towards eating the rainbow: carrot salad, black eyed peas in the pod, and green beans with vinaigrette

it's been a good long summer of eating (not exactly so well), and after our last set of visitors left (still missing them) and the dust settled, we realized we had to get back to "greener" eating. you know, as in eating mostly whole non-processed foods-lots of vegetables, grains, fruits, and more vegetables! with this in mind, and all good intentions, i headed to the market where i found locally grown black eyed peas in the pod. love these. my mom used to cook them whole in their pods and serve them with lime as an appetizer the same way she served fresh fava (broad) beans. the (also local) organic green beans were looking so fresh i decided they would have to work with the whole peas in the pod (we started with these) for dinner. i also picked up a big bag of rather large organic carrots since lately i've been really craving carrot salad the way we used to make it in france. preparing dinner was as easy as this:

wash & boil 2-3 cups whole black eyed pea pods in lightly salted water until tender, then drain water, serve peas in a bowl with lime wedges.

{french sytle}carrot salad (4-6 servings)

1. wash and peel 6-8 medium/large carrots (3 cups shredded). grate carrots with a grater or in food processor.

2. add grated carrots to a bowl with a small bunch of chopped flat leaf parsley, sea salt & freshly ground pepper to taste, juice of 1 lemon, 2-3 tbs extra virgin olive oil. simple. tasty. good for you.

 for green beans with vinaigrette (4-6 servings):

bring 4 cups of lightly salted water to a rolling boil, then add cleaned and trimmed green beans, cook until just tender but still green (about 5 minutes). drain and either dip in ice cold water or rinse with cold water (to stop the cooking and retain color). drizzle with this lemon vinaigrette and fresh chopped parsley. serve at room temperature. 

eat the rainbow: fruits & vegetables of all shades and colors 

*photo courtesy of occupy monsanto fb page*