Beautiful, local lettuces and garlic scapes are everywhere right now. They all taste so fresh, sweet and mineral-y. I’ve been pulling out a head of leaf, romaine or boston lettuce daily and eating the whole thing. Vegetarian stereotype: I actually LOVE salad. If the right dressing is involved and the add-ins are good, it’s a pretty amazing thing. The composition is key though! It’s like a vegetable sundae, all of the components have to be in place.
Dressing is arguably the make or break factor most times. I have one all-purpose concoction that I use very frequently. It’s pleasant enough that I’ll make one large batch for a week and put it on steamed vegetables, salads, warm grains with avocado, sauteed greens, dip bread in it, you get the idea. It’s good. The white wine vinegar and agave give it some light sweetness, while a bit of garlic loans pungency. We have so many garlic scapes in the gardens right now so I subbed in two them for my usual garlic clove.
Garlic scapes are a bit of a funny looking vegetable that frequently appear in CSA deliveries around this time of year or earlier. Their green, curly shoots emerge from garlic bulbs in mid to late spring and have to be clipped off to direct the growing energy to the bulb under the soil. They taste just fine sliced up and sautéed with other vegetables or worked into a pesto. I loved them in this dressing though. Mild, green garlic taste and a really pretty, sage green colour that looks so fresh.
Garlic Scape Dressing
Ingredients
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ tablespoon dijon mustard
- ½ tablespoon agave nectar
- 2 garlic scapes, roughly chopped
- ¾ cup grapeseed oil
Notes
- Depending on how long they’ve been around, garlic scapes can be quite fibrous so just use the more tender parts.
- Also, I use grapeseed oil here because its neutral flavour doesn’t overpower the scapes.
Instructions
- Combine the vinegar, water, salt and pepper in the blender pitcher. I like to add the salt with the vinegar so that it gets a head start on dissolving. Then, add the dijon, agave and garlic scapes. Blend the contents until the scapes are more or less pureed.
- Put the blender on a low speed, remove the top feeding lid and slowly drizzle in the oil with the motor running until the dressing is thoroughly combined and creamy. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week.
OK just checked garlic scape, such lovely stems!, if i grow garlic i’ll get garlic scapes?
Hi Sue,
Yes if you plant individual cloves of garlic in the fall, you’ll get big green garlic scapes in late spring! You can cut the scape off and eat it. The energy of the plant is then directed into the development of the garlic bulb beneath the soil.
Hope that helps a bit,
-L
Sorry, i do see a recipe here, but hard to imagine that this wonderful green is from the garlic?
Hi,
What is the green dressing in the jar?
Cannot find the recipe on your website.
Thanks
sue