Blackberry Goat Cheese and Pea Shoot Salad

A salad doesn't always mean lettuce.  In fact, this salad happened because I needed to clean out the fridge after a week of recipe development and food styling shoots. Basically "what needs to be used?" was my inspiration. In this case, the blackberries serve as the heartiest component of the salad (and the best beauty food). The pea-shoots give the mix a grassy almost citrus boost while the sweet pea flowers echo the same with another texture. Add crunchy pistachios and creamy salty goat cheese with a squeeze of lemon, and it's a blend of all that is right in the world. 

I can't go on to the recipe without mentioning the blue-green linen in this photograph. My Mom wove that for me this past week! She handed over an entire set after I went to see her for moss and bark from the woods for a photo shoot I was styling...and oddly she already had two big piles of bark going for a natural basket weaving project she had in mind. That sort of coincidence (bark projects?)  just has to be genetic. Growing up in a creative house definitely taught me to look at typical materials differently, but it also gave me a vastly obscure knowledge of traditional crafts my parents do: calligraphy, basket weaving, fiber weaving, using a lathe to carve wood or pewter.... in a weird way I think I grew up in a hipster household before we even knew what that meant. As in "normal kids" went to amusement parks on the weekend...we went to visit my parents' friends who used to be (pick one of each category): former FBI/CIA/Geneticists and then became wood carvers/windsor chair makers/rare African dog breeders. Hipster or not, this spring salad and the cloth it sits on are something I think everyone can get behind. 

Blackberry Pea Shoot Salad

Serves 2

/// Ingredients ///

• 1 cup blackberries
• 1/4 cup pea shoots
• 2 tablespoons sweet pea flowers (note: Not all varieties are edible!!! Source your's carefully!)
• 2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped pistachios 
• squeeze of lemon

/// Directions /// Assemble in a large bowl or two individual bowls, squeeze lemon over top.