I found myself with an overabundance of cucumbers both from the CSA and the generousness of a coworker. One good thing to do with too many cucumbers is to peel them and add them to fruit smoothies. They add a nice cool refreshing taste without detracting from the fruit. This is another thing:
Peel and chop cucumber
drizzle with fish sauce (start with a little and add more later - it's easy to overdo it with the fish sauce)
drizzle with rice vinegar
add some lime juice if you have it
shake on some crushed red pepper
add chopped thai basil
add a little salt but not much due to the fish sauce
toss all together
taste and adjust ingredients
sprinkle on some chopped peanuts right before serving
Showing posts with label CSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSA. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Green Bean Tabouleh
I'm a little behind on green beans from the CSA and I just got another pound this morning! Time for action! I also had a bunch of parsley so I thought: Tabouleh. Because what else can you possibly think when you look at parsley besides: garnish?
First I poured boiling water over 1C of Bulgur for about 15 minutes
Then I sliced about a pound of green beans into small Os and microwaved them in a bowl with a little water in the bottom for three minutes.
In the food processor, I pulsed 1/2C raw almonds into small pieces and toasted in a dry skillet.
Also in the food processor, I mixed up a small bunch of flat leaf parsley (about the size of my open hand) with 2 cloves of garlic. To this I added the juice of 1 lemon, 1/8C olive oil and 1/2t salt. (possibly more of these last two ingredients, but at least that. I didn't realize it would be good enough to post so I was using the freepour method!)
The result is SO tasty!
So much that I would even go as far as to say that the nuts are optional. If you do use them and don't plan on eating the salad immediately, store them separately and add with each serving so they keep their crisp.
Per 1C serving w/nuts:
Calories: 223, Fat: 11g, Protein 7g
w/o nuts:
Calories 153, Fat: 5g, Protein 5g
First I poured boiling water over 1C of Bulgur for about 15 minutes
Then I sliced about a pound of green beans into small Os and microwaved them in a bowl with a little water in the bottom for three minutes.
In the food processor, I pulsed 1/2C raw almonds into small pieces and toasted in a dry skillet.
Also in the food processor, I mixed up a small bunch of flat leaf parsley (about the size of my open hand) with 2 cloves of garlic. To this I added the juice of 1 lemon, 1/8C olive oil and 1/2t salt. (possibly more of these last two ingredients, but at least that. I didn't realize it would be good enough to post so I was using the freepour method!)
The result is SO tasty!
So much that I would even go as far as to say that the nuts are optional. If you do use them and don't plan on eating the salad immediately, store them separately and add with each serving so they keep their crisp.
Per 1C serving w/nuts:
Calories: 223, Fat: 11g, Protein 7g
w/o nuts:
Calories 153, Fat: 5g, Protein 5g
Sunday, August 19, 2007
CSA week 10
During week nine I forfeited the entire share to my mom as I was in lovely Vancouver, BC. So for week ten, I got the entire share. I wish I'd remembered to take a photo - it was a shocking and somewhat threatening bounty. I've been cooking in a panicked frenzy all week but I've finally managed to make all of it except one jalapeno that got lost underneath the beet greens, into dishes. Admittedly many of them have been mediocre, but even those are important learning experiences and all of them were perfectly edible.
My original inventory consisted of 1 giant freaking head of cabbage, 3 peaches, 8 or so new potatoes, 2 pasilla peppers, 1 banana pepper, 2 jalapenos, 1 cuke, 5 summer squash, basil, 5 or so tomatoes, 5 ears of corn, 5 beets, and a giant head of lettuce.
Do you kind of see what I mean by threatening?
My first big cooking day I used the beets and 1/4 of the Giant Head of Cabbage to make borscht and the other 1/4 GHoC, half the potatoes and one jalapeno to make a spicy cabbage soup. Both were pretty good and I ended up pureeing both of them. I can't seem to stop myself from putting a perfectly good soup in the blender. Maybe I miss baby food or something. But I also thought they might freeze better that way, and some of this food was going to have to be frozen.
So now the borscht looks like a strawberry daiquiri and the spicy cabbage looks exactly like baby food - yay!
Next up: Caprese salad for me which was to DIE for. I am speechless over how good those fresh tomatoes were. And fresh mozzerella was on sale at the store - hooray!
And a salad for Dag that is sort of Caprese but with cucumbers added and all cut up into chunks like a greek salad we had in Vancouver that he really loved.
Then yesterday I made a spicy corn chowder using all the corn and the peppers. I substituted 2% evaporated milk for the heavy cream and it worked just fine - I think I like that trick. The recipe called for just the yellow banana peppers but I threw in the pasillas because what the heck else was I going to do with them so it came out very green and yeah, a lot like baby food. It tastes fine though, I swear. It also went to the freezer.
Today I made zucchini fritters, which were OK but I'm not really willing to cook with enough oil to make them come out all crispy like they're supposed to. So they were kind of floppy but stil tasted good.
Then the 3rd 4th of Giant Head of Cabbage became stir fried with garlic and white balsamic vinegar with toasted walnuts.
The final 4th of GHoC became a low-fat non-mayo slaw which I'm hoping my mom will like. She has an emotional attachment to traditional coleslaw but wants a healthier alternative. This tastes a lot like it to me. If it passes her taste test, I'll come back and post the recipe.
THEN I made a beet green barley risotto using ideas from my new favorite cookbook and an entry from a vegetable blog I have been following. It came out pretty good and I like the pretty red and green colors.
Then, last but not least, almost in tears by this point (kidding), I used another recipe from Super Natural Cooking to use up the potatoes. It is a really cool technique of cutting the potatoes almost all the way through in slits and putting spicy oiled salted garlic into each slit and baking. UMMMM!
Holy moly, I'm really looking forward to my lunches this week!
I am also looking forward to having someone to share the next box with!
My original inventory consisted of 1 giant freaking head of cabbage, 3 peaches, 8 or so new potatoes, 2 pasilla peppers, 1 banana pepper, 2 jalapenos, 1 cuke, 5 summer squash, basil, 5 or so tomatoes, 5 ears of corn, 5 beets, and a giant head of lettuce.
Do you kind of see what I mean by threatening?
My first big cooking day I used the beets and 1/4 of the Giant Head of Cabbage to make borscht and the other 1/4 GHoC, half the potatoes and one jalapeno to make a spicy cabbage soup. Both were pretty good and I ended up pureeing both of them. I can't seem to stop myself from putting a perfectly good soup in the blender. Maybe I miss baby food or something. But I also thought they might freeze better that way, and some of this food was going to have to be frozen.
So now the borscht looks like a strawberry daiquiri and the spicy cabbage looks exactly like baby food - yay!
Next up: Caprese salad for me which was to DIE for. I am speechless over how good those fresh tomatoes were. And fresh mozzerella was on sale at the store - hooray!
And a salad for Dag that is sort of Caprese but with cucumbers added and all cut up into chunks like a greek salad we had in Vancouver that he really loved.
Then yesterday I made a spicy corn chowder using all the corn and the peppers. I substituted 2% evaporated milk for the heavy cream and it worked just fine - I think I like that trick. The recipe called for just the yellow banana peppers but I threw in the pasillas because what the heck else was I going to do with them so it came out very green and yeah, a lot like baby food. It tastes fine though, I swear. It also went to the freezer.
Today I made zucchini fritters, which were OK but I'm not really willing to cook with enough oil to make them come out all crispy like they're supposed to. So they were kind of floppy but stil tasted good.
Then the 3rd 4th of Giant Head of Cabbage became stir fried with garlic and white balsamic vinegar with toasted walnuts.
The final 4th of GHoC became a low-fat non-mayo slaw which I'm hoping my mom will like. She has an emotional attachment to traditional coleslaw but wants a healthier alternative. This tastes a lot like it to me. If it passes her taste test, I'll come back and post the recipe.
THEN I made a beet green barley risotto using ideas from my new favorite cookbook and an entry from a vegetable blog I have been following. It came out pretty good and I like the pretty red and green colors.
Then, last but not least, almost in tears by this point (kidding), I used another recipe from Super Natural Cooking to use up the potatoes. It is a really cool technique of cutting the potatoes almost all the way through in slits and putting spicy oiled salted garlic into each slit and baking. UMMMM!
Holy moly, I'm really looking forward to my lunches this week!
I am also looking forward to having someone to share the next box with!
CSA Week 7
I received my half of week seven's CSA box two days before departing the country for a week's long vacation. So my goal was to use all the vegetables I could in a giant batch of vegetarian enchiladas - half for the freezer and half for my sister to eat while she took care of the cats.
Check out these gorgeous carrots!
Here are the enchiladas!
I really did just saute all of the veggies together and layer them with a can each of black beans and corn over and under corn tortillas (much faster and easier than rolling them up!) with some red sauce, which I believe I made from scratch although I can't rightly remember how I did that now, cheese and olives. They came out really good! I can tell because they were all gone when I got home!
That melon you see in the first photo was unbelievable. If it were any juicier, it would have been, well, juice. That went right into my smoothies and half into the freezer for future smoothies.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
CSA Week 6
Sorry this has kind of become the Leslie Show, but I've become so excited about food lately!
Here is my half of the veggies this week.
The warm weather we've been having has either been making more harvestables or mom is giving me more than half because this is the most I've seen yet! I have to admit it panicked me just a little. Then after work on Friday, I went back out to Sauvie Island Farms with Jen and another friend to pick more berries plus peaches! And now that I have seen how inexpensive it can be, I went a little nuts and picked 5lb of blueberries, 2.5lb each of marionberries and raspberries and a grocery bag full of peaches.
So I spent all day in the kitchen today peeling and freezing peaches (on a pan first so they won't stick together when they go in the bag) and cooking most of the vegetables into a yummy Indian style dish in the crock pot. I would have done all of them but my crock pot isn't that large.
I know what you're thinking: "what were you doing in the kitchen all day after you got done with the peaches, staring at the crock pot?" Well, of course, I was inspired to make Dal and Saag Paneer to go along with the vegetables.
It all turned out just great despite having dumped most of the curry for the Saag Paneer on the floor and having to use some other spices instead - I am so pleased!
But also, I made a giant batch of my mom's granola from the 70s for my BF, who has been very generous with his car lately even though I run into yard debris containers and lose the plastic backing to his side mirror and stuff. And while I'm out being so careless with his posessions, he is coming over and feeding my cats for me. So I think he at least deserves some homemade granola.
I had a bowl and it tasted just like my mom used to make. It is so good - here is the recipe:
Granola (from the Whole Earth Catalog)
Mix:
4C rolled oats
1/2 C shredded unsweeteend coconut (mom & I omit this)
1C wheat germ
1C chopped nuts (I used cashews)
1C sunflower seeds
1/2C flax seeds
1/2C bran (didn't use it)
1C ground roasted soybeans (mom & I omit this)
1/2C sesame seeds
1C pumpkin seeds (my addition)
1/2C rice cereal (my addition - found it at whole foods - looks like little brown BBs and adds a wonderful little rice krispy style crunch)
Heat: (oops, just now realized I forgot to heat it)
1/2C oil (I used 1/4 C)
1/2C honey (I used 3/4C agave nectar)
1/2t vanilla (I was out)
Combine two mixtures. Spread on cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 325 about 15 min until light brown. Turn frequently.
I ended up baking it longer because it seemed a little wet while I was turning it. But once it's been out of the oven for a while that goes away, even if you really only bake it for 15 minutes - I practiced on the second batch.
Here is my half of the veggies this week.
The warm weather we've been having has either been making more harvestables or mom is giving me more than half because this is the most I've seen yet! I have to admit it panicked me just a little. Then after work on Friday, I went back out to Sauvie Island Farms with Jen and another friend to pick more berries plus peaches! And now that I have seen how inexpensive it can be, I went a little nuts and picked 5lb of blueberries, 2.5lb each of marionberries and raspberries and a grocery bag full of peaches.
So I spent all day in the kitchen today peeling and freezing peaches (on a pan first so they won't stick together when they go in the bag) and cooking most of the vegetables into a yummy Indian style dish in the crock pot. I would have done all of them but my crock pot isn't that large.
I know what you're thinking: "what were you doing in the kitchen all day after you got done with the peaches, staring at the crock pot?" Well, of course, I was inspired to make Dal and Saag Paneer to go along with the vegetables.
It all turned out just great despite having dumped most of the curry for the Saag Paneer on the floor and having to use some other spices instead - I am so pleased!
But also, I made a giant batch of my mom's granola from the 70s for my BF, who has been very generous with his car lately even though I run into yard debris containers and lose the plastic backing to his side mirror and stuff. And while I'm out being so careless with his posessions, he is coming over and feeding my cats for me. So I think he at least deserves some homemade granola.
I had a bowl and it tasted just like my mom used to make. It is so good - here is the recipe:
Granola (from the Whole Earth Catalog)
Mix:
4C rolled oats
1/2 C shredded unsweeteend coconut (mom & I omit this)
1C wheat germ
1C chopped nuts (I used cashews)
1C sunflower seeds
1/2C flax seeds
1/2C bran (didn't use it)
1C ground roasted soybeans (mom & I omit this)
1/2C sesame seeds
1C pumpkin seeds (my addition)
1/2C rice cereal (my addition - found it at whole foods - looks like little brown BBs and adds a wonderful little rice krispy style crunch)
Heat: (oops, just now realized I forgot to heat it)
1/2C oil (I used 1/4 C)
1/2C honey (I used 3/4C agave nectar)
1/2t vanilla (I was out)
Combine two mixtures. Spread on cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 325 about 15 min until light brown. Turn frequently.
I ended up baking it longer because it seemed a little wet while I was turning it. But once it's been out of the oven for a while that goes away, even if you really only bake it for 15 minutes - I practiced on the second batch.
Monday, July 16, 2007
CSA Week 5
I made the trek out to Forest Grove to pick up the veggies from my mom this week. Here's a photo of most of the haul:
Broccoli, 2 kinds of squash, onions, blackberries and blueberries (unbelievable head of lettuce not pictured)
I pretty much put everything together into a giant stiry fry very loosely based on another of Heidi Swanson's recipes from her beautiful book, Super Natural Cooking, which I am deeply in love with. I may have mentioned this before.
But when it came time to add the hoisin sauce, I just couldn't. So I didn't. And it turned out that the fresh mint and basil from my mom's backyard, the ginger, garlic and red pepper provided plenty of flavor and I could still taste the veggies (I find hoisin a little overpowering in vegetarian dishes).
I tried serving it with this tofu noodle thing I found at the store, which as it turns out is pretty much devoid of nutritional value but I liked the texture and taste anyway.
So far I've noticed:
The amounts have been good for two people except last week I needed help with all the lettuce because some of it did go bad the week before but probably because I accidentally bought spinach, forgetting I had lettuce coming.
There are little green worms etc. Today I threw a couple of those out my window on a piece of broccoli into the courtyard. I don't know if they can eat the plants out there but at least they have a better chance of survival than in my garbage disposal. I wonder if any of my neighbors noticed. Hee.
Broccoli, 2 kinds of squash, onions, blackberries and blueberries (unbelievable head of lettuce not pictured)
I pretty much put everything together into a giant stiry fry very loosely based on another of Heidi Swanson's recipes from her beautiful book, Super Natural Cooking, which I am deeply in love with. I may have mentioned this before.
But when it came time to add the hoisin sauce, I just couldn't. So I didn't. And it turned out that the fresh mint and basil from my mom's backyard, the ginger, garlic and red pepper provided plenty of flavor and I could still taste the veggies (I find hoisin a little overpowering in vegetarian dishes).
I tried serving it with this tofu noodle thing I found at the store, which as it turns out is pretty much devoid of nutritional value but I liked the texture and taste anyway.
So far I've noticed:
The amounts have been good for two people except last week I needed help with all the lettuce because some of it did go bad the week before but probably because I accidentally bought spinach, forgetting I had lettuce coming.
There are little green worms etc. Today I threw a couple of those out my window on a piece of broccoli into the courtyard. I don't know if they can eat the plants out there but at least they have a better chance of survival than in my garbage disposal. I wonder if any of my neighbors noticed. Hee.
CSA Week 4
In week 4 mom and I met halfway at Whole Foods and sat for an hour talking and eating the Bing Cherries we got in the box. Well, mom ate half of one cherry and threw it back in the bag because she wasn't really hungry after her WF Spanikopita. I, however, ate half the bag sitting there and the other half once I got home.
I used part of the yellow squash to make a spicy chipotle frittata with spinach
I'm also excited to be using my iron skillet.
Since mom kept the kohlrabi she gave me all the squash. She likes the idea of one person keeping all of one veggie and I am more of the "split everything" camp. I just want to have a taste of everything, even if it's only a little. She'd rather maximize possibilities for each item, which I totally get.
(Jen, how did you feel about quotes in the above context? Unnecessary? OK?)
So I chopped the rest of the squash in with some roasted red pepper, cannelini beans and basil I'd preserved in olive oil.
To this, I added tuna fish and dumped it all over some of the lovely Red Tide lettuce we got in the box. Delish.
The blueberries were, of course, smoothie stuff.
I used part of the yellow squash to make a spicy chipotle frittata with spinach
I'm also excited to be using my iron skillet.
Since mom kept the kohlrabi she gave me all the squash. She likes the idea of one person keeping all of one veggie and I am more of the "split everything" camp. I just want to have a taste of everything, even if it's only a little. She'd rather maximize possibilities for each item, which I totally get.
(Jen, how did you feel about quotes in the above context? Unnecessary? OK?)
So I chopped the rest of the squash in with some roasted red pepper, cannelini beans and basil I'd preserved in olive oil.
To this, I added tuna fish and dumped it all over some of the lovely Red Tide lettuce we got in the box. Delish.
The blueberries were, of course, smoothie stuff.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
CSA week 3
During week 2, I was out of town so my mom got the whole haul. For week 3, I took the summer squash and broccoli and roasted it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with my mom's neighbor's onions then ate every day for lunch over the beautiful lettuce from the box with some cotija cheese. While I was out at my mom's, she also gave me some mint from her yard which I chopped in the cuisinart and froze in ice cubes. I pop one of these into my smoothie in the morning with some CSA rhubarb and frozen blueberries from last year that my mom gave me when I was out there. I think, honestly, that I got more from my mom this time than from the CSA! She also gave me some cilantro and basil from her yard, which perked right up when I put them in a jar of water in the fridge. The basil made its way into my salads and the cilantro made an appearance in my second attempt at the skinny omelettes in this post from the lovely 101 Cookbooks blog by Heidi Swanson. The filling is inspired by the demi-vegan crepe at Le Happy down the street - it has tofu, peanut sauce, fermented black beans and cilantro. Mine had all that except farro instead of tofu since that's what was in my fridge.
Again, I ate the snowpeas raw and did the same with one of the Kohlrabi. The other, I sauteed in olive oil with some crushed red peppers and mixed in with a salty-sweet tempeh and spinach over farro.
See how beautifully the kohlrabi is chopped up? I bought myself a Mandolin at Goodwill last week. Every time I've tried to use it I think "how could such a dangerous device be sold to the general public?" and even while thinking this thought, sliced my finger a little bit. After a bit of research, I discovered that these things are originally sold with some kind of finger guard - ahhhhh! So I'll have to work on that - I guess I could just use a towel or something to push the vegetable instead of my bare hands. Frankly, a chain mail glove seems the most sensible choice - this thing is sharp and it works so quickly you don't even realize how close it's getting to your fingers until - whoops!
What have you all been doing in week 3?
Again, I ate the snowpeas raw and did the same with one of the Kohlrabi. The other, I sauteed in olive oil with some crushed red peppers and mixed in with a salty-sweet tempeh and spinach over farro.
See how beautifully the kohlrabi is chopped up? I bought myself a Mandolin at Goodwill last week. Every time I've tried to use it I think "how could such a dangerous device be sold to the general public?" and even while thinking this thought, sliced my finger a little bit. After a bit of research, I discovered that these things are originally sold with some kind of finger guard - ahhhhh! So I'll have to work on that - I guess I could just use a towel or something to push the vegetable instead of my bare hands. Frankly, a chain mail glove seems the most sensible choice - this thing is sharp and it works so quickly you don't even realize how close it's getting to your fingers until - whoops!
What have you all been doing in week 3?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
CSA Veggies/Strawberry Rhubarb Smothie
First haul! Woo and HOO! This is all of everything except only half the strawberries since my mom left hers at home but brought the rest over so we could split it up together. Since I'm going on a business trip next week and don't think I'll get around to too much cooking, I'm going to eat the favas and snowpeas raw. The bok choy will be a stir fry with tempeh and the strawberries are obviously smoothie stuff. I had trouble with what to do with the rhubarb since I'm not so into the sugar. I chopped it up and threw a small handfull into my strawberry smoothie this morning and it was so good! Not bitter at all!
Approximate ingredients
1/2c rice milk
1/4c strawberries
1/8c rhubarb
1T soaked raw sunflower seeds
2T nutritional yeast
1/2c water
Monday, June 04, 2007
Farm
Four out of five contributors to this blog are members of this farm's CSA program. We are all first-timers. Today we all went out for open farm day and I think I speak for us all when I say:
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!
On the hayride around the farm, every time they pointed out something else that we'd be getting in our first box next week, Jen would turn and look at me or Bec would squeal just a little bit and I would go YAY!! inside my head.
This is going to be so much fun!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!
On the hayride around the farm, every time they pointed out something else that we'd be getting in our first box next week, Jen would turn and look at me or Bec would squeal just a little bit and I would go YAY!! inside my head.
This is going to be so much fun!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
CSA
This year I've decided to purchase a CSA share. I'm growing more and more interested in fresh, sustainable, local, organic etc and think this is just a fantastic way of doing my part AND having to go to the store less AND bonding with my mom more often since we're going to share the share. I picked a farm near her house so she'll go pick it up every Tuesday and then at some point I'll take the Max out to Hillsboro and she'll meet me with my half. I'm seeing myself making lots of freezable soups and stuff since I assume it'll be way more food than I can eat in a week. Then in winter when the deliveries stop, I can continue to enjoy. Look at some of the great things that will be included each week! I'm SO excited!
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