Chopped Vegetable Salad

 

This seasonal salad, along with simple pasta dishes and stir fry, is a great way to feature whatever delicious fresh vegetables you can get your hands on. It’s also great for cooks like me with small gardens that might not offer up overwhelming amounts of produce that you feel you have to “put up” for the winter, but just enough to enjoy at the peak of freshness.

So, this salad is open to all kinds of tastes and improvisational skills. I like to make it with finely chopped green beans, sugar snap peas, radishes, bell peppers, and cucumbers. I also like to bump up the protein content by adding a drained can of chickpeas. You could add different beans, and you could add beans that you have cooked yourself from the dry state.

Other great additions to this simple, refreshing dish could be shell peas, edamame, jicama, scallions, celery, etc., etc., whatever you like. Harder vegetables like carrots could be shredded and tossed in. Crunchy greens like cabbage or radicchio might be good, too. You could also add fresh corn or even tomatoes, although I would serve a salad with chopped tomatoes right away to avoid the liquid from the tomatoes making it too watery, or use tiny cherry tomatoes, which would not have much of a mush factor.

I like this Buttermilk Herb Salad Dressing on this salad, and I don’t use very much. It’s a great way to go, and I highly recommend it. That being said, however, this is supposed to be a pretty lazy dish, so whatever dressing you like or happen to have on hand would be quite adequate as well. Even store-bought dressing. Yes. Feel free to save time and energy in these sultry days. And make something delicious while doing so.

Chopped Vegetable Salad

To preserve the fresh deliciousness of seasonal vegetables, I use just a small amount of dressing on this salad. You can use as much or as little as you like.

4 cups finely chopped fresh vegetables (see text above for suggestions)

1 15-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (about 1 ½ cups)

½ cup Buttermilk Herb Salad Dressing (or to taste)

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Broccoli and Chickpea Salad with Mustard Pepper Dressing, Mediterranean Vegetable and White Bean Salad, Sugar Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Feta and Dill

One year ago: Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes