Editor's Note: Salad Month At Tasting Table

This August, Tasting Table is leaf-ing no salad behind

In an old episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Vegetarian," pork- and doughnut-loving Homer famously tells the precocious Lisa, "You don't win friends with salad!" The rest of the family then forms a conga line and parades around the living room, chanting Homer's proclamation to Lisa's very evident frustration.

Well, this August, as we trudge into the endlessly muggy dog days of summer, we're not just winning friends with salad, we're making it our BFF. Because when it's this hot out, we all want to spend a little less time with our stoves and more time with cool, crisp, refreshing food.

Food editor Andy Baraghani has taken the salad challenge to heart and will be updating some of our favorite classics, ranging from the wedge to the Waldorf to the taco salad (and its signature fried tortilla shell). We'll be sending some cheffed-up salads your way, too, like a seriously delicious soba dish from Paul C. Reilly of Denver's Beast + Bottle and gorgeous grilled radicchio from Ari Kolender of Leon's and Saint Alban in Charleston.

And because not all salads have to be made with lettuce, stay tuned for some throwback mayo- and gelatin-based salads—including a pistachio-and-Cool Whip number that my family used to set out alongside burgers and dogs at summer barbecues.

So this month, stay cool and lettuce entertain you.