April 13th 2017

Last Saturday morning we wandered around our local organic farm. We spend three hours harvesting spinach and turnip tops, lingering and playing.

While Lou and I were roaming the fields, we came across dead nettle flowers. I thought about how I, as a child, used to pick them. I’d go on a ‘hunt’ for them, pull the florets out, leave the plant to grow and suck the nectar out of the back of the bloom. It was the sweetest of sensations and something I went back for often. Lou and I picked some of these purple dead nettles and took them home with us, along with a bunch of stinging nettles and dandelion and our baskets full of leafy produce. We were full of gusto when we arrived at our kitchen. Below you’ll find the recipe that we cooked up from the produce we gathered. A light and refreshing salad, using all of the deliciousness that’s in season right now.

Xoxo Kyra.

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RECIPE

Fried radish and quinoa salad with creamy turnip top sauce

Makes 2 portions

Takes 15-20 minutes

Ingredients

4 hands white quinoa

1 small sweet potato, or carrot

12 radishes

2 spring onions

2 knobs of organic grass-fed ghee, or coconut oil

2 small hands turnips tops, or spinach

100 ml raw kefir, or nut yoghurt

2 hands turnip tops, or spinach

1 lemon, juice

2 large pinches of sea salt

Black pepper, to taste

Dead nettle, flowers and leaves, optional

Instructions

Under a running tap, rinse quinoa well, using a mesh colander. Place the rinsed quinoa in a pot, add twice as much water and bring to a boil. Turn heat low and cook for 5-7 minutes. Turn heat off, place lid on top and leave to steam for another 10 minutes. In the meantime make the vegetables and sauce.

Peel the sweet potato. Cut julienne, in thin long sticks. Chop the radishes in discs. Chop one spring onion in rings, both the green as well as the white parts. Add ghee to a skillet, warm and add the sweet potato, radish and spring onion. Stir-fry for 3 minutes or so. Turn the heat off and add the second, chopped, spring onion. Mix quinoa with stir-fried vegetables.

Place kefir, two hands of turnip tops, lemon juice and sea salt in a blender and blend until ultra creamy.

Place one hand of turnip tops onto each plate, add quinoa salad and sprinkle with black pepper and (foraged) dead nettle flowers and leaves.

PS Blending is the perfect way to get (young) kids to eat their leafy greens. My daughter, who’s 3 years old, does not like the texture of leaves as they tend to stick to het palate. Adding them to cream soups and sauces is a quick and delicious ‘problem’ solver.

Many thanks to: Evert Groot (linen) and Serax Belgium (ceramics).

Photos, recipe and text (c) (copyright) kyra. at kyra’s kitchen.