Summer Salads!

Summer is cold La Croix, iced coffee, reading books in the sun and lemon popsicles. With this frequency of sedentary sun exposure, heavy meals are not welcome. Tomatoes are luscious and in season and my healthy basil plant is soaking up the summer sun. All the ingredients for Caprese Salads, quickly becoming my lunch time favorite. I bought two, ripe heirlooms a few days back, one a deep golden yellow, one a maroon-ish, green. Simple mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, olive oil, balsamic, and black pepper and a rainbow salad, presto!

Trying to get more leafy greens in my diet, I branched away from the caprese to create the best salad I have ever made. Hands down. I am so proud of this salad, and can’t wait to serve it/eat it again! During a recent trip to Bainbridge Island, I purchased a loaf of Whole Wheat Oat Bread from the Blackbird Bakery. It’s a dense sandwich loaf great for morning toast with a light spread. Even better than that, it’s ideal for homemade croutons. Tossed in olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper, I put one inch cubes of the loaf into the oven on broil for eight min. In the meantime, I cut an apricot and avocado, tossed spinach with olive oil, sprinkled toasted pecans and grated fresh asiago over the salad. Then tossed the hot croutons into the salad (crisp, salty on the outside, soft, chewy on the inside). Finally, I poached an egg and nestled it on the top. The egg yolk added warm richness to the spinach and melded the creamy avocado with the sweet-tart apricot beautifully.

Absolutely, a great salad.

Summer Spinach Salad

One apricot sliced in cubes
Half an avocado, sliced in cubes
Spinach
Grated Asiago
Toasted Pecans
Homemade Croutons
Poached Egg
Olive oil
Kosher Salt
Black Pepper