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.
Mesclun: The greens mix this week includes a wide diversity of greens: claytonia, arugula, mizuna, upland cress, and baby brassica mix. The greens are pre-washed and ready to eat. Unopened, this bag will last for at least a week or 10 days. Opened, it will start to deteriorate after a few days.
Spinach: Fancy and Everyday Large shares are receiving a big bag of spinach! Spinach is one of those hardy crops that grows well in slightly cool conditions. We keep the ground heated in our greenhouses but the ambient air temperature is as warm as the greenhouse keeps it! This time of year we have to be careful to keep the doors closed to maintain the warm air and we'll cover the rows as needed. Spinach is delightful when enjoyed fresh and raw or when cooked - as part of a dish or on its own with olive oil and garlic. This spinach is pre-washed and ready to eat. Can't eat it all? Try throwing the bag directly into the freezer, then take out handfuls to crumble into your morning smoothie!
Mizuna bunches: Also known as spider mustard, mizuna is a Japanese mustard green with tender leaves and a pleasant, peppery flavor. You could substitute it, chopped, in a salad calling for arugula. It adds a nice zest to a stir-fry or saute too. Store mizuna, unwashed, loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in your crisper drawer.
Brassica bunches: The brassica bunch in your Standard and Large share is a mix of baby red Russian and green kales, mustard greens, and baby pac choi/ tatsoi. You can eat it raw/ fresh as a salad or you can cook it up and mix it into any number of dishes - eggs, pasta, casseroles, soups, or enjoy sauteed with garlic and olive oil, maybe a little miso at the end, for a side dish.
Red Beets: Beets are delicious and packed full of nutrients. They may be eaten cooked or raw. Grated beets make a fabulous addition to salads and slaws. Grate some early in the week and place them in a tupperware and then sprinkle them into salads all week. Roasted beets are extra delicious, roasting carmelizes the sugar in the beets. Cube beets and roast them in the oven with a drizzle of oil at 400F until they are tender and just browning at the edges. If you don't eat them all right away, cool and toss into a container and add these to salads.
Red Cabbage: Though very similar in taste to green cabbage, red can have slightly more pronounced peppery notes. It can be eaten raw - try a slaw- or it can also tolerate longer cooking cycles without becoming too acidic and "stinky." If alkaline ingredients like eggs are present in your pan when cooking red cabbage, it can turn blue on you (red cabbage works great to color Easter eggs - see
this past newsletter for ideas on that). To stop this from happening, add a bit of acid to the pan in the form of lemon juice, vinegar or wine. Classic braising red cabbage preparations often call for adding a little red wine, cider vinegar or both to the pan during cooking. Apples also make a perfect match with red cabbage. Cabbage can be stored loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for weeks. If the outer leaves wilt or turn spotted, just remove them and use the good leaves below. Once cut, keep the remaining cabbage in a sealed plastic bag in the crisper drawer.
Frozen Roasted Red Peppers: Frozen roasted peppers are in the Large & Fancy shares this week. These are whole peppers that have been washed and then roasted in a barrel flamer, cooled, bagged and frozen. We use a mix of Anaheim and Sweet Italian peppers, which have a little heat that is complemented by the roasted flavor. After thawing, remove seeds and toss them in a pan if you want to each them warmed up. These are great on burgers, in Mexican dishes, or in pasta recipes.
Featured Recipes
Beet and Mizuna Salad
This is a simple yummy salad. It calls for steaming beets, but you could boil til tender, or (my favorite), cut into 1/2 to 1" pieces and broil them. And way you make it, it will be delicious. Adapted from epicurious.com
1 small bunch mizuna (or brassica mix)
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled (optional)
Discard course stems from mizuna, then wash greens well and dry.
Whisk together vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste, and whisk in oil until emulsified. Pour half of the vinaigrette over the beets and toss well. With the remaining vinaigrette, drizzle enough over mizuna to lightly coat, and toss well. Arrange mizuna and beets on two plates. Sprinkle walnuts on top and, if desired, add goat cheese and serve.
Mizuna & Apple Salad with Warm Cheese
1 bunch Mizuna, washed and dried
.75 mesclun mix
2 Red Delicious Apples
½ round of soft Cheese, cut into 6 even slices
Apple Cider Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Cut the cheese and let sit at room temperature while doing the rest of the preparation. Core apples and slice into thin rounds. Stack the rounds and cut into matchsticks. In a bowl, toss the mesclun, mizuna and apples. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the vinaigrette on the greens lightly, just enough to barely coat them. Form greens and apples into a nice mound on the plate and lay three pieces of cheese against the greens. Drizzle some more vinaigrette around the plate making sure the cheese gets some too.
Apple Cider Vinaigrette
½ cup cider vinegar
.5 cups neutral oil, such as grape seed or olive
2 tsp. mustard
Salt & pepper
Place ingredients in bowl and whisk. You do not want to emulsify this dressing, as it will be too thick. When you go to use it, just whisk again until ingredients come together.
Simple Roasted Beets
If you don't really know what to do with beets, try roasting them. It intensifies the sweetness in the beets until they are nearly irresistable.
Scrub beets and cut off stem and root ends. Chop into 1/2 to 3/4 inch dice. Spread beets one layer deep in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and give a good stir til all are coated. Then put in 400°F oven til they are tender and look a bit roasted. Probably 20-30 minutes. Then remove from oven and serve hot, or let cool, put in container and save for uses cold.
Spicy Brassica Salad with Roasted Beets & Apples
When Pete told me what greens he was harvesting and what the rest of the vegetables were, this is the salad that came to mind.
Baby brassica mix
Tart apples sliced thin, or grated
Roasted Beets
Red onions, cippolini onions, or shallots sliced thin
Walnuts (toasted slightly first)
Mix greens, sliced or grated apples and roasted beets in a bowl. Dress with dressing and serve with a sprinkling of toasted walnuts on top. Add crumbled feta or goat cheese for an extra panache.
Braised Winter Greens w/ Garlic and Balsamic Vinegar
From the Rebar Modern Food Cookbook by Audrey Austerberg and Wanda Urbanowicz.
1 large bunch 0f Greens
1 TB olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp red chile flakes
1 TB balsamic vinegar
cracked pepper to taste
Stem and wash the greens. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add oil, then garlic and stir until lightly golden. Add the chiles and greens. Toss with tongs, sprinkle with salt, and cover to allow volume to steam down. Uncover and continue to toss on high heat until greens are wilted. Add vinegar. Remove greens from pan. Return pan to burner. Reduce any remaining juices and drizzle over greens. Crack pepper over the top and serve immediately.
Serves 2
Roasted Vegetables with Shallots & Apple Cider Reduction
Recipe from DriftlessOrganics.com
1 quart pure apple cider
6 cups mixed root vegetables of choice (parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, celeriac, carrots, etc.) cut into uniform sizes/shapes of choice – long strips, wedges, cubes, etc.
3 Tbsp. olive/sunflower oil
Salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbsp. fresh or 1 tsp. dried thyme
½ c. shallots, diced
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bring apple cider to a boil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat. Lower heat to maintain a rapid simmer & cook until reduced to about ¼ the original volume, stirring occasionally (should take 20-30 minutes – be careful not to take it too far & burn it). Keep warm.
Meanwhile, toss prepared vegetables in oil to coat & spread in a single layer onto a rimmed baking sheet.
Roast, turning occasionally, until just starting to brown but still au dente, about 20-30 minutes (if you have convection, use it – but lower cooking times).
Remove from oven & sprinkle with salt & pepper & thyme, stir in shallots, & roast for another 10-15 minutes, until veggies are getting softer & golden browned.
Toss with apple cider reduction & serve.
Spinach with Chickpeas
This is a spanish recipe (espinaca con garbanzos) from Smitten Kitchen. It is hearty and smoky with a little kick, something you might find at a tapas bar in Spain, and yet are so glad to find you can recreate at home.
1 15-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound (450 grams) spinach, washed (note: Large Shares have 1/2 pound, Fancy shares have 3/4 pound)
A slice of country loaf or sandwich loaf bread, crusts removed and cut inset small cubes
1/4 cup tomato sauce
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch of red pepper flakes
3/4 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon juice, to taste
Place a large saucepan over medium heat and add half the olive oil. When it is hot, add the spinach with a pinch of salt (in batches, if necessary) and stir well. Remove when the leaves are just tender, drain in a colander and set aside.
Heat 2 more tablespoons olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry the bread for about 5 minutes or until golden brown all over, then the remaining tablespoon of oil and the garlic, cumin and pepper. Cook for 1 minute more or until the garlic is nutty brown.
Transfer to a food processor, blender or mortar and pestle along with the vinegar, and mash to a paste. Return the mixture to the pan and add the drained chickpeas and tomato sauce. Stir until the chickpeas have absorbed the flavors and are hot. Season with salt and pepper.
If the consistency is a little thick, add some water. Add the spinach and cook until it is hot. Check for seasoning and serve with paprika on top, or on fried bread toasts.
Indian Cabbage and Carrot Salad
An oldy but goody recipe from the Good Eats archives, this is an easy to prepare dish that is perfect to serve on top of greens for a dinner salad or add to hot sandwiches as an Indian Slaw or eat as is. Adapted from the Lite and Luscious Cuisine of India cookbook, by Madhu Gadia.
4 c cabbage, thinly sliced
1 c carrots, scrubbed and grated
1 tsp sunflower oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Heat oil in a heavy skillet on high heat. Add mustard seeds, cover with a lid to avoid splattering. Cook for a few seconds until the mustard seeds stop popping. Add the cabbage and carrots and then the turmeric, salt and pepper. Stir to mix. Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes, until heated through. Do not overcook - the cabbage should be just barely cooked. Transfer to a serving platter immediately.
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