After we began growing most of our own salad greens, we quickly grew bored eating our way though a big bottle of store bought dressing and started making our own. Now I either make a little jar of dressing to use throughout the week, or I whisk together a very small amount of vinaigrette—just enough to dress the salad we are eating right then.

I have found that 2 teaspoons of vinegar or lemon/lime juice whisked with 2 tablespoons of oil yields the perfect amount of vinaigrette to dress 5 to 6 cups of loosely packed greens (this is the amount of greens that fits in my salad spinner and is enough for two lunch-sized salads or 4 small-ish sized side salads). To mix things up, I add in finely minced garlic or shallot to the vinaigrette, or I will whisk in dry ground mustard or a dab of prepared Dijon. Sometimes I sprinkle in spices like cumin, coriander or paprika, or a bit of harissa (a pepper paste), or minced fresh herbs. The vinaigrette literally takes about two minutes to make and has a really lively flavor.

The arugula in our winter garden is beginning to look a bit haggard. The largest leaves are too harsh and stringy for salads (though they taste delicious cooked with pasta), but the smaller leaves are still tender enough to eat raw. I’m especially fond of tossing this spicy green with toasted pumpkin seeds and a Mexican cheese called Cojita. The toasted pumpkin seeds bring out arugula’s inherent nutty flavor and the crumbles of salty Cojita set off the tangy apple cider vinaigrette.  The key to making this salad extra delicious is to sprinkle a bit of sea salt over the top and a good grind of pepper right before serving.

Arugula Salad with Toasted Pepitas and Cojita Cheese

All squash seeds are edible, but my favorites are the small seeds from acorn and butternut squash. They are small enough that you can eat them whole, without having to hull them. I toss the seeds in a little oil and roast them in a hot oven until they are toasted and use them in salads. I also buy pepitas, which are hulled pumpkin seeds, and toast them in a pan as described below. Both the pepitas and the toasted squash seeds add a wonderful crunch to salads. If you can’t find Cojita, substitute crumbled feta.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small garlic clove, pressed

Sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

5 cups loosely packed arugula, washed and dried

2 tablespoons crumbled Cojita cheese

Instructions:

Place the pepitas in a dry skillet and set it over high heat. Cook, shaking the pan frequently, until the seeds begin to brown and pop, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, oil, and garlic. Add a generous pinch of salt and ground pepper to taste. Add the arugula to the bowl and toss until the leaves are well coated. Scatter the toasted pepitas and the cheese over the greens. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and more cracked pepper. Serve immediately.

We are still harvesting quite a few greens out of our garden, despite the slushy weather. We have kale, arugula, pea shoots, and mache, but I am most excited about the broccoli rabe. I sowed it in late August, set a hoop house over the bed and covered it with a lightweight row cover (primarily to keep our chickens from snacking on the greens, but also to protect them from cooler weather). Broccoli rabe is, big surprise, in the broccoli family (brassica), but  it is actually more closely related to turnips, which are called rapa in Italy. The leaves resemble turnip leaves and share their strong, slightly bitter flavor.

Broccoli rabe is a fabulous green for fall and winter gardening, because it is edible at every stage. I thinned out the plants when they were just a few inches tall and tossed them into salads. The leafy foliage has a pleasant mustard-y flavor that grows stronger as the plants age. And best of all, broccoli rabe develops small, delicious, broccoli-like heads. The heads are ready for harvest in just under a month in warmer weather, but in fall and winter they form more slowly.

When they first emerge, the heads are tightly packed and compact. With in a few days though, they begin to loosen up and lengthen, and eventually the buds open to reveal bright yellow blossoms. Ideally, you want to harvest when the heads are tightly packed. Just clip the plant off near the soil line, stem, leaves and all.

Broccoli rabe tastes slightly bitter raw. So I often blanch the greens in hot water first, pat them dry, and then saute them with olive oil and garlic. If you miss the ideal harvest window (which sometimes only lasts a couple of days, especially in warmer weather), no worries. The yellow blossoms are slightly sweet and slightly spicy and definitely delicious. Experiment with adding them into stir fries or eat them in salads.

I’m growing ‘Super Rapini’ from Renee’s Garden, but Seeds from Italy offers a great selection of Cima di Rapa (Italian for broccoli rabe). They currently stock 8 varieties, including ‘Sesantina’ which develops larger than average heads.

Also, I hope you will all hop over to Ashley English’s lovely blog, small measure. She kindly reviewed my book and is giving away a copy! All you have to do to enter is a leave a comment with your favorite thing to grow and something you’d like to try.

Today I am so excited to announce that my book, Grow Cook Eat: A Food-Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting & Storage Tips, is now on sale! Having the opportunity to write this book and work with the extraordinarily talented photographer, Jim Henkens, on all of the gorgeous photos was such a dream come true. I am so proud of this book and I feel very lucky that I get to send it out into the world.

To all of you who read this blog, thank you so much! Your questions and passion for good food inspired much of the content in this book, especially all the specific harvesting details. My goal was to write a gardening book that real life gardeners with busy lives would find useful and accessible, but also inspiring and seductive. Luckily, I landed at Sasquatch Books. The Sasquatch editing and design team was committed to helping make my vision for the book a reality and I really could not be any happier with how it turned out.

Grow Cook Eat is available at local bookstores, online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound and Powells, and at Anthropologie, West Elm, and Williams-Sonoma stores. The book will also be available at many wonderful small nurseries and gift shops and as an eBook. With the help of my crack project editor, Rachelle Longe, I’ve put together a little sneak peek inside Grow Cook Eat. The PDF includes the growing guide for basil and my Nona’s pesto recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

I have a ton of speaking engagements coming up this spring and I am looking forward to meeting a lot of other veggie gardeners. You can find the list over on my events page and on my book’s official Facebook page. I hope you’ll pop over there and like it. I’ll be updating the Facebook page regularly with event information. And in the meantime I will be over on Cloud Nine. I’ll probably be hanging out there for a few days but am looking forward to coming back to earth and planning this year’s garden.