(The water bottles in the back are part of our earthquake supplies. We don't actually regularly drink bottled water.)
I missed posting about our basket last time it came; sorry! But here's what we got yesterday:
-baby garlic <-- This is great! It looks like green onions, but tastes like garlic, just milder. Last time we got it, we used it on eggs. Super-yummy.
-garlic
-parsley
-cilantro
-lettuce: red, romaine, and iceberg
-chard
-beets + beet greens
-carrots
-radishes
-avocado (to Adam's joy)
-tatsoi (I know, I'd never heard of it either)
-celery, with lots of leaves
-tomatoes
-grapfruit
-potatoes
-apples
-pears
-satsumas
-oranges
-lemons
And what are we going to make of it? Well, as usual, the fruit is going to be snacks, as are the radishes, the beets and the carrots, and possibly some of the celery.
Then, we're having:
-mongolian beef (baby garlic & garlic) (and I use ground beef for this, and serve over brown rice)
-taco salad (uses cilantro, lettuce, avocado, tomato)
-chef salad (uses lettuce, parsley, tomato, carrots and celery)
-pasta with sausage and swiss chard (I'm going to stick the chard, the beet greens and the tatsoi in here - we have company the night we're having this, so I'm going to make a big batch)
-Vietnamese Fried Rice from the More With Less cookbook (Uses lettuce, parsley, and whatever else needs to be used up - this is a great use-what-you-have recipe. You can toss any extra veggies or meat you happen to have in here.)
-pork with celery, Greek Style from the Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines (uses LOTS of celery with leaves)
I just realized I made no provision for the potatoes. But potatoes always come in handy, and if nothing else, we'll roast them and have potato oven fries and cheese for lunch some time.
Anyone found any good recipes recently? particularly for greens? I'm still having trouble figuring out what to do with all these greens. And lettuce (hence all the main dish salads this time around).
I'm sure eating all those leaves is good for us. Alllllllll those leaves.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
6 comments:
I use my greens in the Simply in Season's sausage, potato & greens soup, which is so much like the olive garden zuppa toscana... now if I could only pull off the salad and bread sticks, too!
I'm having the same trouble - so many greens! I know they're good for us, but there are so many! And I've just never cooked with them before, so it is taking a lot more thought.
Btw, I found a couple of uses for kale (from my last box). I put some into a broth based Chinese soup (potstickers, carrots, kale, and broth, basically) and I also discovered that you can put quite a lot into spaghetti sauce if you chop it up. The kids LOVED it.
Mmm. I have a sausage and potato and greens soup recipe - I wonder if it's at all similar. Good thing it's still chilly enough for soups!
And, Emily, thanks for reminding me about your potsticker soup idea. That sounds really good. I wonder if you could stick greens in a sort of egg drop soup?
As a survivor of one CSA season I can definitely attest to the abundance of greens in some baskets! I'm sure at this time of year they are particularly common. I'm so looking forward to our CSA starting up again sometime this month.
Here are some things I've found that are successful:
Cooking the greens separately and adding them to the dish at hand - sometimes chopped very finely, sometimes in larger chunks. They can be added to all sorts of things this way - spaghetti, quiches, fritattas, rice/bean (or lentil) dishes, potato/egg/misc veggie scrambles, other pasta dishes, etc. The kids tend to do very well with them this way.
We particularly like the fusilli, sausage and greens recipe from the Alice Water's Art of Simple Cooking cookbook (you should take a look at it from the library if you haven't seen it - it works very well with the whole CSA thing)
If you have just a little bit of greens I sometimes cook them when I'm making dinner then stick them in the fridge to add to scrambled eggs for breakfast. The kids aren't so excited about this, but my husband and I like them - especially with leftover cornbread.
I really like the greens and I'm trying to grow some kale (my favorite, although I like tat-soi a lot too - and no, I hadn't heard of it before our CSA either!) but right now it is in winter hibernation. Good luck with the greens - they are certainly good for you and once you get the hang of them they are tasty and easy to use!
Amber, thank you! That would be a good way to use them. I'm always through other extra veggies in pastas and soups and eggs; it would make sense to cut and cook the greens and have them ready to use the same way. Thanks for the idea!
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