The Big Summer Salad

My Big Summer Salad is a big bowl of Summery, green beany, roasted peppery, salady goodness. Just throw together a selection of your favourite vegetables for this healthy and quick big salad.  

The weather and the green beans were the inspiration for this salad.  I wanted to use the beans in something more than a usual veggie accompaniment.  They are in season right now and I think a lovely addition to this salad.  

This is barely a recipe at all as it's so simple.  It's more a starting point for you to experiment and play around with the flavours and ingredients you want in your Big Summer Salad - just throw together your chosen selection of vegetables and you're almost there.  Perfect for this hot weather when you don't want to spend ages preparing a meal.  It's also great for using up fridge leftovers - I had some leftover roast chicken and peppers which I added to the mix, but you could use whatever you have that needs using up.  It would be really good with tuna or boiled eggs for an different take on the traditional Nicoise salad.  

The ingredient amounts are approximate and you can obviously leave out what you don't like, and add more of what you do. All you need to finish it off is dress with a few glugs of olive oil, the juice of a lemon and chopped fresh herbs.  The dressing really brings all the flavours together with a fresh citrussy zing!  

Let me know how you get on, and what you add to your Big Summer Salad.  

preparation time:  5-10 minutes

serves 2-3 as a main meal 

ingredients:

2 handfuls green beans

2 roasted peppers 

3 tomatoes 

handful of grated/finely chopped red cabbage

2 handfuls watercress/salad leaves

leftover chicken breast (optional)

juice of 1 lemon

few glugs olive oil

handful of chopped coriander/mint

salt and pepper to taste

method:  

1. top and tail the green beans then blanch in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes.  Drain and run under cold water
2. chop all your vegetables how you want them (I left the beans whole and roughly chopped everything else which gave it a somewhat 'rustic' charm) and add to a big bowl
3. toss together with the juice of one lemon, a few glugs of olive oil, fresh chopped coriander/mint and salt and pepper to taste
4. serve with a big chunk of fresh bread and butter if you like and enjoy.  

A perfect accompaniment for a BBQ or Summer buffet.  Other dishes of mine that would go well with this to make a bigger Summer buffet lunch or dinner are my: 

roasted butternut squash,caramelized lemon and berbere houmous

rose harissa lamb with roasted vegetable and grain salad 

Samphire and tomato salad

I have entered The Big Summer Salad onto:

July's entry hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage

I am also entering this recipe onto: Four Seasons Food hosted by Delicieux and Chezfoti to go with their BBQ and BBQ sides theme.

I have also entered this recipe into Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays over at Cookin w/ Luv