Strawberries and green onions are pals in easy summer salad

One might not immediately think of strawberries and onions as a tasty pair, but they certainly become so in Strawberry and Spring Onion Salad (click for the recipe).
   The two main ingredients play off one another – the sweetness of the strawberries tempers the bite of the spring onions (also called green onions or scallions.) The Dijon mustard adds a bit more zing.
   The recipe calls for two bunches of green onions, thinly sliced. I thought this seemed like a lot, so I stuck with one bunch of bigger-than-usual green onions. I found it was about right – just enough oniony bite.
   The key to the recipe’s success, I think, is slicing the green onions thinly. If they are big pieces, they are far more noticeable to the palate and to the eye. Thinly-sliced, small pieces of green onions make for a lighter-tasting and more visually appealing salad.
   This is a superb salad to go alongside grilled meat or poultry.
   I encountered this recipe in the cookbook Better Homes and Gardens Garden Fresh Meals. The recipe I linked to above is on another site, for Country Home magazine, but it is exactly the same one I used.
   The salad is very easy to make.
   Strawberries, hulled and sliced ¼ inch thick, and thinly-sliced green onions, are combined in a large bowl.
   White wine or champagne vinegar, fresh chives, Dijon mustard, salt, fresh dill, salt and pepper are mixed in a bowl, then olive oil is whisked in.
   The dressing is poured over the strawberries and onions and the salad tossed.
   I skipped the garnish of edible flowers.

Better Homes & Gardens Garden Fresh Meals at amazon.ca