Perfect Summer Salad
I am not even going to pretend. I am overwhelmed! We are moving into our new house, well 2 rooms of our new house in only 11 days and I honestly don’t know how we are going to pull it off. Our garages (that we were going to move our stuff into) are filled with construction materials, windows, and the like. The room that will be our temporary bedroom still has gapping holes in the ceiling, no carpet on the cement floors and holes in the walls, everywhere. It is going to be an interesting week up there as I know the builder is trying his hardest to get something for us to live in.
I have decided to let go and treat this as an adventure. I will take care of the things I can and let go of the things I can’t. It is going to be crazy but fun. It’s all in your attitude, right?
Making meals has almost become a joke at my house. My poor sweetie is used to lovely dinners almost every day of the week. Now, after spending the entire day chasing after tiles, paint colors, doors, and pretty much everything else required in the design of this home, and trying to work on top of that, dinner time comes and I have nothing left. “What’s for dinner?” is usually met with a blank stare.
I know many of you are so busy raising kids, working your butts off at jobs and taking care of your families, friends, or just yourself. Our lives have gotten unbelievably busy. At the end of the day, it is great to have a quick salad that you can just throw together and put on the table without too much effort.
I love this summer salad. Corn, tomatoes, and avocados are all in season and tasting delicious. This salad is accented with black beans and a chipotle dressing, which are completely optional if you want to keep it raw or lower in fat. I am going to break up the recipe for you so that you can serve it any way you wish. And feel free to be creative with it and add your own touch!
Tip
You can stop half way through this recipe if you want a lower-fat, completely raw version. This is shown with the beans added but not the dressing.
Perfect Summer Dinner Salad
SERVES 4
Salad
- 2 cups corn, fresh off the cob
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 2 medium avocados, diced
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
- 1 1/2 heads romaine lettuce, cut in half then sliced thinly
- juice from 2 limes
- 1/4 cup cilantro
You can stop here, add a little salt and pepper, toss and you will have a wonderful raw salad. Or, you can continue on and add:
- 2 cups cooked black beans
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup Chipotle Dressing (recipe follows)
- Toss all ingredients together.
Chipotle Dressing
- 1/2 cup cashews, soaked at least 6 hours
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Himalayan salt and pepper to taste
- Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth.
Nathalie wrote on August 28, 2014
Looks like a brilliant salad, I’m glad you can make it as a raw version too. However i do love paprika, so sounds like a delicious chipotle. Thanks for sharing this!
Susan wrote on August 30, 2014
You are welcome, Nathalie. Cheers!
Isabel wrote on August 27, 2014
Hey, it looks like a great recipe! I have a question regarding the dressing:
The cashew nuts, it sais “soak for at least 6 hours”, ok, in what? Please, someone, help me out here, I’m new in all this cooking experience.
Thank you
Susan wrote on August 30, 2014
Hi, Isabel, We traditionally soak nuts and seeds in water. Cheers!
Petra wrote on August 5, 2014
Susan, I can really understand you because this is my everyday reality: I’m working all day long and then coming home totally tired not even thinking of cooking… My husband is eating at work and the kids at school, but it would be also nice to have a dinner with them where we can talk about how was the day and so on… The good thing about living in Toronto is, that there are several raw restaurants which are still affordable and have delicious meals so from time to time we prefer to go out and have a relaxed family evening. Another plus is, that we know the right places to get really high quality food using ingredients grown by local farmers that looks so fabulous! So this is my “solution”, but of course only for the busy days because if I have a bit more time, I love to spend it in the kitchen 🙂