Zucchini ribbon salad

This was a dish I've wanted to make for a couple of years now and hadn't gotten around to it. But today I wanted a quick salad and didn't feel like cooking much, so it was perfect! This is a great way to use some of that early zucchini, the small ones that are sweet and tender, before they grow into huge monstrosities that you're trying to give away to strangers (those are made into zucchini pancakes, but that's another post).

I used a vegetable peeler to peel 2 small zucchinis into long, thin strips, like fettuccini. I'd read online a suggestion to use a V-slicer or mandolin and tried it briefly; the pieces were too thick and the chunks of zucchini too unwieldy for the slicer.

So, the vegetable peeler it was! The slices are so small and tender, you can eat it raw, tossed with just a little of your favorite vinaigrette. I wanted a bit more bulk, so I cooked a cup of quinoa and sprinkled it on top for protein and more fiber. You can also add chick peas, they'd add even a little more. No, the quinoa is not a local product but I recently stocked up on grains and flours at the Syracuse Real Food Co-op so I had them in the house already. I dressed it with a glug of sunflower oil, splash of lemon juice, chopped fresh herbs from our garden (the ubiquitous mint, oregano and chives), and tomorrow I'll add a few of the last of our garlic scapes (today I'd forgotten we have them). I think the early squash and late scapes are a good combination.

By the way, the sunflower oil was purchased through a local program we have now, CNY Bounty. It's like an online, year-round farmer's market, with free delivery to select locations around CNY (our Y is one of them; they deliver on Thursdays when I work so we save some gas!).