Everyday Salad + Gardening

Fresh garden lettuce and my new Mediterranean inspired everyday salad

I love a good salad. I love adding fun ingredients, trying a new lettuce mix and making my own dressings. But now with a newborn and 4 year old I'm often throwing together anything I can find, keeping it as healthy as possible. As much as I love different toppings, my favorite part of a good salad is the lettuce. I like mixing arugula, baby kale, mesclun or spring mix.

My new go to everyday salad is inspired by Mediterranean flavors. I start with a large bed of lettuce and add the following:

TOPPINGS

• a healthy scoop of hummus

• an even healthier scoop of tabbouleh

• chopped pickling cucumber (honestly I really only like Persian or pickling cucumbers)

• prepared falafel (I use Joseph's brand but I'm going to practice making my own)

• diced avocado

• sweet and hot salad peppers

If I'm not in a rush I'll add some other fresh veggies like:

• sliced radishes

• diced or julienned carrots

• quick pickled red onions

• julienned jicama

You could add a sprinkle of sumac spice or shawarma spice mix.

DRESSING

A light simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and a bit of honey pairs well - just shake in a mason jar or whisk in a bowl and drizzle over your salad. Or skip the honey for a more sour tart flavor.

Earlier this summer we've enjoyed fresh lettuce from our garden. We planted a simple mesclun mix which you can harvest by cutting leaves about one inch from the roots. You should get a few harvests from one plant, but eventually the leaves become tough and do not taste as good. I heard you can plant a new batch of spring mix now, which I might try! Next year I plan to add in arugula - my favorite lettuce!