGNE VINAIGRETTE

Serves 4 to 6.

Equipment

small bowl or cruet
salad bowl(s)

Ingredients

VINAIGRETTE
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white balsamic vinegar
6 ounces extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

SALAD
6 ounces baby spinach, washed and patted dry
2 cups strawberries, quartered
1 avocado, thinly sliced
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup rough chopped pecans, toasted

Preparation

1. VINAIGRETTE In the small bowl, whisk together the champagne vinegar, olive oil, honey, and sea salt.

2. SALAD: In the salad bowl(s), arrange the ingredients in layers: baby spinach on the bottom, then strawberries, avocado slices, pecans, goat cheese, and pecans. Serve with the vinaigrette.

More Salad Recipes

More Salad Recipes with Fruit From Around the Blogs

Use Real Butter – Strawberry Hazelnut Salad

Rasa Malaysia – Fruit Salad with Baby Shrimps and Toasted Coconut

Steamy Kitchen – Asian Tropical Fruit Salad

Baking Bites – Mojito Fruit Salad

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Bean salads are an essential part of any recipe file and are great for summer picnic salads since they are often dressed with dairy-free vinaigrettes. I like to mix up my own vinaigrettes, usually tasting and estimating until I get a flavor I like. In his new book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Michael Ruhlman explains how to use ratios to create everyday dishes. The standard ratio for vinaigrettes is three parts oil to one part acid, though it can vary depending on whether you choose a citrus juice or vinegar. Citrus juices tend to be very acidic and need some extra oil to balance the flavor, but generally vinegars work well with this three to one ratio. For this vinaigrette, I used one part white balsamic vinegar to three parts extra virgin olive oil.

Some of the herbs in our garden have gone to flower, looking rather scraggly and in need of pruning, and I used some of the trimmings in this salad. Parsley is a biennial, flowering in its second year, and the leaves often turn bitter after that, so it’s time for me to plant some more parsley.

This is my contribution to Grow Your Own, a blogging event that celebrates the dishes we create from foods we’ve grown, raised, foraged, or hunted ourselves. Zora of Gardenopolis is our host for this round, so be sure to visit her blog for more information about submitting your post. Summer is here and we’re back to doing Grow Your Own twice a month, so posts are due to Zora by June 15. If you are new to the event, you can read more about the rules for participating at the Grow Your Own page.

CANNELLINI BEAN SALAD WITH WHITE BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

Serves 4 to 6.

Equipment

small bowl or cruet
medium bowl

Ingredients

VINAIGRETTE
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
6 ounces extra virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

SALAD
2 (15-ounce/439 g) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed well
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme
2 thin slices red onion, cut in half
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation

1. Whisk together the white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, black pepper, and sea salt.

2. Toss the beans and vinaigrette in the medium bowl, then add the parsley, oregano, lemon thyme, onion slices, and feta cheese. Serve immediately or chill an hour or two before serving.

Variations

Use dry beans: Rinse 1 cup dry beans until clean. Cover with water and soak overnight. Drain, then add fresh water to cover. Cook over medium heat until the beans are tender, 1 to 2 hours. Drain and cool.

Add fresh halved cherry or grape tomatoes when in season.

References

The Big Book of Herbs, by Arthur O. Tucker and Thomas Debaggio

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman

Other Salad Recipes

More Bean Salad Recipes From Around the Blogs

101 Cookbooks – Curried Bean Salad

Kalyn’s Kitchen – Green Bean Salad with Hearts of Palm

London Foodie in New York – Thai Green Bean Salad

Farmgirl Fare – Garbanzo Bean Salad

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