Healthy 4th of July Side Dish Recipes

This simple pasta side dish combines sweet strawberries and creamy avocado with a tart balsamic vinaigrette. You can make the dressing ahead iand keep it separately, tossing with the pasta salad just before serving. Make this salad even more special by adding crumbled feta or goat cheese.

We love dilly beans, but using a sweet brine and dried chile peppers gives pickled green beans a unique twist.

Roasted and tossed with your favorite pesto, zucchini turns into an almost-instant summer side dish.

In this healthy potato salad recipe, a cumin-spiked vinaigrette coats the potatoes, zucchini and baby spinach. Waxy potatoes, such as red and yellow, make the best potato salad because they hold their shape when cooked. Keep the potato skins on for more fiber and potassium.

At first glance, you may think that vinegar or lemon juice has been inadvertently omitted from the ingredient list of this green bean and tomato salad recipe. Not so. The juice of tiny ripe cherry tomatoes, called “tommy toes” in parts of the mountain South, is acidic enough that you don't need vinegar or lemon juice, and also contributes subtle sweetness--the perfect counterpoint to fresh beans.

This bean and okra recipe is a classic Southern side dish perfect for potlucks. Adding the okra toward the end of cooking guarantees a tender--not mushy--texture.

Tangy pickled beets are a summertime favorite. Try them as a garnish for a Greek salad or as part of a relish tray at your next summer barbecue.

Chiles and cheese turn mild summer squash into a zesty, satisfying casserole. The jalapenos make this dish quite hot; if you prefer a milder version, use a second can of diced green chiles instead.

This pilaf, made with nutty bulgur, gets plenty of bright flavor from fresh dill, mint, parsley, ginger and lemon.

This gorgeous and colorful 8-layer taco salad recipe is made healthier by using ground turkey in place of beef, adding Greek yogurt and bumping up the amount of vegetables. Serve this salad in a clear glass bowl and you'll have an eye-catching party-worthy dinner or potluck side in just 30 minutes.

If you're a fan of classic baked beans, give this healthy recipe with curry powder, lime juice and molasses a whirl. These stovetop baked beans also have half the sugar and three-quarters of the sodium compared to a traditional recipe--and take a few hours' less cooking time. Serve with pistachio-crusted pork tenderloin or grilled fish.

A touch of cumin and cinnamon give this colorful, healthy slaw recipe a hint of the Middle East. Serve with a wedge of cheese and a whole-grain roll on the side for a satisfying dinner--or with just about anything that comes off the grill.

You can grill the eggplant rounds up to a day in advance, then assemble the eggplant, tomato and mozzarella “stacks” at the last minute. To make the eggplant and tomato stacks look symmetrical, use eggplant and tomatoes with approximately the same diameter.

This healthy zucchini noodle salad has all the flavors you love in a classic Mediterranean pasta salad but we've swapped in zoodles for wheat pasta, which makes the salad lighter, lower in carbs and gluten-free. Serve it with grilled chicken or fish for a light and healthy summer dinner.

In this healthy and creamy potato salad recipe, yogurt replaces half of the mayo and we keep the potato skins on for more fiber and potassium. To hard-boil the eggs while your potatoes are steaming, place them directly on top of the potatoes in the steamer basket. They'll be perfectly hard-boiled when the potatoes are tender.

Barley matches up with earthy, tender beets and the crunch of fresh celery, radishes and nuts in this beet salad recipe. Red beets turn your salad a gorgeous magenta. For a softer color, use golden or chioggia baby beets instead.

Give classic pasta salad a fresher, more flavorful spin. This fast pasta dish calls for avocado to replace some of the mayonnaise, which makes it extra creamy. Whole-wheat elbow macaroni and fresh vegetables lighten up this healthy pasta salad that you'll be making all summer long.

Fresh green soybeans, called edamame or sweet beans, are a great addition to this classic American dish, where they stand in for the traditional lima beans. The succotash is wonderful as it is or topped with grilled shrimp, salmon or chicken.

This quickly pickled, spicy Italian salad of mixed sliced vegetables is great for an antipasto platter, served with grilled meat or chopped up and put on a sandwich.

A versatile side dish to go with grilled meats or poultry. Crispy, crunchy and thoroughly delicious.

Chopped pickled tomatillos make a delicious garnish for tacos and quesadillas.

This simple, fresh-tasting salad adds delicious variety to grilled foods, such as salmon, halibut, chicken or pork. Browning the corn in a skillet gives it a nutty, caramelized flavor that contrasts with the sweetness of the mango.

Chef Bobby Flay cooked these baked black beans, spiked with chorizo and rum, on one of his television shows, Throwdown! with Bobby Flay, to compete with a more-traditional batch of Carolina baked beans. We adore the results. If you bring them along to a summer party, reheat before serving or bring them in a crock-pot and plug it in when you get to the party. Recipe adapted from Bobby Flay's Throwdown! by Bobby Flay with Stephanie Banyas and Miriam Garron (Clarkson Potter, 2010).

This lively salad captures the essence of early summer with ripe strawberries, chives and baby spinach. To make it a meal, top it with grilled chicken breast.