Challenge #1: Number 2 of Bittman's "101 Simple Salads"

THE MINIMALIST
101 Simple Salads for the Season
By MARK BITTMAN
Published: July 22, 2009
These summer salads minimize work at the stove and capitalize on the season, when great fruit and vegetables are plentiful.

I expect that this exhaustive overview of simple salads will serve as a guide for much of the coming months and I intend to keep a tally of the number I successfully complete.

My plan for today is number #2.

2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

And as a refresher, the commentary from the Times' article that cues up the list of fabulousness:

SUMMER may not be the best time to cook, but it’s certainly among the best times to eat. Toss watermelon and peaches with some ingredients you have lying around already, and you can produce a salad that’s delicious, unusual, fast and perfectly seasonal.

That’s the idea behind the 101 ideas found in this section. In theory, each salad takes 20 minutes or less. Honestly, some may take you a little longer. But most minimize work at the stove and capitalize on the season, when tomatoes, eggplant, herbs, fruit, greens and more are plentiful and excellent.

This last point is important. Not everything needs to be farmers’ market quality, but it’s not too much to expect ripe fruit, fragrant herbs and juicy greens.

Salt, to taste, is a given in all of these recipes. Pepper, too (if I want you to use a lot of pepper, I say so).

Herein, then, are enough salad ideas to tide you over until the weather cools down.

I'm off to the farmers market... is #2 truly astonishing? I intend to find out.