8/02/2012

All the Flavors of Summer in a Bowl!

My mother had no name for this except, Summer Salad
This salad was always a treat for us in summer. Everything in it, except for the vinegar, came right out of the garden.
Cabbages, planted in August, harvested in November, kept all winter in the fridge.

Last November we harvested the fall cabbages that our intern, Adam had planted back in August. We trimmed off the outer leaves and put the cabbages in the extra refrigerator, where they stayed all winter, except for the ones we ate, of course. So a few days ago I was cleaning out that refrigerator and we still had 2 heads of cabbage. Yes, they were still just as good, or better, than when we'd put them in, months ago. So I decided to make one into Mom's Summer Salad.

Here's the recipe:
1 head of cabbage, core removed, sliced
1 sweet bell pepper
1 slightly hot pepper, optional
1 large sweet onion, diced
4-6 tomatoes, cut in chunks
1 or 2 cucumbers, cut in chunks (diced is too small)
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/8 cup sugar (I use Truvia or stevia instead)
2 teaspoons celery salt
2 cups ice cubes

When you're cutting up the tomatoes, cut over the salad pan so the juices drip into the mixture. Combine the ingredients including the ice cubes and mix well. The ice chills the salad and keeps it crisp and also thins down the vinegar so it's not too strong. Wait for at least an hour before serving. This will keep for several days in the refrigerator (I drain off the liquid so the salad doesn't get too strong with flavor). It's a great way to use up extra garden produce, it's healthy and darned good, too!
All the flavors of the summer garden in one bowl!

1 comment:

Barbara The Healthy Nut said...

Great way to use all those summer veggies. We just made this 2 days ago!