I realized I best get this recipe posted while it’s still summer! Jeff came up with this recipe in August when we had a pause in our garden lettuce. The big plants were all harvested and eaten and the small plants were not quite ready yet. Since we like to eat a fresh salad every day for lunch, Jeff decided to make us a lettuce-free salad that day with the vegetables we happened to have in abundance right then. The timing was great to have so many cucumbers and zucchini right when there was a break in lettuce. We happened to have an apple from the farmer’s market that day as well, an early variety. Lots of fresh herbs from the garden made the flavor so delicious. I happened to be making a batch of guacamole at the same time and had some extra fresh-squeezed lemon juice and lime juice so we poured that over the top. Yum.

Jeff took what we had on hand and this is what he came up with:

Green Zucchini

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Cucumbers

Basil

Parsley

Thyme

Mint

Radishes

 Apple

Nori Seaweed

Lemon Juice

Lime Juice

Honey

Apple Cider Vinegar

Salt

 

To make: just chop up all your fresh vegetables, apples and herbs. Add nori seaweed flakes if you’d like (and if you have them) or take some sheets of seaweed and break them up into pieces. Pour your fresh lemon juice, lime juice, and raw apple cider vinegar in amounts to your liking and mix everything well. Jeff drizzled just a little raw unfiltered honey on top to make it even more yummy. Stick it in the fridge.

Add your salt right before serving individual bowls (because the salt will draw out the water in the vegetables and can make your mixture watery.) You’ll notice that there are no amounts listed for anything in this recipe. You just chop up a bunch of raw stuff, put it in a bowl and add amounts of everything to your liking. It has a base of cucumbers and summer squash. Apples and radishes add a satisfying crunch. I love fresh radishes, but they were a little too spicy for Bracken so he picked them out. (His favorite part, of course, were the apple pieces- big surprise.) If you make a big batch of this summer salad you can take it out of the fridge to enjoy cold, refreshing, already-made meals on hot summer days. (And use up some of your cucumbers and zucchini to boot, there’s only so many pickles you can make, after all.)