Salad Niçoise & Company

When summer's warm breezes lure you outside, it's time to put away the roasting and braising recipes for something lighter and more seasonal. Forget the heavy winter vegetables. Instead choose fragrant ripe tomatoes, freshly snipped herbs, green beans and tender sweet corn to enliven these satisfying seafood salads. Each of these recipes is a meal in itself, the main event. All you need to add is some crusty bread, a light sipping wine and , perhaps, a mix of ripe summer berries to spoon over sliced pound cake.

These seafood salads are dynamite for entertaining. The Salmon Tabbouleh, for example, will benefit from an overnight stay in the fridge and is quick to assemble and serve the next day. However, most salads starring seafood taste best at room temperature, so allow time for them to lose their refrigerator chill before serving.

Feel free to mix and match the seafood. Dungeness crab can stand in for lobster, especially if you live closer to Portland, Oregon, than Portland Maine, Summer Savings at Nelson Crab®. The original Louis Salad calls for crabmeat drizzled with a rosy pink remoulade sauce. Our recipe substitutes with cooked tiny pink shrimp also excellent from Nelson Crab® But if you have cooked leftovers — firm fish such as salmon (Simply Seafood® Boneless Wild Keta Salmon portions or fillets are a perfect substitute:), swordfish or sea bass — go ahead, make a Swordfish Louis. Nontraditional? Yes, but this is summer?!

Recipes

• Tuna Salade Niçoise
• Warm Tuna Salad with Garlic Croutons
• Simply Seafood® Boneless Wild Keta Salmon Tabbouleh Salad
• Shrimp Louis
• Summer Lobster Salad