A salmon salad with red onion, shallots and cucumber, garnished with edible pansy flowers.

Heavens, there are already small cucumbers in the garden. Hail summer.

Lettuce, cilantro and mint, and even cherry tomatoes. Oh, so tasty and sweet. Recently the temperature hit 90 degrees as the plants sighed and grew several inches. I had to wear a baseball hat to avoid overexposure.

As I gardened, I thought about a salad with salmon and a peanut sauce dressing. Here goes.

Salmon salad

Ingredients

• 6 ounces cooked salmon

• Two heads romaine lettuce, diagonally sliced

• One-quarter thinly sliced red onion

• Crispy fried shallots

• 12 cherry tomatoes, halved

• One-half cucumber, thinly sliced

• Lightly-salted peanuts

• 2 tablespoons chopped mint

• One-half apple, diced 1/4 inch

• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

• 24 pansy flowers for garnish

Dressing

• 1/2 cup peanut butter

• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup vinegar

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 1 tablespoon mustard

Directions

Chop the lettuce across the grain, about 1/4-inch thick. Peel the skin off the cooked salmon and break the fillet into bite-sized pieces.

Chop the cucumber somewhat small. Finely chop the mint and cilantro. Slice the red onion as thinly as possible. Halve the cherry tomatoes. Coarsely chop the nuts. Dice the apple.

For the dressing, stir and shake all ingredients vigorously, if possible in an immersion blender.

Toss all the above ingredients with the dressing, top with the dried shallots, and garnish with pansy flowers. Perfect for a hot summer day.