This is a simple salad, but it's all about playing off the different flavors of Tasmanian pepper, soaked in the dressing before serving. Raw fennel's complex sweetness and astringency highlights the spice's fruitiness and pepper-like bite. Oranges magnify its hints of bright fruits and flowers, while smoky roasted red pepper lets the spice's earthiness shine. The bed of arugula gives the salad body, and its bitterness does well with Tasmanian pepper's juniper-like alpine qualities. More

I love the time of year, when zucchini just starts to pop up at the farmers' market, and this recipe from Stonesoup is the perfect way to show off the vegetable. A simple lentil salad gets spruced up here with the addition of grilled ribbons of zucchini and a few slices of salty prosciutto. The lightly blackened vegetable lends a smokey essence to each bite, while the prosciutto helps make this a relatively filling main course salad. More

This hearty salad combines nutty farro and creamy white beans in a bright lemon vinaigrette. More

Some supermarkets sell vacuum-packed cooked beets in the produce section, which is such a convenient way to make a salad a bit more gourmet and interesting. I toss grated beets with olive oil, sweet balsamic vinegar, and a touch of lemon juice, then topped it off with crumbled goat cheese and chopped mint. More

Known as Skagen salad in Swedish, this light shrimp salad makes a great open-faced sandwich. More

This dish is traditionally served on Midsummer in Sweden to celebrate the new potatoes in the garden. More

Before a friend mentioned croutons, I hadn't put them on a salad in a really long time. Was I forgetting how good they were? Mental note: make a batch. Fast-forward a few days: I'm now a crouton-making machine. More

The combination of almonds, sweet dried cranberries, and apples is never bad, and the addition of smoked mozzarella adds another layer of flavor. The farro cooks up plump and distinct, making each bite filling. The wine-roasted garlic is easily the most complicated part of this very simple recipe. More

Cooking squid requires some special patience, as it needs to be cooked until white, but if you wait too long it'll turn into a rubbery little monster. But in this recipe from Jonathon Waxman's A Great American Cook, the squid just needs a few seconds in the scorching skillet, so it's easy to whip up. The sauce is made from rice wine vinegar, oil, and a whole bunch of aïoli, which gives each bite a garlic kick. Everything is then tossed with crisp greens. I found some amazing mizuna at the market, which worked perfectly. More

Skirt steak sits on a bed of a baby arugula, grape tomatoes, and tortilla chips, which is then topped with a cilantro-lime dressing for a simple, yet incredibly flavorful salad. More