Salad

This version of the French classic has only raw vegetables.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Offer with crusty French bread and you have a satisfying summer supper. The creamy dressing is lower-fat version, using half yogurt and half mayonnaise.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A sophisticated and easy-to-make salad.

Green papaya salad in all its regional variations - often flavored with pork, beef, or shrimp (as below)-is hugely popular throughout Southeast Asia. The dish is made from unripe Southeast Asian papayas, which have firm white flesh and white seeds. The current popularity of Vietnamese and Thai food in the United States has increased these papayas' availability, although it is still generally limited to Asian markets. Such papayas can grow to the size of cantaloupes or larger and range in shape from oval to round. Look for rock-hard dark green fruit without a trace of pink or yellow blush. If you don't see any, ask (some shopkeepers do not display them). Those who can't find the right kind of papaya might skip the salad or substitute seedless (European) cucumbers despite the repetition with the main course. Those who can find Southeast Asian green papayas will be treated to a salad that our food editors found irresistible.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Boiling the vinegar concentrates and sweetens it, so the dressing doesn't require as much oil to balance the acid. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Subscribing to the theory that epicurean cooking should, ideally, be easy and inexpensive, I submit this recipe, which I obtained during the summer I taught school on Guam. It's for a dressing of mine that is excellent on fruit salads and even makes an outstanding dressing for coleslaw as part of a summer picnic. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Be sure to serve this with thick slices of good bread to soak up the dressing.

A delicious salad that can be partnered with some crusty bread to make a light main course. The recipe yields a generous amount of vinaigrette; if you have some left over, try tossing it with oriental noodles, dipping fried wontons into it or brushing some onto chicken breasts right before grilling them.