Adding Veggies to Your Summer Salads

There are a lot of low-cost veggies in the summer, which makes it easier to make healthy meals the whole family will love. You can find local food that is in season by visiting your local farm markets. You can also find inexpensive fruits and veggies at roadside stands. Once you shop, you can turn your fresh, tasty purchases into a quick and easy summer meal. 

Salads are great for lunch or as a side for dinner. They are also a great way to increase your family’s vegetable consumption while throwing together a meal in minutes.  With days growing longer, there is something extremely satisfying about a colorful and veggie-rich salad on a hot summer evening.  Here are some ways to eat more veggies this summer:

• Create your own Salad Bar. Fill individual bowls with a variety of veggies such as cut up baby lettuce mixes, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and onions. Make it fun by offering a variety of colorful veggies. Fill some bowls with protein sources such as rinsed, canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and/ or chopped up hard boiled eggs. Other protein options could include grilled chicken or fish. Allow your family to serve themselves from the bowls, creating their own salad to suit their tastes. You can even offer a variety of low fat or homemade salad dressings.

• Parts of the Plant: teach your children a lesson in all of the parts of the plant that are used as food with this delicious Parts of the Plant Salad. It goes great with this vinaigrette dressing, which your kids are sure to love helping you make.

• Make a Rainbow Salad. On a plate or a long cutting board, you can lay food out in the shape of a rainbow, arranged by color. Inspire your kids with rows of red pretty tomatoes, orange peppers, yellow squash, green beans, and purple carrots or purple cabbage—and try and see how many colorful substitutions your family can come up with.

• Veggie Pasta Salad: Kids love chopping colorful vegetables really small to make this Confetti Spaghetti recipe. Make it ahead of time and toss it on a bed of lettuce greens for a ready-made summer meal the entire family will love.

• Turn it into a Salsa: There are many fun varieties of veggies available this time of year. If you happen to find something fun such as purple tomatoes, your family can use them in this salsa recipe and then make it a game to see who can come up with the most creative name.

The greater the variety of veggies you offer, the more fun your summer salads will be. Be creative and enjoy trying new veggie-rich meals with your family!