Summer Vegetable Salad

This dish belongs at a garden party, where you’ll naturally be serving it while wearing all white. It’s the perfect summer salad: light, crunchy, and colorful, with lots of fresh produce and seafood. Plus, it includes common vegetables like cucumber, green beans, and tomatoes but also a few that are more rare, like artichokes and hearts of palm. That means you’ll be able to impress at least a few guests at said party. It also works as an easy, light summer dinner at home, but we always prefer a party.

Ingredients

4 ounces shrimp, steamed
1 1/2 cups Romaine lettuce and baby spinach
1/2 cup string beans, blanched
1/4 cup grape tomatoes, sliced into halves
1/4 cucumber, chopped
2 artichoke hearts, sliced into quarters
1/4 cup sliced into 1/2 inch pieces hearts of palm
1/4 cup thinly sliced radishes
1/4 avocado, sliced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 lemon freshly squeezed lemon juice
to taste sea salt
to taste freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Toss all ingredients together.
2. Mix vinegar, oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and pour over salad.

WHY WE LOVE THIS RECIPE Shrimp is a great source of protein and vitamin B12, a nutrient that many Americans are deficient in. And the rest of the dish is basically a colorful basket full of fresh veggies: tomato, radishes, artichokes, greens, green beans, tomatoes, avocado (okay, avocado is technically a fruit), and cucumber. Any recipe that packs in that much produce is a winner.