The Suburban Herbivore

We canceled our share for last week, as our friends that are splitting it with us were out of town. And this week’s share was fairly light. But I’m requesting a double one next week to make up for the one we missed, so that will be … something. For sure.

Last week we missed out on potatoes, of which there will be more, and red cabbage, which I am happy to be done with. Though I did turn up a fairly decent recipe for coleslaw online recently.

Anyway, we got a cute little watermelon, six tomatoes (!) and more lemon cucumbers, as well as leeks, regular cucumbers, serrano peppers, garlic, and the first of the eggplant. Elysian Fields grows Japanese eggplant, which are smaller, more tender, and not as bitter as the standard Black Beauty eggplant that one typically finds in a grocery store. I really appreciate them, because (1) I just don’t like eggplant that much, so having them be smaller is better, as far as I’m concerned, and (2) they are better for Asian/Indian cooking, which I’m more inclined to do anyway.

In rereading this post, I realized that I keep complaining about the vegetables I don’t like. To counter-balance, let me mention all the ones we got this week that I love: serranos, garlic, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I also love watermelon, which is of course not a vegetable. I don’t actually believe there are any fruits that I don’t like.

I am planning to do a flurry of posts this weekend, including reviews of the two Moosewood cooking classes I attended, and a guest post by my husband about making pickles. Stay tuned…

I am excited to already be getting tomatoes! I have heard in the past that, at least around here, tomatoes don’t show up before July 4. I don’t think I’ve managed to produce them earlier than that, but then, sometimes, I procrastinate a little in my planting. Unfortunately I forgot to include the two Big Beef tomatoes in the photo because they were in a separate paper bag.

This week I also received: one red cabbage, three leeks, six orange and yellow carrots, one bunch of beets, four regular cucumbers (not sure which variety), two lemon cucumbers (I’ll be making a separate post about this), a bag of green beens, and one head of garlic. Definitely some good stuff. From the newsletter that Elise sends, it seems that this is the last week for carrots and beets. I’ll miss the carrots but am soooo ready to say goodbye to the beets.

After a long weekend spent out of town, I was skeptical about what might be edible when I returned home. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing had gone bad, and I was able to cobble Pasta with Spinach and Beans together for supper. I used chickpeas because that’s what I had, and you can, too, but white beans have a better texture for this dish. I do recommend using spinach instead of other greens, because this is a no-cook meal (mostly), and the tougher greens won’t wilt as readily.

Ingredients

1 lb spiral pasta
1 bunch raw spinach
1 can white/navy/great northern beans, drained
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
black pepper to taste

Cook the pasta using package instructions. Meanwhile, wash and chop the spinach. Saute the pine nuts in about 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Once the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the pot (or a large bowl). Stir in the spinach, beans, garlic, remaining olive oil, pine nuts (plus leftover oil), cheese, salt, and pepper. Add a little more salt if you like, or perhaps some garlic salt. Serves 4-6.

Well, it was efficient in vegetable usage, anyway, though it took a couple of hours to coordinate and pull everything together. All the recipes came from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

The first part of last night’s meal was braised root vegetables with miso. I used the radishes, the turnips, and the kohlrabi. This turned out really well – the turnips and radishes turned creamy and yummy. The kohlrabi could have used a little more cooking, but was still flavorful.

While this was stewing, I steamed a big mess of greens – last week’s kale, plus the radish, kohlrabi, and turnip greens – for use on Sunday or Monday. I refrigerated them, and began chopping up the bok choi and last week’s tatsoi. I sauteed the stems in peanut oil for a while, and added the greens. Later on, I added fermented black beans, some green garlic, and tamari. I probably added too many black beans – the flavor of the overall dish was a little strong.

I’d planned to bake some tofu to compliment the meal, but was running a little short on time, so I tried poaching it. I have to say, putting a big block of tofu in a pot of boiling water seemed a little silly, but it wasn’t too bad with a little tamari drizzled on top. But I think I prefer baked.

So at this point, I have left: green lettuce, kale, and some green garlic. Not bad!

We got several things today that I think of as difficult to use: kohlrabi (pictured), radishes, and bok choi. I’m really more of a summer vegetable person. But I’ll come up with something. I have a pretty good recipe somewhere for sesame radishes. Other goodies received: strawberries, kale, green lettuce, and green garlic. We will need to eat the strawberries soon – they mold very quickly. Shouldn’t be a problem…

The first share of the year! Here’s what we got: asparagus, strawberries, red-leaf lettuce, green lettuce, bok choi, tatsoi, green garlic, and turnips. The share was supposed to also have kale, but I think maybe we got extra lettuce instead. Tatsoi is a new one for me. It’s an Asian green that is pretty similar to kale, so I will probably use it in the same way. The bok choi and turnips will be the most difficult to use – I’m not that fond of either.