I adore a chopped salad and this broccoli, asparagus and cauliflower chopped salad with a wild garlic, pea and basil green goddess dressing is simply glorious. It is of course wild garlic season here in the UK. Sometimes it can be over in a flash and you’ve missed the opportunity to pick the gloriously pungent leaves but because we’ve been having quite a cold Spring, the season seems to have been extended and there are carpets of green wild garlic leaves all over the ground at our local secret wood.
Preparing wild garlic
Recently I’ve had a few people ask me how to harvest and prepare wild garlic. It’s relatively easy.
Find the wild garlic
It usually grows in shaded woods in damp or dampish ground. Sometimes you can find it on the side of the road down country lanes in little copses of trees. It is pretty obvious when you’ve found it because the smell of garlic is unmistakable. It has large flat pointed leaves and usually grows in abundance. Later in the month it will have beautiful globe-shaped white flowers (similar to other flowers in the onion family) and they can be picked and eaten too. I simply snip the leaves close to the ground. Only take what you need and don’t forget to leave plenty behind.
Preparation
Wash you wild garlic like any salad leaf. I usually chop it in half and then rinse it in cold water and spin it to dry in the salad spinner. It will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week but if you blitz it in a food processor with a little olive oil you can then freeze it in ice cube trays or freezer bags.
The Salad
- 1 pack of tenderstem broccoli – chopped
- 1 pack (roughly 8 stems) of asparagus – chopped
- the zest and juice of 1 lemon
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 100g frozen peas
- lemon olive oil – Pomora do the best one
- half a cauliflower – finely chopped
- 1 avocado – chopped
- 3 spring onions – chopped
- 1/2 cucumber – chopped
- 10 radishes – chopped
- 100g fine green beans – chopped
The Dressing
- 3 tablespoons greek yoghurt
- 1 bunch basil – chopped
- 1 bunch wild garlic – chopped (reduce if you don’t want it to be too piquant)
- 1 tablespoon chopped chives
- 2 tablespoons of the cooked peas
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- the juice of one lemon
Place the asparagus and broccoli in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, the zest and juice of 1 lemon and a little salt and pepper. Pan fry on a griddle for about 8 mins until they begin to colour but still have a crunch. Set aside.
Boil the peas until cooked, then drain and drizzle with lemon oil and season with salt and pepper – set aside.
Make the dressing by placing everything into a food processor and blending. Don’t forget to add 2 tablespoons of the cooked peas. You want a thick but pourable consistency to the dressing so you may need to add a little more oil or lemon juice to achieve this.
Now assemble the salad by throwing everything into a bowl, then dress with the dressing and toss through. Top it all off with some crunchy crushed unsalted peanuts.
For more salad recipes, check these out on Dom in the Kitchen.
Eat and of course, enjoy!
