Great Summer Salads

Besides looking crisp and cool, cukes offer up lots of vitamin C. 

By including a variety of ingredients, salads are often a nutritional powerhouse: This recipe provides lots of antioxidants from the grapes, healthy fats and vitamin E from the sunflower seeds and grapeseed oil, and folate and vitamin A from the arugula. A sweet mustard vinaigrette dressing matches both the peppery bitterness of the greens and the sweet juiciness of the grapes. Try this salad topped with salmon or tuna for a healthful dinner.

Fresh and fast, this meatless main redefines the art of convenience cooking. We toast the bread in the oven, but if you already have the grill cranked up, this salad easily transitions to an outdoor dish. If your bakery carries whole-grain ciabatta, use it for a nutrition boost.

This earthy whole-grain salad holds up well, so it's a good make-ahead option; just bring it to room temperature before serving for the best flavor.

Tomatoes are a summer superstar. Enjoy them in a refreshing salad or simply sliced. Sweet peach dressing amps up the summery deliciousness in this simple salad.

"This is an obvious play on melon wedges wrapped in prosciutto," Christensen says. "Here the melon is sliced to the same thickness as the ham. Instead of 'making melon taste good,' it puts two beautiful things in balance. I love the balance of the musky fruit with the salty-sweet ham and the creaminess of the burrata cheese (you can sub fresh mozzarella). You have a lot of strong flavors at play, and the cheese sets the canvas for the whole thing.”

Look for pea tendrils or shoots at your farmers market or Asian markets; if you can't find them, substitute watercress or arugula.

Layer a colorful salad in portable glass jars. Kids will give it a thumbs-up. Make these salads up to a day ahead; pack them tightly with the dressing on the bottom, followed by denser ingredients that won't get soggy while they marinate. Customize with your favorite seasonal veggies, fresh cheeses, and whole grains. These make great additions to lunch bags, picnic baskets, or road trip coolers and can easily double if you need lunch for 4 people.

To achieve beautiful, crater-free spheres, press the cup of the melon baller flat and firmly into the flesh of a halved seeded melon. Then turn 180 degrees (or 360 degrees if the melon needs additional shaping), and lift.

Wild porcini mushrooms and artichokes are in season from late spring to early summer and again in early fall in the Pacific Northwest. Fresh porcini are sweet, woodsy, and delicious when thinly sliced and served raw. Substitute thinly sliced cremini mushrooms if you can't get fresh porcini.

The smoky bacon-mustard dressing that coats this salad is a play on Hot German Potato Salad, a summertime favorite and a classic Pennsylvania Dutch dish.

With fresh green beans, hearty garbanzos, and a smoky-creamy dressing, this Spanish tapas-style dish is unlike any other tuna salad you've tried. But it still takes less than 10 minutes to make and contains fewer than 400 calories per serving. High-quality tuna is a must; check European or Mediterranean markets for imported oil-packed tuna.

Heirloom Charentais melons have smooth, gray-green skin and bright orange flesh that is supersweet and fragrant. For a substitute you can use a combination of honeydew melon and cantaloupe.

Melon and prosciutto are a classic pairing; Parmigiano-Reggiano (don't skimp―use the real stuff) pumps up their flavor with its deep savoriness. Make this salad the centerpiece of an antipasto meal by serving with bruschetta and an assortment of olives, cheeses, and slices of salami or ham.

This light and fresh pasta salad, with its easy sweet-sour-spicy dressing, is wonderfully versatile. Serve as a side to just about any pork, beef, or salmon dish, or mix in canned tuna, leftover chicken, or chopped hard-boiled egg for a simple and healthful brown-bag lunch at work or school.

An Asian-flavored vinaigrette with an orange juice kicker is the secret to this simple salad, while ginger and cumin give the shrimp skewers nice spice.

One of our favorite things about summer is the effortless splendor of heirloom tomato salads. Ripe, peak-season specimens need almost no adornment, so skip the granita if you're in a rush. But if you have a few hours to let it freeze, it will make this dish spectacular.

With plenty of chicken, creamy avocado, bacon, and blue cheese, this is the classic entrée salad. Bottled Italian dressing cuts down on time (the whole recipe, including cooking the chicken, takes less than 15 minutes). But if you like, you can whip a quick low-fat vinaigrette for that homemade touch.

With a dressing of almond oil and a white wine reduction, plus a topping of tangy goat cheese, this recipe brings some added elegance to the everyday fruit salad. It makes a nice light lunch or dinner starter on its own, but you can top with sliced chicken breast to make it more substantial. Either way, serve with chilled glasses of the wine you used in the dressing.

English peas and mint are a classic combination, given extra depth of flavor here with the addition of savory pecorino and bitter arugula. Fresh lemon juice (always better than bottled) in the dressing brightens all the flavors. Crumbled feta or goat cheese make excellent substitutes for pecorino, and if you can't find fresh English peas, try green beans or sugar snap peas, or use frozen.

With a full pound of crabmeat, this is a luxurious dish that captures the fresh flavors of summer. It's a great way to highlight heirloom tomatoes from your local farmer's market or, even better, your own garden. A cold soup like vichyssoise or cucumber soup (or gazpacho, if you're a real tomato lover) makes a perfect pairing.

Opposites attract in this dish: hot steak sits atop cold salad, and tender meat contrasts with crunchy vegetables. The basic salad with red wine-lemon vinaigrette is easy and works great, but you can customize the salad with your favorite vegetables (or fruits) and dressing. Just about anything will match the steak.

Main-dish salads with just greens can feel insubstantial at times, so this dish adds a base of orzo to fresh arugula, tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, and basil. Tangy goat cheese gives a luscious creaminess to each bite, and chopped chicken makes for a filling meal. Leave out the chicken and double the other ingredients for a picnic pasta salad that'll drive guests wild.

This simple no-cook salad is one of the best ways to highlight heirloom tomatoes, with its counterpoint of pungent raw onion and a light Dijon vinaigrette. You can also make this salad the spotlight of a great BLT (use the dressing in place of mayo), or add sliced mozzarella cheese for a Creole Caprese Salad.

Blanching some of the vegetables before grilling ensures they'll be cooked to perfection, but adds only three minutes to the cooking time. You can also grill the veggies ahead of time and assemble this salad in seconds. The fantastic dressing is sure to become a staple, too; you can put it on anything.

The salty and sweet flavor combination in this salad cannot be beat. A drizzle of tangy balsamic proves to be the perfect finishing touch.

Grilling the vegetables brings unexpected smokiness to a familiar picnic staple.

This mayonnaise-based pasta salad veers from the traditional with salty Italian ham, nutty asparagus, and a generous grinding of pepper.

Creamy and tangy, this simple side comes together in a flash. Don't make the salad ahead--the cucumbers will release too much water.

"When I was growing up in Mexico City, my parents would throw wonderful ­summer barbecues," says Chef Medina (Toloache, Yerba Buena, Coppelia, New York City). "We would grill corn on the cob and mix in leftover beans from the weekend and make a delicious, simple corn and bean salad." This Latin-accented three-bean and corn salad is studded with guacamole components: jalapeño, cilantro, white onion, lime, and avocado.

Grilling lettuce gives it a hint of smokiness and lends the leaves crisp-tender contrast. Toasted garlic bread stands in for croutons.

Don’t forget that something fresh, vibrant, and crunchy is often missing from potluck gatherings; this easy salad will get gobbled up quickly because it satisfies on those levels.

This is a simplified version of the splendid Indonesian salad called gado gado, which along with satay is practically a national dish, often served with crunchy shrimp crackers. It uses shortcut ingredients in the sauce—peanut butter, curry paste—to speed things along. For a spicier dressing, stir in sambal oelek or Sriracha.

To make this a full whole-grain salad, avoid pearled farro, which has been partially processed. Yes, it takes a little longer, but to save time, hunt down some precooked whole-grain farro. It's found on the rice aisle. The recipe, however, begins with uncooked grain, which needs an hour in the pot and a little time to cool. We recently tasted—and loved—Wild Planet's wild albacore tuna, jarred in olive oil, which is firm, meaty, rich, and moist. We also love that it's sustainable, 100% pole and troll caught.

Sweet, briny shrimp are lovely here—seared scallops would be, too. For a beautiful garnish, purchase edible flowers, separate the petals, and scatter them on top. Grilled whole-wheat pita makes wonderfully thin croutons; we like whole-wheat, but you can use white pita, too.

Look for caper berries near the olives in the supermarket; they should be next to the capers, but they're much bigger and have a stem. In a pinch, substitute about a tablespoon of chopped capers. Japanese eggplants have thinner skins than typical globe eggplants, so you can leave the peel on. The light purple color is pretty, too.

Use the bottom part of ciabatta for this salad. The crusty, flat surface is easier to grill and provides more crunch. Don't skip the delicious pickled vegetable topping—it's earthy, crunchy, sweet-sour, and welcome in every bite.

Heirloom tomatoes serve as the base for this vibrant and delicious vegetable salad.

Briny feta cheese and tangy lime juice make great partners for sweet watermelon.

Ready in just 10 minutes, this simple side salad is the perfect addition to a variety of meat-based main dishes.

If you're in the mood for a light, yet filling meal, this mix of bountiful greens adds up to just 400 calories. But beware, a little of our dressing goes a long way. Start with 1 tablespoon; toss well. If the greens still seem dry, add 1 tablespoon more at a time.

Prepare the salad up to 1 day ahead, and store in the refrigerator. If you can't find fresh cranberry beans, substitute rinsed and drained canned cannellini beans, and add them to the snap beans for the last 2 minutes of cooking.

Ample beefsteak tomatoes are the ones you want to eat uncooked: They are fleshy, big, juicy, and so delicious. Saving the skins and frying them is a genius touch, creating a beautiful garnish with bacony qualities.

This simple salad calls for avocado, which is readily available in the spring through autumn, making it the perfect summer supper. Here's a promising tip: serve your salad on a plate to keep all those tasty (and heavy) toppings from collecting in the bottom, as they might in a bowl. 

For this salad, leave the skins on the cucumbers, and mix varieties. For our photo, we used a combination of typical Persian and unique lemon cucumbers. Lovage is a great cucumber herb—lively but not overwhelming. If you have it, use it in place of the celery leaves and flat-leaf parsley. Or change directions and go for dill, another natural with cukes.

Farro is a quick-cooking grain with a mild flavor, perfect for a summer salad. Add juicy cherries, crunchy celery, and a mustardy dressing for the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry, or fish. If you can't find farro, you can substitute wheat berries, barley, or quinoa.