Cucumber Summer Salad

In my mind, Memorial Day is the first weekend of summer. In my kitchen that means my oven gets a break and we turn to the grill for most of our meats and I am always looking for delicious side dishes to serve alongside whatever we decide to throw on the grill.

Since one of my closest friends in the world just posted about how she hates to read through a boring recipe blog just to get to the actual recipe I will cut the 'why I like this' and 'tips to making it' part of the blog short and just skip right to it-

Ingredients:

2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered

5 mini cucumbers, sliced (or you could use 1 long english cucumber if you can't find the minis)

1/2 red onion chopped

1 avocado chopped

arugula or greens of choice for serving

For the Dressing:

1 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP balsamic vinegar

1/2 TBSP honey

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl.

Chop the tomotoes, red onion, cucumbers and stir together and then drizzle dressing over the top and fold togetether to evenly coat the vegetables.

Just before ready to serve, add the chopped avocado and stir to distribute.

Enjoy on it's own as a great side dish or serve on top of a beautiful bed of greens, my favorite is a mix of arugula and baby spinach.

For me, this combination is a perfect blend of creaminess from the avocado with the sweetness of fresh tomatoes and mild cucumbers finished with the zippy bite of the homemade balsamic dressing. All these veggies are easy to find nice and fresh this time of year so they are easy to add to the grocery list. Next time you are looking for soemthing to serve with that gorgeous grille dchicken or even as a lighter side to a burger or some barbeque try this out, I promise it is a keeper!

Plus, feel free to double that dressing recipe and save some for salads later in the week!

If you make this yourself feel free to share with us how it turned out-