Now that many of us are heading into the warmer weather months, the idea of cooking hot meals may be something we dread. If the temperature especially heads into the 90s or higher, the last thing we want to do is eat a hot meal. We want something cool and refreshing instead. Well, I can’t think of a better time then the warm or hot weather months to think about having a lot of salads, but what kind? Plain lettuce and maybe added tomatoes and a touch of dressing sounds so incredibly boring. Well here are some of my great salad ideas that will make for a great lunch or dinner meal on those hot summer days.
I’m a stickler in making all my own homemade salad ideas from scratch. For some reason, I just plain don’t care for the taste of macaroni salad one can get at a deli, as it seems to have an odd aftertaste. Neither do I care for other salads one can get at a deli, like potato, or especially tuna salad which I find too salty for my taste. Also, one has no idea just how long those salads may have been sitting there and may not be as freshly made as one would like.
So long time ago, I decided to simply make all my own salads, and have done so ever since. Yes, almost all my salad ideas do require some cooking, but if made in enough quantity can last for several meals. The first is my own version of Macaroni salad, which I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
My Delicious Homemade Macaroni Salad:
Ingredients:
8 ounzes of macaroni (half a 16-ounce box)
½. Drain and rinse under cold water to cool. In a large bowl, place cooled macaroni, and add chopped pepper, tomato, onions and mix. Then add the mayonnaise, white vinegar, parsley and few dashes of pepper to taste. Once again blend macaroni mixture. Cover bowl with foil and place in refrigerator to chill for a few hours.
Servings: approximately 4
My next recipe is for my homemade Potato Salad.
My Homemade Potato Salad:
Ingredients:
2 or 3 Large white Potatoes, pared of skin
½ to ¾ cups of mayonnaise
½ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon each of chopped chives, and parsley
½ tablespoon dill
dash of pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pared potatoes and boil potatoes until just tender. Drain and cool by rinsing potatoes under cold water. Once cooled, with a very sharp knife, carefully slice potatoes about a ¹⁄8″ thick and place sliced potatoes into a large mixing bowl. Add mayonnaise, onion, and chives, dill and parsley and dash of pepper to taste. Cover bowl with foil and place in refrigerator to chill for a few hours.
Servings: approximately 4
Other salad ideas of course to add are homemade tuna salad and for a little something special deviled eggs.
My Homemade Tuna Salad:
Ingredients:
2 cans tuna
½ cup onions
½ cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon parsley
dash of pepper to taste
dash of Old Bay Seasoning to taste
In a colander, drain cans of tuna of the oil or water, and rinse under water, drain all water off. In medium sized mixing bowl, add tuna, onions celery, parsley, and blend well. Add both pepper and Old Bay Seasoning to taste. Cover bowl with foil, place in refrigerator to chill.
Servings: approximately 4 servings.
My Devilish Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
4 Large Eggs, hard boiled
2 teaspoons dry mustard (such as Coleman’s Dry Mustard)
4 Tablespoons Mayonnaise
Paprika
Cook and simmer the eggs until hard boiled, about twenty minutes total. Let cool. Remove the eggshell carefully. I find placing the egg under running cold water helps to remove the shell a lot easier. Slice each egg in half, carefully removing egg yolks and place yolks in small stainless steel mixing bowl. Add dry mustard and mayonnaise into bowl and mash and blend the egg yolks until you have a fairly thick, creamy type mixture. Take each half of the white part of the egg, and either carefully spoon in the yolk mixture into each half of the egg, or if you have a small cake or pastry piping bag, add mixture into piping bag and with a small sized steel tip, pipe yolk mixture into each half of the egg white. Sprinkle a little bit of paprika for a more decorative touch. Place eggs on a plate, and into refrigerator to chill.
Servings: 4
You’ll notice that in none of my recipes do I ever add salt, not even when I boil the water for the macaroni, or potatoes, which is a preference of mine and is also good for anyone watching their sodium intake. If you do wish to add salt to any of these recipes just add salt to your particular taste.
Assembling the Salad:
Next ingredients needed are:
Lettuce (I prefer romaine)
Salad Dressing
Now as you can see, with all these homemade salads, you have the makings of a truly exquisite salad lunch or dinner. When all salads are chilled, you are now ready to assemble all the salads to make a great meal, and you can even do this ahead of time as well. The next thing you will need of course is lettuce, and I prefer Romaine lettuce, and I never buy the prepackaged lettuces but fresh. Of course, you may also use Iceberg, or the Curly Green Lettuce if that is your preference.
For each serving of a plateful of salad, take one large leaf of Romaine lettuce (four total) and rinse clean under cold water, and drain each leaf, then with your hands simply shred the lettuce into smaller bite sized pieces, and arrange each shredded leaf onto one part of each plate. Next add and arrange equal portions of the macaroni, potato, and tuna salads, finally add two of the deviled egg halves.
If you wish, you can then cover each plateful of salad with plastic wrap, and further chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
The final step before serving is to add just a small touch of whatever salad dressing you desire onto the lettuce. Or, you may leave plain, and each person can add their own amount of dressing to suit their own tastes. For choice of dressing, I prefer either Italian or Ranch.
Note: If after you have spooned out equal portions of each salad and you find you have any leftover, simply spoon each salad into separate storage-type containers and keep refrigerated until the next meal. Such leftovers can make for another lighter meal such as for a lunch.
Bon Appetit!
