Green odds & ends salad & a confession

The odds and ends of summer make a vibrant salad and why autumn in the veg patch is not like it is on Instragram.

It’s like an end of season sale in the veg patch.

You know, when everything’s a bit messy and you really have to rifle through the racks to find the good stuff. There are, for example, edible baby kale leaves if I rummage through the white-fly infested older leaves. A forgotten, miraculously unblemished, apple nestles in the long grass under the tree and I almost run over it with the mower. Pulling up the courgettes I find one last green Defender, small but perfectly serviceable. And the large leaves of the bean vines hide a few final stocky bean pods. It’s not glamourous, none are lookers, but it’ll do just fine for dinner.

I confess I don’t like this time of year in the patch.

All that cutting down and digging out, clearing and untangling. It’s just tidying up but outside. And I find it all a bit of chore. The fun in the sun is over and now it’s time to clear up; like coming home after a holiday and having to do the laundry. I know I ought to say it’s a cosy, satisfying job that marks the change in seasons and heralds the return of fires, pumpkins and kale leaves glistening in the morning frost. But life isn’t Instagram and in reality, it means clarty mud that weigh down your wellies, frozen fingers in wet gloves and, if things get really bad, cold frame washing. (Paid subscribers can find the perfect antidote to such drudgery - my recipe for Cauliflower with Kale Pesto – below in Extra Helpings.)

Still, the harvests I uncover aren’t all Autumnal stodge, so I make a bright, crunchy salad, a swansong to the summer.

Green Odds & Ends Salad

The key to this salad is the punch of the dressing and the perkiness of the vegetables, so feel free to swap out any of the vegetables for other greenery you have in the patch – spinach, cucumbers, kohl rabi, cabbage leaves…

Serves 2-3

• 150g green beans, trimmed

• 150g frozen peas, broad beans or edamame (or mix of all three)

• 75g young kale leaves

• 1 small courgette

• 1 small eating apple, cored

• 100g cooked quinoa

• 2 tsp sesame seeds

• 2 tsp linseed

• 3 tsp sunflower seeds

For the dressing:

• 2 tsp grated ginger

• 2 limes, zested and juiced

• 2 tbsp apple juice

• 2 tsp soy sauce

• 2 tsp mirin

In a large bowl, mix together all the dressing ingredients.

Chop the green beans into small pieces and boil, along with the frozen peas (and broad or edamame beans, if using), for 3-4 minutes. Drain, then plunge into ice-cold water so they retain colour and crunch. Drain again, pat dry and add to the dressing bowl.

Finely chop the kale, courgette and apple and add to the bowl too. Stir in the seeds and serve.

Now, that’s just the beginning. This week’s Extra Helping for paid subscribers features a few riffs on the same ideas in this recipe, and that Kale Pesto recipe I promised you. Plus, PDF recipe cards for both…