Hearty Harvest Salad

Tonight we picked up our second CSA box. To see what we received, click HERE. One of the items in the box was the most perfect head of red romaine lettuce that I had ever seen, and I knew that I wanted to build a delicious salad around it.

A salad can be bulked up as a main course by adding some pantry staples. Tonight I added a hard-boiled egg, canned sardines, steamed fingerling potatoes and roasted beets from last week’s box. Together with the romaine,  snap peas and garlic scape vinaigrette, we had  a very satisfying dinner.

This is a time to use minimal techniques such as blanching (the peas),  steaming (the potatoes), and boiling (the egg).  These methods accentuate the freshness of the produce.    I made a simple vinaigrette with some garlic scapes we got in the box.  Garlic scapes are an ephemeral Spring crop–essentially young garlic shoots.

Garlic Scape Vinaigrette:

• 2 teaspoons garlic scapes, chopped very finely
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons vinegar (I used champagne, but you can use whatever you have on hand–red wine, white wine, balsamic, sherry, etc)
• 1/4 cup extra version olive oil
• salt and pepper

Place all ingredients in a small jar, cover and shake. Compose the salad greens on a plate, top with hard boiled egg, sliced roasted beets, steamed potatoes, blanched snap peas, and sardines. Drizzle with dressing.

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