A few weeks ago, I shared how I made a salad box. But I never showed what I did with it. Well, here it is after about 3 weeks planted with various greens and one broccoli plant. It lives in my driveway for now as that seems to be our sunniest spot.
Broccoli is the big guy. That's arugula on the right.
Joining the salad box in the driveway are the super sugar snap peas. I started these guys indoors and didn't plant them out until they were about 6 inches tall. Everyone says you aren't supposed to transplant peas but I'm so glad I did because they are certainly happy! I believe we will be enjoying peas much earlier this year than last. To compare, I direct sowed lincoln peas in the planter behind this one (visible on the right side of the picture) and they are only a few inches tall. Both pea planters are sharing their pots with more salad greens.
These are the greens I harvested for a dinner salad tonight.
And these are the rest of the ingredients for our salad.
This is my current favorite salad. It hits all of the food groups, is delicious, filling, and so healthy! Clockwise from top left corner (ending in the center)
- 1/3 C. Walnuts chopped
- 10 Asparagus spears, blanched for 3 minutes and then plunged into ice water, cut on the diagonal
- 2 celery spears diced
- 1 apple diced
- 3oz. Aged Gouda diced (the aged gouda goes so well in this salad, I wouldn't dream of replacing it with anything else)
- 2/3 C. Red Quinoa (which is packed with protein) rinsed and cooked to the package instructions, then cooled.
This made enough for 2 large dinner salads and a full size lunch portion for me to eat tomorrow.
I dressed it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette of garlic, brown sugar, dijon mustard, balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper.
