It’s time once again for Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. Lettuce is still the star of the garden here, although a very welcome newcomer joined the harvest parade last week. I’ll save that for last. I’m still replanting lettuce as room becomes available, and we should be well-supplied for at least another month until the weather heats up.
Strawberry Oakleaf lettuce
Salanova Red Butter lettuce
I also made a cutting of Asian Greens for salads, which included Beka Santoh, Purple Gem pac choi and Miz America mizuna. All added a bit of zip to an Asian-themed salad I made which had a ginger/sesame/vinegar dressing and was topped with slivered almonds and crispy chow mein noodles.
Asian greens for salad
Asian themed salad
And I made another small cutting of arugula for pizza, though I didn’t get any pics of the finished product this time.
arugula for pizza
I don’t post photos of every bit of parsley I harvest, but last week I cut a generous amount to use in a Mediterranean Farro Bowl we had for dinner one night. This Skinnytaste Recipe is definitely a keeper, and my wife and I really enjoyed eating it. It featured farro I cooked in the rice cooker, along with cucumber, sweet red pepper and some of last year’s dehydrated tomatoes that I re-hydrated and chopped up. Feta cheese, parsley and a lemon juice/olive oil dressing completed the ingredient list, and this one will be good to make again this summer when the peppers and cukes are homegrown.
Mediterranean Farro Bowl
Another dinner needed kale, and I cut a decent amount of some of the Wild Garden Mix I had planted last fall in the main vegetable garden. Like the collards, all the kale froze back to the ground but a few plants have re-sprouted and are now giving us tender new leaves.
Wild Garden Mix kale
The kale went into a Ribollita Soup I made for dinner. I cheated, since ribollita means “reboiled” and this batch was neither reboiled nor reheated. I slow-cooked it in the Instant Pot, using cannellini beans I had previously cooked.
Ribollita soup
The Ribollita called for bread, and in keeping with the Italian origins of the soup I made a loaf of sourdough Pane d’ Altamura bread using durum wheat flour. Durum wheat is usually used for pasta, but in bread it gives a lovely golden color and a chewy texture. I cut slices of it then tore them into pieces and toasted in the oven before adding to the soup. The cannellini beans served for protein, and the combo of beans and greens in soup is one of my favorites.
Pane d’ Altamura bread
I saved the best news for last – we got the first asparagus harvest last week! And that was followed by the second cutting, and the third, until we had almost a pound harvested. We saved it to make Asparagus Mimosa, one of my favorite uses for fresh asparagus. That and a sliced of the sourdough bread made for a tasty lunch, one that I will likely never get tired of eating.
first asparagus of 2023
Asparagus Mimosa
Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to share, add your name and blog link to Mr Linky below. And please check out what everyone is harvesting!
That bread looks lovely Dave. I’m growing a wide selection of salanova this year, it’s been hard to get hold of in the UK until recently : All the best – Steve
Thanks Steve! The bread making gets easier the more I bake.
Your meals look really interesting – very different from what I’m used to
We try and mix it up Sue, with seasonal ingredients as well as what the garden gives us.
Lots of entree ideas for me. The Mediterranean Farro Bowl will utilize the farro I have around and I had forgotten about Riboliita soup. A nice use for the abundant kale that awaits in the garden. The Salanova lettuce belongs in a catalog photo! Enjoy those salads.
I am looking forward to more experiments with grain bowls, including farro and freekeh. We are using some of that lettuce today on bean tacos.