I realized I had a work potluck at the last minute and hadn't prepared anything.

Luckily, with a quick trip to the garden I pulled some unorthodox ingredients together into a sweet and zesty salad.

Ingredients:

garden greens;
nasturtium flowers (or another edible flower);
orzo;
tomatoes;
olive oil;
red wine vinegar;
za'atar seasoning.

Step 1: Gather Greens

When I went out to the garden to gather some greens for a salad, I noticed that my nasturtiums were in gorgeous full bloom!

Nasturtiums are an edible flower that taste peppery, almost like a radish.

I rinsed both the greens and the blossoms and spun them in a salad spinner to remove most of the water.

Step 2: Cook Orzo

I searched through my cupboards for my regular salad addition (quinoa) and couldn't find a grain!

I substituted orzo for a different twist to this salad.

Orzo cooks in about 10 minutes, and then I set it aside to cool.

Step 3: Assemble Salad

After cool, I added the orzo to the garden greens.

I then tossed in some grape tomatoes and about half of the nasturtium blossoms.

Step 4: Dressing and Garnish

I looked through my cupboard for something to make a dressing from and spotted the za'atar. Za'atar is a seasoning made from sumac, thyme, sesame seeds, hyssop, and oregano. The sweeter seasoning is just what I needed to offset the spiciness of the nasturtium flowers.

I quickly mixed up some salad dressing using olive oil, a pinch of the za'atar seasoning, and red wine vinegar. This was an experiment that turned out well! I left the mixture in a small mason jar to mix just before serving.

I garnished my salad with the nasturtiums, and kept it cool in the fridge for my potluck tomorrow. This might become a new go-to salad!