Varying Veggies

What a beautiful bounty from this week’s CSA box, as usual (I love farm box days!).  Green leaf lettuce, collards, tatsoi, golden beets, scallions, basil, cilantro, cauliflower, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and snap peas (there were more, but I picked up the box just before dinner…).  Here are my initial thoughts on what to do with this amazing produce:

1. Salad:  I know that seems like a given but it’s hard to beat a salad made of fresh from the farm produce.  We’re talking peak flavor!  I usually clean, pre-chop everything, and store it in containers in the fridge.  Anytime I want, I can pull those containers out and it’s an instant salad bar.
2. Roast the beets, zucchini, squash, and cauliflower.  Roasted veggies are great for wraps and power bowls.  Save money and improve your health by packing your lunch.
3. Pickle the cucumbers for burgers, salads, etc.
4. Slice the cucumbers, zucchini, and squash to use as chips for hummus, salsa, and other dips.  More fiber, fluids (esp the cucumber), and nutrients than chips.  Also, fewer fat and calories than chips.  Last summer when we traveled, I dehydrated sliced cucumber and zucchini and packed it for snacks.  This really saved me when I had a hard time finding healthy options on the plane and in the airports.
5. Saute/Stir fry for an Asian stir fry, pasta and sauce with veggies, or tofu scramble with veggies.
6. Cauliflower:  steam and blend it to add a non-dairy creaminess to other dishes or rice it to replace or mix with rice.
7. Collards:  make healthier burrito and enchilada wraps than tortillas
8. Cilatro and Scallions:  Add garlic and tomatoes, chop, and you have an awesome salsa.
9. Basil (bruised) and cucumber (sliced):  Add to water for a refreshing infused water.

What do you do with this season’s fresh produce?

A couple of weeks ago we picked up our weekly produce box the night before leaving for a 10 day vacation.  I could have scheduled a vacation hold for our box, but I really like seeing what comes each week and I didn’t want to potentially miss a favorite food.  So, I got as much packing done as possible early in the day and I spent the evening processing fresh produce.  Here’s what I did with each item:

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Beans:  Steamed separately and froze in separate bags for later use.

Cucumbers:  pickled in vinegar, salt, and water.  I also sliced a couple and stored in a Ziploc bag for snacking/lunch on the plane.

Zucchini, Squash, and Carrots:  I sliced these and put one cup each in 1-quart Ziploc freezer bags and froze for future use in stir fry, masala, or soup.

Peas:  Stored in a Ziploc bag for snacking on the plane.

Lettuce and Radicchio:  Left for the house/dog sitter to enjoy.

Cilantro:  dried in the dehydrator overnight.

It was so nice to have fresh produce to munch on during our flights and at the start of our vacation.  I’m also looking forward to using the frozen vegetables this winter when I’m looking for something “warm and happy” to eat as I watch the snow fall.  Produce doesn’t have to go to waste, lost in the fridge (not that that’s ever happened to me…).  If it doesn’t look like you’re going to get to it before it goes bad, try one of the ideas above to preserve and use it later.

I love the days when I pick up our weekly produce box!  It’s great to see what is currently ripe and ready for picking and distribution.  I feel so in tune with the season and part of a larger community as members of a Community Supported Agriculture program.  Each week can also bring the question of “what do we do with ____?!”  We’ve been doing this long enough that we have seasonal favorites and we eagerly look forward to their respective dishes.  We’ve discovered new favorites (eggplant, ground/husk cherries) as well as items, try as we might, we just don’t like (fennel).  So, what do I do with our produce box?  The contents of this week’s box is pictured in this post.  Here are 5 things I did with it.

1.  Vegetable Masala:  eggplant and zucchini, recipe from Kathy Hester’s The Easy Vegan Cookbook.
2. Pizza:  Lots of great pizza toppings here.  We used the onion, squash, and basil.
3. Potato Leek Soup:  1.5 lbs potatoes and 7 leeks plus  6 cups water and salt and pepper to taste.  Cooked all night in the crockpot.  That easy.
4. Lunches:  chopped cucumbers make a great healthy side dish or mid-afternoon snack at work.
5. German Red Cabbage:  red cabbage

This weekend I’ll probably saute the arugula and steam the yellow beans.  We’ll either eat them with meals for freeze for later use.  We’ll probably snack on the tomatoes or use on sandwiches.

I hope you are enjoying this season’s fresh produce and that these ideas help you try something new.

One element of Afternoon Tea is tea or finger sandwiches.  Tea or finger sandwiches are basically small sandwiches, with the crusts removed*, that can be eaten in 2-3 bites.  Sandwiches can be cut into triangles, rectangles, or squares.  While it can seem wasteful to cut off the crusts, the point is to have a small, dainty sandwich to accompany your tea, something you can hold gracefully with one hand.  I like to cut the crusts off the bread before filling the sandwiches.  I then store the crusts in the freezer until I have enough to process into breadcrumbs for other recipes.

Converting these sandwiches to a plant-based diet may seem challenging at first, but the flexibility and creativity allowed in filling options makes it quite simple.  Start with a good quality, whole grain bread.  I prefer 100% whole wheat, but I used Heidelberg Bread’s pumpernickel and multigrain in the pictures above (the store was out of the whole wheat at the time).  Then fill with your favorite filling or combination of fillings.  Here are some suggestions (a few are pictured above).  It’s that simple.  As long as you and your tea companions enjoy them, you can’t really go wrong.

Tempeh bacon, Avocado, and Lettuce
Hummus
Hummus and Cucumber
Nut Cheese
Nut Cheese and Cucumber
Nut Butter (peanut, almond, hazelnut, etc)
Nut Butter and thinly sliced fruit (ex: a strawberry)
Nut Butter and 100% Fruit Spread
100% Fruit Spread
Chocolate Nut Butter

This week’s veggies:

Head Lettuce x 2 (one red, one green)
Peas, either Snap or Snow
Zucchini and Summer Squash
Cilantro
Golden Beets (super sweet and more mild)
Radicchio x 2
Carrots
Kale
Cucumber

So here’s my game plan:

1.  Wash and prep lettuces for salad.
2. Cut up carrots, zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers so that they are ready for salads, stir fry, sautéed veggies to use for other meals throughout the week.  Anything unused will be either frozen or dehydrated for future use.
3. Cut the radicchio into wedges and grill for dinner tonight.  Yummy!
4. Shred extra zucchini for muffins and quick bread.  Shredded zucchini can be frozen in one cup measurements (snack size ziplocks are great for this) for baking through the upcoming winter.
5. Cut up and roast beets for either veggie burgers or salads.

Things have been busy on the homefront lately, so I haven’t posted as much as I had planned.  The next few weeks are slower, so it’s time for catching up – on housework, work work, and blogging.  Will post more pics tonight on fb.