Garden Salad

The Garden Salad is a dish which Rachael and I tried and photographed for a book titled Lunch in Provence, for years I have always wanted to replicate the dish, and many others, its only now that i decided to give it a try.

So here is the original recipe from the book, I wasn’t able to add a few of the ingredients due to the lack of local produce availability, so give it a try and like me if you don’t have whats availably then add what you feel suits your palate and visuals, this goes for any of the ingredients you don’t like in the original recipe.

happy cooking!

Andy

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 3 small artichokes
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
• 8 cherry tomatoes cut in half
• 1/2 cup of peas
• 1/2 cup of broad beans peeled
• 6 green asparagus spears, sliced
• 4 baby carrots, peeled
• 3 cups of fresh young mesclun leaves
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons (30ml) balsamic vinegar
• 10 black olives
• parmesan to garnish
• balsamic vinegar to garnish

For the basil pesto

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 bunch of basil, chopped
• 150ml olive oil

[/ingredients][directions title=”Directions”]

1. Cook the artichokes in the chicken stock and lemon juice until just cooked, but still firm, remove from heat and leave in liquid.
2. Cook the peas, beans and asparagus briefly in a large pot of salty water, they should remain crunchy, blanch in cold water and set aside, do the same with baby carrots.
3. Pesto – mix the garlic with the Basil, then add olive oil, keep chilled.

To serve

1. Arrange the sliced tomatoes in a circle in the centre of the plate, I used a forming ring to shape the tomatoes in a circle.
2. Dress the mesclun with a vinaigrette made from the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, place inside the centre of tomatoes.
3. Quarter the artichokes, season and season the rest of the vegetables, arrange the olives, cherry tomatoes and vegetables around the plate, placing the carrots and asparagus on top of the mesclun.
4. Dress the platter with balsamic vinegar, pesto and shaved parmesan.

[/directions]