Last week, I did my best to entice you to buy local produce direct from the farmer, either by shopping at a farmers market that is near you or buying a produce box that you pick up or get delivered. Now it’s time to share some suggestions on what you can do with your bounty. I’ll use the box I received as an example of what you may find in season this time of year.
As you can see above, my box had: a large purple cauliflower, a bunch of beets with greens, a bunch of small turnips, radishes, a large yellow onion, spinach, kale, pink radicchio, butter lettuce, coral lettuce aka lollo bianco, carrots, avocado, eggs, blood oranges, green apples, and a giant yellow tomato. What a literal mouthful!
I immediately clean and categorize everything. The bulk of the work is to clean and separate the lettuces, which will be eaten in salads and the greens, which will be cooked. The lettuces get washed, outer leaves pulled off the heads and set aside to be used as greens. I roll them in towels and put them away in the crisper. I trim off the beet, turnip, and radish tops and wash them and store with the washed spinach and the lettuce trimmings. The kale is stored separately from the more tender greens. I always cut the beet stems and keep them separate. Sometimes I’ll chop them up and add them to soup, but usually I braise them in water with olive oil and sliced garlic to eat cold as a treat. I love eating the tender, long, red strips with my fingers.
The first dish I make is always soup. My vegetable soups are simple, chunky, and not drowning in liquid. They’re just a cup to two of liquid away from being a stew. This time I used onion, garlic, celery, and carrot I had from a previous shop as the base, then added half the cauliflower (saving the other half for roasting or blanching to use in salads) and all the trim from the lettuces, cut into strips. They cooked in water with a healthy glug of good olive oil, salt, and pepper. Here’s my template for making minestrone. This time around, I wanted to highlight the fresh vegetables and keep it light, so I didn’t add potato or beans. Instead I added a very small handful of broken-up vermicelli that I first toasted until golden.
A warming bowl of Ukrainian borscht made with beets and meat is a perfect filling dinner for cold weather. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
Then I take the mess of greens (spinach, beet, turnip, and radish tops) and boil them to reduce the volume and cook through only for a minute or two. Then the greens are drained, cooled, and squeezed dry. Now I have cooked greens that will last a while in the fridge. I can then make creamed spinach, which is a fave, or saag with or without paneer, or a chickpea, spinach curry. I also make easy croquettes from the boiled greens. The kale and beets will find their way into another soup, this time Anya von Bremzen’s Ukrainian borscht. Or I might use the beets for a striking beet risotto.
The oranges I will eat in slices, or I’ll cut the segments out into supremes to be served as a winter salad with the radicchio and sliced radishes. You can add a few slices of avocado for a bit of richness. Then just drizzle with good olive oil (new pressed olive oil would be perfect), and sprinkle on your favorite crunchy salt.
I can eat the apples whole, use them for baking, or cut one into a julienne along with a julienne of turnip and radish into a super crunchy salad along with a handful of walnuts. You can toss with a mustardy vinaigrette or a creamy mayo-based dressing.
And finally, the tomato begs to be cut into thick slices and eaten atop a toasted bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
If you’re looking for more ideas on how to approach your weekly produce, Good Food listener, Frances, has a blog straightforwardly named Cooking With Our CSA. She and her family live in Orange County and participate in the Sage Mountain Farm CSA.