Harlequins Gardens

Boulder's specialist in well-adapted plants

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Recipes

Recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is one of my favorite summer dishes. When the tomatoes and cucumbers are coming in from the garden daily, there is no better time to enjoy this delightful dish that is bursting with the flavors of summer.  It can serve as the main dish or it can accompany falafel or baked chicken.  I have yet to find a better use for parsley as well!  This recipe is gluten-free and easy to adapt to your tastes, depending on what you like.

Ingredients:
1-2 bunches of parsley, washed and de-stemmed
1 bunch of peppermint
4-5 scallions, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups EVOO
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2-4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1 cup dry quinoa
salt and pepper to taste
(optional:  feta, kalamata olives, lightly toasted blanched slivered almonds)

Instructions:

Make quinoa according to package directions.
Add parsley, mint, green onions, and garlic, to a food processor (or chop by hand).  Chop until herbs are very fine.
In a bowl, first drizzle the olive oil over the cooled quinoa, mix well.  Follow with the lemon juice. Mix to combine. Then add herb mixture, diced tomatoes, cucumbers, and optional additions.  Mix well.  Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy summer in a bowl!
Serves 4 (Reduce Quinoa to 1/2 cup for 2 people)

Photo by Elias Rodriguez on Unsplash

Hawthorn and Tulsi to ease your Gut

Sometimes we overdo heavier food and drink during the holidays, and our stomach suffers. Mitten Lowe (our friend and frequent teacher at Harlequin’s Gardens) suggests this easy-to-make Hawthorn and Tulsi vinegar and honey mixture (an oxymel).

We had an abundant harvest of Hawthorn berries at the nursery this fall.   If you have room consider adding a Hawthorn tree to your garden this spring.  [Read More]

Recipe – Nourishing Warming Bowl with Garden Veggies

With cold on the way, the sun going down before 5pm when we turn back the clock this weekend, and Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s time for nourishing food to support our immune system and to support the body against Seasonal Affective Disorder, often triggered by changing seasons and decrease in sunlight. This recipe is a great way to use the last of the fall vegetables that you might have rescued before tonight’s freeze, from our friend and nutritional coach Mitten Lowe.[Read More]

Perfect Fall Recipe from the Apple Gleaners at GrowLocal

In the late 1800s Colorado was one of the top apple-growing states in the country.  Many of these ancient apple trees still exist, and together with trees planted this century, are producing more fruit than homeowners alone can harvest.

Enter GrowLocal Colorado, and their ever-growing effort to keep fruit in the food system. Largely volunteer-run, this year they harvested and distributed 11,652 pounds of fruit from across the Front Range!  

We connected with GrowLocal Colorado’s Co-Director Barbara Masoner to see what she likes to make from Colorado-grown apples. She graciously shared her recipe for Pistachio and Apple Cake (below).

Read more about GrowLocal’s 2024 gleaning here.

If you have a fruit tree and would like to get on the list for next year’s gleaning, or would like more information on GrowLocal, click here.

Fruit & Pistachio Holiday Agave Cake

2 Granny Smith apples (chopped fine)
1 T Lemon juice
2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 t cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 c veg oil
1 c Agave Nectar
3/4 c dried cranberries
3/4 c pistachios (coarsely chopped)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 11-cup Bundt Pan.

Toss apples, lemon juice in one bowl.
In another bowl, combine dry ingredients:  flour, soda, powder, salt & cinnamon.
In mixer, beat eggs with oil and Agave until well blended and smooth.  Slowly beat in dry ingredients. Stire in apples, cranberries & nuts.
Bake 45-50 min, or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
Allow cake to cool in pan for 15 minutes before transferring to cake plate.
Serve with Agave Cream Cheese Cinnamon Glaze.

Agave Cream Cheese Cinnamon Glaze

1 (8-oz. pkg.) cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Agave Nectar

In medium bowl, combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla and cinnamon. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Add agave nectar, blending until fully incorporated. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until ready to use, up to 1 week.
Drizzle glaze over top of cake just before serving.

Yotam Ottolenghi Cucumber Summer Salad

The pickling and slicing cucumber starts from Harlequin’s Gardens are now producing a bounty of cucumbers in community gardens! This salad is easy to make and great for a hot summer day!

INGREDIENTS
 2 large cucumbers, quartered lengthways
 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
 2 tsp rice-wine vinegar
 3 tbsp lime juice
 3 tsp flaked sea salt
 3 tbsp sunflower oil
 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced on an angle
 ½ tbsp black sesame seeds

FOR THE DRESSING
 1/3C tahini
 2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari, to make the dish gluten-free)
 1½ tbsp mirin
 1½ tbsp rice-wine vinegar

PREPARATION
 Scoop out and discard the seeds from the cucumber quarters, then cut the flesh widthways into chunky pieces. Put the cucumber in a bowl with the garlic, vinegar, lime juice and three teaspoons of flaked sea salt, then mix with your hands, lightly crushing the cucumber pieces as you do so.
 Gently heat the oil in a small saucepan until warm – about two minutes – then pour over the cucumber and leave to marinate on a counter for two hours.
 Whisk all the dressing ingredients and two tablespoons of water until you end up with a very
smooth sauce (it will seize up a bit to start with but persevere and it will come together smoothly).
 Pour the tahini mixture on to a large plate with a lip, so it naturally pools into a circle in the middle.

Drain the cucumbers very well, discarding the liquid, then pile on top of the sauce. Scatter over the sliced spring onion and the sesame seeds and serve at once.

This recipe was adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe which was featured in The Guardian on Red Hill Medical Center’s website, along with a great collection of additional fresh, healthy recipes.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jul/13/yotam-ottolenghi-tomato-cucumber-freekeh-tabbouleh-
summer-salad-recipes

 

Summer Everyday Herbal Tea Blend, by Mitten Lowe

Boulder herbalist and wellness coach Mitten Lowe offers this cooling tea blend. Read more at her website Journey to Wellness.

This is my Summer and late Spring everyday Herbal Blend.

Every time I make it I’m just blown away by how beautiful and delicious it is. My family says that it “tastes amazing” and I was just thinking that I couldn’t agree more.[Read More]

What to do with all the Cherries? Make a Pie!

We’re seeing cherries everywhere we go this summer! There were so many on the trees in the Harlequin’s Wholesale area that our Retail Manager Beth just had to make a pie for our co-workers.

We love the pie she made, and we’re sharing the recipe with you.

[Read More]

Plant Elderberries Now for Medicinal Purposes Later

Harlequin’s has Elderberries to plant now for future berry harvest and syrup making. Black elderberry is a deciduous shrub which is tough, easy to grow, and grows very rapidly. Grow elderberry by planting in early spring or fall, choosing a site with full sun to partial shade and moist, well-draining, slightly acidic soil.

Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) berries, especially the varieties ‘Mikl’s’ and ‘Marge’ are considered the most beneficial species for herbal use.

[Read More]

Homemade Elderberry Syrup

This fall, two of our Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) bushes performed especially well:  ‘Mikl’s’ and ‘Marge’. Black Elder is considered the most beneficial species for herbal use.

We harvested a bounty, and are happy to share our favorite way to use them.

A healthy herbal remedy used for centuries, we love making Elderberry Syrup from berries harvested from the gorgeous elderberry shrubs and trees we can grow right here in Colorado!

This easy-to-make syrup recipe comes from Boulder wellness coach and herbalist Mitten Lowe.[Read More]

Summer Garden Beet Salad Recipe

from Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness

I love beets and beet greens for how grounding and nutritious they are – providing folate, dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, iron, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and more! This wonderful garden beet salad is a perfect way to utilize all parts of the beet plus it’s versatile and so incredibly satisfying.

 

[Read More]

Mixed Herb Chimichurri Recipe

My favorite way to use fresh, home-grown Cilantro and my favorite way to get a concentrated hit of nutrition-packed greens is to make my own version of Chimichurri.

[Read More]

Ollin Farms Springtime Orzo Salad

Late spring, with the blessing of all the rain we’ve had, offers some of the first harvests of the season. Asparagus, radish, and crisp, mild Hakurei turnips are showing up in CSA shares and at our farmers’ markets. Why not try this springtime salad recipe  –  the recipe and the vegetables are local, and delicious!

 

 

 

[Read More]

Benefits of the Beautiful Dandelion

Thinking this cheery yellow-flowered plant is a weed? Think again.

First of all, dandelions provide much needed early-season nutrition for the bees. If that wasn’t enough of a reason to let them into your garden,  every part of this plant is good for you. Since ancient times dandelion has been used as a spring tonic. (That’s right, we’re suggesting eating the weeds!).

[Read More]

Warming Herbal Tea Recipe

Herbal Tea

Herbal Teas are some of the best home-grown medicines! This time of year infusions of herbs from Harlequin’s Gardens plants you’ve grown can keep you well, and warm.

[Read More]

Recipes for Health as the Season Changes

Our friend Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness is a fan of bone broth (with actual bones, as well as one that’s vegan) whenever the season changes. What’s more gratifying than taking fresh vegetables and herbs you’ve grown, or bought by supporting our local farmers, and simmering them for a fragrant, nutrient-dense health and spirit builder when the temperatures plummet?

photo courtesy: Garden in the Kitchen

 

[Read More]

Beet and Nettle Herbal Broth

Beet and Nettle Herbal Broth

Beet and Nettle Broth

This mineral-rich, vegan broth offers many of the benefits of traditional bone broth! As we slow down, herbs and plants you grow from Harlequin’s Gardens can nourish you this winter. Many thanks to Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness for the recipe. 

 

[Read More]

A Favorite Basil Pesto Recipe

Sweet Basil

Basil can still be planted this season, and you’ll harvest enough for many recipes. This Pesto Recipe is from Mary Lou Carlson as adapted by Carol Gerlitz (originally in Fine Cooking magazine, June/July 2001)

Yields about 1½ cups

  • 3 cups packed basil leaves (about 6-7 ounces of leaves)
  • ¼ cup ice water
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
  • ½ cup + 2 tbsp. pine nuts
  • ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 3/8 tsp. black pepper
  • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Bring 2 quarts water seasoned with 1 tablespoon salt to a rolling boil. Prepare an ice bath by combining ice and water in a large bowl. (Be sure you freeze a lot of ice cubes ahead of time for this.)

[Read More]