From the CSA Kitchen

Strawberry Turkey Explosion

A loaded chopped salad of small-cut greens, strawberries, turkey, turnips, and chive blossoms, dressed in aged balsamic and good olive oil.

Straight from today's bag

Spring mix · Arugula · Strawberries · Salad turnips · Cucumbers

The chive blossoms and snap peas weren't in the bag, those were extra from the farm.

The finished Strawberry Turkey Explosion salad tossed in a big blue bowl with serving forks. — The finished toss, dressed in balsamic and olive oil with nutritional yeast over the top.

Just chop the amounts that feel right. The turnips, the strawberries, the cucumbers, we just used all of the ones that came in the bunches or containers. We're not measuring. This is not baking. You really can't mess it up (unless you accidentally put too much vinaigrette or salt... Just take it easy with those and mix to taste).

All the salad components laid out in sections before tossing: turnips, cucumbers, strawberries, snap peas, sliced turkey, and chive blossoms over greens. — Everything laid out before the toss, with nutritional yeast and pepper over the top.

01 The greens

This salad starts with a bag of our spring mix, which is three kinds of Salanova lettuce along with mustard, kale, and spinach, plus another bag of arugula. Both bags go on a cutting board and get diced up real small, so you don't have to have giant bites of lettuce. You want consistent, even bites that go with the protein. We chopped a small head of romaine into it as well.

1 bag spring mix (three kinds of Salanova lettuce, plus mustard, kale, and spinach)
1 bag arugula
1 small head romaine

02 The turkey, fruit & veg

The protein here is sliced turkey, the sandwich-meat kind. Then strawberries, onions, turnips, and cucumbers, all sliced bite-sized. A child should be able to find all of this stuff bite-sizable. Snap peas go in too, diced up.

Sliced turkey (sandwich meat)
Strawberries, sliced bite-sized
Onions, sliced
Salad turnips, sliced
Cucumbers, sliced
Snap peas, diced

03 Dress & top

For the dressing we used aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil (the Trader Giotto's that's produced in Italy and Spain), plus salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. Then the chive blossoms, about five of them. They look big in the photo, but at the point you toss it, break them up into smaller pieces. Nobody wants a whole mouthful of chive blossom.

Aged balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Nutritional yeast
About 5 chive blossoms, broken into smaller pieces

04 Toss it

Put it all in a big bowl and toss. Go easy on the balsamic and the salt, those are the only two things you can really overdo, and mix to taste.

Hands tossing the big bowl of salad. — Tossing it in the big bowl.

Close-up of the tossed salad showing turkey, strawberries, cucumber, and chopped greens. — Up close, once it's all mixed.

That's how we made this salad.