Salads Recipes

Ah, garden-fresh simple salads. It doesn’t get any better! We grow salad greens in our garden and nothing compares to it. When lettuce is harvested fresh from the garden, it is so crisp, fresh, and full of flavor. Making homemade salad dressings is frugal and so handy when you get an abundance of lettuce. We are able to grow lettuce twice here in our climate (growing zone 8). That’s once in the spring and once in the fall. If we had a greenhouse, we’d probably have leafy greens all year round.

When lettuce is not in season to grow, I’ll buy a 3-pack of Romaine heads and a head of Ice berg lettuce for making my own salad mixes. It’s much cheaper to buy the whole heads and chop it yourself, then grate in a carrot and you have a homemade salad mix. I love my salad spinner to wash lettuce in a vinegar solution then spin it dry. I then transfer the chopped lettuce into a zip-lock bag lined with a paper towel. Now, I have ready-to-use salad at any given moment! Keeping lettuce is a fridge staple in my book, it’s versatile and a standby side, that is quick to make. All of my salad recipes are kitchen-tested and approved by me. -Chef Alyona