Feb 7, 2015 Shared Harvest Pickup

MENU IDEAS

WEEK 1

Fresh spinach in the dead of winter: what a gift from the farmers and low tunnels at Riverland! Any meals involving cooked greens will be made with blanched greens from my freezer, and these beautiful crunchy fresh greens will definitely go into salads.

From last month’s share I made this roasted carrots and quinoa and served it on uncooked spinach. It was so good that I was making variations the rest of the week. It can be a meal in itself or fortified with nuts, eggs, cheese, or other protein. It would be good with one of our standbys – Mark Bittman’s simplest and best shrimp. (SIDE NOTE: The salad is also good with roasted parsnips instead of carrots. I’ve been using the simple dressing of lemon juice and miso –with extra virgin olive oil– to dress slaws, such as shredded cabbage and carrots.)

I’m also re-posting a soup-stew recipe from last year – it’s really more of a method, a root vegetable and bean soup that I adapt through much of the year. This version features gilfeather turnips or another rutabaga variety. This will make dinner for two nights or more, and if potatoes are omitted it also freezes beautifully. Serve with a spinach salad for one meal and with breadsticks or cornbread for a second meal.

Celery root, apple, and spinach salad with pistachio nut dressing with butternut squash gnocchi. Or, use the spinach together with squash in a fall vegetable lasagne.

Herbed roasted sweet potato skins, saving the sweet potato flesh for falafel on another night. Serve with your favorite vegetarian or non-vegetarian sausages or with an omelet.

Baked sweet potato falafel. I haven’t tried these yet. I like serving falafel with roasted marinated beets, sliced radishes, tahini sauce. If you’ve still got spinach, shred some with cabbage and carrots. Save some roasted marinated beets for another salad.

I’ve been meaning to make a squash curry sometime. It might be good with Gujarati cabbage (with some substitutions or omissions to address seasonality; frozen frying peppers instead of fresh; omit tomatoes or try frozen sun-dried tomatoes).

WEEK 2

This week’s soup could be a spicy carrot and lentil.

Pasta with parsnips and bacon. Serve with a winter panzanella salad with squash if the meal doesn’t sound too starchy, or with roasted beets with an anchovy vinaigrette (this is a delicious combination).

Years ago I used to make the apple chicken from the Silver Palate New Basics cookbook. Similar preparations apply to pork or tempeh. Serve it with roasted celery root or a steamed grain and sauteed, sweet and sour, or shredded raw cabbage.

Quiche served with roasted potatoes with dried figs and thyme (I used dried thyme). Substitute kohlrabi for broccoli in your favorite egg-based or vegan quiche recipe, and with a store-bought crust prep is quick. Martha Rose Shulman’s kohlrabi-filled phyllo pie sounds delicious. If you are out of kohlrabi, frozen spinach or other greens make delicious quiche.

Here’s Heidi Swanson’s take on a Mark Bittman “autumn millet bake” –butternut squash, millet, cranberries, pumpkin seeds. Serve it with shredded radishes and cabbage dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.

Roasted spiced sweet potatoes go well with this delicious take on saag from the splendid table (I used some thawed pureed tomatoes in place of fresh tomato and omitted asafetida). They could go with any type of protein, especially blackened or pan-seared fish fillets.

WEEK 3

Soup: White bean & cabbage; there are several versions on the website for Lexington Community Farm.

If you happened to order the blue cheese from chase hill farms, it elevates the already delicious classic combination of roasted beets and toasted walnuts – as does the addition of roasted leeks, shallots, or onions. Serve it with pasta with roasted red peppers, olives, and kohlrabi (substituting kohlrabi for broccoli). If you’ve no kohlrabi left, frozen brussels sprouts would be good.

I have in mind that mussels should go great with potatoes; here are three different versions that sound good, served warm with the broth or in a simple salad or in a more complex salad.

Spicy rutabaga saute, soba noodles with peanut sauce, shredded radish and carrot with ginger dressing and sesame seeds.

Squash gratin with feta and mint or roasted root vegetable and grain salad. The former seems a meal in itself; the latter could be served with tofu, eggs, canned tuna, or any other protein. Leftover radish and carrot salad would be good with either.

Balsamic-glazed carrots; give some parsnips the same treatment; serve with veggie burgers or other protein and paprika oven-fried potatoes.