In honor of it being Daniel’s birthday and the vegetable garden being such a big part of summer life at The Cozy Cottage, I wanted to share a super simple garden salad recipe made entirely out of vegetables grown in our backyard.

Daniel is growing several vegetables in the garden, including a couple of cucumber varieties that he grows specifically for pickling. We are at the time of the year when half of our refrigerator is various large mason jars of different pickles (I’m not exaggerating!). But other vegetables grown make fresh additions to any meal or are tossed with a little big of flavor for an all garden vegetable salad like this one.

Ingredients (based on what we’re growing in the garden):

1. Sun gold tomatoes
2. Indigo cherry tomatoes
3. Cucumbers
4. Green beans
5. Pepperoncini peppers that he then pickles
6. Lemon basil

And now for the incredibly laborious and difficult directions:

1. Chop or cut the vegetables and herb however you like.
2. Toss them in extra virgin olive oil, rice vinegar and dashes of truffle oil and Maggi (make sure you get the one that is made and sold out of Europe for the true umami flavor)
3. Add salt and pepper
4. Make sure all your dressing ingredients are to taste
5. Eat!

And that’s it, such an easy garden salad recipe. Happy birthday, Daniel!