This is a great herb salad recipe I just discovered and am addicted to. (Click on the title of the post to go to the website and get the recipe.) The tang from the herbs contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the corn and green beans and the avacado dressing is mild and just right. I'd recommend only using a 1/2 of an avacado for the dressing, though. Otherwise, it's tastes too guacamole-y.
I keep making this with lemon basil (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/48821/) that I've picked up at my local farmer's market. 
If you have never tried lemon basil, try to get your hands on some! Such a nice clean-sweet-zesty scent that causes you to compulsively and repeatedly sniff and sigh happily...this might be the original "people-nip"! I'm so smitten with this stuff that I'm going to try to collect seeds from the blossoms and grow some on my porch. (Or maybe I should do it the straightforward way and just buy a plant.) Anyway, the taste is just like the smell and description: lemon + basil. I also made a nice herb tea with it...just pour boiling water over the leaves. Another great use for lemon basil: tear up leaves with a chopped tomato (I used some yummy-flavored heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market) and add some chopped yellow bell pepper. Splash a little red wine vinegar and some olive oil on it (ratio about 1:3 or 1:4 vinegar to oil) and grind pepper and salt over it. Colorful/aesthetically pleasing and tastes really flavorful, too!!
If you have never tried lemon basil, try to get your hands on some! Such a nice clean-sweet-zesty scent that causes you to compulsively and repeatedly sniff and sigh happily...this might be the original "people-nip"! I'm so smitten with this stuff that I'm going to try to collect seeds from the blossoms and grow some on my porch. (Or maybe I should do it the straightforward way and just buy a plant.) Anyway, the taste is just like the smell and description: lemon + basil. I also made a nice herb tea with it...just pour boiling water over the leaves. Another great use for lemon basil: tear up leaves with a chopped tomato (I used some yummy-flavored heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market) and add some chopped yellow bell pepper. Splash a little red wine vinegar and some olive oil on it (ratio about 1:3 or 1:4 vinegar to oil) and grind pepper and salt over it. Colorful/aesthetically pleasing and tastes really flavorful, too!!
11 comments:
mmm, I'll have o fix that for this saturday maybe! It was good to see you Dawnae, thanks for coming to us even though you wanted us to come up there!
Mom has tons of this Lemon Basil growing in her yard. Pick some up next time you drop by, it's good stuff!
Btw, clever blog name. I like it.
Isn't it lemon mint she has in her yard? Or does she have lemon basil, too? Or it might be lemon thyme. But I think it's lemon mint. That is good stuff, too. If I had thought of it I'd have had Emily bring me some plants to plant on my porch. I'm taking suggestion on the blog name... I'm not married to this one. I just had to get "Winnow Wallows.." off of there since it had been there too long.
It's lemon mint and if someone has a yummy use for it, please share. I haven't yet discovered it.
A faster way to propagate basil is to put a few stems in water. They will root.
P.S. By stems I mean cut a slip off the mother plant and put that slip in water. You might have to change the water a few times while the slip takes root.
When my new basil plants get bigger, I plan to propagate them by doing cuttings like you describe only I'll just put them in sand to root. I've just sown some lemon basil seeds and bought and potted some Italian and "spicy" basil in a container.
Thanks for your comment! It was so great running in to you for lunch. Hope you had fun at the Huntington Library!
The Italians love their basil here also, but no lemon basil. I also love lemon thyme and I have it growing in my garden at home. My renter says that my herb garden grew to waist high this summer and looked beautiful! I can't believe it! Here is a Napolitan favorite and most common use for basil: Capraisi Salad. You just slice up some pomodori (tomatos) in large round circles like for hamburgers, then slice up some deeeeliccious mozzarella di buffalo (made from water buffalo milk instead of regular milk. It's fresh in a round ball which oozes milk.) Then cut up some fresh basil and sprinkle it all over and then splash olive oil all over the top. It is usually arranged on a platter with rows of tomatoes and cheese rounds, but you eat it stacked up like a tomato cheese open faced sandwich. It's really good! You can do it with regular fresh mozzarella balls too, since you guys probably can't get the mozzarella di buffalo there. Neopolitans are very proud of it since it is hard to find outside our city!
I swear you are in the wrong profession. You need to work in advertisement. I'm so sold on this salad!
Let me know if you try it, Kristin!
Denise, thanks! I'm excited to get more Italian recipes from you, too. Do share your favorites!! Mozarella di bufallo sounds really cool. Can't wait to visit you guys just to taste the food!
Post a Comment