Garden Wisdom Blog — Salads

This is one of the fastest, easiest salads we know of, but it looks sensational and tastes great. It is easily adapted by switching out one or more ingredient, but the radicchio is essential. We are always amazed by how unfamiliar this delicious and easy to grow vegetable is in North America. Describing its flavour as “bitter” does radicchio such a disservice. It is better described as having a sophisticated flavour. Here, radicchio is featured prominently and proudly with its deep red leaves that contrast against the sour citrus, sweet fruit, and nutty sunflower seeds. This recipe produces two salad...

Soya bean sprouts are one of the most common and popular vegetables in Korean cuisine. They are known as kongnamul in Korean, and this salad is Kongnamul-muchim. Soya bean sprouts are always cooked before eating, which takes away a musty, fishy odour, and leaves them tasting fresh and nutty. About 1/2 cup of Yellow Soy seeds will produce roughly one pound of finished sprouts, which is the amount called for in this recipe. We trim the root off of each sprout before cooking, leaving a stem about 6cm (2 1/2″) long, with the first pair of leaves (cotyledon) just opening....

This light dinner salad is perfect for those early fall months when you’re too lazy to be in the kitchen. Edamame or baby green soybeans have a mild flavour and offer a great source of protein along with the quinoa. * From the cookbook The Vegetarian’s Complete Quinoa Cookbook by Mairlyn Smith has over 150 quinoa recipes and delves into how you can enjoy fresh, natural quinoa that is not only nourishing and flavourful, but loaded with nutrients. Serves 4 Dinner Salad Ingredients 1 cup (250 mL) quinoa, rinsed and drained 2 cups (500 mL) vegetable broth 1 1/2 cups...

Pick red, orange and yellow tomatoes fresh from your garden to create a rainbow of flavour in this colourful tomato and pine nut salad recipe. Use any combination of interesting tomato varieties to serve up in this tasty salad with other antipasti or as an end to dinner. From the cookbook Per La Famiglia: Memories and Recipes of Southern Italian Home Cooking by Emily Richards, Whitecap Books.                   Serves 8 Salad Ingredients 4 tomatoes, such as beefsteak or heirloom varieties (red, yellow and orange) 3/4 tsp (4 mL) salt, divided 1/4 tsp...

Cookbook author Emily Richards loves serving this salad with fresine, a long pasta similar to fettucine. Then, once most of the tomato and cucumber is eaten, you can break up the pasta to soak up all the tasty vinegar dressing. This is perfect to add to a weeknight meal. Using in-season, hearty plum tomatoes adds lots of flavour and prevents a soupy salad, if you don’t want to soak it up with fresine. From the cookbook Per La Famiglia: Memories and Recipes of Southern Italian Home Cooking by Emily Richards, Whitecap Books. Serves 4 Salad Ingredients 4 plum tomatoes 1...