May is National Salad Month -- Make Salads!

In celebration of the National Month for Salads, I turned up some unique herb-related recipes that that make unique salads.  I cannot guarantee that all of these are low in calories, however!

Borage & Cucumbers in Sour Cream Dressing

3 long cucumbers

Salt

1 cup sour cream or fresh plain yogurt

2 Tbls. rice vinegar

½ tsp. celery seed

¼ cup chopped scallions

1 tsp sugar

¼ cup finely chopped young borage leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

Borage or chive flowers for garnish

Wash, score and very thinly slice the cucumbers.  Salt lightly and let stand in a colander for 30 minutes to drain.  Rinse off the salt and pat dry with paper towels.

In a bowl, mix remaining ingredients, adding salt and pepper to taste.  Add cucumbers and toss lightly.  Garnish with borage flowers or chive blossoms.  Refrigerate 1 hour before serving. 

Black Bean Salad RecipeServes 6 to 8

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, thoroughly rinsed, and drained (or 1 1/2 cup of freshly cooked black beans)
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, defrosted (or fresh corn, parboiled, drained and cooled)
1/2 cup chopped green onions or shallots
2 fresh jalapeño peppers, seeded and minced, or 1 whole pickled jalapeño pepper, minced (not seeded)
3 fresh plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 avocado, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
2 Tbsp lime juice (about the amount of juice from one lime)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar (to taste)
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Make sure to rinse and drain the beans, if you are using canned beans.
In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, onions, jalapeno chile peppers, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, basil, lime juice and olive oil. Add sugar and salt and pepper to taste. (The sugar will help balance the acidity from the tomatoes and lime juice.) Chill before serving.

Broccoli Salad

Serves 6

This great recipe is a spring and summer pleaser with Backyard Patch Ranch Dressing.

 

4 cups raw broccoli. Cut into pieces

1 large mango cut into chunks

½ cup cashews

½ cup red onion , thinly sliced

1 can mandarin oranges drained (11 oz)

¾ cup prepared Backyard Patch Ranch dressing/dip mix

3 Tbls orange juice

1 TB horseradish (optional)

 

In a large bowl, toss broccoli mango, cashews, onion and oranges.  Blend dressing orange juice and horseradish well to make salad dressing.  Pour over salad before serving, then toss.  Yield 6 servings.

Enjoy!  And if you want some crowd pleasing salad dressings you can make at home, try these links:

Backyard Patch Salad Dressing Herb Mixes

Backyard Patch Samplers with Salad Dressings