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Fresh Food Wednesday: First Spring Salad

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This salad recipe was so simple, and so tasty, that in honor of Fresh Food Wednesday, I thought I’d share it.
 

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and necessity drove me out into the garden at lunchtime yesterday. I’d finished up the last of the store-bought lettuce the night before, and although I was reluctant to pick some of the baby greens emerging from the raised bed vegetable garden, I wanted a salad with my lunch. Armed with only a metal bowl that I use to harvest my vegetables, I knelt on the grassy paths and chose several of the largest leaves. I plucked them with my fingers, then moved on to the spinach beds, harvesting tiny baby spinach leaves for my salad. Lastly, I plucked chives to add zest.
 

The greens were rinsed in cold water and shredded by hand. I then diced up a peeled carrot, a stalk of celery and added two olives.Dressed with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, the amazing flavors of the fresh greens, combined with the tantalizing onion flavor of the chives was the perfect spring salad.

The patch of chives that you see above is now several years old. I grew them from seed in 2009, when I began my herb garden, and I moved them last year close to the garden gate so they would be easy to access. I don’t even cut them with scissors; I just snip them with my fingertips. Many is the morning when I add them to an omelette, or an evening when I add them to a salad.

So in honor of fresh food Wednesday, we celebrate the Simple Spring Salad.
Ingredients:

  • Fresh lettuce leaves. I grow a mix of gourmet varieties – red and green leaf, oak leaf, mesculun, others.
  • Baby spinach leaves.
  • Chives or other fresh herbs.
  • Diced celery and carrots
  • One teaspoon of olive oil and one tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • Feta cheese (optional)

Rinse, shred, chop, mix, dress. Done. 
Lunch is served.

She Eats

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Comments

  1. Jo

    I love chive flowers in my salads, they look so pretty and taste so good.

  2. Gardener on Sherlock Street

    It all looks so good. I’m thinking we’ll get our first salad this weekend. The lettuce has finally starting getting some size and my chives look great. I was eating a chive leaf while working in the garden earlier today.