From the CSA Kitchen

Garlic Scape Tuna Salad

A warm skillet meets fresh-cut greens. Built around what's in this week's box, and forgiving enough that you can make it your own.

Straight from today's box

Garlic scapes · Salad greens · Salad turnips · Radishes

A big bowl of garlic scape tuna salad, mixed and ready to eat. — The finished bowl: greens, radishes, salad turnips, tuna, beans, corn, and fried-bread croutons.

I've been experimenting with garlic scapes. For this week's CSA, I sautéed them and it turned into the kind of salad I'm going to want all year 'round. I was kind of craving a tuna melt, but decided to get creative. This is a hearty salad. There's a warm tuna skillet, some fried-bread croutons, and a pile of fresh-chopped greens and roots. Mix it all together and dress it however the mood strikes. Sub the protein with anything though — doesn't have to be tuna!

01 The scape & tuna skillet

Chop the garlic scapes down into nice, bite-sized chunks. I don't keep the very tips, they're a little harder to chew, so I just throw those away.

Sauté the scapes in butter with about half an onion. Then add three cans of tuna, drained. (I save most of the juice for the cats.) Add a can of whole corn and a can of black beans, both drained, and mix it all up.

Garlic scapes, chopped into bite-sized chunks (tips discarded)
About half an onion
Butter, for the sauté
3 cans tuna, drained
1 can whole corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained
Salt and pepper, chili powder, a little garlic powder

Season with salt and pepper, chili powder, and a little garlic powder. Sauté that for a while.

Not a tuna person? Sub in chicken, turkey, pulled pork, or pretty much any protein.

02 The fried-bread croutons

Get another pan going. Take a couple small slices of ciabatta or sourdough, butter both sides, and fry them so they're moist and crispy, just the way I'd like them if they were slices of a tuna melt sandwich. Then dice them up.

03 The greens & roots

Take the greens and chop them up on a cutting board. I like my salad greens chopped small, so they're really easy to fit in my mouth and I can even eat my salad with a spoon if I want to. Because I'm weird like that.

Slice up the salad turnips and the radishes and throw it all in. A little cilantro is good here too, if you've got it.

Today's salad greens, chopped small
Salad turnips, sliced
Radishes, sliced
Cilantro (optional)

04 Dress it & mix it up

Here's where you can get creative. I'm pretty sure almost anything works:

The salad components laid out in a glass bowl with sriracha drizzled over the radishes and turnips before mixing. — Everything in the bowl with a little sriracha, just before the mix.

Mayonnaise or ranch. If you sub the protein I'd even recommend barbecue sauce. A little sriracha is good too. Really, any salad dressing — the standard olive oil and red wine or balsamic vinegar is a slam dunk.

Just make sure you've added enough salt and pepper to the salad mix — always add to taste. Combine the warm skillet, the croutons, the greens and roots, and your dressing, and mix it all up. PUT IT IN A BIG BOWL before tossing. Don't eat in a cramped bowl, salad should be enjoyable and you deserve the space.

Can't go wrong. It's delicious.