Steam your favorite assortment of seasonal vegetables, then marinate them in extra virgin olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, Spike seasoning, thyme and black garlic.

I love this combo with some fresh mozzarella or Nettle Meadow cheeses (Kunik and Simply Sheep are my new favorites!), ripe tomatoes and good olives. For carnivores, it’s great alongside salami or sausages. It’s also yummy on the plate next to corn or a big roasted potato.

So, what is black garlic? It’s aged, fermented raw garlic, whose flavor will amaze you. Black garlic is sweet and savory, all at the same time, and soft, like dried fruit. Once aged, it keeps at room temp for six months. Eat it, and you get no garlic breath, and black garlic contains double the antioxidants of raw garlic. Who knew?

When I was at the Fancy Food Show in NYC in June, I met the folks from Obis One, the largest organic black garlic artisanal producer in North America. I fell in love with their garlic. Obis One grows their garlic at Obisquahassit, in Blacksburg, VA. It is truly a “Made in the USA” sustainable product!

2 C green and/or yellow beans*,	3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
ends trimmed, cut in 1/2” pieces	4 Tbsp wine vinegar
2 C carrots, cut into ¼” slices	1 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 C cauliflower florets	2 tsp Spike seasoning
2 C small zucchini or summer squash,	¼ C black garlic cloves
cut into ½” slices	chopped parsley as garnish

Wash vegetables and prepare. For carrots, just scrub, don’t peel. We never peel our organic carrots, and you don’t need to peel yours either!

Place vegetables in a skillet, sauté pan or Dutch oven. Just make sure the pot you choose has a lid. Add one inch water, bring it to a boil, cover pot and steam vegetables five minutes. They will be crisp tender.

Drain vegetables (save liquid and drink it yourself). Return vegetables to skillet. Add extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, thyme and Spike seasoning. Stir well. Cover pan and steam vegetables five minutes more.

Remove skillet from heat. Stir in black garlic cloves. Cover pan and let salad sit at room temperature two hours. To serve, garnish with chopped parsley and plate alongside some of the above suggestions!

*I much prefer yellow wax beans to green beans because they maintain color better.