Sunny Salad - Enjoy the Squash While They Last

The summer squash are almost done. The squash bugs always seem to get ahead of me each summer, but I've had pretty good luck this year. Here's a yummy salad. It also makes use of the wonderful yellow cherry tomatoes and little yellow pear tomatoes of which I have a great abundance.

Sunny Salad
1 yellow summer squash, diced
1 cup cooked chickpeas, drained and well-rinsed
1/2 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds
1 cup corn kernels, roasted fresh if possible or frozen, cooked and drained
1 pint yellow pear tomatoes or yellow grape tomatoes
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I love to use the Mexican blends)
3 cups mesclun, well rinsed

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
juice of one lemon
zest of one lemon
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all dressing ingredients and set aside.
Put all the vegetables in a large serving bowl and toss with the dressing.

Endive, Pear and Walnut Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette
This salad calls for Asian pears. I have a lovely Asian pear tree that bears fruit each year. Unfortunately we have hardly ever gotten to eat any of it. Something or someone eats them before we can pick them. Before I left for Kentucky there were a dozen lovely biig round pears on my tree. Three weeks later when they should have been ripe we returned home to find all the pears gone. Fortunately, we can find good Asian pears at our local farmers' market. I thought I didn't like blue cheese until I tasted the Maytag blue from Iowa. The key for me is to have a very small amount of mild blue cheese as a seasoning. I don't like raspberries either, but raspberry vinegar is a wondrous thing. You can also find blueberry and cranberry vinegars in the markets.

Raspberry Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
tablespoon honey
teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoon flaxseed oil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Endive, Pear and Walnut Salad
4 heads red Belgian endives, separated and cut into one inch pieces
1 bunch watercress, rinsed and torn into small pieces
1 large Asian pear, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
4 ounces chopped walnuts, toasted
2 ounces crumbled mild blue cheese - We like Maytag blue

Mix endive and watercress. Toss well with the vinaigrette. Divide greens among six salad plates. Top each with pear slices, walnuts and cheese.