Salads say summer. More than any other dish, the toss up of cool, crisp, refreshing ingredients is the essence of this bountiful season.
Another perk: Salads require very little of the cook (and practically never firing up the oven). Just chop, toss and whisk together a dressing. With a quick stroll through the farmers market, you can stock up on vibrant greens, sun-split tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, fragrant melons.
Given these seasonal beauties, a good salad practically makes itself, which is good because summer is too short to be sweating it out in the kitchen when the Lake is calling.
I have a few tricks of the trade to build a beautiful salad, PDQ, before heading outside to play. (If it’s picnic weather, take the salad with you.)
When preparing a salad, it’s good to cut the components into the same-sized pieces so they’ll all fit together on the fork.
