June 24, 2024
Beat the Heat with Salads!
by Linda Dansbury

Hope everyone is managing in this heat. Here are a few "cool" things we enjoyed this week.

Romaine, snap and snow peas, mint - prepared a delicious main dish type salad this past week. Placed cut up romaine in a large bowl. Sliced peas julienne style and added to bowl, along with a nice handful of sliced mint leaves. Cooked a few slices of bacon until crispy. Saved a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat in pan and deglazed with about a tablespoon each of red wine vinegar and lemon juice. Added a tablespoon of olive oil to mixture, mixed well. Chopped up bacon and added half to salad bowl, poured dressing over salad and mixed well. Add fresh ground pepper, grated parm cheese and mixed everything up. Plated and topped each plate with more chopped bacon, cheese and pepper. Yum!

Snap Peas, mixed herbs - we were grilling anyway, so tossed a bunch of peas in olive oil - placed in grill basket and put on grill for about 3 minutes, shaking every minute. When peas had a bit of a char, remove from grill, place on a plate, drizzle with a bit more oil, flaky sea salt and a handful of chopped fresh herbs.

Lettuce, radicchio, fennel, turnips, peas - summer salads for me often turn into veggie salads, meaning I add some of whatever I got at the farm into my salad. The mix changes throughout the summer. The thing I do with my vinaigrette is make it a little more "vinegary" - the heartier lettuce and added veggies can take it and actually enhances the veggies. I like to mandoline the fennel for this salad.

Beets, parsley, lettuce - another salad! Roasted the beets, cut them into bite sized pieces and marinated them in a Dijon vinaigrette for a little while. When ready to eat, mixed with lettuce and topped with goat cheese.