Categories
Gardening Good Eating

Recipe: Herbed Up Melon Salad

Recipe: Herbed Up Melon Salad

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

This will spice up your breakfast a bit!

Go the garden and pick a double handful mixed selection of whatever you have in your garden from this list:

Leaves:
Bee Balm (Monarda), Lemon Balm (Melissa), Peppermint (Mentha), Korean Hyssop (Agastache Rugosa), edible wild Violet (Viola), Basil, Borage (young leaves)

Flowers:
Edible Hibiscus, Dandelion (discard calyx), edible Roses, edible wild Violet (Viola), Borage

Chop a melon and put pieces in a bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice and agave nectar. Top with chopped herbs and flowers. If you have any discarded stems, use them to flavor your morning tea!

If you are interested you can read more of my recipes on my Fun With Food page.

Categories
Gardening Good Eating

Recipe: Carrot Soup With Herbs and Wild Greens

Recipe: Carrot Soup With Herbs and Wild Greens

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

I like carrots a lot but it gets kind of boring to eat them the same old way all the time. This recipe will liven up a bunch of carrots!

Ingredients:
1 bunch or bag of carrots
Vegetable broth
Colander full of fresh edible weed leaves and herbs from the garden – I used Dandelion, Violet, Asiatic Dayflower, Chives, Lemon Balm
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp savory
1/4 tsp thyme
Cooking oil

Wash herbs and leaves and remove from stems. Discard stems. Heat a large pan or wok and stir fry herbs and leaves in cooking oil until wilted. Put greens in soup pot.

Chop carrots into discs or straws thin enough to cook easily. Add more oil to pan and stir fry carrots and garlic cloves until somewhat browned. You don’t have to cook them all the way, just brown some of the sides for caramelized flavor. Add to soup pot.

Add broth to cooking pan and heat long enough to mix in pan juices. Pour broth over vegetables in soup pot in a quantity enough to cover. Bring to a boil then turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add spices and salt while simmering.

Let soup cool enough to be safe to put in a blender. You may need to blend it in batches and add to a large bowl to mix batches together. Blend to a smooth consistency. Warm if needed and serve.

If you are interested you can read more of my recipes on my Fun With Food page.