I’ll be honest, I was considering skipping a post altogether after last week. With all of our guests visiting Wednesday through Sunday, I cooked pretty much non-stop with last week’s share and was burnt out by Monday. Burnt out to the point where my meals consisted of leftover See’s peanut brittle for 36 straight hours, which gave me a pencil eraser-sized canker sore and convinced me that I needed to resume eating vegetables again.
So that’s what I did. I attacked Week 3’s CSA box with all of the passion I could muster…
1. Green pepper
2. Tuscan Kale
3. Sugar snap peas
4. Carrots
5. Tarragon
6. Red beets
7. Fresh onions
8. Romaine
9. Summer squash*
10. Radishes
11. Golden beets*
12. English peas
13. Italian Parsley
*not in the box and purchased separately from the farm stand
Starting with some scape and beet green pesto. I made so much of it, that in addition to using it to coat some zucchini noodles for dinner that night, I had enough left over to freeze in an ice cube tray for future soups, stews or pasta sauces. I’ve never done this before, but I can only imagine how excited I’ll be when I uncover my stash in the dead of Winter when I’m needing a dose of Summer the most.
To make the scape and beet green pesto:
Pulse two garlic scapes in a food processor until finely chopped; add a handful of pumpkin seeds (or pine nuts if you prefer), and pulse again until chopped; next, add the greens from two bunches of beets (will nearly fill the processor) and blend until chopped. With the motor running, slowly add a ½ cup of olive oil to the pesto, then ½ cup of Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Note, this makes a ton of pesto, and if not sealed well, the top will darken. Use one part for your meal, and save the rest by freezing the pesto in ice cube molds – if you want to use one down the road for a soup or dressing, just pop and thaw or throw the frozen cube directly into something warm like a soup or stew).
Also included in the mix this week was a blue cheese and tarragon dip, perfect for those perfect sweet carrots that I’ve been receiving each week. I usually make my blue cheese dip with a combination of garlic and thyme, but my new bunch of tarragon was calling my name. The match was perfect.
To make blue cheese dip:
Mix one 6 oz container of Greek yogurt with an equal amount of sour cream. Whisk in the juice of half a lemon, and grate a clove of garlic into the bowl (I find that using a microplane works best here). Stir to blend. Add a cup of crumbled blue cheese, and a ¼ cup of chopped fresh tarragon. Season to taste.
Have you ever heard the recommendation that you should include a rainbow of colors in your diet? I’m fortunate that my CSA box makes that possible every week; sometimes I get too excited and have to eat them altogether.
Sometimes you make so much food for one night that you’re left with a pile of leftovers in your fridge. I know there are people who hate leftovers, but I love them and put out plates of leftovers with freshly-prepared food for a next-day feast. From last week’s box – the roasted carrot quinoa and the red, white & Adirondack blue potato salad. And new for the evening, we had a watermelon & queso blanco salad + some beautiful roasted beets & goat cheese.
To make the beets & goat cheese salad:
Cover the beets in foil and roast at 350 degrees for 60-90 minutes, depending on size. I like to use a combination of colors, in this case, red beets, and golden beets. Cool the beets in their foil, and when ready to handle, slip the skins off. Thickly slice the beets and scatter on a plate. Dress the beets simply with salt & pepper, olive oil, and white balsamic vinegar. Crumble goat cheese over the top. Optional: add some segmented pieces of orange or grapefruit and some torn mint.
One bunch of kale came with my CSA box this week, but knowing that I wanted to make some kale chips, I added a second bunch to the mix. They were scarfed down so quickly that I didn’t have time to snap a picture. I’ll make sure to snap one for a future post. But in case you need a recipe, I rubbed some olive oil into the kale, seasoned with salt and pepper, and roasted them for 20-25 minutes until crispy.
Wondering what other vegetables could be eaten in chip form, I tried my hand with beet chips, which were fabulous. Earthy and sweet, but crispy and salty enough to satisfy my biggest chip craving; I’ll definitely be making these again…
