Spice Up Your Life: Garden Harvest Recipe Trio

5 Ingredient Salsa; Whipped Feta Green Goddess; Mint-Jalapeno Cucumber Relish.

What spice are we in this life? A question my dear friend shared with me the other day after attending an illuminating conference.

As much as the question itself felt inconsequential, I challenged myself to find the answer because it lingered with me all week. After giving it much thought, I really couldn’t see myself as cinnamon, lemon-pepper or dill weed. Do you see yourself as a spice? My conclusion became that we are a spice blend. A medley of flavour, a medley of feelings, and actions and moments. A mix of meals and shared experience. All at once.

Perhaps the question isn’t what spice we are but how we’re dispensing and dispersing our spice. That, I believe, is the question, and the answer.

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While we are on the topic of medleys and blends - I’d like to share a melange of recipes with you - a trio of harvest amplifying recipes!

5 ingredient salsa

• 10 tomatoes, chopped in quarters and de-seeded. Get all the gloopy watery bits out.

• 2 jalapeños, deseeded

• 1 green bell pepper

• 1 large white onion

• 1 bunch cilantro

Blitz the quartered the tomatoes in the food processor until a pulp forms. Set aside in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients in the food processor until they form one consistency. Add to the tomatoes, mix together and enjoy.

Whipped Feta Green Goddess Dressing

In the food processor combine:

• 1 cup feta

• 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt

• 1 avocado

• 1/2 cup of herbs of your choosing. I used mint and cilantro.

• 1/2 lemon juice

• 2 tsp sugar

• Salt and Pepper

  

Serve alongside grilled zucchini, use as a salad dressing, a dipping sauce, a sandwich spread or a body butter. (Just kidding)

Mint Jalapeno Cucumber Relish (Preserved)

• 8-10 cucumbers, quartered and de-seeded using a spoon, shredded in the food processor

• 1 bunch of mint

• 1 - 2 jalapeños, de-seeded

• 1 green bell pepper

• 1 tbsp black pepper or Aleppo pepper

• 3 cups vinegar

• 1 cup water

• 1.5 cups of sugar

• 1/4 cup pickling salt

• 1/4 cup flour

Bring water and vinegar to a boil in a large saucepan. Dissolve salt, sugar and flour. Add the shredded cucumbers, mint, jalapeños and spices. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and place in sterilized mason jars. Seal tightly and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Bonne bouffe!

-Veronique