One of my favorite meals in the spring is a salad made with really young spring herbs from the garden.
After a long winter, spring salads using fresh herbs from the herb garden taste so lively. The flavors are fresh and vibrant. I feel good whenever I eat this salad — it’s super flavorful and feels like I’m feeding my body with healthful ingredients.
Economical and delicious, spring herb garden salads are so simple to make. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and soon the salad bowl is full of herbal goodness. Every time you make this salad, you’ll be rewarded with a different flavor profile.
Ingredients for Spring Herb Salad
Perennial herbs, and annual herbs whose seeds have self-sown are the base for these herb salads. Pick small perennial herbs sparingly. Annual herbs that have self-sown over-abundantly, or in areas you don’t want them, are little treasures to add to your herb garden salads, as you weed them out.
In my latest herb salad concoction, I started with some romaine lettuce left over from the previous night’s dinner. I went foraging in my herb garden for the remaining salad ingredients. I picked bloody dock, chives, garlic chives, bronze fennel, oregano, tarragon and mint.
Dressing Your Herb Garden Salad
The spring herb salad is best dressed with a simple vinaigrette. The stronger flavors in an herb salad also work with a mild creamy dressing.
My favorite salad dressing for herb salads is a balsamic vinaigrette made with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a bit of maple syrup and salt.
To make a complete meal, I add feta cheese and cooked chicken to the salad (omit salt in the salad dressing if adding feta cheese or olives to your salad).
The young spring herbs are mild, sweet and tender, making them a perfect addition to salads.
As the herb plants mature in the summer heat, the leaves become tougher and the herbal flavor becomes stronger. Some herbs also develop bitterness as they mature. The flavor profile often becomes too strong to use as a salad green.
So take advantage of the spring offerings in your herb garden, and build your own unique spring herb garden salads!
Happy growing,
Herb Garden Gal
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