Favorite cold salad recipes?

Do not complain about the heat. Do not complain about the heat. Do not comp...Why hello there! I didn't see you there. I was just reminding myself to do my kegels and water the plants. Things are great here! How are you?

On the off chance that it's a little warm in your area, which happens sometimes and we can all totally handle it, I thought we'd talk about cooler topics. Don't you just love polar bears? I hear the North Pole is lovely this time of year! Last Christmas we got a ton of snow, so very much snow, and it was sooo cold out. Yeah, this is not working.

OK...salad. I love salad. And ever since I made up a batch of that Goddess dressing I mentioned a few weeks ago (you know, the one with the xanthan gum, which you have to buy in a large quantity and only use a tiny bit of) I've been pouring it on everything cold and plant-like. I am seriously addicted to it and it has greatly increased my veggie intake. And surprise! The kids and hub like it, too. (So here's an idea: buy a bag of xanthan gum and make the dressing. Give your friends a tiny jar of it and the recipe and tell them they can buy a share of your gum. They will not be able to resist. It's that good.) 

Last night as our indoor temperature hovered around 85, I knew there was no way in heck I'd be cooking, so at 5 o'clock I chopped up some tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions, threw them together with some fresh parsley (oh I would have killed for fresh mint) and a dressing of 1 lemon and an equal amount of olive oil, plus feta cheese. My original intent was to make tabouli from the Moosewood Cookbook, but I lost the will to dice the veggies and prepare the bulgur (which is actually super easy, and I've never had to soak it 3 hours like they say in the link above; just pour boiling water over it and let it soak 20 minutes). At 5:15 I put it in the fridge. Dinner was that salad, whole wheat pita bread dipped in Goddess dressing, cold grapes and an adult beverage. On a hot day, this is what I crave. (The children were conveniently at Grandma's, so I didn't have to worry about their needs, wah ha ha ha ha.)

I want more cold salad ideas. I got some fresh dill with my CSA this week and am craving potato salad, but the thought of turning on the stove is torture. What is your ultimate cool-down salad on a steamy day?