Spring Greens for a Summery Salad
Spring is here at your Mission Place apartment in Jessup! Along with the receding winter weather comes a hunger for green. That includes salads, which are very often made up of green things such as lettuce, wild celery, chevils, cress, and parsley, and even things like beets. In fact, according to an article about the history of salad, in pre-Roman times, beets were popular in English gardens, but the Roman invasion of Britain left in its wake additions to the garden with such edibles as lettuces, cucumbers, carrots, endive, and sorrel.
Later, many of the seeds for these plants were transplanted along with the early colonists to America, and became a part of “sallet,” as the colonists called it. And in due time, populations on both side of the ocean discovered that the fruit of the tomato plant would not kill you, and tomatoes became a colorful addition to sallet, too.
Today we still enjoy a variety of green leafy plants in our salads, so plan to try a new salad for dinner tonight at your apartment or take one for lunch this week. We’ve got some tasty recipes for you to try.
To get you started, we like this super easy springtime Tomato/Avocado/Cucumber Salad from the Cutestuff Cooks blog.
1 avocado, cut into small chunks
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
1 basket cherry tomatoes, rinsed (halve if desired)
1 bunch of green onions, minced
Mix together and let chill. Just before serving, add a garnish of chopped cilantro and 4-8 oz of a hard cheese, cubed.
The Cutestuff Cooks blog has a nice selection of salads, including Strawberry Spinach Salad, Seven Layer Salad, Quick Fix, Quinoa Salad, a potato salad, and even a dessert twist with a Cookie Salad.
If you want to try something a little more unusual, you might like to try one of the salads that feature unusual ingredients or unusual combinations of ingredients in Brit + Co’s article, 15 Unconventional Summer Salads.
What is your favorite kind of salad green? What kind of salad do you take to summertime barbeques here in Maryland? Please share your recipe in the comments!