Salads

Vegan Tofu Rice Salad, with veggies, fresh herbs, and baked tofu, serve warm or chilled This vegan tofu salad recipe can easily be doubled, and makes a satisfying vegetarian meal served with crusty french bread, steamed greens or green salad, and baked acorn or butternut squash. You'll need some time for soaking the brown rice, and marinating the tofu - that can happen overnight, or while you're gone for the day. After that, it comes together pretty easily.

This delicious quinoa salad recipe has a mexican flavor, with black beans, lime, cilantro and jalapeno. Quinoa black bean salad can be served warm or chilled, and keeps well. This recipe is similar to Tabouleh, but quinoa is both heartier and sturdier than couscous. Quinoa black bean salad is a great one dish meal, and also goes well with crusty artisan bread or tortillas chips with salsa, quacamole etc.

Start this two days in advance to allow time to soak the fish.

When slender cucumbers come into the markets, you can make the classic Indian raita, a mixture of cooling yogurt with shredded cucumbers and tomatoes. It's supposed to offset the sauce of a hot curry, but it also goes well with all summer grills and roasted meats and fish.

 Look for thick asparagus, which are easier to grill (less worry that they'll burn or slide through the grill grates) and have a meatier texture than the slender stalks.

It makes a great side dish, but this salad is even better as a pizza topping. Brush the pizza shell with olive oil, sprinkle it with sea salt and shredded mozzarella, then bake. When the pizza comes out of the oven, top it with the salad. 

This recipe is a tribute to the chickpea salad they sell at the prepared-foods counter at Zabar's market in New York City, which my wife, Beverly, and I have always enjoyed. The key to this recipe is letting the beans soak after they've cooked. Rather than seasoning the beans while they're cooking, which keeps them from softening, you season them after they've cooked and then give them time to absorb the salt and garlic. Ideally, this recipe should be made a day or so ahead of time to let the flavors develop even further.

This is an easy and quick tangy salad - great for just one or pot lucks. All the ingredient amounts can be adjusted to whatever amount you prefer. I tend to just make it up as I go.

"Serve these marinated vegetables as a salad or as an appetizer. Optional add ins include: pitted Greek olives, cubes of feta cheese, and thin slices of Maui or Walla Walla onion." Blanch broccoli and cauliflower for one minute in boiling water before adding to other ingredients - red bell pepper, cucumber and carrots. Splash with a nice Italian salad dressing and let the flavors mingle for a bit in the refrigerator before serving.