Welcome to another Cookbook of the Week post. So far, I’ve been pretty good with keeping up with my vow of highlighting a cookbook from my collection each week.
This week, I present Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden by Jeanne Kelley.
It’s a beautiful book full of healthy and appetizing recipes. I had the occasion to meet Kelley during my brief and anticlimactic appearance at a Cooking Light cook-off in 2009. You can read more about that Birmingham trip and the recipe here. After the trip and meeting Kelley, I ordered her cookbook. 
I’ve made a few recipes, but the most recent one was a riff on a carrot salad. We had company here for lunch and I needed something quick and easy with ingredients I had on hand. (I certainly wasn’t running back to the grocery store with the hoarders!)
Carrot Salad with Olives
Quick to make and pretty adaptable.
Ingredients
- 2 T. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 T. white vinegar
- 1 t. grated orange zest
- 2 t. ground coriander
- 1 t. ground cumin
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 lb. carrots
- 1 c. mixed herbed olives
- 1/2 c. sliced green onions
- 2 T. chopped Italian parsley
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Whisk together vinaigrette ingredients. Set aside.
- Peel carrots and slice on the diagonal into 1/4″ slices.
- Place a medium sauce pan full of water on the stove. Add a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Add carrots and cook for 8 minutes until just tender. Remove and drain well.
- Toss carrots and vinaigrette together and set aside to cool.
- Before serving, toss in olives, green onions and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.
Yield: 4
Kelley’s recipe calls for lemon juice but I subbed in a white vinegar infused with chive flowers (a homemade gift from my sister). She also calls for French green olives. Again, I used what I had on hand which was a partial jar of herbed olives.
This book was written during the locavore trend so there’s a lot of emphasis on the home garden. I found it refreshing to revisit this outlook. Kelley outlines a well-stocked pantry, essential equipment and baking pans and dishes needed. 
There’s also a brief primer on starting a backyard flock (for blue eggs) and designing an edible garden (for yellow tomatoes).
The recipes use simple and good ingredients. Kelley describes them as “keepers” and I concur. You can see from below a couple of recipes from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes that have found their way into our kitchen.
I’m linking up with Novel Food…
and Foodies Read.
Finally, I’m linking up with Deb’s Souper Sundays (and salads). 
Cooked carrot salads with similar spicing often feature on Middle Eastern mezze platters! along with the better-known hummus and baba ganoush. This version sounds good. Besides Middle-Eastern style flavors (like cumin and olives) I’ve also been using Asian condiments like mild fish sauce, Chinese vinegar, and chili-garlic paste in salad dressing, especially on carrots and cabbage.
be well… best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I fondly remember a carrot salad from the 80s that mom loved to make with tomato soup. Weird but it did work. I probably wouldn’t make it today though. Love the ideas you listed.
Simple and so tasty! We don’t eat warm salad often, but this one is definitely a must try because of olives :-))
This is good cold.
This is a salad I would love. The spices really make it. Hoping you are doing well. Trying to work on a post but…I’m easily distracted these days.
Yes. I feel like I need to address the elephant in the room….I am coming up with some interesting combos in the kitchen, though.
Love carrot salads. This would be perfect for Easter.
That is a perfect menu idea, Wendy. Thanks!
This would definitely be a change up from the usual salad I put together, ones with lettuce and the other regulars!
I am trying to remember to use carrots more, whether in a salad or roasting them.
This salad looks delicious–I love the carrot, olive and spice combination. It sounds like a great cookbook too. Thank you for sharing it with Souper Sundays this week.
To make it even easier, I think just plain black sliced olives would be just fine. Thanks for hosting Souper (and salad and sammie) Sundays.
I have never thought to put olives into my carrots. Now I have to try. Thanks for sharing and stay safe!
Thanks, Tandy. You as well!!!!!
I bought a 3 pound bag of carrots a couple weeks ago as that was all that was available. I have a couple varieties of olives in the fridge, too! Will be a great side tonight.
Hope you try it! I think it’s pretty versatile.
I’ve got two bags of carrots as the are a long lasting vegetable for the times we are now dealing with. Love the sound of this salad. The only thing I don’t have would be orange zest but I’ll just use a little orange juice in the dressing. Take care and thank you for the inspiration for the carrots.
Carrots do tend to be long lasting. (I actually had to use mandarin zest in this recipe b/c we didn’t have any oranges. OJ would be a great addition to the dressing.)
What a very interesting salad! I love it! Good recipe to share. Thanks.
Thanks, MJ.
The salad looks great! I don’t think I’ve ever had carrots and olives together: I must try. Thank you for the note explaining the book’s title. And thank you for contributing to Novel Food 🙂
Thanks for hosting Novel Food. Can’t wait for #39!
That carrot salad from your past was called copper pennies and was loaded with sugar. It was good but high in calories.
Mom
Yes, but it was good, wasn’t it? ❤
This salad looks great for sharing with guests – really refreshing I’ll bet
It’s a good one for Easter.