Grilled Zucchini Salad

The inspiration for this salad comes from a local restaurant called The Eatery. The Eatery is within walking distance of where I live so the BF and I will sometimes walk over for dinner or Sunday brunch. I have a few favorite dishes there, with their steak salad being my #1 favorite salad of all time. They serve it with sliced flat iron steak, grilled zucchini ribbons, a red pepper coulis, crispy potato bits, and it is so darn delicious I could probably eat two servings. No joke! 😉

Since I can’t run off to The Eatery for a fancy salad every time the mood strikes, I came up with my own version, which also happens to be vegetarian since I omitted the steak. Not for any particular reason other than I didn’t feel like cooking up a steak at the moment. I wanted something simple that still captures most of my favorite elements of the salad. One of the main stars is the grilled zucchini so I created this salad around that component. If you’ve never had grilled zucchini in a mixed green salad, please try it soon. The flavors pair so well together and you’ll wonder why you’ve been eating salad without it all your life. The only thing is that it has to be zucchini ribbons, not zucchini spears. Don’t ask me why, but the ribbons taste better. Just trust me, okay? 😀

This salad is another one of my no-measurements recipes. I’ll give you a list of ingredients and you can do whatever you’d like with them! Please add, omit, and substitute to your heart’s content!

• Servings: 1
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Ingredients:

• spring salad mix
• grape tomatoes, halved
• red onion, thinly sliced
• blue cheese, crumbled
• zucchini, sliced into ribbons (I use my veggie peeler), drizzled with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and grilled until just translucent

Directions:

Toss the spring salad mix, grape tomatoes, and red onion with your favorite vinaigrette. (The recipe for my champagne vinaigrette is below in the first picture.) Gently fold in the grilled zucchini. Transfer to a plate and top with blue cheese crumbles. Serve and enjoy!

I made a homemade champagne vinaigrette for this salad. Here is the recipe:
1/3 cup champagne vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Mixin’ my greens! And reds!

I would have liked more zucchini ribbons.

Next time I shall add more.

Look at the pretty grill marks!

 

And now here is my favorite fluffy-bottomed fellow:

 

Bailey has a lot of squeaky toys. I can’t tell you how many because A) You’ll judge me and B) There are too many to count. 😉 This is what Bailey does while I edit photos and work on my blog. He brings his friends over to keep him company while I plug away at the computer. 🙂