summer salads please

Here's one of my creations...I love it.

Chickpea salad

2 cans garbanzo beans/chickpeas (rinsed
1 clove of garlic minced
2 red bell peppers, chopped into pieces about the same size as the chickpeas
1 whole cucumber, seeds scooped out and cut into small chunks
handful of raw spinach, shredded/ chopped into small bits
handfull (small bunch) cilantro diced up very fine
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all ingredients and add salt and pepper to taste.

This salad keeps in the fridge for 4 days and has 7 servings (1 cup each) with only 168 calories per serving. It's my go-to salad for lunch, and it's packed with flavor and very nutritious.

Another one:

Cucumber salad

3 large cucumbers, sliced thin
2 tbspoons of fresh green onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup of lite sour cream
juice of 1/2 lemon

Mix all ingredients and let sit in fridge for a few hours. this makes 6 1/2 cup servings with basically no calories. (1/4 cup of Breakstones light sour cream only has 80 calories, 3 whole cucumbers have 150 calories, lemon juice has 6 calories, so the 6 servings are splitting 231 calories for a grand total of 38.5 cal per serving).

This one works great for picnics, grilling, etc when you want to skip potato salad or coleslaw, but still want the cool, creamy salad that remind you of summer.

Kale salad with walnuts, raisins, granny smith apples and red peppers. Tossed in olive oil and red wine vinegar. Season with a little pinch of salt and pepper....it's amazing,.

Quinoa salad is great - try pomegrantae beads and mint.

Dressing is dead easy - I like to use hemp oil, or walnut oil, especially if I have toasted walnuts in the salad. And either lemon/ lime juice or balsamic vinegar.

Salad Nicoise :bigsmile:

My family's current favorite (I'm cutting and pasting from allrecipes.com). I omit the olives and cut the olive oil down to about 2 Tbsp and use more like a whole bell pepper (usually orange because I like how it looks with the red tomatoes). We love this and it's so easy!

Herb Vegetable Orzo Salad


Ingredients

1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper
1/2 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup pitted Greek olives, halved
1/4 cup chopped sweet onion
1/4 cup minced fresh basil
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water. Place in a large serving bowl; add the corn, red pepper, tomatoes, olives, onion, basil and parsley. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; shake well. Pour over salad and toss to coat.

Your chickpea salad sounds awesome

http://www.skinnytaste.com/search/label/Salads?m=1

When summer comes I love a melon salad that you can mix and match using cantelope or watermelon or both.

1/2 watermelon cubed
1 long english cucumber cubed
red onion - to your own taste
1/4 cup seeded sunflower seeds (or more or another seed choice)
1 cup feta cheese ( again more or less if you like)
fresh chopped basil or you can use mint leaves

Dressing:
grape seed oil
white wine vinegar
honey
salt & pepper to taste

This salad is so refreshing and is so veristile. the dressing is made to each persons liking I just made it up and don't really have a recipe. The salad I've tried a few combos this one is the best for me.

thanks enjoy!