The Best salad dressing in the world for spring salads

This is my favorite dressing ever. You will never buy dressing again. All you need for a spring salad is this and your greens and maybe a few sliced radishes.

You do need an immersion blender which is one of the few appliances I feel is pretty essential to the CSA kitchen. It emulsifies the dressing beautifully making a beautiful creamy vinaigrette.

The Sherry vinegar is also pretty essential though you can sub in whatever you have. Sherry vinegar feels fancy but you can get it at Big Y in in the vinegar section and it really ups your salad game.

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1 glug maple syrup

1 squirt brown mustard (or any mustard you have on hand)

salt to taste

a few grinds pepper

1 glove garlic, a garlic scape or 1 green garlic, chopped

Add all ingredients to a container (a wide mouthed quart mass jar works great for easy storage). Insert your immersion blender and blend until smooth and creamy. You can also add in some fresh herbs (parsley is great) prior to blending if you like.

Summer Salad with Herbed Dressing

Summer Salad with Herbed Dressing

1 big head of lettuce - any variety
Toppings: Your choice of thinly sliced vegetables - for example: radish, turnip, cucumber or snap peas.
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic scape
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Whisk vinegar and salt til salt dissolves. Add dill, mustard and garlic scape and whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking slowly, 'til emulsified. Shred lettuce and add other vegetables. Pour dressing over salad and toss til coated.

This dressing comes from Kitchn.com - it's delicious and also inspiring as an example because there are lots of dressing recipes out there, and a new dressing flavor can change the salad game completely.

Pamela's Fresh Pea Soup

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 small head of lettuce, shredded
a hand full of fresh spinach
1 tbsp chopped parsley
5 cups fresh young shelling peas
5 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup uncooked white rice
2 tsps sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1 cup milk
fresh mint sprigs

Heat butter and oil in pot, add garlic, sauté. Add lettuce, spinach, and parley, cook and stir until vegetables wilt. Add peas and 3 cups of stock. Cover pot, bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat. In food processor, process in batches until coarsely processed. Return to pot, add remaining stock, and bring to boil. Add rice, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes. Add sugar, salt, pepper, mint, and milk. Heat slowly, stirring until soup is hot. Do not boil. Garnish with mint sprigs. Makes about 7 cups.

 From Shepherd's Garden Seed Catalog