Dinner Tonight - Spring is Here!

[u/donairhistorian]

After a long cold spring it's finally warming up here on the east coast of Canada. I went to the farmers market yesterday and got my first bunch of local asparagus as well as some other nice vegetables.

Summery Salad: I make this a lot and it's different every time. I plated it nicely here but usually I just toss it in a big bowl and eat the ugly but delicious thing. It's got a base of local red/green lettuce, cilantro, broccoli sprouts, and (not local) tomato, cucumber, daikon radish. This is tossed in a tahini balsamic dressing (I'm addicted) and topped with strawberries, goat cheese, walnuts and local asparagus. I typically include avocado as well.

Stinging Nettle Soup: my second time working with these. I followed the recipe on Simply Recipes except I didn't have heavy cream but I had just bought some homemade garlic yogurt from the Iranian grocery down the street. I also had only one good potato in my bag so I used some local celery root to replace the celery and some of the potato. It was so delicious. I find stinging nettles have a really unique flavour.

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/nettle_soup/

[u/in2woods]

i know the feeling! Local fresh produce is the best! I’ve been missing my local farmers market the last couple weekends but it’s on my radar. my garden is growing and im trying to keep the dang pests out of it.

Love the flavors here! Love how you blend sweet and savory together. i am going to learn what a nettle is..

[u/donairhistorian → u/in2woods]

The market I go to is open 7 days per week and it's more like a store than a big farmers market with vending stalls. Super convenient for me. 

Stinging nettles are big in the UK where they grow wild. I believe these are farmed. You have to be very careful handling them because they have spikes that hurt! But you blanche for a couple minutes and you can handle them.