So many! Salad has been one of my favorite foods since childhood, when I used to save my salad (dressed with my dad's homemade dressing) to eat after dinner while watching TV. I can't have cheese or tomatoes (sad about the tomatoes!), but your salad sounds delicious, Hobbitmom!

Last night my dinner was a simple salad I make often: Romaine, avocado, chopped scallions, cucumbers, black olives, and cannned salmon. Dressing is added by ingredient to the salad: a little Lawry's seasoned salt and freshly-ground pepper, EVOO, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Variations include using green castelvetrano olives, green or red leaf lettuce, grapes instead of the olives, and various other protein sources. I might throw in some capers or whatever else appeals to me at the moment. I'll use balsamic vinegar instead of the lemon juice, depending on the protein source.

I love cabbage salads too!

I love salads too, and it's rarely too cold here to eat salad. I do like iceberg., a lot, though I don't make it that often because it's deliate. I don't have a particular salad I make. I just open the fridge and all. Most of my salads go over well. I mean, I like them, and I'm probably the pickiest one. :) But, should there be leftovers I've learned that they will keep, even dressed, well enough to eat next day, though not serve to company and iffy for the rest of the family. The trick is to put it loosely in a container with the air. It's the normal taking air away that one does storing food which makes a salad go gross. My magic fridge where stuff just keeps better surely helps, but salad in a plastic bag will die immediately, and in a full to similar lack of air container will too.

So, a specific salad I've made a lot tiis past year is shrimp with vegetables. They often have decent quality, loss leader cleaned and cooked, tail on shrimp at the store at a really good price. It's not a big issue to take the tail shell off leaving the meat, especially some something decent on TV. I cut those into 3-4 peices and dice to similar size bell peppers, avocado, cellery and scallions (a bit smaller), cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, maybe some whole blueberries, and whatever else catches my eye. Lightly dressed with doctored mayonnaise plus whatever flavors I think of at the moment. Best if it melds a few hours in the fridge, and good for a few days.

A commercial kitchen tip to help keep a dressed salad edible is to put a small, shallow bowl which is about the same diameter as the base of the storage bowl, upside down into the storage bowl, then put the dressed salad on top of it. The excess dressing and any vegetable juices run down and collect underneath the small bowl and keep the salad from going soggy.

Lazy me gets Traders packaged one with the dressing included and other additives like walnut,s, cheese, cranberry. My favorite was spinach with orange dressing, but it was not there today, so I got the new arugula mixed salad with lemon dressing, and it was no from both of us.

This is a favorite i use golden beets instead of the red ones delicious!

We too have switched from our weekly soup main meal to salad. This week we kicked it off with the classic Chef's salad. I just love the mixture of protein flavors.

Another favorite I call "Hamburger salad". It's supposed to mimic the flavors of a classic "California burger". Lettuce of your choice, tomatoes, onion, cheese, diced cooked bacon, toasted sesame seeds, dressed with a ketchup/mustard/pickle juice dressing. For croutons I buy potato sticks in a can.

Of course a great chicken salad that begins with a rotisserie chicken and includes curry is super delish! Otherwise they pretty much all follow the scrip a nut, a fruit, some celery and onion....

It’s a very long list! We have salad almost every night with many favorites. DH recently made pickled beets and we had them in a salad with greens, red onion, leftover grilled tri-tip and blue cheese dressing. One of my favorites is something my mom made often...greens (romaine or spring mix) with red onion, Mandarin oranges, candied pecans and chopped celery. I often add some crumbled blue cheese. It’s this dressing that makes it so good IMO.

2 T. sugar
2 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 T. minced fresh parsley (optional)
3-4 dashes Tabasco sauce
Scant 1/3 cup vegetable oil or olive oil

I also tend to make panzanella often. We grill a lot and it always seems a good fit with anything grilled. Ina G has a couple good ones. Her Greek version with feta’s especially good.

I never met a salad I didn't like. Though, I seem to prefer salads without meat from four-legged animals, that flavor can overpower subtler ones from veggie items in the salad. Chicken and tuna works. As pillog mentioned, salad is a year-round thing in our region. There's no seasonality. And we're lucky to have year-round access to a wide variety of fresh salad ingredients

EJF, when you excluded mammals, does that include cured meats as accents, like bacon?

For me, it's a matter of balance. I like green salads with some meat, like taco salad, Cobb, etc., but I wouldn't want a slab of steak plopped on top, like some do a chicken fillet or piece of fish.

Salads have really evolved from years ago. I think the lettuce my mom usually had was iceberg. Green salad was usually lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and maybe onion. Salad dressings at our house were always store bought. I well remember Wishbone Italian.

gardengal mentioned Caesar that I especially enjoy. Even better with some grilled chicken or tri-tip added in.

" EJF, when you excluded mammals, does that include cured meats as accents, like bacon? "

No. I was thinking broadly and you rightly point out something that's different. Thanks

I don't care for salads that seem like a harbor for leftover meat - others are welcome to enjoy the steak, lamb, ground beef, big hunks of chicken, etc, that can creep into a salad.

I like Cobb salad a lot and of course that has bacon and small pieces of ham. Bacon in anything is welcome (except not in the maple bars from Voodoo Donuts).

Thought of something else I like. Tasty combo.

Salad Greens on Parmesan Chicken

I like salads and have never really thought of them as seasonal. But, I guess they are.

chloebud, I love beets and a restaurant near me makes a wonderful beet salad.

Baked Beetroot & Goat Cheese Salad

Garden greens, sun dried tomato, olives, beets, goat cheese, roasted almonds and balsamic dressing.

I also like a cowboy salad of black beans, feta, dates, pecans, onions, romaine. Delicious.

And a hard boiled egg in any green salad is great.

eta Blue cheese, too!

rox, those salads both sound good!👍🏻 I‘ve always liked beets, even as a kid.

I make a black bean and corn salad that’s good with cherry or grape tomatoes, avocado, red onion, orange bell pepper and a lime vinaigrette. Cilantro for me, too. Very good and colorful!

Has anybody mentioned French frisee salad with curly endive wilted with bacon lardons and topped with a poached egg? My dh used to make that for us regularly and sometimes in the spring we use dandelion greens - must put that on the list soon, as our garden slowly comes to life in a chilly spring and I have guanchiale in the house (rare).

My favorite green is spinach . But a close second is escarole/radicchio/endive chicory family of greens (and reds)

I second Nicoise as a favorite, it's so much fun to put together and makes a complete meal.

I also second a beet salad, I like to roast them and serve with oranges, lots of parsley, mint dressing and goat cheese, perhaps fried (forgot where the recipe came from) .

Thanks for this thread, it has made me have a blast from the past idea for dinner tonight from a beloved but neglected cookbook from my early days cooking in the '80s, Hugh Carpenter , this one is 'Thai Papaya Shrimp Salad'

I noticed my mangos are ripe as a papaya substitute and I have almost all of the other ingredients at hand, even fresh Alaska sidestripe shrimp that we scored by arriving early at the farmers market on Saturday, boiled as 'peel and eat' and have a salad-quantity leftover, perfect !

(these days I cut down the sugar in his recipes but back then I enjoyed a sweet dressing)

So, all this salad talk and me with vegetables that want to be soup! Since I had to do errands, I figured I'd stop by TJ's. They had ripe organic avocados for a reasonable price, and I took a chance on the little tomatoes, which often are stored too cold at TJ's and suffer. But they had sad small icebergs. :( And sad bagged romaine, which is a dificult sell here. So I bought salads! They actually could use more lettuce (that's just the way they make them- heavy on toppings), but I have other greens and the giant cabbage, so I can extend them to improve the ratio. Oh! I still have some kale salad. I can use that! Cool.

Speaking of TJ and little tomatoes, my wife picked up a squat cardboard box there yesterday (I don't know why, we try to avoid TJ produce) that was labeled as something like Sweet Grape Tomatoes.

The description was fine, they appeared ripe or close to it. I was skeptical. I took a few out, rinsed them under running water, and took a bite. Oh my goodness, I had to spit it out. They were unbelievably sour. Sour like biting into a lemon. Awful.

It was with some pleasure that I volunteered for the task of returning the box. It wasn't a lot of money, it was more that I wanted them to know what they were selling. As always, the guy at the honcho counter was pleasant and apologetic. He told me that they had had a surprising number of returns of the item and he was going to tell the crew to take them off the display.

Unless you have no other alternatives, which most people do have, Trader Joes is not a good choice to find better quality produce, for those who care and know the difference. They don't consistently have it.

I've had better luck than that with TJ's produce. Most of my vegetables come from the farm delivery, but they don't have great tomatoes or avocados either, and I wasn't about to drive all over for a little salad we don't really need.. TJ's avocados are ususally fine if one chooses them carefully. I'll let y'all know about the tomatoes.

UPDATE— I was curious. I tried three organic grape tomatoes just now. They weren't mealy, like stored unripe too cold are. Two were average, normal. One was really good, super tasty.

When I said the lettuce was sad, above, it's because it was picked over and needed restocking.

I love TJ's but I also do not buy any produce there. I have yet to find it very satisfactoryand I'd rather buy local anyway. I also do not buy their tangerine juice (which I love) because it goes off too quickly. Same with their cheeses. I do have a set list of items I do buy when I visit - coffee, bakery goods, wine, sausages, various condiments and snacks. And I usually try out some seasonal stuff....which I may or may not repeat.

I get most of my produce from a local grocery that focuses on regionally grown organic produce that is of exceptional quality and you can get as little or as much as you need. And the farmer's market in season.

Elmer, the best flavor in cherry or grape tomatoes will be those that you've grown yourself. Barring that, "Cherubs" brand grape tomatoes are deliciously sweet.

I think whats going on is that once the weather gets nice, people (myself included) are so, soooo ready for the taste of summer. Can't wait for the luscious flavors of RIPE corn, tomatoes, peaches, berries, melons etc. I think those flavors are so beloved, that everyone sort of jumps the gun a bit. And the grocery stores try their best to supply this desparate populace. Produce only has to look good, and the sales zoom. Iv'e been burned many times. Oh well.

I always smell the produce when I choose it at a store. ;) But I think Hobbitmom's points have merit. I did add above that the grape tomatoes from TJ's I just tasted are fine.

I agree with Gardengal about many of TJ's fresh products. The packaged ones, including cheese and really anything refrigerated, are much closer to going off than at other and mold faster than others even in my magic fridge. I take that into account when I buy. But they're also really easy to return to. They don't even want proof. Just the receit will do, at least for basic things.

And their nuts are the best and freshest in town.

I think my daughter used TJs grape tomatoes in a risotto she made me for Mother's Day. I actually thought they were grapes, and they were a very good addition to the dish, which also had asparagus. But aside from the packaged salads, I never buy produce except maybe tiny yellow potatoes, never fruit or avocados. The store I go to before Traders and is within sight is Aldi, and their produce is very good and their avocados are 49 cents and Traders is $1.49. I have never had a bad avocado, which I eat every day.

My daily lunch is spring mix, red pepper, cuke, 2-3 oz turkey, 1 tsp groung flax meal, campari tomato, kalamata olives, with a tsp of EVOO, a Tbs of balsamic vinegar and S&P. Occasionally I swap out the turkey for tuna or mozzarella balls.

I do buy some produce at Trader Joe’s but agree the tomatoes are iffy. The grape tomatoes in the cardboard container Elmer mentioned were pretty sour. The teeny tiny ”Sprinkles” tomatoes I bought recently weren’t bad. I buy their bagged baby potatoes, such as the mixed red, yellow and purple or the baby Dutch potatoes. DH loves the tangerine juice gardengal mentioned. We buy a bottle every week. It disappears fast since our grandkids like it, too. I buy some cheeses there. We like their Unexpected Cheddar in both the blocks and spread, and their Havarti Dill and Cotswold Double Gloucester. Never had a spoilage problem.

Not relative to the salad topic here, but these are both worth trying IMO. The garlic spread is really good with grilled lamb or chicken.

" Elmer, the best flavor in cherry or grape tomatoes will be those that you've grown yourself. Barring that, "Cherubs" "

I hear you, gardengal, about home grown tomatoes. Or home grown anything, for that matter. Unfortunately, neither of us has an interest in gardening. We did more with fruits and veggies when our kids were young but we did it as something for them, not out of any personal inclinations. Plus, our travel schedule doesn't permit consistent care. It's survival of the fittest in both places, plants that can go for weeks/months without watering is what we have now.

Funny enough, my wife did buy some Nature Sweet Cherubs. They were definitely better than what we got at TJs but still lacking somehow. Maybe a grade of B on a school grading scale.

The closest we can get to homegrown anything is produce sold at our certified farmers markets. The designation means that the sellers have produced what they're selling, there's no buy/sell of products allowed. There are some small operators who participate and often their stuff, including tomatoes, is very good. But also very expensive.

For produce in general, some of the small family owned and run upmarket stores (Lunardi's is one example) specialize in very high quality produce and, surprisingly, usually at reasonable pricdes.

Long ago, before I developed a bad allergy to tomatoes and peppers, I used to make this rice salad from Spain. It was a big hit at summer gatherings. Here it is from Myra Waldo's The Complete Round-the-World Cookbook (1954), complete with stains:

I was about to say I made it as written, unusual for me. But then I noticed the 1.5 tsp. of salt. I can't see myself using that much, but it's been a while . . .

I'm not a big salad eater. I have nothing against them but we don't normally have lettuce in the house unless it is BLT season which is another month or so away.

We do eat a lot of fresh veggies though. I've been harvesting Asparagus for about a month now and eating some daily. I'm about to go out and harvest the first Broccolini of the season so that will also be a mainstay with dinner for several weeks to come. The regular broccoli is startig to head up with the largest currently at about tennis ball size. Also currently picking green onions and radishes. Golden beets are still a month or so away. Garlic is just now statring to grow scapes which are always a treat.

I ate one of the made up salads for breakfast. It was good. ;)

But it's unfair to compare California and much of the rest of the USA, if not the world. Even SoCal and the rest of the state. When I was a tween, we were in Western Canada, in a city, and stopped at a grocery store recommended for their produce. My mother was drawn across the produce section by a sign saying ”California tomatoes”. She was excited because on the whole trip we hadn't found edible tomatoes. Under the sign were tomatoes that were, perhaps, better, but my mother was waffling between tears and anger: ”These are the culls!” (I.e., the ones no one in California would buy.)

Trader Joe's buys from local growers, as well as large outfits and national providers. Perhaps there's some small local farm produce equivalent to home garden, but most of it is going to be similar to what you can buy at any moderate grocery. Some good, some not worth it, a lot okay, especially if you choose carefully. And produce, no matter the packaging is going to be variable. My organic grape tomatoes also come in a cardboard box. Maybe the same as others have mentioned, maybe different (anti-plastic goes well with organic). A week between of the same crop could taste different, even home grown. I won't buy if it doesn't smell good.

I just ate a peach—in May!—from the farm. It's an old style peach, not much bigger than a handball. It smelled amazingly good, but required a couple days on the counter to soften. It was SOOOOOOOO good! At the end of Summer, some local stores here get tree-ripened peaches, fresh from small growers and gardens. This was as good or better. Probably an older variety that doesn't ship well, but still smells and tastes like a real peach.

Produce is variable. For many uses, some tomato, even if it needs help, is better than none.

Ohhh, nothing beats a good peach! I’m always happy when they’re in season. We had a peach tree at a prior home. The peaches were small but good. Then the tree died.🙁

" But it's unfair to compare California and much of the rest of the USA, if not the world. Even SoCal and the rest of the state. "

I understand and agree with the first sentence but not so much with the second. I was born and raised in SoCal, moved to the Bay Area as a young adult, am now spending my time about 50/50 between the two. The Salinas Valley (up here) has long been called the Nation's Salad Bowl for year-round leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, and a few other things grown exclusively here (artichokes). Silicon Valley was renown for stone fruit (now mostly moved to the Central Valley). The Imperial Valley (in the South) is known for melons and winter greens. All of California gets a substantial amount of produce from south of the border, including opposite season stuff from South America. Other stuff from the Central Valley (like table grapes, mandarins) are grown in about the middle and can be as easily trucked north as south. Other produce does come from out of state too - apples, cherries and other stone fruit, etc.

My experience - Bay Area vs SoCal produce quality and availability are pretty similar. One single thing I find different - cantaloupes in SoCal tend to be a bit sweeter than up here. And you grow more avocados.

Californians are spoiled by the availability and diversity of produce. And the availability seems to lead to habits of eating more of the salad and vegetables that are so easilly found with our year-round growing seasons that other areas don't have.

Lots of good ideas in this thread! I eat salads year-round. I have a habit of eating at least 5 different vegetables each day, and, since most vegetables I prefer raw, salads are the way to go. My favorite greens as a base are spinach/argula and kale. I usually add red cabbage, finely chopped broccoli, and then whatever I have in the refrigerator. I will sometimes add feta or blue cheese, pepitas or garbanzo beans, but always a light hand with those. I do love cooked beets, brussels sprouts and/or squash once in a while. Except for tomatoes, I do not care for fruit in salads. That usually disqualifies many restaurant salads that seem to want to add strawberries, pomegranate seeds or cranberries.

I make my own dressings--usually with balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar or a citrus vinaigrette. I haven't bought salad dressing in ages.

“I make my own dressings…”

Same for me. It’s something I enjoy doing, although I often have some Girard’s Caesar on hand.

alisande, that salad recipe is interesting. It shows how the category of salad can be flexible, small changes can alter the final destination.

With that recipe in hand as a solid start, I'd add chopped cucumber (I like an equal amount of tomato and cucumber in these salads), some chopped radish, use lemon juice instead of vinegar, crumble in some feta cheese, leave out the rice, sprinkle a small amount of sea salt and bingo - call it Greek Salad, or Mediterranean Salad, or even Middle Eastern Salad.

As mentioned above it's hard to beat a homegrown salad. Our favorite is steaming up some NC fresh shrimp with Old Bay seasoning, peeling and breaking into bite size pieces, then adding them to a mixed bowl of lettuces, cut up tomatoes, shredded carrots, and sliced cukes from the garden. We'll add some artichoke hearts from the store. I prefer blue cheese crumbles with dressing and VqQn prefers vingerete....speaking of which, dinner time....

oh gosh, many of you will remember the iceberg lettuce quarter on a plate with 1000 island dressing. THen I remember the first time I had a cobb salad in a restaurant. Holy Moley! What a difference. I see the quarter of an iceberg lettuce is coming back, refuse people, refuse. No nutrition in it.

Regarding making vinaigrettes/dressings, a good source suggested this to me long ago. It’s best to whisk seasonings (like salt or sugar) into the acid (vinegar or citrus juice) first since they won’t dissolve in oil. Whisk in the oil slowly once they’re dissolved. It‘s worked well for me, but, for the most part, recipes often instruct the oil to be added with everything else.

A lot of recipes are about convenience rather than method. Sigh.

Ladypat, Iceberg can provide bulk. And water. But that's not much nutritionally...but it's delicious! At least, the California grown iceberg in our local stores is. It's subtle though. Some people just can't taste it, like they can't taste the iron in flatware, and soaking it down with dressing doesn't help. I enjoyed last night's iceberg based salad SO much!!! It's delicate, so I rarely buy it, but I do love it. Not the wedge salad thing (though I think it's more like 1/8ths rhan 1/4's). That's seems to be just a conveyance for dressing (or a prep-saver), or maybe there's a really good version that I haven't had.

iceberg lettuce is coming back, refuse people, refuse. No nutrition in it.

Iceberg lettuce is perfectly fine and DOES have nutrition. Not copious amounts but it still provides fiber, antioxidants, immune-supporting vitamin A and vitamin K for strong bones - all in a low-calorie and fat-free package. Actual breakdown (per cup) is as follows:

• Calories: 8
• Total Carbohydrates: 2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
• Protein: 0.5 g
• Fat: 0 g
• Potassium: 80 mg
• Vitamin A: 286 IU
• Vitamin K: 14 mcg

HaHaHaha! I can remember when ranch dressing made its debut. It had been just the sad trio of blue cheese, 1,000 island, and creamy french. It was uncle dans packet that got mixed with mayo and buttermilk. It was the most awesome stuff at the time. Restaurants were slow to have it at the beginning.

A couple weeks ago I bought a 2-pack of TJ’s baby iceberg ”ice cubes.” They worked nicely for smaller wedge salads with a tasty blue cheese dressing. I used this one.

1/3 cup sherry vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt

1/4 cup mayo

2 1/2 T. fresh chives, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, finely minced

1/2 heaping cup crumbled blue cheese

Salt & black pepper to taste

“I can remember when ranch dressing made its debut.‘’

It was in the 70’s for me. DH and I had just started dating and his mom served a salad with the best dressing. It turned out to be a Hidden Valley packet she mixed with mayo and buttermilk. Everyone loved it! These days I keep an 8-oz. jar of their seasoning in the pantry. Along with salad dressing, it adds flavor to many things.

I made a salad for dinner tonight...olives, feta, cuke, tomato, chickpeas, farro, walnuts, and green pepper in a lemon dijon vinaigrette. Nice as it was such a hot day today.

Was just out for lunch and had a delicious salad! The base was mixed greens with sliced strawberries, candied pecans, slivered almonds, feta cheese crumbles and grilled chicken with a homemade dressing they wouldn't divulge, but possibly a raspberry Italian, just a bit sweet, but not heavy or cloying. It also seemed like it would be an easy salad to duplicate.