Delicious & Easy
Salsa Verde Shaved Summer Squash Salad
Who else loves a good no-cook recipe? Briney and bright salsa verde dressing coats thinly sliced summer squash of all shapes and sizes in this easy end-of-summer side. Pair it with your favorite grilled protein and call it dinner.
Ingredients for
Salsa Verde Shaved Summer Squash Salad
- I bunch parsley, roughly chopped
- 1 serrano chile pepper, minced
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained and minced
- 2 garlic cloves, grated or minced
- 1 lemon
- Kosher salt & black pepper to taste
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 pounds assorted summer squash
- ¼ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
- ¼ cup crumbled pecorino Romano cheese
SERVES 4–6
Instructions for
Salsa Verde Shaved Summer Squash Salad
- Make salsa verde dressing by mixing finely chopped parsley, minced serrano, capers, and garlic with the zest and juice of 1 lemon in a large mixing bowl. Stir in olive oil and finish with a few pinches of salt and some freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- Use a mandoline to thinly slice summer squash and transfer into the bowl with the dressing.
- Reserve a tablespoon of each toasted walnuts and crumbled pecorino for garnish add the rest to the salad. Gently toss everything together to coat, being careful not to break the thinly sliced squash.
- Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with remaining walnuts and cheese and finish with a few more grinds of black pepper.
Frequently asked
Questions About This Recipe
What’s a mandoline or what if I don’t have one?
A mandoline (not to be confused with a mandolin) is a culinary slicing tool with adjustable settings that helps cooks achieve thick to nearly paper-thin slices of almost any vegetable or fruit. They can be tricky to use and you might know of some horror stories or some of your own, but:
- Be confident and read the directions that come with the device.
- ALWAYS USE THE PROVIDED CUTTING GUARD—and cut gloves are recommended if you’re loose with the knife skills because it’s easy to lose a fingerprint or two if you make a wrong move.
If you don’t want to use the mandoline or don’t have one, that’s fine too. Try working on your knife skills and slicing technique or using a vegetable peeler to make ribbons or grating or spiralizing—the variations on how you can chop up summer squash are endless. It’s fun to play around with these recipes and make them your own with what you’ve got.
Is this recipe flexible?
Sure looks like it. If you don’t have summer squash but want to try the salsa verde dressing, we’d be willing to bet it’ll be good on shaved carrots, cabbage, or anything else you want to put it on.
Final
Notes & Thoughts
Thinking about in-season eating, summer squash is something that can be found year-round in the conventional marketplace and is a staple vegetable across the globe for good reason. Summer squashes are loaded with beneficial nutrients like manganese. Cooking summer squash depletes some of the vital nutrients that we might want to preserve, like vitamin C, which makes a raw salad like this one perfect for our pile of go-to recipes.
Hungry for more?
Check out this Shaved Summer Squash Salad recipe from our summer issue’s guest food editor, Christina Ng, and read about why she loves it so much in the exclusive feature, A Chef’s Tale of Summer.
