Make a cool accompaniment to your next grilled meal, or create an entire meal out of a salad.
By Janet Groene, F47166
July 2014
Salads can serve as a meal or just one course. They can be hot or cold, fresh or prepared ahead, totally raw or assembled completely from packaged supplies. They’re a natural for motorhome cooks who want meals that are swift and sensible yet have a touch of class.
You can even incorporate salads into your travel schedule. Travel to Arizona, for the annual Yuma Lettuce Days festival in March; to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, for the Dandelion Festival each Memorial Day weekend; and to Stockton, California, for the Asparagus Festival in April. LaBelle, Florida, hosts a Swamp Cabbage Festival in February, the same month San Diego, California, has its Kale Festival. Lexena, Kansas, is known for its Spinach Festival each September.
Whether you camp close to home or range far and wide in search of fresh farm produce at roadside stands, farmers markets, and hometown festivals, these salad recipes win a grand slam in the galley.
Swedish-Style Cucumber Salad
3 medium fresh, unwaxed cucumbers
1 medium sweet onion
½ cup white vinegar*
¼ cup sugar or equivalent
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried dill weed or 1 tablespoon chopped, fresh dill weed (or more to taste)
Slice unpeeled cucumbers paper-thin. Peel the onion and slice it in rings. Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cool the mixture and pour it over the cucumbers. Fold in the dill weed and chill. This makes six servings.
*Don’t use colored vinegar. It will discolor the cucumbers.
Brussels Sprouts Salad
1 20-ounce bag brussels sprouts
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large sweet onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 ½ cups ranch salad dressing (more or less to taste)
¼ cup crisp, crumbled, cooked bacon (optional)
Trim the sprouts, cut them in half, and cook them just until crisp-tender. Drain well. Toss with lemon juice. At this point they can be refrigerated for up to three days to use later. If refrigerated, the sprouts may need to be drained again. To proceed, toss the sprouts with the onion and dill weed. Fold the dressing into the sprouts. Sprinkle with bacon if desired. Chill. This recipe yields six servings
Citrus Spinach Salad
6 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 large orange, peeled and sectioned
1 medium grapefruit, peeled and sectioned
1 medium tangelo, peeled and sectioned
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and cut in crescents
4 to 6 slices precooked bacon, cut up
½ cup bottled citrus vinaigrette
½ cup (or more to taste) broken cashews
Trim the spinach and remove any large stems and veins. Toss the spinach with the fruit, bacon, and vinaigrette. Arrange on plates and sprinkle with cashews. This recipe yields four to six servings.
Asian Occasion Cabbage Salad
1 16-ounce package shredded cabbage for coleslaw
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
½ cup (more or less to taste) bottled sesame and ginger vinaigrette
Crisp Chinese noodles
Sliced almonds
Toss the shredded cabbage, scallions, and sesame seeds with the dressing. Top with crisp noodles and sliced almonds. This makes four to six servings.
Slow Cooker Bean Salad
Bean salad recipes have been around for generations under various names, such as three-bean, six-bean, and so on. You can even buy three-bean salad in a can. The more types of beans, the more color and contrast. Make this big-batch bean salad for a party or potluck at a fraction of the cost of canned beans, because you cook the beans from scratch.
1 16-ounce bag 15-bean soup mix
1 large sweet onion, finely diced
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 large red sweet pepper, seeded and diced
3 to 4 ribs celery, diced
1 cup (more or less to taste) red wine vinaigrette
Rinse and soak the beans according to package directions. Drain the beans and put them in a slow cooker with fresh water to cover. The included flavoring pack is optional; I don’t use it. Cook 4 to 6 hours on the high setting, just until the beans are tender. Cool the beans and drain off any excess water. Fold in the vegetables and the vinaigrette. Serve at room temperature or chilled. This recipe makes 14 potluck servings.
Fruity Chicken Salad
1 10-ounce can cooked chunk chicken breast, drained, or 1 ½ cups diced, cooked chicken
1 small, tart apple, cored and diced
1 10-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained
3 to 4 tablespoons dried cranberries
½ cup creamy Italian dressing
Lettuce
Roasted cashews or pecans
Carefully fold together the chicken, apple, oranges, cranberries, and dressing. Arrange lettuce on plates and fill with salad. Garnish with roasted cashews or pecans. This makes four main-dish portions.
Hot ’N Hammy Salad
Strive for color variety in the salad greens by mixing red leaf lettuce, frisee, radicchio, buttercrunch lettuce, head lettuce, baby beet greens, and so on. Add some fresh herb leaves if you have them. Toss cold greens and hot dressing and serve at once.
4 ounces (1/4 pound) shaved deli ham
8 cups mixed greens, washed and dried
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced very thin
1 wedge Parmesan cheese
Dressing:
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup red or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Tear the ham into bite-size shreds. Set aside. In a large bowl, toss the greens with the scallions and onion. Heat the dressing ingredients together until the sugar dissolves. Toss warm dressing with the greens and place on salad plates. Top with ham and slices of Parmesan. This recipe yields four to six servings.
Cook’s note: This same mixture also can be used to make burritos. Working quickly, place greens on tortillas using tongs and shaking off excess dressing. Top with ham and Parmesan cheese; wrap; and serve.
Rice And Shrimp Salad
Vary this salad by using a boxed rice mix or different types of rice such as jasmine or a rice-lentil mix. When you’re in a hurry, use ready-to-serve rice.
1 12- to 16-ounce package peeled, deveined, tail-off shrimp
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 cup mayonnaise
4 cups cooked rice, cooled
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and sliced
3 radishes, trimmed and coarsely chopped
¼ cup salad olives, drained
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 to 3 ribs celery, diced
2 6-ounce jars quartered, marinated artichoke hearts, well drained
Thaw the shrimp and let it drain. In a large bowl, whisk the curry powder into the mayonnaise. Fold in the remaining ingredients and serve at once or chill to serve later.
Salad Suggestions
- Serve pasta salads on a bed of baby spinach leaves or shredded lettuce. Scoop the salad into lettuce cups, roll up, and eat out of your hand.
- Experiment with the entire alphabet of greens from arugula to yard-long beans. At farmers markets, chat with growers for serving suggestions. It’s part of the travel experience to learn local names and uses for chicory, curly endive, mache, tatsoi, mizuna, cress, and so on.
- Change a green salad into a main dish by adding ingredients such as chopped hard-cooked eggs, diced meat or chicken, crumbled bacon, roasted nuts, or diced tofu.
- Chop vegetables, then toss them with ready-to-serve brown rice and salad dressing to taste. Serve cold.
- Parboil tough vegetables such as carrots or beets and marinate them in dressing for several hours; then, toss with torn lettuce.
- Make quick potato salad by adding diced, crunchy celery and sweet onion to a tub of ready-to-serve mashed potatoes. Add mayonnaise and prepared mustard to taste.
- Serve salads in edible dishes: tuna salad in green pepper halves, shrimp salad in avocados, fruit salad in cantaloupe cavities.
- Pile deli chicken salad into ice cream cones to eat on the go.
- When you run short of crisp celery and other fresh vegetables to add crunch to a salad, try using canned water chestnuts (rinsed and drained).
- When making potato salad, use ranch dressing instead of mayonnaise for a change.
- For a burst of sunny color on the table, buy a package of shredded carrots and toss them with French dressing and golden raisins.
Reader Recipe
Thanks to Joan Tandy, F420459, of Durham, Ontario, for this quickie recipe. It’s a thick, hearty soup that tastes oh, so good on that first night out when you want a comforting dish in a jiffy. I recommend diced, rather than stewed, tomatoes, and I use low-sodium canned goods. You can always add salt to taste.
Baked Bean Soup
1 19-ounce can stewed tomatoes
1 14-ounce can baked beans in tomato sauce
1 cup water
½ cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried parsley
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the tomatoes, beans, water, onion, basil, and parsley. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes. Top each serving with shredded cheese, if desired. This recipe makes four cups. Joan accompanies the soup with whole-wheat toast or bagels and frozen yogurt for dessert. She also recommends drinking plenty of fluids with this high-fiber meal.
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