"Every vegetable has its time." That's what folk wisdom says. And you can't argue with folk wisdom. And this means only one thing: it is seasonal vegetables that are truly tasty and healthy. And if so, then in the summer you need to eat them, as they say, right from the garden. Cucumbers and tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, zucchini and lettuce. Speaking of salad. And not only about the one that grows in the garden, but also about the one that can be prepared from summer seasonal vegetables. Summer salad- this is the minimum calorie content and the maximum vitamin doping. And if the calorie content of the summer salad is minimal, then it means that it is doubly useful. And for the figure (in principle), and in order to make the summer heat easier to bear.

Recipe number 1. Traditional salad

A traditional set of vegetables from the garden, a traditional palette (red, yellow, green). Traditional vegetable oil dressing. So, according to tradition, we will start with him.

Ingredients:

• 100 g tomatoes;
• 100 g cucumbers;
• 50 g bell pepper;
• 50 g lettuce;
• 30 g parsley and dill;
• vegetable or olive oil;
• Lemon juice or salt.

Cooking:

Rinse all the vegetables well, cut the tomatoes and bell pepper into large slices, cut the cucumber into half rings. Finely chop the parsley and dill. Season with oil and salt. You can add lemon juice instead of salt.

Recipe number 2. Salad with apples

Here, the calorie content will not harm our figure. This recipe can be recommended even to those who faint from the mere word "mayonnaise".

Ingredients:

• cucumbers
• Carrot
• Apples
• Leaf salad
• Lemon
• Sour cream
• Greenery

Cooking:

Wash vegetables and apples, peel and chop into thin strips. By the way, they can be grated and grater (as for Korean snack). We tear the washed lettuce leaves into small "flaps". Mix vegetables and apples. Season with salt and lemon juice. Serve with sour cream.

Note:

Adjust the ratio of products to your liking. And for those who are especially jealous of the calorie content of food, it is recommended to replace sour cream with kefir.

Recipe number 3. Salad with green onions

Green onions are the first summer vegetable. And, mind you, even if this recipe is used for winter menu, the salad will still turn out summer. In any case, these are the associations you will have. According to tradition, it is seasoned with mayonnaise. But the calorie content of the salad will be significantly lower if low-fat sour cream is used instead of mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

• green onion
• Sour cream

Cooking:

Hard boil three or four eggs and cut them into cubes. Wash and cut green onion feathers (medium bunch). Mix everything, salt and season with sour cream or mayonnaise.

Recipe number 4. Greens and radish salad

The calorie content of this salad can be safely counted as negative. There is not even a hint of any fat - solid vitamins! As a rule, this salad is made from parsley and dill. But any other greens will do (cilantro, celery, basil) - the choice depends only on your taste. At the beginning of summer, they take the usual pink radish, and when it comes off, you can make a salad with white daikon radish.

Ingredients:

• Greens any (in any quantity)
• Radishes (as much as greens)

Cooking:

We wash the greens, dry and chop. We cut the washed radish into rings. Mix everything and salt to taste. Dressing for this salad is not needed - from the salt, the radish will give a lot of juice. But if desired, the salad can be seasoned with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar.

Recipe number 5. Salad with cabbage

Young crispy cabbage straight from the garden is no worse than "bed" cucumbers and tomatoes. And if you add a little smoked sausage to it and green pea Yes, season with mayonnaise, it will turn out great option summer salad festive feast. Of course, the calorie content of such a salad cannot be called low, but after all, a holiday ...

Ingredients:

• fresh cabbage
• Smoked sausage
• Green pea
• Carrot
• Mayonnaise

Cooking:

We chop a small fork of a young cabbage. Sausage (three hundred grams) cut into thin strips (into a match). Peel and grate one fresh carrot. Boil three hard-boiled eggs and also grate. Mix all the ingredients, add a jar of green peas to them and dress the salad with mayonnaise. Salt to taste.

As a matter of fact, any summer salad is a salad of seasonal summer vegetables. And mind you, not greenhouse, but real! Such that the smell of freshness makes your head spin, and saliva flows from the juiciness and crunchiness. So you can continue to list recipes indefinitely. Therefore, pick up a knife, pluck from the garden (or buy) fresh vegetables and cut salads out of them. Summer has come!

In the country, it is easy to grow tasty and healthy greens, which you will not find in the store during the day with fire, for example, chard. I offer a mini-guide to interesting salads: how to choose seeds, which salads are the most healthy and how to cook them.

pak choi


This Asian garden salad looks like an elegant green and white china vase. “Pak-choi is just a beauty,” says Alena fat_pumpkin. “However, with the onset of long summer days, it quickly goes into the arrow, the leaves coarsen, so I sow it in early spring under a film or at the end of July for a September harvest.”

Taste: something between cabbage and lettuce. The white stem tastes like celery, the green leaves are similar to spinach, with a hint of hazelnuts.

Benefits: A bowl of fresh pak choi is about half daily allowance vitamins C, A and K. It is also rich in the rare vitamin B6.

What to eat with: as specially designed for soups of Chinese, Thai and Japanese cuisine. The most simple and stunning delicious side dish- lightly fry in a wok pan with sesame oil, soy sauce and slices of garlic. If you sprinkle the leaves with olive oil, season with black pepper, salt and bake in the oven until a tender crunch, even a staunch green hater will not resist.

Hint: Pak choy is good to freeze for the winter if you do not have time to eat the crop directly from the garden.

Watercress


A real find for those who cannot stand ordinary greenery. Compared to bland spinach and watery romaine lettuce, watercress is a tangy treat with a touch of Dijon mustard.

Taste: like mustard, but not hot, but gently spicy.

What is the benefit: a lot of calcium, iron, vitamins C, B9, E and A. Improves blood circulation, strengthens hair and nails, stimulates the brain, relieves migraines.

What to eat with: “Cress, like arugula, is especially good in vegetable sandwiches sprinkled with spicy aged cheese,” says Alena fat_pumpkin. - Black bread, a pillow of watercress, mature cheddar - delicious. Or in Mediterranean-style salads: jamon or prosciutto, watercress, parmesan, olive oil.” Delicious combination- watercress with mashed potatoes. Good to add to morning omelettes, soups and stews for spiciness.

Hint: watercress can be dried and pounded to make a spicy seasoning.

oak leaf lettuce


Doesn't get bitter even with age. Unpretentious and easy to grow. Like basil, it comes in green and red. Although oakleaf lettuce is sold in supermarkets all year round, Alena fat_pumрkin prefers the dacha version: “It seems to me that garden salads, unlike greenhouse salads, are sweeter, juicier and stronger in leaves. Although in salads this difference is not as noticeable as, say, in tomatoes.

Taste: grassy, ​​creamy, crisp stems and tender leaves.

What is the benefit: few foods can boast the content of five essential vitamins at once - A, B, C, D, E, and oak leaf lettuce has them all. It helps to reduce pressure, strengthens blood vessels and nerves, improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract (including gastritis).

What to eat with: very tasty with baked fish, avocado and lemon juice, stewed mushrooms and leeks, in smoothies and fruit salads. A light afternoon snack or second breakfast: a pillow of oakleaf lettuce with sliced ​​peaches, crushed walnuts and honey.

Hint: Oakleaf lettuce is very delicate and should be plucked right before cooking.

Chard


Red, yellow, green, silver - chard is more beautiful than the usual beet tops (although they are from the same family) and concentration useful substances higher in it.

Taste: reminiscent of spinach - soft creamy taste without bitterness or sourness.

What are the benefits: First of all, chard benefits posture, complexion and mood. Due to the high content of vitamin K and calcium, this green strengthens the skeleton, and is especially useful for osteoporosis and arthrosis.

What to eat with: in soups and stews, fruit, berry and vegetable salads with soft cheese such as mozzarella or feta. “In Georgia, they treated me to chard pasta, a kind of Georgian pesto,” Alena fat_pumpkin shares the recipe. - Braised chard, vegetable oil, garlic, basil, walnuts and a mixture of dry spices. You spread it on a cake or on cheese and drink it with young wine.

Hint: It is best to sow in late spring and August. Birds like to eat chard sprouts, so plant seeds in the shade of larger neighbors, such as legumes.

Purslane

In the US and Europe, purslane is a new word in haute cuisine. It first appeared in India and Iran, in two thousand years it reached Egypt with Sudan, then Europe. He is especially loved in France, Turkey and Greece. And we often meet as a wild plant.

Taste: juicy, crispy, slightly sour, immediately reminiscent of spinach and arugula.

Benefits: Purslane contains five times more vascular-friendly omega-3 fatty acids than spinach. Pinkish stems are rich in vitamin C. Purslane also contains a lot of vitamin E and beta-carotene.

With what to eat: soups, salads, risotto and pilaf, pasta and buckwheat, sandwiches, smoothies - purslane will invigorate any of these dishes. The Greeks make a salad with purslane and cucumber with yogurt dressing. Turks stew and serve with meat or fish.

Hint: purslane blooms like small peonies, you can plant it on the city balcony, not only for the kitchen, but also for beauty.

"Mark and Lev" in the Tula region is the first "Lokavor" restaurant in Russia. This means that all dishes on the menu are prepared only from products grown and produced within a radius of 100-150 km from the kitchen. Naturally, the menu is regularly updated, as vegetables, herbs, berries, mushrooms ripen or "leave" nearby or in the restaurant's own garden. Pavel Klepikov, the chef of the new Mark and Lev restaurant, which recently opened on Rublevsky Highway, shared with us recipes for summer salads that need to be prepared right now.

Salad from the garden with poached egg

You will need for 4 servings

1 bunch lettuce mix

1 small red onion

1 bunch radish

4-5 pcs. fresh cucumbers

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt, pepper to taste.

1. Wash lettuce and pat dry. Cut the radish into thin slices, the onion into thin rings. Slice the cucumber lengthwise using a vegetable peeler.
2. Toss lettuce leaves with thinly sliced ​​red onion rings, season with vegetable oil, salt and pepper and arrange on 4 plates in a crescent shape.
3. Prepare the poached eggs: Boil water in a small saucepan with a pinch of salt and 2 tsp. vinegar. Crack the egg carefully into the bowl. Then put it in low-boiling water with vinegar and salt, and when the protein is brewed, carefully remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put it in a plate with salad. Cook the rest of the eggs in the same way (you can boil the eggs in the shell for 3 minutes, then carefully peel).
4. Creamy protein will play the role of dressing in this salad.

Salad with cottage greens, radish and fried halloumi cheese

1 bunch of spinach

1 bunch of sorrel

1 bunch wild garlic

1 bunch of lettuce leaves

1 red onion

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

200 g halloumi cheese

1 bunch radish radish

1 jar natural yogurt

3-4 sprigs of cilantro

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, lemon juice - to taste

Prepare the dressing by adding finely chopped cilantro, minced garlic and olive oil to the yogurt. Salt, pepper and add some lemon juice.

Halumi cheese cut into slices and grilled. Cut the radish into slices, red onion into thin half rings.

Rinse greens, dry and mix in a bowl. Drizzle with dressing, toss and serve on plates. Add some chopped onion, radish to each plate. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and top with toasted Halloumi cheese slices.

Salad with goutweed, nettle and beef jerky

A small bunch of young shoots

A handful of young nettle leaves

Small bunch of wild garlic or lettuce

4 things. young carrot

100 g thinly sliced ​​beef jerky

2 tsp berry vinegar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

100 g young goat cheese

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

Sugar, salt, pepper - to taste

Wash, nettle (collected away from busy roads), wild garlic or lettuce, rinse and dry.

For dressing, mix vegetable oil with berry vinegar and spices. Put the herbs in a salad bowl, add young carrots cut into thin circles and season. Top with goat cheese slices, thinly sliced beef jerky and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

How to make homemade berry vinegar for salads?

500 g of summer berries (raspberries, honeysuckle, black currants, gooseberries) pour 1 liter of white wine vinegar and leave for about a month, shaking the mixture from time to time. After a month, strain the berry vinegar, bottle and use in salads.