I love picking meals directly from our garden. We have been
having salads from our lettuces for quite a while now, but other vegetables are
just now becoming big enough to harvest. Maybe not cause for a big celebration
to most, but in my world, it is kinda exciting. I guess I am a garden geek, but
nothing tastes better than freshly picked produce, from seeds that you planted
yourself. Pulling a pea off the vine and munching while I am weeding is one of
life’s simple pleasures, and I am still sometimes surprised at how simple and
rewarding gardening can be.
Tonight’s dinner contained a lot of first harvests. I
thinned a few rows of beets (I always wait to thin my beets until they are of a
usable size, see the picture below) and roasted the beets I pulled in a bit of coconut oil on the
BBQ. We sautéed the beet tops in some butter and served them with a squeeze of
lemon. The salad recipe included in this post has our first zucchini, and our first big
enough harvest of peas to do something with other than just snacking on. The
salmon steaks were marinated in butter, lemon and fresh herbs picked from the
herb garden.
Zucchini And Snow Pea Salad With Fresh Apricots
1 medium zucchini
¾ tsp Herbamare
1 pint snow peas (1 ½ cups ish), trimmed
4 fresh apricots
1 cup pea sprouts
Dressing:
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp honey
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Slice the zucchini into very thin round slices, a mandolin is
very helpful for this! Toss it in a bowl with the Herbamare, and set aside for
20 minutes or so to “sweat”.
While the zucchini is sweating, blanch the snow peas. Drop
them into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds, and immediately remove them
into a bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking process. When they are cold
to the touch, drain well. Set aside.
Mix together the dressing ingredients and set aside.
Toast your sesame seeds in a cast iron pan over medium heat
until they just start to pop. Remove from hot pan to a plate to cool. Set aside.
Remove the pit from your apricots and cut up into pieces.
Set aside.
Gently squeeze the zucchini to release any excess moisture
and drain any liquid away.
To assemble the salad:
In a medium salad bowl, mix the zucchini, snow peas, and
apricots together gently until well mixed. Add the dressing to the bowl and stir
to distribute.
 |
I always over-plant my beets, and start thinning
when they get about this big, they are amazing
when they are roasted! |
Just before serving, toss in the pea sprouts and the black
sesame seeds. Gently toss and serve.
 |
| Main Vegetable Bed |
 |
Herb Garden
and Sunflowers |
 |
Tomatoes, Garlic
and Rhubarb
(and Ryley the Poodle!) |
As promised, here is the orange sesame dressing that I used last week. Be sure to use organic oranges for the zest, as to avoid any nasty pesticides that may reside on the exterior of the orange.
