My Garden in a Bowl: A Beautiful Summer Salad

The garden veggies

 Gorgeous vegetables from my garden!  Today there will not be much in the way of a recipe.  This is more of an inspiration because food this fresh needs so little to be perfect.

I was bringing a salad to family party but I wanted more than the basics of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  I fired up the grill and prepped red, yellow and orange peppers and some yellow and green squash with a light coating of olive oil, garlic powder, sea salt and pepper. I also grilled a few ears of shucked corn.  I grilled everything until it had nice grill marks on all sides.

Meanwhile, I washed and tore three kinds of lettuce (Salad Bowl, Boston, Green Leaf) onto a huge platter.  I added sliced cucumbers-I like pickling cukes in the summer because they don't have many seeds and they have a fresh taste and smell.  I sliced a 1/2 a Vidalia onion and added it to the greens.

Tomato, Tomato, Tomato

 The plump, juicy tomatoes needed nothing to be the star ingredient in the salad.  I cut them into wedges and placed them on top of the greens.  I love the creamy rich taste of avocado so I added a few of them.  The grilled, cooled veggies went around the greens.  Because I can't live without it, I added crumbled Feta cheese.

Here is the finished salad!!  For dressing,  I made a simple vinaigrette with wine vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic clove, dried oregano, salt and pepper.

A salad that's ready to party!