Zucchini & Yellow Squash Ribbon Salad

Dear Foodies,

Things never seem to go as planned around here with me and the blog! Late last year I took a break from work when I moved to San Diego thinking that would give me all the time in the world to spend on blogging, reading other blogs and making new friends. When I was working and trying to blog regularly I would always wish for more free time, and envy those who were able to take a break and spend time doing what they love. So when I finally did reach that point I had so many more things on my list and I just got drawn into a completely different routine. I cooked a lot and interestingly managed to take some good photographs and added to my collection of food props too. But the actual time I spent on the blog or following my favorite blogs shot down to a real low. I got busy crocheting, sewing, taking craft classes, catching up on books, exploring the new city, photographing and lots of cooking.

Now I'm back to work and with it my itch to blog is back with a bang too! When I was working I had my blogging routine all worked out and it had become a matter of habit, so now I hope to nourish that routine and make it a really work. The last few weeks I worked hard to finally make the move to the new blogger beta templates from the older one that I had. Its easier now to change colors and fonts and backgrounds, but the move itself wasn't easy at all. There were some hacks and widgets that I had learned to tweak to my needs and create a personalized blog space in the older version and now I had to re-tweak them, painfully refreshing my memory and making them work with this new blogger html code. Not an easy task! After an extremely slow and frustrating process I am satisfied with the way it looks now and decided to move on before I go crazy :) And the idea behind the color scheme, if you are wondering, is inspired from a coffee mug that I fell in love with at the store!

This salad that I bring to you today is assuredly one of the prettiest plates I have made! And there was almost zero effort on my part, the gorgeous veggies handled it all by themselves. Its.summer.on.a.plate. The grocery stores are piled high with summer squash and if you are gardener then you surely are running out of ways to consume them before the next batch is ready for picking. I slice them up, char them lightly on the cast iron pan and pile them on my burger like so. Or I use the chunks in some tomato-onion based gravy spiced up with ajwain(carom) and fennel seeds. But those ideas are for later, today I share with you a very simple salad preparation.

Summer Squash & Radish Ribbon Salad

Servings: 2 ( side)

Prep time: 20mins

Cooking time: N/A

Ingredients

• 1 - Zucchini, Yellow Squash and couple of radishes washed and wiped dry
• 2 tsp - Spring onion greens, minced
• Pinch of red pepper flakes

For the lemon vinaigrette -

• 2 tbsp - Lemon juice
• 5 Tbsp - Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Cut the squash in half or thirds for longer ones to get approx 4" pieces. Using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline, carefully shave off ribbons of the squash allowing them to fall into a bowl. The radishes can be sliced as is, taking care of your fingers all along.
2. For the basic lemon vinaigrette, I add all the ingredients into a small bottle with a tight lid and shake it well to get the emulsification going. Taste test for seasonings. 
3. Starting with half the vinaigrette, pour it over the veggies and lightly toss them together. Add more vinaigrette as needed. 
4. Arrange the pretty vegetable ribbons on a plate, sprinkle the minced spring onions and red pepper flakes and serve the crisp fresh salad immediately.

Notes: Carrots can also be made into ribbons in a similar fashion and added to the salad.
- Dry fruits (cranberries/ raisins) & toasted nuts (walnuts, pine nuts or sliced almonds) can be added to enhance the salad.
- Little chunks of ricotta, feta or goat cheese would also go really well with the sharp acidic vinaigrette.

This is a fantastic salad, you get to enjoy the unique tastes of each vegetable but they also blend together to form a cohesive dish. The acid in the vinaigrette adds a sharpness to the salad that makes it extremely light and refreshing to the palate. The spring onion greens and red pepper flakes add varying kicks of spice forcing you to go back for more. I had a bowlful of it and made it again the next day, and the day after until I ran of squash at home. Another great way to enjoy the salad is to pile it on top of crisp toasty bread, smear one slice with a little bit of fiery home-made harissa and dig-in. Brilliant. You will even forget you are eating raw veggies. Make this and enjoy the rest of summer.