I feel like the last two weeks of CSA have been sneak preview of summer. Last week we got a zucchini and this week we got a tomato. This is awesome because it means tomatoes and zucchinis are on their way, but part of me is bummed. We got a tomato, as in one tomato, as in we ate ours last night and now we have no tomatoes. We did not receive a zucchini this week so no zucchini for us either.

And for those of you who did receive a zucchini, check out my zucchini pasta recipe that I made this week.

So week 6 succeeded in making me excited about weeks 7 and up.

So, here’s what we got this week:

Carrots
Beets
Tomato
Fresh garlic
Fennel
Garlic scapes
Escarole
Magenta lettuce head

Carrots– I love carrots. I love cooking them with celery and onion to add with any kind of cooked meat. It’s a way to sneak in some veggies with your BBQ, pasta sauce or this week, we made tacos (pictured below) with the Escarole and the lone Tomato. Check back this weekend to see the recipe for tacos and tips on how to make a taco healthy.


 

Escarole and Magenta lettuce head– You can see above that I used the escarole as the taco shell. The bitterness of the leaf complimented the creamy guacamole and the sweet tomatoes. I actually thought I was using the regular lettuce head (it’s been a long week!) until I tasted it but it was a happy mistake.

I will also be using the escarole and lettuce in salads. I think the trick to using the escarole is to pair it with something sweet or creamy. Ina Garten talks about filling it with a creamy blue cheese which sounds divine.

Beets- I never had beets before last summer and I fell hopelessly and utterly in love. I have been waiting for beets and with this first round, I am going to keep it simple. Beet + goat cheese + balsamic vinegar = heaven. Check out the picture and recipe here.

Fresh garlic– I am just going to let it dry. I loved having fresh garlic all through the winter.

Garlic Scapes– I have been a bit of hoarder when it comes to garlic scapes. There are some people at my pick up site that have been leaving them in the discard box. Now I have quite a few and I am going to start to experiment with them. I used one in making tacos (see pic above) and I will share that recipe later this weekend. I want to try incorporating them in just a few at a time or even one at a time to get that nice flavor without overpowering a dish. I am going to use some of the basil we received a few weeks ago to see if I can come up with a new version of garlic scape pesto where it’s a flavor but not the main ingredient. I think that if I make a regular basil pesto and just sub in the garlic scape for the garlic, that it should work pretty well.

Fennel– I also have a fennel problem. I haven’t taken any discarded fennel but I haven’t been using any that we received in our shares for the last three or four weeks. I am going to try this recipe from Cooking Light. I like fennel. Manatee hates fennel. So the trick is finding a dish where the fennel flavor adds something but is not the main flavor. I would love to hear suggestions from any of you who have been using it regularly.

 

 

 

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