186: Cabbage and Squash

As I sliced up my cabbage for the tuna salad, an idea stuck. I had a quarter of an acorn squash left over from risotto in my fridge- a vaguely fall flavor to be paired with another vaguely fall flavor. I was inspired by my balsamic braised cabbage dish a while back, but determined to nudge it to a more savory place. I'm not sure I succeeded, but I was happy to use up these ingredients, and I have a few ideas if I wanted to try this again.

Ingredients:

1/2 small head red cabbage, quartered, cored and sliced latitudinally into thin strips

1/4 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and sliced into 1/4" in cubes

1/2 onion, sliced thin

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 sprigs of rosemary

~ salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar

Began with the onions, squash and a little salt and oil in a pan. Sweat those for a few minutes, then added my cabbage and rosemary. Cooked this down until the cabbage and squash were nicely soft. Added pepper and a little cider vinegar to help brighten it up.

I didn't like it the night of- tasted too sweet for my mood and heavy on the vinegar- or maybe I was too stuffed up. But the next day it had mellowed out nicely. May still try a lighter touch or a different brightening agent if I were to try again. Or maybe there's something inherently too cloying about cooked down red cabbage- I had a similar problem with the balsamic dish I'd mentioned earlier but blamed it on the vinegar, but now I'm not so sure. Trials for another day.

185: Tuna Cabbage Salad with a Lime Mustard Dressing

Mix of two recipes: tuna salad (the kitchn) and a lime peanut slaw (smitten kitchen). I was thinking more of the former, but liked the flavors of the latter

Ingredients:
2 cups pre-wilted and semi-shredded cabbage
1 can tuna, drained
2 scallions, sliced thin
Juice of 1.5 limes
~ 1 Tbs+ dijon mustard
~ 2? Tbs peanut oil
~ salt, pepper to taste (heavy on the pepper)

So tuna plus cabbage plus another kind of cabbage, mustard, lime, pepper, scallions. Super easy, super tasty. Did the Cook's Illustrated pre-wilting thing the night before (yay prep!)- that is, I'd sliced up two small half-heads of cabbage (one red, one green) and tossed with a tsp of salt and let drain. I only had mine out about an hour, but it probably needed two. Then rinsed, drained, patted dry and kept in the fridge. The tuna salad recipe only called for two cups of cabbage, so I chopped up some of my pre-sliced cabbage a little finer and measured what was needed for the recipe. Will probably make a straight up slaw with the rest of it, not sure.

That went into a bowl, and I chopped up two scallions (I wanted to do garlic, but I was meeting up with a friend in a bit and didn't want to have too bad of monster breath), tossed those in along with the can of drained tuna.

Per usual my dressing was a little winged, and possibly on the heavy side. But I'm addicted to tart, vinegary, bitter and spicy. Also, true story, when I was little I used to get super mayo heavy tuna salad sandwiches with extra mayo on them. I blame living in Jersey. I can still, somehow, eat standard tuna salad when I need to, but if I make it- or a slaw- myself, it's always very heavy on the acid.

The dressing (dijon, oil, lime juice) was done in another bowl, tasted, much pepper and a little salt was added. All that poured over the rest of the ingredients and seasonings adjusted as needed. It was really good. It was hard to not eat all of it, but wanted to save some for leftovers. Possibly sandwiched and/or wrapped.

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?

161: Balsamic Braised Cabbage with Apples

Recipes for Health for the win, per usual.

Apparently I'm obsessed with balsamic vinegar. Paired with figs, shallots/liver, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, and now cabbage. Some more successfully than others.

This is a super simple recipe, the hardest part is the time it takes to make. I pretty much followed it as written- though cut in half due to the size of my cabbage. Didn't have allspice, felt like having fun so used some garam masala.

I overdid the balsamic a bit in this one, but with the apples and the warm spices though it's a perfect fall dish. Definitely recommended with a lighter touch.

Delivery 16

Lactino Kale - 1 bunch

Tomatillos - 10
French Breakfast/Cherriette Radishes - 1 bunch
Parsley - 1 bunch
Mustard Greens - 1 bunch
Bok Choy - 1 head
Broccoli - 3 These were feeling rather limp, so I hit up the swap table for more tomatillos!
Shallots - 4
Red Cabbage - 1
Peppers - 2

Hot Peppers - Serranos take if you like

Lactino Kale 

Why are people calling this Lactino Kale when it's also known as DINOSAUR kale. Seriously, so much more awesome and totally apt. Here's a raw salad, and some stuffed sweet potatoes.

Bok Choy

Hash, super easy saute, and I'm still feeling in need of soup.

Tomatillo

You could buy 10 lb bags of these from the farm that supplies the CSA. It was tempting, but I somehow refrained. I want to do something vastly different with these guys. Here's a tart, or some curd, a drink, or braised chicken. Ok and a guac, just in case I feel like dipping.

Radishes

I've had this salad on the list for ages, but now I actually have share radishes to make it with, so it will definitely happen soon. Greens are also nice! If I want to go simple here's a sandwich, or roasted. A few salads: detox and with mangos. And out of the blue a bit: curry!

Red Cabbage

No red cabbage on the swap table today. This is a little guy, so this won't hit as many recipes as the usual cabbage. Simple sweet and sour, a salad with white beans, a few slaws, cooked with apples, and a plain ol sear.

 

Mustard Greens 

There was a surprising amount of mustard greenage on the swap table, maybe people aren't as enamored of it as I am? I keep cooking them, this time I have to keep it raw. Here's a salad with anchovies and one with apples.

Peppers

So the long guys are probably cubanelles- I've just been eating them as easy snacks and will probably continue to do so. This looks really good, though anything with eggs is a winner for me. They're also often stuffed. I have a blacklog of hot peppers, maybe I'll finally get around to pickling them.

Shallots

I'll be posting something amazing with shallots soon, but, again, will mostly just try to use in place of onions/garlic in a few standard recipes.

Parsley

A few recipes mention parsley (at least one of the slaws has it), but here it is wilted on toast (with an egg- scroll down!)...and even further down the page there's a simple salad with lentils and a mustardy vinaigrette. Tabbouleh, a roulade (not gonna happen but cool), eggplant dip, potato cake.