Radish Potato-less Salad

Radishes

I’m going to be honest. Up until now, I’ve been a plain old raw radish fan. Never taking this veggie anywhere other than to the top of a salad at home. I’ve literally had zero creativity with this gorgeous root crop & I’m embarrassed to admit it. It’s time to take some inspiration from the wildly inventive recipes out there! There were so many ideas out there that it was really difficult to try to select one to begin with. Radish & sesame soy noddles topped the list. Potato-less potato salad with radishes sounded incredible to me too. So did mashed radishes. Eventually I’ll be sure to try them all out!

A little sample of our first pink beauty radish crop of the 2019 season!

Radishes in their natural habitat

The first round of radish potato-less salad

The fun thing is, there are so many varieties of radish to choose from! Decadent French breakfast radishes, adorable Easter Egg radishes, Watermelon, Daikon... each with their own unique flavors & textures. If you find one variety too spicy or not spicy enough- there’s sure to be another variety out there just for you.

And now for the recipe! Let me just start by saying that this recipe requires very little time to prepare, which is always wonderful. The most time consuming part was poaching the radishes, during which you can prepare everything else you need. 

Admittedly, I was hesitant to substitute radishes for potatoes in a potato salad of all things. I am so happy to say that I was wrong to hesitate. Really, really wrong. In fact, I think I prefer radishes in a potato-less salad... but I’d definitely have to do a side by side comparison to confirm this. 

It had just the right amount of crunch, and poaching removed any of the heat I anticipated the radishes would bring to the dish. Though we halved the dill, it could have done with all of it. If you’re a dill lover, double the amount I’ve listed below to reach the amount in the original recipe. This recipe was so refreshing and perfect for a hot spring day that we made it again the day after we made (and ate) all of the first batch.

Do yourself a favor and make this one, then let me know what you thought (or would add to it!) below. Here’s a link to the original for you to check out: https://withfoodandlove.com/potato-less-potato-salad/

Ingredients

• 3 bunches radishes leaves trimmed

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 cup water

• 1/3 cup vegenaise 

• 1/2 cup celery diced small

• 1/4 cup shallots minced

• 1 tablespoon fresh dill chopped

• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard

• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

• Wash the trimmed radishes and halve. In a large shallow pan over high heat combine the radishes, olive oil, water and a heavy pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil uncovered. Then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

• The radishes should be soft and tender, and most of the water should be absorbed. Remove the radishes from the heat and set aside on a towel to cool and pat dry.

• In a small bowl mix together the vegenaise, celery, shallots, dill, mustard, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Toss the radishes with the dressing and combine well.

• Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

Our second batch of radish potato-less salad!

Creamy Arugula Soup

Arugula

I recently had arugula in an incredible soup (recipe below), and that may just be my new favorite way to enjoy it. With a veggie this good, it’s hard to narrow it down! 

Have you ever grown this delicious green? If not, have you ever swung by the Farmers’ Market to get some and ask the grower how they do it? If you haven’t asked them about arugula, have you grown or asked others how they grow any of their crops? Ok, I definitely just threw too many questions out there at once. I tend to get fired up about growing food, it’s what I do and what I love so I’m always curious how often other people think about these things too! 

For our market garden, growing arugula is one of the most rewarding greens we’ve sown. We’ve felt lucky that for us, it tends to always germinate well, grow quickly, taste awesome, appear healthy and happy and sell well. I guess you could say it’s the complete package.

Not surprisingly, we aren’t the only ones who love arugula. As it turns out, some bugs do too, so after we seed, we protect the crop with row cover to prevent any damage. Sure, it’s a fair bit of extra physical labor to make sure the arugula looks flawless, but totally worth it. We’ll also grow a couple of beds at a time to make sure we have enough for everyone, planting successions every few weeks to try to be able to keep up a constant harvest. Since these plants love cool weather, and tend to bolt faster when it’s warm, we group our plantings of arugula toward the beginning and the end of the growing season to take advantage of the lower temperatures. Arugula grows quickly, so it usually doesn’t take more than one or two well timed weedings to make it through to harvest.

When it’s all said and done, arugula is quick to grow from seed to harvest, versatile to cook with or enjoy raw, epically yummy (I mean, who doesn’t love a mildly peppery green?!) and it’s popular at market! I’d love to know what you think of the recipe posted below, and of the Vegetablog too! What would you like to hear more about? Please leave comments, answers to the questions I asked above, or critiques in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you!

Without further ado, here is the creamy arugula soup recipe we made and really loved. Hope you do too!

Creamy Arugula Soup

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The original recipe inspiration used to craft up this soup remains almost exactly as it does in the original. However, we used about half the amount of coconut milk & included that change in the list below. Check out the original recipe at the following link: https://detoxinista.com/creamy-vegan-arugula-soup/

So, here are the details you need to know:

Creamy Arugula Soup
Serves about 4, depending on hunger levels

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound potatoes, chopped into 1 inch chunks
4 cups water or vegetable broth
1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
3 cups fresh arugula
1/4 cup coconut milk
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and sauté the onion and celery until tender, about 8 minutes. Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about one more minute. Add in the chopped potatoes, 4 cups of water or broth, and salt and bring the liquid to a boil. Once boiling, lower the heat and cover to let the vegetables simmer until the potatoes are fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

Once the potatoes are tender, add the arugula to the pot and stir until bright green, about 3 minutes. Transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth, taking special care to vent the blender lid. (I like to lightly cover the hole in the center of the lid with a thin dish towel so that the lid doesn’t blow off from the steam pressure.) Blend in batches if you need to.

Return the soup to the pot over medium heat and stir in the coconut milk. Season with additional salt, if desired, and black pepper and serve warm with any garnishes you like. I added an extra dollop of coconut cream (the thick cream found in a chilled can of coconut milk) and some chopped green onions.

*Moments before serving, we topped this gorgeous soup with fresh arugula for an extra pop of flavor and texture.*

Welcome to The Vegetablog!

Hello & welcome to the official home of the Vegetablog! The place where I share recipes I’ve tried out at home to *hopefully* inspire you to create meals you’ll love with ingredients growing right here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. My goal is to help keep you up to speed with what’s in season so you can head to the Farmers’ Market with a recipe plan, and also to share a little bit about what it’s like to grow these delicious veggies. Above the recipes, I write about what it’s like to grow the ‘main ingredient', the one that served as the inspiration for the dish. Fear not, the growing info won’t be too wildly detailed, it will just shine a light on the effort involved to get from seed to plate. Everything seems a bit lovelier when you hear about the planning, time & energy it takes to get to you, wouldn’t you say?

All of the recipes will be plant based, because that’s my diet and what I enjoy eating most. Full disclosure, cooking once daunted me. Especially if I had to prepare a meal for other people. Following creative, inspiring recipes provided the motivational push I needed to delve into the world of cooking for fun. Something that used to seriously stress me out became a joy! Sharing recipes here feels like a natural evolution, one that I hope helps bring you tasty food, confidence in your cooking & connection with the family and friends with whom you share it.

It won’t take you long to notice, if you hadn’t already… I’m not a chef, I put my energy into being a market gardener first and a home cook second, so you’ll see that the recipes are not created by me. I hope to one day be that talented, but there’s a lot of learning to do before I get to there! So, until I level up, this is a collection of recipes created by others that I’ve made at home & want to share with you. Each recipe will be linked to the original source from whence I found it, so please check those out to find more inspiration from the cooks/chefs/authors. If you want to tweak the recipes and make them your own (as I sometimes do), I highly encourage it! In fact, when you do, please share those details in the comments below.

#vegetablog your photos so we can check share this home cooking journey together!