Tuesday, June 18, 2013

CSA haul: Julie and Julia challenge

My second eating challenge of eating this year is my CSA (that stands for Community Supported Agriculture). I picked up the lovely wooden box from Kretschmann's farm, dropped off on the porch of a house three blocks away. Here's a picture:


The box contained:

One large head of romaine lettuce
About a pound of spinach
About a pound of mixed greens, mostly arugula
One bunch of collard greens
A quart of strawberries
Oregano
Basil
A bag of pea shoots (little greens with flowers that last week Bruce said tasted "like grass")
Green onions

Is that all? It filled up most of my refrigerator! And all for me and one vegetarian who doesn't cook.

This is my challenge, a la the movie Julie and Julia. In the movie, Julie cooked her way through Julia Child's classic cookbook, one recipe per day, and blogged about it, without missing a day. For me, I will challenge myself to use up all the produce my CSA brings without throwing anything out, and preferably without unscheduled mid-week trips to the grocery store for extra ingredients to be used for one recipe only. This challenge will require time, ingenuity, and flexibility (the latter not my strong point). Thank goodness that I bought a copy of Nava Atlas's new cookbook Wild About Greens a couple of weeks ago!

Here's what I plan to make with some of these items.

Collard greens: Hoisin-Glazed Collard Greens & Sweet Potatoes (From Wild About Greens, with sweet potatoes and hoisin sauce that I have on hand)

Arugula: Pizza topped with arugula on Saturday night, with a Trader Joe's whole wheat crust to be purchased Saturday morning, and vegan cheese that I have on hand

Fresh spinach: Sauteed with garlic and red peppers, and in the green smoothie from Eat to Live

Pea shoots: How about #4 on this list: Vietnamese Stir-Fried Pea Shoots?



http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/05/17/top-ten-pea-shoot-recipes-in-season-now/

I have everything on hand but oyster sauce, which is not vegetarian anyway. Looks like soy sauce may be substituted.

Strawberries - no problem there! Half will go in my cereal tomorrow, and half the next day

The oregano is currently drying on my counter. I can put some on my pizza and some away to make roasted chickpeas.

Romaine lettuce? I have been eating a salad almost every day, making two portions at night and then then eating half for dinner and bringing half to work the next day for lunch.

And ... Basil? It's good on a hummus sandwich, but how will I use a whole bunch? Green onions? Still working on radishes from last week. More to come....

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