Simple summer salads

It's been a while, but things have been happening in the kitchen and the garden...

Finally, the vegetable patch is looking full and I have already harvested a full round of rocket, and the next is at the 'baby' leaf stage - a good stage for nibbles!

Tonight, H and I ate our first baby beetroot, roasted with the potatoes for dinner. I'd accidentally pulled it up whilst trying to relieve it of a speckled leaf - oops!! Still, it was worth it - delicious :-)

The turnips are trying to take over, so they have had to be kept an eye on. There are mangetout dangling lazily in the sunshine, the white of the flower still clinging to the tops.

Can you see the droplets of mangetout?

Lettuces are growing, and we ate one last night in our salad, along with rocket and spinach leaves, and the carrots look ready to go too! It's so exciting!!

Meanwhile, I had also planted up some potatoes that had gone over in the potato box. Into a bag of compost, I pushed 6 little new potatoes, their roots beginning to sprout. Now we have a 'triffid' growing out of the bag! The flowers are beginning to show, so before long, I will be shaking out the bag an seeing what treasure lies beneath...

Potatoes are growing and growing!

In the kitchen, things have been simple this weekend. Salads have been our staple and last night I grabbed what we had in the fridge, garden, frozen prawns and two packets of smoked mackerel and ended up with this...

Delicious mackerel salad

Then today, I chucked some ingredients together, and it tasted so good, I had to rush and get a camera to take a photo. So, here is my avocado, cold Jersey Royal potatoes, Parma ham, sliced raw onion, red grapes and grated Pecorino cheese salad. Try it! The sweet grapes add a extra little surprise every now and then. Drizzle with Balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then grind a little black pepper and a pinch of salt to season. Perfect lunch in the sun!

My simple summer salad

Enjoy your summer salads too :-)