My pansies have been doing a happy dance for quite some time now. It's unusual for them to still be growing this strong, but with all the unseasonably cool and rainy weather we've been having they are still proudly showing their cute little bear faces.
We've had mostly cool weather this spring with highs only in the 60s most days and nights teetering on the brink of frost. Occasionally we get a summer-like tease of warm sunny weather like today and yesterday, but overall it seems as though summer is still a long way off.
So when I heard the weather forecast for the next few days I wasn't happy. "Highs only in the 50s!" the weatherman shouted on the evening news. I quickly picked up my remote and searched for the soothing scenery over on the Travel Channel. Maybe a Caribbean day dream will lift up my spirits I thought to myself. After all New England weather is so unpredictable what do TV weather people know anyway I tried to convince myself.
So as we embark on yet another cold front I'm looking on the bright side of things. I could enjoy this delicious pansy salad.
Pansy Herb Salad
Serves 4
With their beautiful array of colors and mild lettuce-like flavor, pansies brighten any dish. For this salad, only lemon juice is used as a dressing. The walnuts and feta add quite enough flavor.
Ingredients:
4 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup fresh sprigs of dill
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 large basil leaves, rolled up and thinly sliced crosswise
1 large lemon, halved
Pinch of salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 cup toasted walnuts
3/4 cup crumbled feta
1 cup fresh pansy flowers
Directions:
Toss salad greens and herbs in a large bowl. Squeeze lemon juice (without the seeds) over the greens and season with salt and pepper. Toss again. Add walnuts and feta and toss well. Divide salad and pansies among four serving plates and serve.
Photo and recipe credit: http://www.sheknows.com/articles/804900.htm
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13 comments:
it is too pretty to eat! I have heard of this..but never tried it!
your pansys look so bright and healthy...it has been super cold here the last week....we had frost and snow warnings!
Like Tootsie, I've never tried edible flowers like this but they are quite beautiful in that salad...great flower shots...love them...
Sorry that summer has been so slow to arrive. When we lived in PA (not nearly as far north as you), I would get impatient with all of the days in the 50's in May.
The pansy salad looks beautiful.
Yum on the pansy salad-super great looking! I still have some pansies so I might try it today.
We have had a relatively cooler spring here in Va, too. Mind you, it's been warmer than New England (when I was to the Cape a few weeks back, our weather was just as you described and I know you are not too far away from there), but this time last year, we were already having this awful 90 degree+ heat wave! So, knowing what usually comes down the pike here, I am enjoying the cooler weather!
Wow, that looks amazing. Never eaten a pansy before but if that was put in front of me - yum!
You use the other heat measure to us, we're celeius and are very lucky at the moment to get 16 degrees. I have to look up you 60 degress farienheit(?) to see what you mean...
Your pansies do look happy! The salad really sounds good and is so pretty!
Jackie, I wish you could send some of that cool weather down here. This morning at 6 AM it was already 74 degrees, and we are expecting a high of 90 degrees. I still have a few violas surviving in a shady area, but I know they won't last much longer. I wish I could have pansy like you still do. They are my favorite.
Jan
Always Growing
I love the cooler weather(-: It is going to be unbearable here soon enough! We have been having such wonderful weather here which is unusual for us too!
Hi Jackie, I've been waiting to see those pansies after you telling me how great they were doing. That picture is so cute (pretty too) but cute like a little choir or something standing on the risers smiling! Oh I do have an overactive imagination don't I?
I agree the salad looks much to pretty to eat.
It's been a cold start here too. Finally hot and humid here today. I've never added flowers to my salads and have been seeing lots of stuff about edible flowers. You've got me considering it...
Wow, I never thought of adding pansies to a salad it does look to nice to eat. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
We've been having cooler temps and rain, too. It has helped the lettuce hang on a bit longer.
I ate the violets early in the season, but have been forgetting about pansies. My basil is just big enough to start cutting. Thanks for the recipe.
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