Rocket Salad

My Rocket Salad growing in a small container on my patio.

Rocket Apollo is a fast growing salad rocket with large, rounded, tender leaves, and an excellent peppery taste. Rocket Salad is best harvested as young leaves or as “cut and come again” salads.
Easy to grow in containers or flower boxes and can be ready to harvest in 25 days.

The interesting flavor of this Arugula will add spunk to any boring salad. It is spicy, so I add it to milder salad mixes. Roquette Arugula is most often eaten raw in salads but can also be steamed or added raw to many other dishes, and is even good on pizza with goat cheese!

Arugula, when mature, grow to 2 to 3 feet tall, but the leaves are tastiest and less bitter when harvested 2 to 6 inches long. The flowers are white and are also edible. Plant in early spring, 3 to 4 weeks before the last average frost date and plant successive plantings therafter every 3 weeks until first fall frost approaches. Rocket Salad Arugula prefers light, fertile, moist, and well drained soil. In warmer climates, delay planting during the heat of the summer, or keeping containers in a partly shady area during hot summer days has worked for me.

My favorite summer salad combo:

2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls balsamic vinegar
1 tsp grainy mustard
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
4-5 cups baby arugula leaves (or any spicy rocket salad)
cubed roasted beets (about 3 medium)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Feta or Goat cheese

Whisk together the olive oil, mustard and balsamic vinegar in a large bowl. Toss salad ingredients to lightly coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving. When available I also add roasted red peppers, spicy sliced Calamata olives, or sliced radish.