This creamy summer salad is chock full of vegetables, flavor and texture! It's one of those side dishes that sort of steals the spotlight from the main dish. It's so surprisingly good, you'll want to be sure you make plenty to go round!
Fresh-from-the-Garden Ingredients
If you have garden veggies and herbs you need to use up, this salad is perfect to make.
Many of your summer favorites make an appearance here plus some radishes and hearts of palm for a twist. We're talking yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, green onions, red onions and you could even throw in some leftover corn off the cobb if you'd like. All these veggies get tossed in a zippy lemon dressing with a touch of creaminess for mouth-watering flavor you'd never expect from a vegetable side dish.
Radishes are typically a spring/early summer crop but luckily, you can find them at most stores all year round if you don't have any left from your garden. The add a nice crunch and spice to this dish.
Creamy Lemon Dressing
The dressing is simple to make and adds just the right touch to bring all the different vegetables in this dish together under one delicious roof.
This quick and easy homemade dressing is made using lemon juice and a bit of mayonnaise plus fresh herbs. That's it! There's a medley of herbs that give this dressing its complex flavor — Basil, mint and parsley.
This combination of herbs was inspired by some of my other favorite summer dish dishes, classic Tabbouleh and this lsreali Couscous Salad. Just this has a touch of creaminess. Because we're not adding any pasta, the creamy dressing helps give the vegetables a bit more body.
Could you add pasta to this side dish?
Sure. I'd recommend pearl couscous or some sort of small pasta shape but you do you. You could also serve with toasted pita chips on top. Just make sure you offer them on the side and don't mix them in or they'll get soggy.
Can you make this ahead?
Yes. You can make this the night before. However, this salad really tastes best when you mix it fresh and serve immediately. You loose a little bit of the fresh vegetable crunch when you make it the night before.
This salad is a great summer dinner side dish.
Since the shelf life of this salad is short, this a best served as a side dish with a summer dinner vs. trying to take it to a pot luck.
The beauty of this salad is that you can enjoy your typical summer garden veggies — squash, zucchini, grape tomatoes, and cucumbers all in one salad.
Make Chopping Veggies Easier
Start with a good chef's knife. A new, sharp knife makes chopping all the veggies much easier. Need a new one? Shop chef's knives on Amazon.
Want more side dish ideas?
Browse all my side dish recipes
This creamy summer salad recipe was featured on South Your Mouth!
Creamy Lemon Summer Salad
Ingredients
- 14 oz hearts of palm drained and thinly sliced
- 1 cucmbers diced
- 1 dozen grape tomoates quartered
- ¼ red onion thinly slices and chopped
- 4 green onions finely chopped
- 1 small zucchini diced
- 1 small yellow squash diced
- 6 radishes thinly sliced and halved
CREAMY LEMON SAUCE
- Juice from 1 lemon
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon basil chopped
- 1 tablespoon mint chopped
- 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop and slice veggies and hearts or palm as notes above and add to a large bowl.
- In a separate small bowl or jar, combine dressing ingredients. Stir until well blended then drizzle over the veggies. Toss before serving.
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