[Buttered English Pea Salad with Romaine lettuce, Shallots and Roasted Garlic]
and
[Vegan Potato and Leek Soup with Roasted Garlic]
Hello loves,
It's basically spring-- I have been digging in the garden for AJ and the little borage sprouts have already come up, the earth worms are abundant, the daffodils have already begun to daffodil (!) the tulips are as tall as my hand--- it is happening. The world is thawing out. I am so thankful.
Now that I am gardening with AJ I feel the push for spring but also can tell you, unless you have a green house nothing is mature enough to harvest yet. We just planted our peas, lettuce, garbanzos and parsley, just last week!
But in the spirit of spring, this post deals with all of the fruits of spring: onions, garlic, lettuce and peas! And potatoes are a keeper crop, so you have them all year basically, this is a very seasonal dinner.
This post is 100% vegan (if you use non-dairy butter for the peas, and leave off the recommended goat cheese garnish) 100% gluten free and 100% vegetarian...though, if you want, which I will recommend at the bottom, both dishes would benefit from a sprinkling of crispy bacon, chopped into tiny pieces...just saying, for all you omnivores out there.
P.s. (all photos by ME!!! And not with my iPhone either, woot!!)
For Roasted Garlic (both dishes):
2 heads of garlic, whole, wrapped loosely in aluminum foil
For the Leek and Potato Soup:
Olive oil
1 large leek, white through light green section sliced into half moons, rinsed thoroughly
1 medium yellow onion, diced
5 peeled russet potatoes, roughly chopped
2 cups of veggie stock
2 raw garlic cloves, minced
About 5 roasted garlic cloves, minced
1-2 cups of unsweetened almond milk
Salt and pepper to taste
*Optional Garnish: Caramelized (green park of) leeks, sliced thinly (see below for preparation)
For the English Pea Salad:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
5 cloves of roasted garlic, chopped
Salt, to taste
1½ cups fresh or frozen green peas
1-1/2 of a head of Romaine lettuce (about 2 cups, prepped, washed, cored, and torn into large pieces
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
*Optional Garnish: crumbled chevre
To begin, preheat oven to 375 degrees, place aluminum foil wrapped garlic heads in oven. Let bake for 30-45 minutes. You'll smell the amazing smell wafting in your kitchen and you'll know when it is ready.
Next, prep your ingredients for your soup-- I am making an extra big batch in these photos, so ignore the discrepancy between the amount of potatoes I listed and the amount of potatoes depicted-- my potatoes went south super fast (that is why they were on sale, dangit) so I decided to throw them all in....
You must must MUST thoroughly wash your leeks, the best way to do this is by chopping them and placing them in a bowl of cold water to bathe for about 10 minutes--- agitate the water with your hands and then let them sit, drain them with a colander after. Leeks tend to get dirt throughout their green stalk and in between their layers, so this is really the only way to wash them completely.
Saute the diced yellow onion, and chopped potatoes over medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes, until the onions are clear and the potatoes start to get some color on them. Stir frequently.
Add the veggie stock (so that the ingredients are covered), and raw garlic and turn the heat to medium. Allow the potatoes and onions to simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are so soft that you can stick a fork in them easily.
Once the potatoes are soft, add the washed and drained leeks and let simmer for another 5-7 minutes on medium low-- you don't want to cook them so hard that the leeks lose their beautiful color but you do want to infuse their flavor in your soup.
Oh yeah, and then AJ got home!
While the leeks are simmering, take the butter (if you are using vegan butter, ignore my 'god-awful' dairy butter, hehe) and melt gently in a saute pan. Add the sliced shallots and all them to turn golden brown over medium heat. About 5 minutes.
At this point, your garlic is likely done. Unwrap and you will find lovely, roasted garlic adorably shriveled up in its skin. Let cool before you peel and chop or you will burn yourself (as I did, even this time)
In a pot of boiling water, blanch your peas.
***Blanching: plunge any vegetable, this time peas-- into a pot of boiling water for 2-5 minutes until they are a vibrant color and softened. Then immediately plunge them in a bowl of ice water ("shock them") and then drain.
While the peas are in their blanching process, cut up roasted garlic cloves for your pea salad and your potato soup.
Add garlic (5 cloves) to the golden brown shallots and butter. Let melt into the buttery mixture on medium low heat for about 3-5 minutes. Then remove from heat.
Plunge peas into ice bath, and then drain.
Mix peas with torn lettuce, butter-shallot-garlic mixture in a salad bowl.
Garnish with goat cheese if you so desire.
Meanwhile, your potato soup is nearly ready to be blended now. Add cloves of roasted garlic and blend about 1/2 of the contents of your soup, adding almond milk to taste and create the consistency that you like. I prefer a creamy-blended potato broth with chunks of potato and leek. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.
In a saute pan over medium high heat, drizzle olive oil and add the green leeks. Saute until then begin to brown. Add as a garnish on top of your soup. Serve with crusty bread if you so desire.
*You can also add finely chopped or crumbled bacon to either of these dishes to make them more complete for omnivores' tastes :) If you do that, I would begin your bacon as you blanch the peas so that it is ready by the time you serve your food.
Serve the salad at room temperature.
