Garlic Scapes, Green Garlic, Garlic Chives (No Vampires Here), and I Conquered the Collards!

I have been throwing green garlic, garlic scapes, spring onion and garlic chives into anything and everything except dessert.

I made a really yummy kale salad with the apples cubed, added some raisins, carrots and toasted almonds. The dressing was honey, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. Garnished with parmesan shreds. It was similar to the famous Dan Barber kale salad, but the added apple made it sweeter.

Kale Salad

I made a delicious chicken dish. Stir fried chicken with green garlic and spring onion. It was great over rice and the kids devoured it big time.

Stir Fried Chicken

PEAS!!

So, the peas we got in the CSA, the shelling peas, my kids ate on the ride home. They were good, but I have to say that as soon as you pick a pea, they begin to turn starchy. I have about 1/4 of my garden planted with shelling peas. We pick and eat them on the spot, discarding the shells on the lawn. They are sweet as candy. Farm to table, yes, but backyard to table, oh my!

Peas in My Garden

The sugar snap peas I decided to saute with the beautiful red turnips. The sweetness of the peas and the spicyness of the turnip played off each other well, and the color was amazing! I just sauteed these in olive oil, adding some green garlic and scapes of course.

Sugar Sanp Peas with Red Turnip and Scapes

I've been making salads most nights with the yummy freckled lettuce. The night I made the stir fry, I made a dressing using rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce and canola oil. really good!

Salad with all things from the CSA

COLLARD GREENS!! 

I never liked them much. I decided to treat them as cabbage and make a slaw. And it was a success! First I rinsed them, cut out the center rib, stacked them on top of each other, rolled them and made a chiffonade.

Choffonade

I added some regular cabbage for color contrast, sliced in some spring onion. Red onion would have been prettier, but I wanted to use up the CSA produce. The dressing was 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, boiled, reduced to half, then I stirred in 2 TBSP honey, mixed that and poured it over the cabbages. The added about 1/2 cup of mayo, salt, pepper, and it was done. It's best made in the morning so the dressing macerates the collards and breaks down the tough leaves.

Collard Slaw

The same night I made the slaw, I also made sauteed chicken cutlets with a garlic scape sauce. I sauteed the garlic scapes in olive oil, added a few squeezes of lemon. I served this on the side, knowing my kids wouldn't touch the chicken if it had garlic scapes all over.

Scape sauce on top of sauteed chicken breast. The chicken breast was dusted in flour, dipped in egg, and sauteed

And then I made a scape pesto. My kids love pesto. But they didn't love the scape pesto. I thought it was very similar. I used a handful of basil and lemon thyme from my garden to tame the scape, then I even mixed in mayo, which Ina Garten does in her pesto pasta salad that my kids LOVE. Who knows...

Scape Pesto Pasta Salad

That was it so far. Tonight I'm cooking some flounder in parchment with Asian flavors. I'm sure I'll throw in some of the scallions and garlic chives. I'm also going to stir fry the mizuna. I used some in a salad raw, but tonight I'll cook the rest, adding sesame oil and soy sauce. Can't wait!