Spring

Summer Celebration Salad with Feta, Watermelon, Berries and Petals

by:
August 27, 2016
0
0 Ratings
Summer Celebration Salad with Feta, Watermelon, Berries and Petals
Photo by Donna Griffith
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

I'm developing recipes for my second book all about gardening and cooking with wild edibles. For the greens and herbs in this salad pick any combination of exotic or conventional, wild or domesticated: arugula, spinach, dandelion, lamb’s quarters, nasturtium leaves, baby kale, or even experiment with a few tender springtime maple leaves! Likewise, pick whatever edible petals and berries you have on hand at the moment; in this recipe, I’m listing the flowers that I used to make the one in the photo, but you can get even more exotic . . . think sweetly scented maple, hawthorn, linden or eastern redbud blossoms or pluck petals from arrowhead, bee balm, chicory, eastern spring beauty, red clover, roses, evening primrose and spiderwort. And, seriously, use this salad to celebrate summer as well as spring; just change up the combination of ingredients to reflect the season! —signe langford

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the Salad
  • 1 cup tender new peas, blanched
  • 1 small red onion, halved, then thinly sliced
  • 1 cup feta cheese, cubed
  • 2 cups watermelon, seeded and cubed
  • 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, or raspberries, serviceberries, blackberries...
  • 5 small radishes, trimmed, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 an unpeeled English cucumber, very thinly sliced
  • 1 cup mixed salad leaves, wild and domestic
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 4 daylily flowers, stamens removed, petals plucked
  • 4 nasturtium flowers, whole or petals plucked
  • 1 frilly double marigold, petals plucked, green parts discarded
  • For the Vinaigrette
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil or cold pressed canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon verjus or apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon blueberry honey (or other runny honey)
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • Fresh black pepper to taste
Directions
  1. For the Salad
  2. Blanch the peas; bring a medium saucepan of salted water to the boil over high heat. Add the peas and boil for 1 minute. Drain and transfer peas to a bowl of icy water. Allow to sit in the cold water until the peas are completely cooled, then drain and set aside to dry a bit.
  3. Into a very large bowl add all the salad ingredients; set aside while making the vinaigrette.
  4. Add the vinaigrette, and toss very gently; petals bruise easily. Tumble onto a serving platter and garnish with a final drizzle of honey.
  1. For the Vinaigrette
  2. To make the vinaigrette, add the oil, verjus or vinegar, honey, mustard, salt and pepper to a medium bowl and whisk until well blended.
  3. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust to taste.
Tags:

See what other Food52ers are saying.

Popular on Food52

0 Reviews