240: Garlicky Kale and Quinoa with Sweet Potatoes

A mess. Not bad, and only a tenuous CSA connection (hey garlic!), but hard to make this one look pretty. Sauteed kale with onions, added the garlic on the late side to leave it nice and pungent. Mixed with quinoa and served with a sweet potato. It needed more moisture of time kind (wanted to add beans and have a bit of broth to it, but couldn't find them in my cupboard), or a better savory : sweet potato ratio.

233: Italian Veggie Stew

Yes, I know I disappeared for a bit there. Weekendternship is almost over, but the shifts are getting a little more difficult for me. Thankfully Thanksgiving is approaching, meaning a few relaxing days, probably some cooking, and an excuse to use up the last of my shares. Dear family, I hope you like potatoes.

Mmmm. So honestly, this stew is at least 1/3 about the bread. Maybe more. Get good stuff. I followed this recipe from Bon Appetit- halving it- which still made a ridiculous amount of stew for one person.

I'm generally not a tomato soup- or at least tomato in soup that's not tomato soup- fan, but this gets a lovely earthy sweetness from the collards and kale. My only sub was to use mushroom broth instead of veggie, as that's what I had. Next time I'd probably even add mushrooms, as I think they'd work well here. 

232: Moroccan Beet and Squash Stew

I've been interested in Moroccan flavors for a bit- see way back to these recipes. They seen to use a lot of fruit, raisins, and other rich/sweet ingredients, and then an intense heat to balance. It's a pleasing thing now and then, but I'm not sure I could eat it every day. This recipe yielded a lot, though, so I guess I'll be testing that theory this week. 

The flavors of this dish interested me, but the reviews gave me a little pause. There seemed to be an issue with the cooking times of the various ingredients, the beets taking way longer than the squash. So I made some educated guesses! That generally worked! Yay!

I roasted all my beets while doing the beet ketchup. Then I added everything in the order called for in the recipe, except the only head start the beets got was until the water started to simmer. Then I added everything except the chickpeas, which were canned and didn't need a full 40 or whatever minutes to cook through as the recipe called for. 

I checked every 10 minutes, and found that after 20 my squash was almost there, so I added the chickpeas. I let it go another 10 and had to take it off the heat, any longer and the squash would start to fall apart.

Leftovers with some cilantro. My phone doesn't like intense reds, this was really gorgeous IRL.

Next time I'd add the chickpeas at 10 mins, and take the whole thing off closer to 25. I'd also have the correct amount of radishes (I had 1/10th of a lb and went with it). I'm also curious to see how preserved lemon tastes with this- it's stirred in at the end, so I may make a Kalustyan's run this week.

Delivery 24

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Beets - 2 pounds

Carrots - 2 pound

Collards - 1 bunch

Turnips - 2

Garlic - 4 heads

Celeriac - 2 heads

Brussels Sprouts - 2 stalks

Kale - 1 bunch

Red Kernel Pop Corn - 2 cobs

Yellow Kernel Pop Corn - 2 cobs

Arugula - 1 bunch

Carrots

Carrot soup. Indian style carrots (mustardy). Root veggie stew (bonus for potatoes). Puffed carrot casserole.

Garlic

Celery Root

A few recipes via NPR. Remoulade with apples. Slaw with apples. Rotsi with potatoes.

Collards

Gratin. Italian veggie stew (bonus for kale, carrots, garlic). Collard and cheese pasties.

Popcorn

Arugula


Baby batch. Potato salad. Tartine with egg. Autumn panzanella!

Potatoes

Swedish hasbrowns (I know I have the wrong kind of potatoes, shhh), curry potato salad,

Beets

Smashed beets with goat cheese, soup!, beet and carrot latkes, beet and garlic tart, beets and eggs.

Turnips

Souffle, with tomatoes and yogurt, galette.

Brussels Sprouts

Yay! Chips with sweet chile sauce, sprouts and pecans, curried!

Kale

Salad with brussels sprouts, bread soup, gratin with sweet potatoes, with garlic and cranberries.

229: Collard Curry

I saw this recipe from Saveur (need to check this site out more often- some really good stuff) and it fit a category I've been meaning to try: creamy curry. I tend to avoid these when I eat out- maybe I associate creamy with sweet, and I want light and spicy (and generally but not always tomato based)?

A few firsts in here: this initial super flavorful chili/ginger paste (which turned my food processor blade a healthy shade of turmeric, ha), first use of lemongrass.

The collards got nicely soft and sweet, the coconut milk adds a weight...but more hearty than heavy, if that makes sense. And that flavorful paste is so wonderfully spicy it balances everything out. I had to scale back due to my limited collard supply, but I made a full batch of paste, so I'll have to try it out with another veggie.

I ate a small batch when I first made it but always want leftovers- these things just get better with a day in the fridge.

Off-putting color combo, pairing with a mix of red and white quinoa. If you squint it looks a little like raw meat. Delicious though!

228: Kohlrabi Carrot Soup

Not a pretty soup, but a sweet and tasty one. I sort of used this recipe from Eat, Love and Be Happy! When skimming it seemed fine, but upon the reread I was generally confused as to what I was supposed to do, so I did my own thing.

Ingredients:

2 kohlrabi
3 carrots
1 head garlic
1 onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
~ sage, thyme, parsley
~ chiken stock
~ salt, pepper, olive oil

I peeled, cut into chunks, and roasted the kohlrabi and carrots until soft and browned. I also chopped the top of the garlic off the head, drizzled a little olive oil and wrapped in foil. That was also roasted until soft.

Meanwhile, I diced my onions and celery and started those in a pot with a little olive oil and salt. Once they got soft, and the onions started to brown, I added in the rest of the ingredients. The chicken stock was added until it just covered (I like my soups full of "stuff", not super brothy), and I let that simmer for a while, until the flavors had a chance to mingle and the herbs had some time to do their thing. Tasting, adjusting seasoning as necessary.

Roasting the kohlrabi and carrots brought out their sweetness, which extended out into the soup. Last night it seemed unpleasantly sweet, but I dug it a lot more for lunch. Next time I'd probably add roasted potatoes, but I totally forgot until it was too late to prep them.

225: Spicy Indian Carrot Soup

So Tuesday it snowed. It didn't stick, but they were decently fat flakes, accompanied by wind and a general desire to stay in bed- or at the very least get hot chocolate. I'd been wanting soup for a while now, but that set me over the edge. I settled on a carrot soup, and this recipe, because ginger. The only thing I didn't have was heavy cream...and I'm in a healthy-as-possible mindset, so I didn't feel right about buying any.

Searching the interwebs, a few people suggested yogurt, though with the caveat they'd only really used it in Indian dishes...and then the lightbulb went off.

I followed the recipe better than I tend to, adding about 1/8-1/4 tsp of coriander, cumin and turmeric. I also halved a jalapeno, removed the seeds, and tossed that in towards the beginning. Oh and I tossed in a few garlic cloves, roughly chopped, assuming that once everything got buzzed with the immersion blender it wouldn't really matter.

After I took the soup off the heat I swirled in a little yogurt, which looks super pretty in addition to amping up the creaminess. Let's pretend that parsley leaf is cilantro, ok? And that I'd actually wiped down that bowl properly.

Were I to do it again I'd take the jalapeno out sooner and add a bit more Indian flavor- it was very high on the spicy but low on the spices. And I'd also start off with a little hing. But I'm really loving this soup, and would definitely do it again. Any excuse to play with Indian flavors.

Delivery 23

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Orange Carrots - 1 pound

Yellow Carrots - 1 pound
Kohlrabi - 2

Sage - 1 bunch

Garlic - 2 heads

Celeriac - 1 head

Collards - 1 bunch

Beets - 2 pounds

Radish - 1 bunch

Collards

Lots of extras but here's a curry. A soup with grits. Creamed. Not sure I'd follow the filling but I could use the leaves for a wrap.

Carrots

A few soup ideas: with ginger or a little more plain.

Celeriac

Aka celery root. Smashed, gratin with potatoes, salad with parsley, root veggie slaw.

Potatoes

I can't even...

Beets

Moroccan stew (bonus for radish and excuses to buy squash), beet and radish slaw, or another round of picked beets. Beet ketchup. Borscht.

Radishes

These guys are tiny. White bean and radish salad. Roasted. Savory toast (with yogurt?!).

Garlic

Garlic confit. Honey lemon garlic tea (I'd throw ginger in there, too). Turkish poached eggs with yogurt and spicy sage butter (!!!).

Kohlrabi

Love these guys! "Ceviche" with radishes and carrots. Lots of extras, but crostini with mozz. Pickled with carrots. Nommy looking soup with carrots, potatoes, herbs I have kicking around.

Sage

Carrot and sage soup.

223: Wilted Parsley and Mint on Toast

My favorite and least favorite part of the CSA is the herbs. On the one hand, it's something I generally never use, and am happy to have it forced upon me so I get some experience. On the other...how much thyme and sage can a person really go through in a week or two? Sure you can make pestos, salsa verde, or herb butters, but seriously. It can get a little ridiculous now and then. 

So I'm happy when I stumble across a recipe like wilted parsley and eggs on toast. It cuts a bunch down to a single dish, and in a way that's not entirely overpowering. My issue is that I don't love parsley. It can be a little harsh on its own, so when I thought of doing it again (here's the first time) I wanted another herb to help round it out. 

I chose mint, cooking it exactly as I did the parsley. Next time I probably wouldn't blanch the herbs- or maybe not the mint- as I feel I lost a lot of the flavor in the blanching water (or ended up with an odd tea). But what there was did the job wonderfully, adding a bit off sweetness, balancing out the assertiveness of the parsley.

Another change from the prior iteration was to continue on my roasted garlic kick, spreading a clove or two on each slice of Breads Bakery sourdough (it's solid version with a fine crumb and decent sturdiness- though I wish I'd thought to thaw the SCRATCH I had in the freezer). 

Topped (eventually, took me three tries to not break the yolk) with a runny egg. I could eat this most days and not get tired of it. 

217: Roasted Garlic Fight

I'd been thinking way too much about roasted garlic. As you do. Wondering how much the source matters- whether my CSA garlic was that much better than one from the grocery store. So while roasting a whole bunch of other veggies, I threw a few heads of garlic on the pan. 

In the pic above, the front is from the store, the back from my CSA. They got a little olive oil and salt, and roasted until just soft. 

Here they are, mashed on delicious Cacio e Pepe sourdough from SCRATCHbread. Same layout, right is grocery, left is CSA. 

I'm not sure if that picture does it justice, but the grocery store's clove turned a weird slight blue/green in the oven. Flavor wise I think the grocery store's was a little more bitter, but it's not as noticeable as I was hoping it would be. 

In the end, though, it was the CSA garlic that I squeezed into my soup. I'm curious to see how they compare raw and cooked for even longer. 

216: Roasted Squash and Turnip Soup

There was a recipe I was going to follow, listed in this week's delivery post, for a roasted squash and turnip soup. I guess I used that as a guideline, but mostly did my own thing.

Ingredients:

1/2 acorn squash

1 turnip, quartered

2 onions, halved

1 head of garlic

2 leeks, cleaned and sliced

~ chicken broth

~ 7 sage leaves

salt, pepper, olive oil

I roasted all my ingredients (which had been mixed with a little olive oil and salt) in a 425 degree oven until soft. As all that was near finishing I sauteed my leeks until browning, then chopped up my soft turnips and onion and threw them in the pan. Honestly these were a little under- could've used some more time in the oven, but I let them finish steaming in the pot. Squeezed my garlic out of the skins into the pot and added some chicken broth to deglaze. Let that simmer for a bit. Scooped the squash out of its skin and added that, as well as 4 or so sage leaves, let that simmer some more.

Once everything was relatively soft I picked out those sage leaves and buzzed it a bit with my immersion blender, adding stock until it blended smooth. As you can see above my soup is pretty thick, feel free to adjust to your preferences.

Added 3 or so sage leaves and let that simmer (or sputter, it's good to have a lid here as it will make a mess) until the sage was prominent enough for me, then adjusted my seasonings a bit and enjoyed with some sourdough bread.

This soup tastes so fall to me. Butternut may have been a little better (my bias), but this acorn was a lot more flavorful than the last one given to us by the CSA- maybe it was actually ripe this time?

I probably used about a cup of broth, I'll likely have another soup this week, as the chill is really starting to set in and there's nothing that I want more than comforting warm foods, especially ones that are excuses to buy and eat delicious crusty breads.

Delivery 22

Potatoes - 2 pounds

Beets - 2 pounds

Carrots - 1 pound

Red Russian Kale - 1 bunch

Purple Globe Turnips - 2

Flat Leaf Parsley - 1 bunch

Garlic - 2 heads

Acorn Winter Squash - 1

Popcorn - 4 cobs

Hot Peppers - take if you like

Red Russian Kale

Gorgeous! Kale with pecans. With smoked paprika. Kale chips. With buckwheat noodles.

Garlic

Guess. You'll probably be right.

Turnips

Believe it or not, I went for the smaller turnips, hoping to avoid the weird bitterness I had with the last big one. Slaw with carrots and apples. Slaw with carrots (bonus for parsley).

Acorn Squash

Soup with turnips. Soup with turnip chips. Soup with kale and bacon. What? I'm cold.

Popcorn

Note with the popcorn: let dry for three more weeks for best results. Um, thanks? I'll probably wait to bring this home to my parents', where there is a microwave.

Beets

Went for a bag with smaller beets. Salad with ginger. Salad with kale. Beet chips. Salad with potatoes.

Carrots

Boo orange carrots! Here's a slaw with beets (and beet greens, but I could use kale or something).

Potatoes

Ugh, potatoes. Part of me just wanted to swap these guys out for more garlic on the swap table. Here's fritters with turnips. Potato pancakes. Potato pizza dough. Or this potato cake (bonus for parsley).

Hot Peppers

Flat Leaf Parsley

I just kind of want to do wilted parsley on toast again.

213: Roasted Garlic Toast (semi-fancy version)

This is more like it. My last attempt at garlic on toast was lame, I'll admit. I have a cabinet at work that's a decent mini-pantry: some vinegar, salt, pepper, sriracha, but definitely not enough to really pimp out a piece of toast. At home there are more toys to play with. AND the last of the lovely sourdough I got from She Wolf Bakery (remember parsley on toast? yay for freezing bread).

I roasted my garlic with a little olive oil, salt, and thyme, wrapped up in aluminum foil. Once it was soft, I squeezed it out onto the bread, topped with the thyme, salt, pepper, red pepper flake and olive oil.

The roasted garlic was lovely and sweet, that raw bite totally mellowed. I will say though, when I've used cloves in other dishes, they've smelled and tasted more garlicy than ones from the supermarket. Better quality, much less bitter.

Here's the deliciousness, which could have more craziness done to it with cheese, butter, and...bacon? No, I doubt I'll get more crazy than this.

Also, disclaimer: this was actually the second piece of toast, and the second head of garlic I consumed in such a fashion that night. Were you aware that while metabolizing garlic your sweat can smell a little garlicy too? It's not just garlic breath, it'll come out through your pores! Science!

212: Garlicy Pecorino Kale Salad

I love dinosaur kale. The texture, the bitterness, all the parts. It's a very meaty green. That might not be the best phrasing, but it's a green that will definitely make you feel full. I used this recipe from 101 cookbooks. My only change was to use a full clove of garlic, because deliciousness. The resulting salad was a little overdressed, I could've used a little less salt, but a myriad of sins can be corrected with an over easy egg. It would've been alright without it, but definitely much better with.

I dressed all the greens, as the kale will hold up decently, and I'm planning on mixing the leftovers with some quinoa to blunt the impact of that dressing.

Oh! And I totally didn't mind the lemon in this. Making progress.

208: Roasted Garlic on Toast

Steps:

Roast your garlic (cut the top of, drizzle a little oil, sprinkle some salt, wrap and foil and roast until soft)

Toast your bread

Squeeze the cloves out and spread on like butter

Eat

I think were I to do this again (and I may), I’d add a bit more, you know, flavor to the party. This time, though, I was interested in seeing how straight up CSA roasted garlic would taste. And, as has been the case for most things compared to their supermarket versions, this was sweeter and generally subtly “better,” as unhelpful as that description is. 

But next time I’ll probably get better bread, add some fresh herbs, drizzle a little more oil, and then maybe a bit of spicy with some red pepper flake. Salt and pepper. Maybe a little grated pecorino, if I’m already going a little crazy with the rest of it.