Farmers’ Market Fridays: Frisée and Escarole

This past Saturday was a beautiful day to go to the Freedom Farmers Market. As we get further into Spring, the weather becomes more agreeable in the morning and the vegetable selection expands to encompass more greens. I love roasting hearty winter vegetables but I’m not too keen to turn my oven on as much as it gets hotter.

As I perused the booths, I was extremely excited to see the wide variety of roughage available! Vendors started selling more spinach and were less focused on kale. I bought two gorgeous red and green heads of butter lettuce from Elm Street Gardens.

Continuing on with my quest for leafy greens, I was practically giddy when I got to the Woodland Gardens booth to find frisée and escarole! I was introduced to escarole last year at the Morningside Farmers Market after the woman in front of me proceeded to buy 4 heads of it. I asked her what to do with it, and she said it went really well in a soup she made with lots of garlic and cannellini beans. It still sounds appealing, but I haven’t made it yet. I usually just saute the greens in olive oil with a few cloves of garlic. The taste is a little bitter but it has a nice crunch and a buttery texture. I had it alongside some steak last night, but it can accompany just about any other well-seasoned protein.

I was so excited about getting the last bunch of frisée that I made my my way over to the Pine Street Market booth and bought some of their applewood smoked bacon ends and pieces to turn it into an epic breakfast salad! To make said salad, cut up bacon pieces as small as you can and sauté them until crispy. Remove them and dry them out on a paper towel while you add some minced shallots and a small spoonful of balsamic vinegar to the delicious bacon fat left in the pan. While that’s cooking down a bit, fry or poach yourself an egg or two and gently place it on top of a bowl of frisée. Add a bit of minced garlic to the bacon fat and shallot dressing and then drizzle a couple teaspoons of it on top of your salad. Voila! A savory yet sweet breakfast that will keep you full for a good while!

Hope y’all can make it out to one of our fine farmers’ markets tomorrow morning. Should be a gorgeous and relatively cool morning!