This!

I make the sauce about 1/3 bigger; and I use red and green peppers and about two cups total, so one cup of each. HUGE hit every time I've made it.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/red-potato-salad-recipe.html

My cousin always brings a pasta salad to the picnics which is very meaty...much like this one, but she uses mozzarella instead of the provolone.

We just had quinoa salad with dinner -- the recipe I use includes the quinoa plus diced cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, parsley, mint, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. Sometimes I throw in crumbled feta, too.

I used to have a recipe for orzo salad that included feta cheese and was sooo good. I need to find that recipe again!

I recently had a quinoa salad. It had cucumbers, pineapple and manchego cheese. The dressing was very light, and I thought if I try to replicate it, I'd do a lemon vinaigrette.

Very refreshing.

I make a boiled slaw that is so easy and gets better after a couple of days, so you can actually make it more than a day ahead.

Dressing:

• 1 cup of vinegar
• 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 to 1.5 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of celery seed

I simply shred a large head of cabbage and a very large onion. Then, cook the dressing (boil all except oil for two minutes and then add oil and return to a boil), pour it over the cabbage and onion mixture while hot, toss, cover tightly, and refrigerate at least overnight. It is terrific.

I like Ina Garten's french Potato Salad. Add the fresh herbs before serving.

Orzo Salad with Asparagus

1/3 C toasted pine nuts

5T wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1 T lemon juice

1 T Dijon mustard

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh-ground pepper

9 T olive oil

1 box orzo

1 lb asparagus, trimmed, cut into ½
inch pieces

1 large tomato cut into ½ inch dice

½ C chopped red onion

Combine the vinegar, garlic, lemon
juice, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir in the oil.

Cook orzo until almost tender.
Add the asparagus and cook until both are done, about 5 minutes.

Drain/rinse the orzo
and asparagus. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the tomato and red onion.
Toss with the olive oil mixture. Stir in the pine nuts
just before serving.

ETA - Can add 1 1/3 lb boneless chicken thighs seasoned with S/P, simmered until cooked through, cut into 1/2 inch chunks and cooled.

One of my faves

Wild Rice Salad

I love Ina Garten's Shrimp orzo salad, you could leave the shrimp out if you prefer.

I like orzo salads, too. I make mine with feta, olive tapenade or chopped olives, toasted pine nuts, finely diced onion, seeded tomatoes, cucumbers and orange bell peppers...dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. If you wanted to go gluten-free, you could make a similar salad with quinoa.

Great ideas - thank-you. I'm leaning toward the wild rice salad for the pot luck as I don't have any other cold wild rice dish in my recipe portfolio and would like one. Plus I live in wild rice country (Minnesota) so always good to have another WR recipe. I do have some regular potato salad and orzo salad recipes that I make all the time but I need a change so these are good. And I have never found a good coleslaw recipe that I like so happy to see some recommendations for that. We make ribs on our Big Green Egg in the summer and I always wish I had a good coleslaw recipe to go with those.

I will be copying all of these into my "new stuff to try this summer" file.

3katz4me what an eloquent and classy response to all the yummy suggestions. I hope your dish is a great success and you have a really fun time!

Late to this (as usual), but anyway...

We recently had a potluck @ work for about 25 people & I was quite pleased that my offering was completely consumed w/ no leftovers to take home. I bought a pineapple, a large box of strawberries & a seedless watermelon, washed & cut everything up the night before, put it in covered bowls & arranged it on a huge serving platter right before serving.

I had to be there @ 8 am, since this was in conjunction w/ a day-long training session, & wanted to get to bed early the night before, after working until 6 pm, so this was simple & fast enough to get ready w/ no stress. Got a lot of appreciative comments too = )

FWIW, HTH

I love pasta salad. It is my go to take along. I use no mayo so it can sit out without as much fear. I make Italian dressing and use McCormicks Salad Supreme. Pasta and any veggies, meat, cheese, seafood....Yummy.

Never too late - I need all the new ideas I can get. We often have visitors at our weekend lake place and I'm just tired of the stuff I've been making for a few years.

It is a great thread. I have copied these good ideas and saved them as 'summer salads' and will be trying them this summer. DH loves coleslaw (I'm just ok with it)and I make mine sort of like lukki's, but I'm definitely trying the boiled dressing method. They all sound so good and cool. Just right for this hot weather!

My coleslaw recipe has been in our family for generations, learned from my mother.. My DH can't get enough of it.