Again I didn't follow a specific recipe from Vegan Unplugged but followed some of their advice about using up fresh produce at the beginning of a power failure. It wouldn't work if you had to evacuate. In a stay-at-home emergency, it will work marvelously. I made an out of this world unplugged salad.
First of all, we spent the afternoon putting the finishing touches on our giant mulch pile. Following the directions in Lasagne Gardening, we layered mulch materials and then covered the whole thing with giant pieces of black plastic. We weighted the plastic down with fire wood and paving stones to keep the fierce winds of this area from blowing away our whole project.
Anyway...I was in no mood to cook. Also, I needed to harvest a tray of sunflower greens--the absolutely best sunflower greens I've grown to date.
Unplugged Power Failure Main Dish Salad
Serves two hungry gardeners (or 4 as a side dish)
1 lb. salad greens of any variety (easy peasy with an indoor micro-garden)
1 pt. sprouts of any kind (always have sprouts growing in the kitchen)
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 red pepper, sliced
1 Anaheim Pepper, seeded and chopped
1 Serrano Pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 c. green onions, minced (these actually came from the garden--volunteer onions in Nov)
1/2 avocado, cubed
1/4 c. parsley or cilantro, minced (yup, from the garden at Thanksgiving--amazing)
1/4 c. sliced natural olives
2 c. cooked pinto beans (or 1 can pintos) drained and rinsed
1 lime, slices
1 t. balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic
1 few drops superior quality extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
Pantry Diving/Emergency Thriving/Garden Feast instructions: I like to make this in a large wooden salad bowl. Slightly crush garlic clove. Rub the oil into the salad bowl with the clove. Press the remaining parts and mix with vinegar, green onions, tomatoes, anaheim, and serrano to make pico. Toss the greens and sprouts in the bowl. Layer the beans, pico, red peppers, avocado, olives, and herbs over the greens. Garnish with black pepper and lime.
It's even better by candle-light.
