Labor Day Salads For End Of Summer

green beans

It’s a fact, the end of summer is here. The light is changing already and soon fall and comfort foods will be on the horizon.

Labor Day is just a few days away and there’s still a surplus of summer veggies still available. These salads are easy to put together and great to bring to any cookout, BBQ or just as a side dish for your own personal grilling.

Most salads here have no recipes linked because visually you can see all the ingredients I used, and as far as dressings go you can make your own favorites, but I’ll mention the ones I used.

On the bean salad above I used a balsamic vinaigrette tossed with a mix of colorful veggies and haricot verts.

Greek salad

For this Greek salad I used a good quality olive oil with Greek oregano, salt and pepper.

burrata cheese

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes that I’m dearly going to miss! Adorned with burrata cheese, homemade basil pesto and olive oil.

fresh figs

Figs are coming in strong for their last hurrah, here’s the link how I put it together.

summer tomatoes

More tomatoes of course, on a bed of arugula with my favorite castelvetrano olives, red onion and a generous olive oil drizzle.

tomato salad

Mix up a “salsa” of small diced corn, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, fresh mozzarella and chickpeas, over a layer of cooked green beans or haricot verts with a healthy dose of olive oil.

zucchini asparagus salad

With this panzanella salad you could easily replace the asparagus with green or yellow beans, here’s the link how I put it together.

tomato and cucumbers

I can’t put a number on how many tomato and cucumber salads we had all summer, it’s a staple in my house, it’s quick to make and the perfect side for summer eating. Good quality olive oil, fresh basil from the garden, it  doesn’t get better than that! You can toss in some toasted. bread cubes or not!

grilled potato salad

Grilled potatoes and grilled corn get tossed together with a combination of Mediterranean ingredients as shown below, the dressing I used was a white balsamic vinaigrette.

salad ingredients

I hope these salads inspire you to use up the best and the last of summers bounty, I know I’ll be dreaming about those exquisite summer tomatoes in the dead of winter!

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Time to Lighten Up!

Gone are all the cookies, cakes and heavy foods, it’s time to snap out of it!
 Now I’m craving all things green, lighter fare, and it feels good. I’ve made this salad three times already, it’s that good! Simple ingredients, but the combination of flavors work so well together.
Roasted butternut squash, feta cheese, toasted pecans, sliced red onion and a generous sprinkling of pomegranate arils all laying on a bed of spinach tossed in white wine vinegar and olive oil. 
I love these little jewels, even though it can be a little messy when de-seeding them. I find that by cutting them in half and whacking the back with a meat mallet or heavy spoon preferably over a bowl does the trick fast and easy and all the arils just fall right out.
Kale is another green I crave and this healthy bowl of soup just makes me feel good.
 No real recipe here just leftover roasted butternut squash and chicken along with some white beans, lots of kale, carrots and leeks bathing in a chicken or vegetable based broth cooked with a parmesan rind.
 It’s all good, lets hope I keep this up!
Buon Appetito!

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