205: Charred Veggies

Originally I titled this post Roasted Veggies, but realized how different this was from the batch that started this week's share, so I adjusted. The first set was diced then roasted rather slowly until pillowy, soft and sweet. These were big chunks, just barely seasoned with salt, pepper and oil. I didn't cook them nearly as long as the first set, but at a much higher temperature (on sheet pan directly on the pizza stone at the bottom of my oven). They still had a lot of bite, the roasting just took the edge off and gave them a bit of caramelization. Different but good.

Delivery 20

Butternut Winter Squash - 1

Turnips - 2

Lettuce - 2 heads Lettuce Smettuce, went for another bunch of radishes again

Broccoli - 1

Radish - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Garlic - 2 heads

Kohlrabi - 1 bunch

Sage - 1 bunch

Carrots - 1 pound

Hot Peppers - Jalapenos

Cauliflower - 1

I have a bit of a crazyplan this week, just to chop everything up and roast it with the sage. But then I don't have enough sheet trays/oven space/etc.

Turnips

Kinda giant turnips this week. Here's a soup. Fritters with potato and scallions. Frittata. Simple roast.

Cauliflower

Heyyy I got one that wasn't moldy this time! Faux cous cous looks neat (and I love excuses to use the food processor). Spicy roasty cauliflower steaks. Creamy curried soup. And a curry with potatoes.

Jalapenos

Part of the reason I was able to build up so many habaneros for that jelly was they were too spicy to use in normal dishes. Happy to have a few milder everyday peppers to just use as needed.

Garlic

Every time I look at this thing, I just keep thinking of Eraserhead. I'm sorry if that's now stuck in your head. I use garlic all the time, but don't want to just toss this in with a bunch of other flavors. One of my favorite things about the CSA is subtly but profoundly different ingredients taste when they're this fresh. Most likely this will just get roasted and spread on bread like butter.

Butternut Squash

Yay! Butternut squash is one of those foods I adore, but don't order it at restaurants as it's a borderline food. It can be sweet or savory, and I want none of the sweet. Or rather, additional sweet. So no cinnamon or maple syrup please, the squash brings enough of that to the party as is. Roasted squash soup. I have my own favorite soup recipe with rosemary and onions, may try that out. These wontons sound neat, if a little sweet.

Potatoes

Salad with salmon. Pizza dough. First batch that appear to have been cleaned before sending.

Carrots

Roasted carrots and avocado salad. Carrot cake pancakes. Carrots with potatoes and dill. Spoon bread.

Sage

Crispy sage. Pizza with butternut squash. If I didn't still have pate in the freezer I'd make that again.

Radishes

There was a lot of sage (and I mean a lot) on the swap table today, but thankfully my radish-hating friend left an extra bunch for me to swap out. It's more than a little ridiculous that I traded two heads of lettuce for a baby bunch of these radishes (especially when I'm on a salad kick lately), but it happened. Pickles, with cheese and chives on bread, or just with butter and salt. Or I'll just make a bunch of radish roses, and throw them at people.

Broccoli

Broccoli grilled cheese (healthy wha?). Hummus with white beans. Chilled soup (bonus for dill, which I still have from last week).

Kohlrabi

Salad with apples. Slaw with apples. Slaw with turnips.

190: Leftover Broccoli Cauliflower Pizza

A somewhat inadvertent take on this pizza I made the other week, but really was just an excuse to use leftovers. It just so happens to have broccoli and smoked mozz and pecorino, the latter two being leftovers from the first pizza.

I like red pies more than white, but wasn't in love with the pizza. I think I have an excess of cheese in my diet, and anything beyond minimal salads is being rejected by my body.

Still not happy with the crust, more flavor than I had been getting, but still undersalted and definitely stretched too thin. But! I didn't burn it this time, so at least that's something.

188: Spicy Tomato and Cruciferous Veggies

This is a glorious, delicious mess. But maybe I should back up a little.

A few weeks ago (or, you know, last week), I made a dish I wasn't too satisfied with- smothered cauliflower and poached eggs. The dish was bland and made me a little sad. So when given the opportunity this week, I decided to do it my way: The wrong way, but faster! No, sorry, thinking of something else. Savory, spicy, and just generally delicious.

Ingredients:

1 small head of cauliflower

1 small head/bunch of broccoli

~ salt, pepper, olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

~ Tbs cilantro

Eggs as needed

I used both broccoli and cauliflower this time, as I didn't have much of either and figured they'd get along well. These were tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then roasted in a 425 degree oven (according to the oven, I'm not so sure it was that hot) for about 15 minutes, just to get a little char on them. I'd probably take them a little farther next time. Or broil em a bit for fun.

Meanwhile I chopped up my onion, tomato, garlic, etc. Cooked the onion in a pot with a little olive oil and salt until translucent, added my garlic, stirring until fragrant, then the peppers, tomato and cilantro.

Cooked that for a little while, until the tomatoes were starting to break down, or at least let go of some of their liquid, then tossed in the broccoli and cauliflower and simmered until they were soft.

Adjust your seasonings as you like, I considered adding a little basil or vinegar or something, but was getting tired and hungry. I didn't mind it without.

Topped the above with two very over easy eggs. This is a very different dish from the one last week, but honestly, as much as I'd read the original recipe, I really just wanted this all along. Very happy I just up and made it. I'll eventually tomato and egg all the things.

Delivery 19

Dill - 1 bunch

Beets - 2 pounds

Diakon Radish - 1
Cheriette Radishes - 1 bunch

Cauliflower - 1 head

Red Leaf Lettuce - 1 head (standard switch for more radishes)

Green Lettuce - 1 head

Napa Cabbage - 1 head

Bok Choy - 1 head

Leeks - 1 bunch

Broccoli Florets -1 bunch

Ancho Peppers - 4

Hot Peppers - take if you like

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Cauliflower

Still love this roundup, though I'm tempted to try and fix my smothered cauliflower dish.

Napa Cabbage

With daikon I'm well on my way to more kimchi, but no. Loving this cabbage roundup from Bittman (picks: hot & sour, egg & tomato, caesar). Really feeling soup lately.

Leeks 

Still have my leeks from last week- I just went ahead and cleaned and chopped everything up without a definite plan in mind. Less excuses to dawdle. Here's a soup with cauliflower and cashews. Or that confit. Or fritters, again, though a different recipe.
 

Dill

There is some smoked salmon in my freezer that would be good with this- I'd go super simple though. Beyond that (as I still have tons of potatoes from the past few weeks): a potato salad with dill, roasted potatoes, or roasted radishes. Dill bread. Potato dill bread. And another.

Radishes

See other ingredients. Lazy this week. I'm not sure who doesn't like radishes, but for some reason they're always on the swap table. Not complaining, beats red lettuce any day.

Green Lettuce

A salad, natch. Not sure what kind, though could easily be a just greens with dressing kind of thing.

Beets

You have no idea how happy I am to see beets. I'd gladly take two pounds of these every week. Part of me was sad there were none on the swap table, but as it gets colder these will be more prevalent, so here's hoping. These guys are already roasted, earmarked for a repeat of sorts.

Daikon

This daikon is as big as my forearm. No kidding. Some will be pickled. Here are more recipes for that. I like this soup, even if it's more about the mushrooms than the daikon. Here's a simpler one.

Poblano Peppers

Not that I have a plan for it, but I'm tempted to make a sauce. Also maybe a pizza. Also also I picked up more hot peppers but forgot to add them to this pic.

Broccoli

Roasted with cauliflower and garlic. Spicy saute. These feel firmer than the last batch for whatever reason. Not a lot though.

Bok Choy

Cole slaw with radishes and daikon. Or a saute. I've gotten over my inherent meh-ness about this veggie, as I've made some fun things with it so far, but it's pretty hard to store in my greens-hatin' fridge.

180: Broccoli and Potato Pizza

Some veggies, but mostly carbs and cheese on carbs.

Pizzas are one of those foods I can't really buy anymore (with the exception of like 2 places). Even though cheap and generally super convenient, they're just easy/fun and super customizable, why not just make them?

The tough part is the dough, which is only tough in the time sense, but just make a giant batch, freeze the rest, and then you don't have to deal with that aspect. 

I think I've enumerated these things before, in previous pizza posts. 

This one was different, in that I used the dough recipe listed here (subbing out beer for water, always a good idea). I'd up the salt a little next time. It was also a white pie, which I'm generally not a fan of. Good here, though.

Toppings were: 

• Potatoes - which were sliced and sauteed until tender and a little browned
• Broccoli - sliced at a steep angle, tossed in salt pepper and olive oil, then sauteed until tender
• Smoked mozz
• Pecorino
• Rosemary

I don't make pizzas enough to have the timing down on this oven. Mine were a bit doughier than I'm used to as well, so the bottoms burnt a bit while the tops were still a little pale. It was good though, especially when topped with a little sriracha. 

Delivery 18

Leeks - 1 bunch

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Broccoli - 2 bunches

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Lettuce - 1 head Exchanged for another bunch of radishes

Bok Choy - 1 head

Radish - 1 bunch

Rosemary - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips with Greens - 1 bunch

Hot Habanero Peppers - take them if you like

Red Cabbage - 1 head

Peppers - 2

Cauliflower - 1

Broccoli

Once again these were kind of ...floppy. I found the last batch pretty bitter, but at least there's a decent amount this time so I didn't swap them out. A few decent contenders for recipes, too: Pizza (with potatoes and rosemary), cooked forever, roasted with mustard.

Bok Choy

I'm on a salad kick lately (week long detoxes to make up for the crazy indulgence of the weekend wherein I eat all the bread, eggs, caramel sauce and butter), so a simple raw salad may be in order. Or cooked with broccoli.

Cauliflower

Crazy/amazing roundup from the Guardian, some of which will get made, but maybe not this week as I've found cauliflower and eggs with tomato sauce! Or there's roasted with ginger and mint.

Turnips

I'm not sure I've ever cooked turnips before. No wait, I did once, just roasted as a "Hey! These are cheap, let's add them to the weekly veggie roast" a few years ago. Looking to do something a little more exciting with them now. Here are options: with orange and hazlenuts, soup with leeks, mashed with potatoes and leeks, pickles, and Moroccan! Loving the looks of those greens, too.

Radish

I have four of these guys earmarked, as for what to do with the rest: easy with turnips, a pizza (pizzas are the new biscuits. also a bit of a cop out, but cacio e pepe is a great flavor profile), Indian flatbread (!), and then this weird weird bread I don't think I'll ever make, but wanted to share.

Potatoes 

Fritters with turnips, doing a more traditional potato pancake. Getting a lot of potatoesed out. Maybe I'll make bread and bring it to work to get rid of it: here are a bunch of recipes (and a German one).

Leeks

Going back to the archives a bit, but leek confit perhaps. Though a ton of recipes I've already listed use them, so I doubt I'll have trouble.

Red Cabbage

There were a few that I mentioned last time I would like to get back to: peanut/lime salad or sweet and sour. Galette with onions and feta.

Acorn Squash

Soup with Turnips, there's always a plain ol' roast as well. Or risotto.

Rosemary

I'm having trouble using all my herbs again. Still have a bunch of thyme from last week. I may whip up another batch of herb butter, just so I don't feel so bad about the sheet volume that exists in the crisper. Would also work well with potatoes and squash.

Peppers

I keep picking up tons of hot peppers without a plan in mind- though I used some in my chili verde. There are still some roasted from last week in my fridge. Let's pretend I'll make hot sauce, shall we?

170: Rainbow Slaw

Such pretty. Adapted this recipe from Bon Appetit, subbing out regular radish for the daikon. I used some of my rainbow carrots for gorgeousness, and all of my broccoli stems.

I actually made two iterations of the dish- the first with a dressing similar to what the recipe calls for (sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic chili sauce, ginger). I'm not feeling strong sesame oil taste with salads though, so I'm happy I only made a small amount.

The second prep was with a lemon juice, dijon mustard, and garlic chili sauce dressing. The salad itself is nicely sweet, I just wanted something light and with bite, and that very much fit the bill. I'm surrounded by startchy/rich/fatty/sweet food all weekend, a lot of the things I make are going to be as detoxy as possible.

145: Broccoli Spanakopita

I bought some fillo dough for another purpose- one ill post about soon. But as I haven't used the stuff before, thought it would be a good idea to do a simple, trial run to make sure I had a feel for how it acted, cooked etc. One of the few times I've decided to do a handy trial run, and glad I did.

I settled in this recipe for spanakopoita, but with broccoli, so I'm sure it should be called something different. 

Sautéed up some diced onion with salt, added a head of finely chopped broccoli and a few cloves of garlic, and as I had them, about a tablespoon each of fresh dill and parsley. Let that cool, then added some crumbled feta (about 2 oz) a beat egg and a some pepper. 

Now for the fillo! I bought some frozen, thankfully remembered to pop it in the fridge before I went to bed, then out on the counter 2 hrs before I wanted to work on the things. 

Laid out a sheet. They're thin and you have to handle them with a reasonable amount of care, but they're definitely workable. Brushed as best I could with oil then laid out another sheet. A bit of the mix got placed center bottom, folded over the sides then rolled up.

Pictures would be helpful here, huh? The recipe has great ones if you want to attempt. 

I baked these in the oven for about 20 minutes. I think my oven is crazy low, these didn't brown at all, had to pop them under the broiler for a minute to get a bit of color. 

The filling was good! The fillo was a bit dry and crazy flaky. Next time I'll really lay on that butter/oil, or wrap everything a bit tighter. 

Simple assembly for a nice looking final product. Excited to use it for the recipe I purchased, and again for other things. 

137: Tofu, Broccoli and Pepper Stir Fry

This would probably be more of a stir fry if I had a bigger pan- not even a wok, just something with a bit more room. When all the stuff was added to the pan it was crazy crowded, but still turned out well. I used a mix of these two recipes. I didn't want to use all of my broccoli up- I have plans for it!- so I added the peppers and onion to make up for the missing veg. Didn't have any cornstarch, so I used flour to thicken, which lead to more of a gravy-like sauce than the recipe probably intended. Also I need to invest in some low-sodium soy sauce. Still feel a little salty.

It took a bit of time, mostly waiting for the tofu to press, but overall an easy dinner. Oh yes, and despite the red pepper flake, felt like this needed a bit of heat so sriracha was liberally applied after this picture was taken. If I were to do this again (and I may, though probably not this veggie mix), I'd switch up the sauce a little- less soy, add some ginger, obviously a little more heat.

Delivery 14

Tomatoes - 3
Green Beans - 1 pound

Edamame - 1 bunch

Carrots - 4

Dill - 1 bunch

Broccoli - 2 heads

Red Onions - 2

Cabbage - 1 head

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Peppers - 2

Habanero Peppers - take them if you dare somehow I forgot to grab these somehow

Feeling a little lost with my recipe selection. The "finding as few simple recipes as possible" method is nice, and I am trying new things, but something's missing. I really enjoyed geeking out the other day, and would like to focus more on whys than hows. Someone pointed me in the direction of Cook's Illustrated, and I've checked this book out from the library...not that I have time to read much before it's due back. Thinking about buying it, though, as just skimming through showed me how wonderful of a resource it could be.

Tomatoes

These were not the best and weren't originally on the list from the farm, so they have to be the last of the season. Will be sad to see them go, and will probably just eat them like handfruit.

Edamade

This is kind of awesome, as I'm so used to edamame only being frozen. I had no idea how they grew. Ideally there would be a recipe that called for fresh beans specifically, but I don't see many when I search. Here they are roasted, and a roundup from the kitchn.

Cabbage

There is definite cabbage fatigue at my CSA- the swap table was like 10 of these...and a bunch of dill. I'm not tired of it...yet, but I'm not terribly excited for it, either. Here are roasted wedges, braised, or in a greek pie (bonus for red onion and dill). Here are a few slaws from Cook's Illustrated.

Peppers

Still a little miffed I forgot to grab those habeneros- I was just braindead and exhausted after work. I could roast these with green beans, or a greek pita. They're in a few other dishes I've linked to here as well.

Broccoli

These are a little limp, but still look good. Fritters, as always, are on my mind. But there's a stir fry with tofu, another with peppers and tofu. Super simple with curry powder and couscous, a salad from Macheesmo, or spanakopita.


[no pic]

Potatoes

I KNEW I forgot to take a picture of something (will fix tonight). Just imagine the last batch, though dryer. I still have those chives, so these fritters are still an option. Knishes look funnn, or I've read you can just make perogi in wonton wrappers. Here's a salad with dill, and another.

Dill

Will do my best to integrate into as many dishes as I can- though I'm tempted to get a cucumber and make another batch of tzatziki.

Green Beans

Dilly Beans (yay canning). Here's a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, and another braised dish from them.

Carrots 

I kind of want to make carrot cake. Here's another recipe. I know, I know, trying to be healthy here. But I still may, especially if I can stuff them with the frosting for easy transport. Roasting with dill is an option again, or here's a soup!