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According to Merriam Webster, a salad is “any of various usually cold dishes: such as raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing.”

That strikes me as an awfully limited definition.

A salad can be any combination of foods — vegetables, poultry, fish, meat, grains, pasta — combined or composed and topped with some sort of dressing or vinaigrette.

The goal with these three recipes is to open up your view of what a salad can be beyond a side dish or an afterthought. And a salad need not be all about just plain lettuce, as these three recipes prove.

The first salad is for grilled radicchio (a bitter, gorgeous, maroon and white type of chicory) that is grilled (which mellows the bitterness) and topped with thick slices of grilled salmon, chopped olives, and a dressing made up of grilled lemon, olive oil and herbs.

*To pit olives, place a large knife down in the center of the olive and use some force to press down. The olive should split in half; remove the pit and then chop.

The bright colors and fresh tropical flavors of this salad are ideal for a hot summer afternoon or evening. Cubes of fresh mango are tossed with cucumber, avocado, lime, cilantro and salty, crunchy peanuts. Grilled (or leftover) chicken cubes are delicious tossed with the salad, as well. The dressing is flavored with fresh ginger, cilantro, mint, olive oil, lime juice and vinegar. The salad is topped with crunchy salted peanuts for added texture.

You can easily omit the chicken and substitute another vegetable, such as grilled onions or scallions or very thinly sliced red cabbage, or cooked shrimp. Serve with a warm baguette or rolls.

The Ginger-lime-mint dressing is delicious on any salad, but pairs well with seafood, grilled vegetables or cold noodles.

I wanted to create a simple summer salad that only used green ingredients. Crunchy green lettuce, check. Fresh early summer peas, check. Lightly sauteed zucchini, check. Pale green celery, fresh mint, and chives, check. And then to dress it all: an herby green goddess dressing. This is the salad for a very hot summer day when you don’t want to create any extra heat in your kitchen. Saute the zucchini in the morning and you can put the salad together in no time at all. Fresh herbs will make all the difference in this salad.

This segment aired on July 7, 2022.

Kathy Gunst Twitter Resident Chef, Here & Now Kathy Gunst is a James Beard Award-winning journalist and the author of 15 cookbooks.

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