One of the great things about summer is the abundant fresh veggies just begging to be eaten. The best way to honor them is a fresh summer salad, the perfect no-hassle dish for hot days.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter each day. Who’s going to want to stand in the sweltering kitchen in front of the hot stove? As much as I love cooking and experimenting in the kitchen, a quick summer salad is always delicious and usually requires minimum effort and skill. Here are some of the best salads to enjoy in the hot summer months:

The seasonal
This might be a no-brainer, but it is the most environmentally friendly, climate-conscious option. The ingredient list for this one couldn’t be simpler: Go to your local grocer or bazaar or any spot that provides goods from local farmers and see what they have there. Fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, young onions, green onions and a variety of peppers. Combine them to your heart’s desire, sprinkle some salt and a good dash of olive oil and enjoy! Enhancing these seasonal salads with grains or nuts can make for an interesting variation as well. For example, you can lightly toast sesame seeds in a pan and mix that in. My personal favorite is and will always be sunflower seeds.

Some meat and lots of greens: Purslane salad
This is the stuff sold at fancy restaurants with a hefty price tag to boot. Purslane on its own is delicious and sometimes I just eat it by smothering it in yogurt (I sometimes add a few crushed cloves of garlic to that yogurt – trust me you won’t regret it) but add a few more ingredients and you’ll have a salad that you can serve as a main dish without a second thought.

Ingredients

1 bundle of purslane
200-300 grams tomatoes
3-4 bell peppers
2 chicken breasts
a can of corn, or one cob of corn
juice of one lemon
salt, pepper, olive oil, vegetable oil
Instructions

First off, wash the purslane thoroughly and drain the excess water. Cut the leaves roughly. Do not throw the stems away! Instead, just cut them a bit more finely. They taste just as good as the leaves. Wash the tomatoes and chop them up depending on their size. I like to use cherry tomatoes and usually just halve them. Chop the bell peppers roughly as well and add the corn to the salad, too. Cut the chicken breast in thin strips, season with salt and pepper and saute them in a pan with a bit of vegetable oil. Once the chicken is cooked, season the salad with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Separate the salad into big bowls and top them off with the chicken. Sprinkle the remaining fat of the chicken pan onto the salad and serve!

Tip

Go nuts by adding other ingredients to this salad. These are the ones I usually have on hand.

You don’t need the chicken if you don’t feel like it, or you can change it up with some tuna or other meat for that matter.