Storage Tips and Recipes
Every week we'll send you snapshots of veggies in your share. You can always find more recipes and storage info on our blog and website.
Greens: The mesclun includes claytonia, kale, shoots, spinach, and cress. The braising greens include sorrel, spinach, kale, and mustard.
Upland Cress: Use cress the same way you would watercress. Left raw, the leaves can be chopped and mixed into a salad, tucked into a sandwich, or tossed over broiled fish as a garnish. Use a food processor to blend a handful of cress with a cup of creme fraiche or sour cream and a few garlic cloves for a zesty side to grilled meats or blend into soups. Store in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer for 1-2 weeks.
Sunchokes: You might know of this plant as a beautiful yellow flower on tall stalks that blooms in summer. The tubrous roots, which appear in your shares, are also edible. Eat with or without the skin, and prepare as you would potatoes: roast, saute, bake, boil, or steam. They can be stored for a few weeks in your fridge.
Beets: We're nearing the end of our beet crop! You have the last of our gold beets or chioggias, an Italian variety, chioggias have alternating white and pink rings of color on the inside. The outside is lighter and more pinkish than traditional red beets. They are smooth and mild tasting. To prevent chioggias from bleeding their color, roast them whole then slice crosswise to show off the beautiful rings. Roasted this way, they make a stunning addition to a salad. Roast and store cooked chioggia beets separately from your red beets to prevent the chioggias from being dyed red.
Recipes
Sunchoke and Potato Gratin
This recipe comes from a blog whose writer first tried sunchokes in their CSA basket. If you're new to them too, this sounds like a great family-friendly way to try them out!
1 garlic clove
10 sunchokes (about golf-ball sized), sliced thin
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
2 shallots, sliced thin
1/4 cup milk
1 cup grated fontina cheese
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9×9 ceramic dish with cooking spray. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut sides onto the dish. Discard garlic.
Layer the potatoes evenly in the dish covering the entire bottom. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Layer the sunchokes evenly covering the potatoes. Sprinkle the sliced shallots on top of the sunchokes – and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Pour milk all over the vegetables. Sprinkle with the fontina cheese.
Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for about 45 minutes. Take the cover off and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Make sure the sunchokes are soft – if not cook a little longer.
Simple Roasted Sunchokes
.5 pound sunchokes, sliced into half-inch rounds
.5 pound potatoes or carrots, sliced into half inch rounds
2 Tablespoons oil
1 TB lemon juice
Sprinkle with dried Rosemary or thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the sunchokes with the oil & lemon juice. Sprinkle with the herbs. Bake in a shallow gratin dish with the herbs for thirty to forty-five minutes or until done. (Pierce them with the tip of a knife. They should be mostly tender but offer some resistance. Don’t let them get mushy.) Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Roasted Beet, Shoot and Sprout Salad
Serve this salad with a slice of the focaccia on the side for a light lunch or dinner, or serve it as an accompaniment for a heartier meal. Serves 4.
1 TB apple cider or white wine vinegar
1 TB minced shallot (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 tsp sweet paprika
pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 TB sunflower or extra virgin olive oil
4 small to medium roasted beets, chopped in 1/2" pieces*
2 cups mixed sunflower and radish shoots
1 cup sprouted beans
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1 TB toasted pine nuts
To make the dressing, combine the first 8 ingredients in a food processor. Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking. Toss together the beets, shoots, and sprouts. Sprinkle with cheese and pine nuts. Drizzle with desired amount of dressing.
Baby Greens with Roasted Carrots and Potatoes
This is a wonderful early spring salad. Note that you may want to separate the beets and potatoes before cooking unless you want pink taters.
For vinaigrette
1/2 tablespoons tarragon white-wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
For salad
2 medium carrots
1 lb small new potatoes (about 1 inch in diameter) or fingerlings (1 to 1 1/2 inches long), scrubbed well
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 bag shoots mesclun mix
1/3 cup fresh basil, chives or other fresh herbs
Whisk together vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Chop potatoes and beets into 1" chunks. Toss beets and potatoes with oil and salt in a small baking pan and roast in lower third of oven, shaking pan occasionally, until veggies are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots to all greens and herbs. Add vinaigrette and toss gently to coat.
Sauteed Onions
This recipe from Martha Stewart will work for either your yellow onions or shallots.
Coarse salt
1 1/2 pounds onions or small shallots, peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
Bring 6 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; add salt. Boil onions until softened, about 4 minutes. Drain, and pat dry. Set aside.
Heat butter and oil in a large saute pan over high heat, stirring to combine, until butter melts. Add onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; add thyme, and season with salt. Cover, and cook until onions are tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve warm.
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