Spring is a month of greens. From sprouting to adult leaf and branch. From bud to flower. From seed to fruit. It bursts with health and it begs for salads. Green asparagus is at its peak at the moment and will only last one more month before it comes to rest for  whole year. Assemble your salads. Feast on your asparagus. There are no limits to pure goodness.

La recette:

1. Boil some pasta of your choice to al dente and keep aside.
2. Clean and cut an onion into slices. Sauté in a pan with some olive oil.  Add 3 or 4 small potatoes cut into rings, cover and cook over low heat until soft.
3. Rinse some asparagus. Rinse some pois gourmande. Steam together until just tender. Add to the onions  and mix lightly. Add freshly chopped herbs of  your choice…basil is nice.
4. Grate 2 or 3 carrots and mix lightly with some olive oil, lemon juice and a drizzle of flowered honey.
5. Assemble the salad by adding the warm onion mixture to the pasta; Season with salt and pepper, leom juice and olive oil.
6. Top with the cool, fresh carrot salad, sprinkle dry roasted pine nuts and drizzle with the carrot juices.
7. Serve a good mayonnaise and baguette on the side.

Pincée de sel:

• Sauté the asparagus beforehand in olive oil, herbs and lemon butter and then add to the pasta…tastier.
• Use other vegetables like spring peas, or beans.
• Keep the variety of vegetables to a minimum to avoid a confusion of flavours.
• Omit the potatoes and add a meat of your choice, like chicken. add more sauce in that case to avoid a dry salad.
• Omit the carrot salad and use grated beetroot instead with a pungent vinaigrette which goes well with the potaoes and pasta.

Spring greens come in many shades (and tastes as well). For now, we will stick to the shades and tones. for this excercise I stuck to pure greens straight from the tube., painting some ribbons of greens on paper and walking around in the garden, trying to match the colour on the paper to the greens I can find in the garden.

Another fun project would be to do it with food…matching greens to what one can find in the fridge. Or doing it with summer yellows, reds, aubergines.  Colour makes the world go round…at least for me.

Maybe in the next post I’ll set a spring green table..;paint some greens on paper ribbons and try to find matching greens for the table.

..grass green chives…

..young plums..

..young tilleul leaves with golden greens, brown greens and ochres..

..a young olive branch in olive greens and earth green..

..and my favorite green in the garden is Sennelier grey – the santolinas, some lavendins, curry plants, stachys, armoises, ballotas, convolvulus(image below), cérastiums…

..and lastly the lovely dark rich greens of ceanothes with its overflowing purple flowers..

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Ronelle