I love growing my own fruits and veggies. This year I started all of the plants for the garden indoors, from seed, and just got them transplanted to small pots this past weekend. I can’t wait until they’re in the freshly tilled garden plot.
The raspberry bush has been trimmed back a bit as have the grape vines. Blueberry bushes have been fed spent coffee grounds. Radishes and beets, pole beans and herbs have been sewn into huge pots and placed throughout the property according to sun requirements. Strawberries which had spread too far out of their assigned area have been transplanted to hanging baskets and hung over budding azalea bushes.
And the Northampton Tuesday Markets begins again today for the season. This means that I can take an afternoon break from work and walk over to pick up fresh, local produce, eggs, bread or anything else that I may have missed in the weekend’s marketing adventures.
This week’s marketing found us a beautiful side of salmon. With the warmer weather moving in, my food cravings are switching over to lighter dishes and fresher ingredients, so I went looking for a recipe that would pair well with the fish and be light and crisp and tasty. I found that in this cucumber chili salad. Crunchy cukes, savory scallion, buttery cilantro, sweet jalapeño- yum!
Ingredients
- 3 cups thinly sliced, washed cucumber, with the peel on
- 2 tsp minced jalapeño pepper*, seeds and stem removed
- 1/4 cup chopped scallion
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- Juice of one fresh lemon
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped greek yogurt
- Dash of cayenne pepper
- salt and cracked black pepper to taste
Directions
- Whisk together lemon juice, yogurt, jalapeño, scallion, cilantro, cayenne, salt and pepper
- Toss the cucumbers with soy sauce
- Dress the cukes with the yogurt mixture and serve
Recipe adapted from the world’s healthiest foods.