Oh my gosh, I almost forgot today was the salad edition of Overwhelmed With Joy's Favorite Ingredients Friday. Cameron's here today. So that explains that! :-)
What could be more perfect for these long, hot final days of summer than salads?
This is the salad I've mentioned several times before, the one my family always requests when we're having a big family dinner. There's no actual recipe.
The secret to this salad is the combination of things that are in it. Actually, the bigger secret is the things that aren't in it.
All my life I made the standard lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad. Just your basic dinner salad. Then I met Suzanne. Suzanne was my next door neighbor when we lived in St. Charles, Missouri. She was from Santa Barbara and she was a California girl through and through.
We lived in a wonderful, friendly neighborhood and amazingly, we all had little girls right around the same age. (Oh, the birthday parties we had!) We lived on a culdesac and had block parties about once a month. Everyone brought a pot luck dish and I'll never forget the Saturday Suzanne was in a hurry and just threw a salad together to contribute. It was a simple salad, nothing fancy, but my word, it was (and is) the most delicious salad I've ever tasted.
A combination of lettuces: Romaine, red leaf, green leaf, endive - any kind of lettuce but iceberg (boring!) And fresh spinach. Lots of fresh spinach.
Add: sprouts (I like alfalfa sprouts), salted sunflower kernels, diced avocados and croutons.
I make my own croutons. I simply cut about half a loaf of French bread into large cubes and saute them in lots of butter over very high heat until they're nice and browned. I lay them out on brown paper to drain. The homemade croutons are a huge factor in the way this salad tastes.
Toss everything together with a light coating of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.
No tomatoes! No cucumbers! Those are regular, boring salad ingredients and will detract from the California-y flavor of this salad. I do add whole black olives sometimes.
This is a dinner salad to accompany a meal. But it's easily turned into dinner itself by adding cooked chicken strips.
Try it. I swear, you'll be amazed how good it is.
For more great salad recipes
or to contribute your own favorite recipe,
visit Overwhelmed With Joy.
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23 comments:
Sounds yummy! I love a good salad, but don't make them well myself. There are just people out there who excel in salad making. YOu are obviously one of those people.
Thanks for your prayers!
Yummy, yummy, and it goes with almost anything. Next thing you know, I'll want one of your terrific steaks, too. I'll remember, no tomatoes, no cucumbers, nor boring iceberg lettuce.
Yum...sounds delightful for these oh-so-hot August days. Around here we generally like anything that has avocado in it, and the ranch dressing is just a bonus. :-)
*Smacks self upside the head*
I should know better by now, but obviously I don't. I'm starving and of course when I saw you had a new post up I should have known you'd posted a recipe!
This sounds delicious, Barb. I love salads, and especially fresh spinach and avocados and fresh croutons, oh my! Ain't gonna happen tonight, though. I don't have any of the ingredients except the sunflower seeds and the ranch dressing. This one will definitely go on my to-make list!
Hope you're doing well, friend. Emmy's gone to her other Grandma's and I'm enjoying the computer time without a baby in my arms or yelling in my ear. ;-)
Love and hugs,
Diane
I will ... I'll try it. thanks.
I can tell you are not a southerner, saying iceberg lettuce is boring. :) That is our favorite. We hate it when we go to a certain restaurant to eat buffet style, and they don't have iceberg lettuce on the salad table. But, this salad sounds good, too.
That sounds delicious. I will have to try those croûtons.
I've had this salad and it's wonderful, wonderful! I'll have to whip it up again sometime soon. xoxoox
The salad ingredients sound wonderful, but I'll pass on the dressing. I'm the only person in the world that doesn't care for ranch dressing. ;o)
This does sound good...and I like avocados in my salad. I'm going to have to try making the homemade croutons too!
BTW - I was having trouble getting on a few blogs last night too, glad it seems to be working today!
That salad sounds yummy- I love avocado and don't use it nearly enough in my own salads! Ditto with any kinds of sunflower seeds!
I loved hearing about your neighborhood block parties and b-days...so wish I could experience that here- sounds wonderful!
Have a great weekend, Barb!
(I'm off to Seattle!) xxoo
Yummy. It does sound very Califoriany! :v)
Yum! I hate iceberg lettuce, tomatoes & cucumbers. I would love this salad!
Yum-o!
Wow Barb! I could leave you a mile long reply to this post! I have posted a few times to you and lurked for a while, but how funny, that I live in St. Charles, Missouri! I knew you mentioned you lived in St. Louis, but who would have thought!
I just hosted a block party last Tuesday for National Night out for my cul de sac. Too fun! (Although I almost got arrested and you would have to go to my blog to read about that!) Sounds like you had parties with my friend Joyce!
And be careful with those lettuces still! My mom is in the hospital with ecoli! It may have come from a leafy salad she got from Fridays. We will let the Health dept. figure that one out if they ever can.
I had posted earlier that I took the quiz on the whereshouldyou live (or called something like that website!) and it said my ideal place to live would be Fort Collins CO! Hi Mandy, right?
Anyway, thats all I think I wanted to say for now! Love your blog!
Thanks for the salad idea, especially the way to make croutons. We eat ALOT of salads here in the summer, where the east Texas heat and humidity can be brutal. Anything to avoid heating up the kitchen!
That's pretty much how I fix our salads, only I've never thought about adding avocados. Sounds great!
We prefer our salads with the darker green lettuces too.
If I have time I like to add some boiled eggs and some shredded cheese. I love Ranch dressing! I dip my grilled chicken or chicken strips in it.
Hey Barb...I got my wonderful book today.....I love it. And cant wait to read it. It's so exciting to receive something from you......
Your salad looks wonderful....I'm making alot of salads next week due to the heat.....thank you again dear friend for my book....
Ooooh, that sounds so yummy, Barb. And, I think the avocado should be elevated unto it's own food group :), so I'll really have to try it. Perhaps that will keep me from just eating it right off the pit as I usually do! Thanks for the recipe. Also, I'll ask my church about the lovely giveaway you've posted and get back in the drawing if there's an interest. How sweeet of you to offer. xxxooogretchen
This sounds wonderful but being raised in sunny SoCal, I can't imagine a salad without tomatoes! Tomatoes are SoCal! Anyway, I am sure it is spectacular but being a tomato addict, I think tiny grape tomatoes would be awesome in it. ☺
Love your green salad combo! :) I think I'd add steak strips to mine...I'm not a big fan of chicken.
Thanks for participating in my FIF recipe exchange! :)
I know this may seem like a weird comment, but I just wanted to let you know that I am reading your blog still! I go back to work tomorrow and will not be able to comment like ever from there and once I get home, well, kids, hubs dinner etc!
Thanks for being so sweet to keep coming to my blog even though I hardly ever post!!
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