the summer salad (a guide) + lemon tahini dressing.

It is the summer of the salad.  And I'm not talking about some bland leafy lettuce salad with a boring vinaigrette. I am talking about the salad as the meal.  Chock-full of textures and flavors.  It's how I like to eat salad especially now that we've reached the official start of summer; when days are long and sticky and food should be light and easy but interesting. It's also super easy to make an interesting and exciting salad when we are at the peek of farmers market produce season, especially if you adopt my motto of "cram as much peek season produce as possible into your meals".

And how do I want to dress said salad?  With a lemon tahini dressing of course. This has been my go-to dressing for weeks now.  I've paired it with everything from burrata and sugar snap peas to arugula and peas.  It just somehow works with everything and it provides the kind of earthy unami flavor that I come to crave.  Utterly brilliant.  

New Life Motto - Salads make summer eating easy.           

The Summer Salad (A Guide)

We eat a salad like this at least once a week if not more because it's easy and refreshing and satisfying.  It's also a rather excellent way to use up those little scraps and containers that seem to languish in the fridge. Below are some of my favorite combinations but the world is your oyster. Just make sure you make the dressing.   Serve with a wedge of good bread (and rose if you choose).   Dinner is served.   

Baby Arugula + Peas + Cubed Avocado + Cannelini Beans + Hot Sopressata + Aged Cheddar
Burrata + Snow Peas + Sugar Snap Peas + Avocado + Pumpkin Seeds + Torn Basil 
Green Beans + Grilled Haloumi + Toasted Walnuts + Pumpkin Seeds + Sesame Seeds + Currants 

Lemon Tahini Dressing

1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
2 teaspoons Mikes Hot Honey (or 2 teaspoons Honey and a pinch of red pepper flakes)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Taste.  Adjust seasonings as necessary.  I find that if I have a particularly juicy lemon I sometimes need a little extra tahini to balance the flavors.   Pour over the salad and eat!