Summer Flower Salad

 

Salads can have a bad rap, but once you get past iceberg lettuce mix and bottled dressing, they can be delicious, fun to make and infinitely healthy!

This salad is meant to be played with based on what's available in your refrigerator and the flowers in your garden. Love celery? Add it! Have some lavender flowers? Throw them in! Be sure to have as many colours as possible, because more colours mean more phyto-nutrients and health benefits ready to be had from your salad. By adding a protein source like nuts or chicken breast and some bread crumbs or toasted pita, this salad can easily become a main dish on hot summer evenings where heating up the oven isn't an option.

We want you to make this salad your own! Add your favourite edible flowers and veggies found at SWEFM and post photos to Facebook and Twitter using #SWEFMSALAD! 

Summer Flower Salad

Get your hands dirty picking flowers for your salad!

ingredients
4-6 cups Mesclun salad mix
3 Carrots, chopped or grated
1/4 c. Green peppers, chopped
1/4 c. Fresh mint leaves, shredded
2 tbsp. Fresh dill, finely chopped
5 Cocktail tomatoes, sliced
1/2 cup Edible flowers: try pansies, chive blossoms, borage, dames' rocket, roses (domestic or wild), dandelions, begonias, sunflowers, lilacs, fuchsias, violets, nasturtium or snapdragons.
1/2 Lemon, juiced
1-2 tbsp Olive oil
1-2 Cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp Sumac (you can find sumac at Bulk Barn in the spice aisle)
Salt and pepper to taste

directions
Tear salad greens and most of the flowers into bite-sized pieces and toss in a large salad bowl with the carrots, green peppers, mint, dill and tomatoes. Reserve a few flowers for garnish.


In a separate bowl, mix lemon juice and olive oil together by quickly beating with a fork. When the mixture is emulsified and is the desired acidity, add sumac, garlic, salt and pepper.

Pour dressing over salad, toss, and serve on individual plates. Garnish with remaining flowers and lightly season with coarse salt, if available. Enjoy!

where can you find ingredients at our market?

Locally-grown herbs and blossoms are available at The Plot.

• Dargatz Family Farm, Riverbend Gardens, The Plot and Holden Colony all carry carrots and beets at some point during the summer. This week, Riverbend Garden and Holden Colony will have these ingredients available. 
• The Plot sells Mesclun mix, and Holden Colony, Dargatz Family Farm and S4 Greenhouses all carry different varieties of lettuce to alter the recipe.
• The Plot and Riverbend Gardens sell dill. The Plot also carries mint and chives with chive blossoms.
• S4 Greenhouses and Holden Colony carry green peppers. 
• Dargatz Family Farm, Holden Colony and S4 Greenhouses all carry tomatoes of various sizes and colours. 

Contributed by Carley-Jane Stanton from her blog, The Northern Urbanites. Visit the original post here
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