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Recipes for Dreamin' Green from Heather Forsyth

The farmers market is open, the farmers market is open!  This little piggy went to market and came home with bunches of fresh green garlic and a bag of sweet pea shoots and visualized whirled....okay, I'm a bit delirious about gresh greens!  Find your local farmers market and go get some goods!  Mostly what you'll find this early, depending on where you live, are fresh greens like arugula and spinach, also radishes, green garlic, spring onion, herbs, and bedding plants to take home so you can have your own homegrown tomatoes this Summer.  Green garlic and pea shoots are two wonderful things that you can only get for a couple of weeks, so get them now!  Green garlic is mild and tender, it looks like a scallion but tastes more like a shallot.  It's great in stir-fries, soups, eggs, almost anything.  Pea shoots are the fresh tender leaves from pea vines.  They're beautiful!  And unlike most greens, they're not fragile, so you can eat a dressed salad the next day and still find it fresh and crispy.

Green Garlic Soup Recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

• Big bunch of green garlic (6-8 shoots), cleaned and sliced, the white part from the root up and about 4" of the green stems


• 3 T. butter


• 2 T. chopped onion


• 4 small potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters


• 3 c. vegetable broth


• salt and pepper


• splash of lemon juice


• 4 big T. yogurt


• a T. or so fresh chives, chopped, for garnish

Directions:

1. Melt 3 T. butter in soup pot.  Add green garlic and onion and saute for a few minutes.  Add potatoes, stir them around a minute or two more, then add the broth and salt and pepper. Simmer until everything is very soft, about 20 minutes.


2. Cool briefly, then lift the vegetables from the pot, reserving the broth, and puree in food processor, blender, or food mill until smooth.


3. Return puree to pot with broth.  Stir it all up, add a splash of lemon juice, taste and adjust the seasonings, and get it nice and hot.


4. Serve in bowls with a dollop of plain yogurt and sprinkle of fresh chives.

Pea Shoot Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of fresh pea shoots


• 8 slices bacon, diced, fried crisp, and drained


• 10-12 shavings from a hunk of parmesan cheese


• vinagrette dressing (whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, tsp. of dijon mustard, smidge of honey, salt and pepper)

Directions:

1. Fill the sink with cold water, plunge in the pea shoots, swish them around, lift, drain, and blot dry with kitchen towel.


2. Whisk together dressing in bottom of salad bowl, add pea shoots, toss.


3. Add bacon and parmesan and toss some more.


4. Eat.