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My brother in law, likes the flavor of onions, but sometimes the bite bothers him, so for years he has been picking raw onion out of his salads. Recently my sister started doing quick pickle recipes and now we are all enjoying healthy tasty salads, plus Gregg is enjoying onions. It takes no time to pickle an onion and this knowledge has been the impetus of many creative salads. Easy, slice your onions thinly, and soak them in vinegar, I have soaked them in white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, white balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar and found that any vinegar I have on hand works perfectly. All you need is about 1 hour of soaking, and the raw onion flavor has been tamed. Discard the vinegar and add the onions to your salad. Now the fun begins, we are busy making vegetable salads with this method. Cucumber, Radish, Onion and Dill Salad is a big favorite. We have enjoyed many salads now and substitute fresh dill for parsley, add carrots, zucchini or summer squash, mushrooms, or any variety of what I have in the refrigerator. This is a great way to enjoy the cool crisp of the veggies, without adding a lot of calories and a good way to preserve your veggies for a couple of extra days. If you let these salads sit in the fridge, they are still good 24 hours later. I am not canning, cooking, or long preserving veggies but instead just refreshing up some old recipes and enjoying the crispy, cool flavor of summer. Following is a basic example of our latest summer salad.

Basic Summer Salad:

1 Bag Red Radishes, sliced thinly
1 Onion Sliced thinly
2 English Cucumbers
½ Tsp Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil to taste
Vinegar to taste
1 Clove Garlic minced
2 tsp chopped fresh dill

Toss radishes with salt and let stand for 10 minutes, in a separate bowl Toss Onions with vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes. Drain radishes and onions and transfer to a large bowl, add cucumbers.

Whisk Olive Oil, vinegar, garlic, and dill in a small bowl, and pour over vegetables. Standard Vinaigrette is 1/3 Vinegar to 2/3 Olive Oil, but let your taste be your guide. Toss to combine and refrigerate. Good to eat in about an hour, and good later in the same day or even the next day. This is the perfect recipe to make in the morning, go to the pool and enjoy at lunch. This type of salad does not require a lot of dressing, experiment, and have fun with ingredients and the dressing.