22 summer salads

Looking for some fresh salad ideas this summer? Stir It Up! has you covered. Whether you're a traditional lettuce and veggies person, or like to experiment with pastas and grains, our salad list is sure to spark inspiration. 

Steak salad in a lettuce leaf with fresh herbs

Feasting On Art
Steak salad seasoned with spices and fresh herbs rolled into a lettuce leaf. (To see an image of Raphaelle Peale’s 'Still Life with Steak' that inspired this salad, click on the right arrow in the bottom of this box.)

By Megan Fizell, Feasting On Art
Serves 4

1 red chilli

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

500 grams (1 lb.) lean porterhouse steak

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 small head butter lettuce

Handful fresh mint

Handful fresh coriander (cilantro)

1 lime, juiced

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced

1. The night before serving salad, thinly slice the red chilli and place in a small bowl with the cider vinegar. Let sit overnight.

2. Remove any visible fat from the steak and place in a bowl.

3. Pour over the rice vinegar and cover with the Chinese five spice and brown sugar. Rub the spice and sugar into the meat and let sit for 20 minutes.

4. Place a skillet over high heat and begin to cook the steak, 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and let rest on a cutting board.

5. Clean the lettuce and herbs. Place one large lettuce leaf on each plate; add herbs and the pickled red chillies. Thinly slice the steak and add to each salad.

6. Mince the ginger and mix with lime juice. Drizzle 1 teaspoon over each salad. Roll the lettuce leaf around the salad and eat with hands.

3 of 22

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.