Usually this time in June is a bare spot in our garden eating. I pulled the bolted lettuce from the greenhouse today (though I still have some in the regular garden). I’ve thinned the beets in the garden so there are baby greens… but otherwise we’d be thrown back to eating kale! Waiting for the zucchini, green beans, cauliflower, and July plants to mature. That’s Minnesota.
But thanks to the greenhouse, we can eat like people in the South eat (you know, like Iowa and Missouri). We are done with lettuce season, but we have beets, carrots and cucumbers, as well as giant basil plants and cilantro. Two cups of harvested peas (those vines also went today). All ready to go.
Out in the regular garden, we also have garlic scapes (yes, we are spared the scape-and-kale routine!)
So although I’m not a super big fan of pesto, I decided to do it for the pea pasta we’ll have tonight.
I wanted something other than the usual basil pesto. Since we have a large wild mint patch, I figured I’d go with basil and mint. And scapes. And I threw in half a seeded jalapeno, too. Local canola oil, walnuts, and salt. Make the measurements to feature the flavors you like. I went 1/2 cup scapes, 2 cups basil, 1 cup mint, 1/3 cup walnuts, 1/2 seeded jalapeno, 1/3 cup Parmesan, salt to taste, oil to consistency desired.
With the remainder of the mint I made a cucumber salad (in June!!) with yogurt sauce– a touch of cumin is the key.
Because we had company, I didn’t rudely take photos of the dinner I made on Friday. But it was a marvel and I was really impressed with my garden!
The salad was garden beet greens/lettuce with carrots and cucumber and cilantro-based vinaigrette. On the plate was roasted baby beets with feta and then salmon that was baked in the oven in foil packets with lime and cilantro, and topped with that dreamy cilantro sauce from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (buy this even if only for the sauce recipes). The salmon was served over rice mixed with a little sour cream and a bit of cilantro sauce, and the salmon was topped with cilantro sauce. (I freakin’ love that sauce.)
It was one of those super healthy and delicious dinners where you feel you have arrived. All will be well from now until December.