When the weather gets hot, there’s no more satisfying meal than a chopped salad: summer’s best vegetables chopped into bite-size bits, tossed with cheese or cured meats for a hit of salt, nuts or seeds for crunch, fragrant herbs, and a zingy vinaigrette. Grab a spoon and dig in!
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Recipe
Smoked Trout and Summer Bean Salad
This ingenious combination of tangy yogurt, oil-cured olives, fresh cucumbers, and bunches of fragrant herbs, along with hearty beans and smoky fish, offers intriguing flavors in every bite.
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Recipe
Sweet Corn and Sprouted Lentil Salad
With its fresh corn and legumes, this salad is reminiscent of a succotash, but it surprises with Middle Eastern flavors like pistachios, cumin, and honey.
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Recipe
Chopped Grilled-Chicken Salad
Buttermilk, blue cheese, and bacon: These three Bs conspire to make a chicken salad that’s unbelievably good.
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Recipe
Chopped Roasted Beet and Blue Cheese Salad
Fresh dill, bright scallions, and a tangy vinaigrette breathe new life into the classic combination of beets and blue cheese. Dill sprouts, available at some specialty markets, add an extra punch of dill flavor.
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Recipe
Chopped Antipasti Salad
Loaded with bite-size pieces of cheese, salami, tangy peppers, and tomatoes, this salad channels the flavors of an Italian appetizer platter with hints of Hungarian flavors. It’s very juicy, perfect for serving with bread. -
Recipe
Flatbread Salad with Tomato, Chickpeas, Feta & Mint
This take on fattoush, a Middle Eastern bread salad, makes a great summertime meal as there’s no cooking involved (aside from toasting some bread), and the flavors are bold and fresh. Many supermarkets carry lavash; if you can’t find it, substitute pita bread, but split it before toasting.
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Recipe
Succotash Salad
The two essential succotash elements, sweet corn and shelling beans, are joined by green beans, red bell pepper, and zucchini. This light main dish salad is as simple as cooking the vegetables in boiling water until just tender and tossing them in a tart lemon dressing. Red onions add a nice crisp bite, while torn fresh basil leaves lend a beautiful freshness to the dish.
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Recipe
Lentil, Tuna, and Roasted Red Pepper Salad
Transform roasted peppers with a tangy vinaigrette, and then pair them with lentils, canned tuna, and fresh tomatoes for a tasty lunch.
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Recipe
Chopped Greek Salad with Garlic Croutons
Bread salads are famous in both Italy (panzanella) and the Middle East (fattoush). Sometimes the bread component is mixed in ahead to soak up the vegetable juices; other times, the bread is added at the last moment, so it keeps some of its texture, as in this recipe.
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Recipe
Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes with Tangy Cucumbers and Yogurt
Every element of this vegetarian pack-and-tote lunch—except for the yogurt—can be left out at room temperature until you’re ready to eat. Your lunch will be all the more flavorful for it.
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Recipe
Wheat Berry Salad with Green Beans and Corn
This hearty salad is perfect summer-picnic fare: chewy wheat berries, crisp-tender corn and green beans, sweet golden beets and pungent blue cheese crumbles.
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Recipe
Chopped Mexican Salad with Roasted Peppers, Corn, Tomatoes, and Avocado
Chopped salads are a beautiful way to show of summer's terrific produce. Each ingredient is interesting to eat and taste, and together they combine to give you something even better.
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Recipe
Chopped Shrimp "Waldorf" Salad
The original Waldorf salad was created at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the late 1890s. It was considered the height of sophistication and originally was nothing more than apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Chopped nuts and grapes came later. The addition of shrimp turns this version into a one-dish meal.