Say hi to your new favorite summer salad

Bibi Hutchings, a lifelong Southerner, lives along a quiet coastal Alabama bay with her cat, Zulu, and husband, Tom. She writes about the magical way food evokes memories, instantly bringing you back to the people, places and experiences of your life. Her stories take you all around the South and are accompanied with tried-and-true recipes that are destined to become a part of your memory-making as you share them with your friends and family.

This is not just another summer salad. It is versatile, adaptable and modifiable. It can be made with so many varying ingredients that it never gets boring. A little fancy, a little comforting, it is a delight to your taste buds as well as to those of any guests you may be hosting. It is the summer salad my husband and I have been living on since heat indexes at home eased into triple digits. I am betting you will be inclined to follow our lead and come to rely on it just as heavily once you taste it. 

Delicious in a way that is life-affirming, there is nothing more satisfying on a hot July day than this cold, colorful melange of tender greens, sweet seasonal fruits, lightly toasted nuts and crumbled cheese.