Radish Salad and Radish Greens with Lemon Crème Fraîche
From Roots: The Definitive Compendium by Diane Morgan
This delightful book was a gift from last season's garden crew--they quickly learned how much I love root vegetables! Parsnips, carrots, beets, radishes ... I can't get enough! But the book goes far beyond these common root vegetables and includes internationally loved roots like taro, galangal and burdock.
Dressing (an all-purpose dressing--try it on other salads with grains or maybe on grilled fish)
1/4 cup crème fraîche
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill (or
3/4 tsp kosher or fine sea salt
Two bunches radishes, root ends and tops trimmed, radishes quartered and leafy tops reserved
Freshly cracked pepper
To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the crème fraîche, milk and lemon juice until smooth. Stir in the dill and salt. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (The dressing can be made a day ahead.)
Place the radish greens in a large bowl. Drizzle just enough of the dressing (2-3 tbsp) over the top to coat the greens lightly without making them limp and toss to coat evenly. Divide the greens among large individual salad plates, mounding them in the center.
In a medium bowl, toss the radishes with the remaining dressing. Divide the radishes evenly among the plates, arranging them in a circle around each mound of greens. Spoon any excess dressing over the top. Garnish each plate with several grinds of pepper. Serve immediately.
Pac Choi with Cashews
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½-1 lb. pac choi, rinsed, stalks removed from main stem.
½ tsp dark sesame oil
salt to taste
½ cup chopped roasted, salted cashews
Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions, then garlic, then pac choi. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt. Cover and let the pac choi cook down for approximately three minutes. Remove cover and lower heat. Stir and cook for a minute or two longer, until the pac
choi is just cooked. Gently mix in cashews.
Danish Summer Cream
From "My New Roots," one of my favorite food blogs
Serves 4
Ingredients:
2 cups sheep or goat yogurt
1 ½ Tbsp. maple syrup or honey (or more to your taste)
zest of 1 small organic lemon
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
Directions:
1. Stir all the ingredients together, right in the yogurt container if you like. Sweeten to taste. If the yogurt is too thick to pour, add water, a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached. (You are aiming for thick cream.) Enjoy very cold over strawberries with Lemon Cardamom Biscuits.
Lemon Cardamom Biscuits
Makes approx. 80-90 biscuits
Ingredients:
3 cups rolled oats (gluten-free, if desired)
1 tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp fine grain sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
Zest of 1 large organic lemon
½ cup coconut sugar
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
3 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Brown rice flour for dusting (any flour will work)
In a food processor pulse the oats until you have a rough flour. Add the baking powder, cardamom, salt, lemon zest and coconut sugar. Blend for a few seconds to combine.
In a measuring cup, measure out the applesauce, then add the coconut oil and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the food processor and pulse until fully incorporated. The dough should be sticky and wet, but not pasty. If it is too wet to work with, add a little more oats or oat flour. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°.
Dust a large, clean working surface with flour. Empty dough out on to the floured surface and gather into a rough ball shape. Divide dough into quarters. Working with one quarter at a time, roll dough into a log, approximately 10"/25cm long. Then slice log into ½" / 1¼ cm rounds. Place on a lined baking sheet.
Bake biscuits for 10-12 minutes until just turning golden on the bottom, then turn the oven off and let the cookies sit in there until the oven is cool (this step simply helps dry the biscuits out). Once cool, store biscuits in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
To serve:
1 lb. organic strawberries, sliced
1 batch Danish Summer Cream, very cold
Handful of Lemon Cardamom Biscuits
Elderflowers for garnish, if desired
Place sliced strawberries in each bowl. Let each person pour their own cream. Drop biscuits in or crumble them up over the top.Take a deep breath. Enjoy.
Brittany Stein
Kendra Butkowski
Common Ground Garden is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, where members purchase a share of vegetables and each week during the farm season receive a bountiful box of fresh produce. We pride ourselves on producing fresh, clean, healthful food picked at the peak of flavor and nutrition. As much as we are able, we grow our vegetables without the use of any chemical herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers. We use cover crops, rotations, compost and ingenuity to produce your food in a way that's healthy for you and for the community. When necessary for pest control or to combat disease, we use only products approved for organic gardening.