Simple Garden Salad
easy10 min total4 servingsraw
This is the salad that reminds you why salad exists. Fresh cucumbers, crisp bell pepper, sweet tomatoes, and a zippy lemon dressing — no wilted greens, no sad croutons. Just vegetables doing exactly what they were meant to do.
Ingredients
- Fresh spinach4 cups
- Cucumber1 medium, sliced
- Bell pepper1, diced
- Cherry tomatoes or tomatoes1 cup cherry or 2 medium, chopped
- Lemon1/2, juiced
- Olive oil3 tablespoons
- Red wine vinegar1 1/2 tablespoons
- Honey1/2 teaspoon
- Saltto taste
- Black pepperto taste
Instructions
- 1
Wash all your vegetables thoroughly and dry them well. Wet vegetables make watery salad — nobody wants that.
- 2
Roughly tear or chop 4 cups of fresh spinach leaves into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a large salad bowl.
- 3
Slice 1 medium cucumber into thin half-moons. If the skin is waxed (grocery store cucumbers), peel it first; if it's fresh-from-the-garden or English cucumber, leave the skin on.
- 4
Dice 1 bell pepper (any color works — red and yellow are sweeter, green is more bitter and grassy) into roughly ½-inch pieces.
- 5
Cut 1 cup of cherry tomatoes in half, or dice 2 medium tomatoes into chunks. Add them to the bowl.
- 6
Make the dressing: whisk together 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1½ tablespoons of red wine vinegar, the juice of half a lemon, ½ teaspoon of honey, a big pinch of salt, and several grinds of black pepper. Taste it on your finger — it should be bright, slightly tangy, and not too sweet.
- 7
Add the cucumber, bell pepper, and tomatoes to the bowl with the spinach.
- 8
Drizzle the dressing over the salad. Start with about three-quarters of it — you can always add more, but you cannot take it away.
- 9
Toss gently with clean hands or tongs, making sure every leaf and vegetable piece gets coated.
- 10
Serve immediately. This salad does not wait well once dressed — the acid wilts the spinach within about 15 minutes. Dress it right before serving.
Produce in this recipe
“You just turned groceries into glory. Nice.”
