Friday, August 20, 2010

Summer Salad: Farmers Market Bounty

I love the farmers market! I know, I say it a lot but it is so fun to see what's fresh, meet the vendors, and just be outside in the summer.  When I saw that Olivia's Organics was calling for creative summer salad recipes, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. A Farmer's Market Bounty Salad.  The ingredients would be whatever looked interesting at the market.  For a base I used the Olivia's 50/50 blend.  It's half spinach and half spring mix.

I headed out for a lunchtime trip to the Copley Square Farmers Market.  Atlas Farms was my first stop, since I have my pre-paid share with them.  I picked up most of the ingredients, then wandered over to Siena Farm to see if they had any new-to-me produce.  These ingredients, combined with a few on hand from my weekend market visits, made for a good mix for the salad.

Atlas Farm
Rainbow Carrots
Yellow and Orange Tomato
Golden Beets
Flat leaf parsley

Siena Farm
Lemon Ball Cukes



Potager Farm/Herb Lyceum (SoWa Market)
Black Radishes

Also from the SoWa trip (can't remember the farm)
New England sweet corn

Whole Foods (not the market, but still seasonal!)
Fresh garbanzo beans



I had all the ingredients waiting in the refrigerator, but had no free nights for dinner!  So I did what any normal person would do (right?) and made my salad after coming home around 9:30 p.m.  I did a photo shoot with the completed salad and then packed it up for lunch the next day!

When I started thinking about a dressing for the salad, I kept coming back to something creamy.  It needed to be light that wouldn't hide the flavor of all of the vegetables.  I scoured the refrigerator and come up with Greek yogurt and lemon.  I added in some of the parsley and extra virgin olive oil for a quick and healthy dressing.

This was delicious, the Olivia's greens were a hearty base, and it was perfect for lunch and dinner for a few days!

Vegetable Prep


Slicing and dicing:
Carrots - peeled and cut into coins
Cucumbers
Tomatoes - cored first (I don't like all the seeds)



Peeled and Shredded:
Black radish
Golden beets (I also blanched these to help keep the color)


Blanched:
Fresh garbanzo beans
Shredded beets

Grilled:
We had grilled the corn earlier in the week and I used some leftovers

Salad Assembly
Place salad greens on a serving plate, top with veggies as neatly or sloppily as you'd like and serve!



Salad Dressing
1 container Chobani plain Greek yogurt
Juice from half a lemon
1 teaspoon (or so) extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and serve with salad



Summary:
Cutting board, knife, y-peeler, slotted spoon, sauce pot, serving plates and utensils


Lunch the next day:

6 comments:

  1. I taste tested myself and it was great! I need to know more about fresh garbanzos though...I am intimidated, but intrigued! @renh77

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  2. What a beautiful salad! I love how you plated it in rows. I am so curious about those cucumbers and garbanzo beans!

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  3. Looks good enough to eat. Your photo presentations are wonderful! I know our friend Laura is going to be impressed. You'll have to come teach a class! Keep up the yummy work. And Josh too.

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  4. So beautiful! I've never had a lemon ball cucumber before, I'll have to be on the lookout and give it a try. That salad is just beautiful!

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  5. Looks good enough to eat. Your photo presentations are wonderful! I know our friend Laura is going to be impressed. You'll have to come teach a class! Keep up the yummy work. And Josh too.

    ReplyDelete

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