This year, we signed up for a CSA with a local farm. For those who don’t know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You pre-pay for the crops before the season starts, and you receive a share of produce every so often, in our case, every week once the harvest begins. This is our first time signing up for a CSA, and we signed up with Angelic Organic farms. It is an excellent way to get fresh organic produce and helps to support the local farmers as well.
We received our first box last week, and it contained something I have never used, pea shoots. I did not even know they were edible. A lot of veggies greens, like radish and beets, are edible, but I had yet to have these.

I was intrigued and tasted a shoot. It was crunchy and tasted, not surprisingly, like snap peas.

From a quick search, it seemed they could be used as salad and married well with soy sauce and ginger. I added radishes, also from the farm share, as well as some store-bought cucumber and carrots.

So, this is my first shot at a pea shoots salad. I purposely did not give accurate quantities here, as you can add in as much of each ingredient as you have or as you like. Simple, yet delicious.

Pea shoots salad

• Pea shoots (I removed the big stems and kept the end shoots and all the leaves, enough to fill a large bowl
• Radishes, finely sliced as needed
• Cucumber, finely sliced
• Finely sliced carrots

Salad Dressing:

• 4 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce (I use a low sodium one)
• Salt
• Pepper

Pick the end stems out, including the first leaves after the curly ends as well as all the leaves from the large stems. Wash the shoots and leaves and spin to dry or towel dry. Mix with the radish and the cucumber in a big bowl.

Mix all the ingredients for the salad dressing. Salt and pepper as needed. Add the dressing to the salad and toss. Enjoy!

Variations:

• Add 1 Garlic clove, finely sliced
• Sprinkle Toasted sesame seeds