Green Garden Salad

This simple but delicious green garden salad should definitely be part of your summer dinners, whether it be as a side dish or a main course. It’s fresh and nutritious, and the best part is (almost) all ingredients are seasonal and can be grown in your own garden or even on your balcony.

For the last two years I've been the grateful owner of a vegetable garden which I took care after together with a dear friend. I loved putting on some comfortable clothes and jump on my bike early in the morning or after a workday. I could spend hours weeding, marvelling at how everything grows. It's the best way to experience the seasons, learn about nature and the soil and it helped me to transition into a slower, more conscious way of dealing with food.

As the garden was at half an hour cycling distance and other obligations came our way, we decided not to continue this season. But now that every inch of our own garden is in use and it’s harvesting season, I'm starting to miss our old place. It’s hard work and time consuming, but so fulfilling.

Luckily the ingredients for this salad can easily be grown in your own garden as they don't need a lot of space and grow quite easily.

You can grow regular spinach which grows close to the soil. But if you have some more space, I recommend trying New Zealand spinach. It gets a lot bigger than regular spinach and you can harvest it over a long period of time. From just a few plants we harvested several bags of spinach last season. You can easily parboil it and keep it in the freezer. This way you can still enjoy it during the winter as part of a warming curry, lasagna or soup.

But before you start daydreaming of a spicy, warming curry, let's get back to salads. This salad is perfect for those warm summer days where you don't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen and are looking for a light meal.

This recipe serves about 4 people or can be served as a side dish.

I own a lot of cooking books and really enjoy cooking, but I hardy every follow the exact recipe. I always try to use ingredients I already have in stock. I love to experiment with different flavors and combinations. So I encourage you to twist this recipe to your own liking and don't take the quantities too closely.

Ingredients

the salad
seasonal green leaves (I used spinach)
15 radishes
200 gr snow peas
150 gr quinoa
some fresh dill
optional topping: (vegan) feta

the dressing
the juice of ½ lemon
2 full tbsp of (vegan) pesto
some freshly grounded pepper

Method

Cook the quinoa and let it cool down.

Wash the leaves and let them dry on a tea tower in the fridge.
Wash the radishes and cut them in small slices.
Wash the snow peas and remove both ends. Put a baking pan on the stove and stir fry the peas for a few minutes with some oil , pepper and salt. Let them cool down for a bit.

For the dressing, mix the pesto with the lemon juice and some freshly grounded pepper.

Mix all ingredients and toss in the dressing. Cut some fresh dill and sprinkle it over the salad. I like to add a little (vegan) feta cheese.

Enjoy! 

Do you want to serve your summer salads in slow, handmade ceramic tableware? You can find all available plates and bowls in the shop.