A Midsummer salad with nasturtiums and dandelion pesto pasta

Little acts of self-care

A beautiful midsummer salad can be a self-care ritual. Picking the leaves and flowers, gently cleaning them, then arranging them on a plate with all the other components. All for little ol' me. I am learning about self care from a friend of mine who despite being an incredibly difficult situation, makes time for it every day. She is committed to self care and I hope that in the future I can be too. I have always been the sort of person who stops looking after myself as soon as I'm in crisis. Today, I feel very angry at my father who completely disregards my boundaries, "because he cares" apparently, and it’s caused an interior crisis of sorts (as it always does). For some people, ignoring boundaries is a sign of love. Today, I am saying "no, thank you" to that kind of love. That’s also an act of self-care.

Feeding the soul

Making good food for yourself is one of the most simple ways to practise self-love. At this time of year, I love to pick ingredients from the garden or the woods and create food that nourishes my soul, like this Midsummer salad. You'll find another Midsummer salad recipe in my fourth cookbook, Slavic Kitchen Alchemy, which involves more foraging. The point isn't really the recipe, it's the concept and the attitude. It's about finding those things in your environment that can truly feed you, and learning to let go of the ones that are depleting you, even if they’re more familiar.

A recipe for Midsummer salad with nasturtiums and dandelion pesto pasta

In the recipe down there, I used leftover dandelion pesto pasta from the night before. You make it by blitzing a large handful of young dandelion leaves with 3 garlic cloves (very young, fresh garlic from the garden, if you have strong garlic then skip a clove), a handful of walnuts, plenty of olive oil, a little bit of grated parmesan, and a squeeze of lemon. Season the pesto well, then fry it for a few minutes. I added the cooked emmer wheat pasta to the frying pan with the pesto with a slotted spoon, straight from the pan. Make sure some of the salty water goes in too. We ate that for dinner with some roasted vegetables on the side and the next day, I made this salad. First, we pick the nasturtiums and we not only need to wash them, but also make sure there are no aphids or anything on them. Luckily, nasturtium leaves don't fall apart easily or get soggy (unlike lettuce), so you can clean them under running water, then gently dry them with a clean kitchen towel.

A self-care salad with nasturtiums for the start of summer.

Ingredients

• Handful of nasturtium leaves, cleaned

• 80g dandelion pesto pasta, cold

• 4 radishes, sliced

• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved

• slice of roasted sweet potato, diced

• Virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic salt and white pepper to dress

• To serve: nasturtium flowers

Directions

• Arrange the nasturtium leaves on the plate.

• Mix the pasta with half the radishes and tomatoes, then place it on top of the bed of nasturtiums.

• Throw the sweet potato, the remaining rdishes and cherry tomatoes on top and drizzle with the dressing.

• Serve with flowers on the side.