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This Springtime lunch includes soup, salad, fritters, bread and a spread accompanied by refreshing herbal water or tea that is simple to prepare and goes well with the meal.
Cream of Sorrel Soup Gather a basket full of sorrel leaves
Premake chicken stock or have on hand organic chicken broth
One large onion
One medium sized potato (optional)
Cream or creme fraiche
Saute onions until soft. Throw in washed sorrel and saute for a few seconds until wilted. Add onions and sorrel to chicken stock and puree with a handheld immersion blender. To make a thicker soup, saute the potato with the onions. Add cream to desired consistency and continue blending. As an alternative instead of adding cream, add creme fraiche to each bowl when the soup is served.
Salad Harvests ingredients for an early spring salad: dandelion leaf, violets, mallow, lambs quarters, chickweed, and ladies thumb and toss in a big bowl and sprinkle with cow cress and pepper grasses (these are added sparingly for a tangy taste).
Burdock Leaf Fritters Each leaf is dipped in egg and then a flour batter before being sauteed in olive oil. Store-bought creme fraiche adds a dollop of taste.
Salad Dressing The dressing is a simple vinaigrette to which you can add herbs you grow: oregano, and thyme, along with homegrown garlic.
Bread One of the few purchases added to the meal is whole grain sour dough bread.
Goat Cheese Spread A spread of goat cheese infused with chopped wild onion grass and garlic mustard tops off the meal. And don't forget to decorate the spread with edible flowers or violet leaves.
Wild Green Pesto Spread Recipe: Green pumpkin seeds (or nuts) are soaked and dried before using as an ingredient combined with garlic, pecorino and whatever wild edible is in season. Violet leaves, sheep or wood sorrel, garlic mustard, or wild oregano are mixed in a blender or food processor, and then spread on the bread.
Herbal Water Gather the fresh leaves of lemon balm or mint. Put into a pitcher and pour in cold water. Let steep.
Tea A mixture of dried nettle leaf, raspberry leaf, cinnamon bark, fennel seed, and licorice root.
