close

SIMMER + SAUCE

Farmers Market Summer Salad

A beautiful summer salad is something we could all afford to eat more regularly.  Most people go to farmer’s markets and are excited to buy a collection of beautiful seasonal fruits and vegetables; but later at home, it is not always clear what to make with the cornucopia of items purchased.  When in doubt, I say make a beautiful, bountiful, colorful, farm-fresh salad.

summer salad

I like to toss my salad with a light, simple dressing that compliments the fresh, earthy farm-to-table flavors.  My husband recently discovered how great a simple champagne vinaigrette can be.  I could not agree more.  It is a classic dressing, and a welcome change from the overused (and often poorly made) balsamic vinaigrette.  My best advice for making your salad dressing is to flavor balance and adjust the seasoning to your liking.  And when dressing the salad, less is always more.  Overdressed salads are heavy and unappealing, and cause the greens to wilt.  Dress a salad right before serving and toss it gently to incorporate and coat the fresh vegetables. Like my kale salad, this summer salad is a great and easy go-to for me each week.

The vegetables in this recipe came from a quaint local market near me, a small operation that began in 1992.   Here I can find a wide variety of organic fruits and vegetables among other local treats from nearby farmers in the Central Valley, Half Moon Bay, and Watsonville.  Buying my fruits and vegetables at this market supports these local farmers.  The local organization that organizes the market arranges for farmers to donate extra produce left over at the end of the event to organizations that feed the homeless.  So this is a lovely salad and, if you can, buying the ingredients at a local farmers market like mine can support local farmers and local communities.

summer salad

About the Author

Andrea Potischman

I am a professionally trained NYC chef turned CA mom and food blogger. I post about real food, with doable ingredient lists that are family friendly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Policy

Simmer + Sauce reserves the right to remove or restrict comments that do not contribute constructively to the topic conversation, contain profanity or offensive language, personal attacks, or seek to promote a personal or unrelated business. Any post found to be in violation of any of these guidelines will be modified or removed without warning. When making a comment on my blog, you grant Simmer + Sauce permission to reproduce your content to our discretion, an example being for a possible endorsement or media kit purposes. If you don’t want your comment to be used for such purposes, please explicitly state this within the body of your comment. If you find evidence of copyright infringement in the comments of simmerandsauce.com, contact me and I will remove that in question promptly.