Summer is the perfect season to let fresh produce take center stage, and there’s no better place to find inspiration than your own garden or the local farmers market. With crisp cucumbers, vibrant peppers, and tender herbs bursting with flavor, creating refreshing and nourishing salads becomes effortless.
These simple, go-to salad recipes celebrate the best of summer’s bounty—whether you’re looking for a light side dish or a colorful way to use up odds and ends from the fridge. Let the garden guide your menu and dive into these easy, flavorful ideas.
Note from Chef Doughty: Side salads are an opportunity to balance and complete a meal. These salads can balance a meal nutritionally, they can be made with fresh ingredients that provide texture and color contrast to the meal and they can also offer a sharp flavor contrast or provide palate relief to an already complex main dish.
Go-to Cucumber Salad
When you need the simplest salad, in my home this has to be sliced cucumbers.
Take the whole piece (English or regular) and rinse well.
For a more decorative look, the length of the cucumber can be scored with a channel knife or alternate pelled strips created by a vegetable peeler.
Cut the cumber in half, lengthwise and run a teaspoon down the center to remove the watery seeds. Discard seeds. Then cut the halves crosswise into ⅛-¼ inch slices. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle with a few splashes of seasoned rice vinegar. Thinly sliced onions or small dices of bell pepper can be added for color but are not required. Toss, taste for salt and pepper and serve.
Fresh Chop-Chop Salad
In my home this type of salad gets eaten at the dinner table more than anything else. It generally starts with some coarsely chopped cabbage. Then I rummage through the fridge finding smaller amounts of other ingredients that also need to be used up and which might add color and nutrition. It is finished with a vinaigrette or creamy-style dressing.
Rough Chop-Chop Recipe
2 cups coarsely chopped cabbage
½ bell pepper, any color, chopped
1 small carrot, grated or chopped in tiny pieces
¼ cup onion of any kind
2 tablespoons fresh parsley or another tender fresh herb
Toss all ingredients and then coat lightly with either a vinaigrette or creamy style dressing. If neither dressing is available simply add a large spoonful of mayonnaise/greek yogurt with a tablespoon or two of seasoned rice vinegar and mix well. Taste for salt and pepper and sweetener.
You might also consider adding:
- Something from the cheese family: a small amount of strongly flavored cheese like gorgonzola, blue, goat cheese, or feta crumbled on top.
- Nuts tossed with the base vegetables or seeds sprinkled on top.
- Raisins, dates, or another small amount of dried fruit.
Hungry for more? Check out Chef doughty’s book; The Chef Within Dinner Edition. Find more information and order your copy online here:
https://www.thechefwithinbook.com/bookstore/dinner-book
Meet Chef Doughty
We know her as part owner of Silvercreek Realty Group and the smiling face behind the brokerage accounting department, but did you know that Joyce Doughty has an affinity for culinary arts?
Chef Doughty is a successful food writer and restaurateur who hosted the nationally syndicated daily Public Radio food program “Food for Thought” for 17 years and was also host of the local ABC affiliate morning program “In the Kitchen” highlighting practical recipes and techniques for the kitchen. Recipient of the James Beard Foundation Top Three Chefs in Idaho Award and owner and chef of Idaho’s critically acclaimed Doughty’s Bistro. Chef Doughty was trained at Le Cordon Bleu and received her executive chef certification from the American Culinary Foundation.