The end of the purple top turnips

I feel the need to mark this occasion. Last night, I finished the last of the purple top turnips in my fridge, turning them into turnip cakes.

Now I just have some parsnips and carrots to finish, then the last of the root storage will be gone! I am definitely ready for some summer veggies, especially tomatoes.

Links, 6/8/14 edition

A few links from the past week:

• Now that strawberry season is upon us, here's an idea for turning your strawberry tops into spa-like strawberry water.  I've made it a couple of times already.

• The husband sent me a link to a post entitled How to Make a Good Salad Without Dumb Leaves, which might be a commentary on the number of salads that have involved greens lately.

• Here are 11 different types of pesto to try.  I've enjoying making pesto with some of the greens in our box lately, including broccoli leaves and pea tendrils.  Thinking about trying kale next; here's a link to a recipe for kale pesto using walnuts that sounds promising (and similar to the method I used when making the pesto with broccoli leaves).

• Found a page with many kohlrabi recipes.  Haven't tried any of them yet.  I used this week's kohlrabi in a salad using a recipe from the farm from last year (which I'll blog soon).

I've mostly been able to keep up with the greens in the boxes, although I haven't been able to keep up with posting about what I've been doing with them.  I also still have some purple top turnips, parsnips, and carrots from earlier boxes to use as well.  Now that I have much less work travel on my schedule, I'll get caught up on posting what I've been making.

Bok choy, radish, asparagus, pistachio and lemon salad

The farm's email suggested a salad recipe using bok choy and radishes.

I washed and chopped the boy choy...

...then added sliced radishes, sliced raw asparagus from our field, pistachios, and lemon zest.

The salad was dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The farm's recipe had suggested added edamame as well, but I went with the asparagus as a substitute.

Pasta with broccoli rabe and green garlic

This recipe for pasta with garlicky broccoli rabe from Smitten Kitchen is both easy and delicious.  

You start boiling the pasta, then add the chopped broccoli rabe five minutes before the end of the pasta's cooking time.

Instead of garlic, I used green garlic (the white part only), as we've been getting green garlic in our box each week lately, cooking it for about five minutes in olive oil (a little under a 1/2 cup) with 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes and 1 tsp of salt.  Once the pasta and broccoli rabe is cooked, drain and return it to the pan.  Pour the garlic and oil over the pasta and cook for a minute, then serve with parmesan.

I don't have a photo of the finished pasta.  It was late and we were hungry, so I didn't remember.  Head over to the Smitten Kitchen recipe to see what it looks like.

Broccoli leaf, green garlic and pistachio pesto

Last week, there was a bunch of broccoli leaves in the box. I decided to try to make pesto with the broccoli leaves, green garlic from the box, and pistachios.

I removed the stems and washed the leaves, then blanched the leaves for two minutes in boiling water. I thought that the taste might be too strong without the cooking.

After boiling for two minutes, I poured the leaves and water through a strainer, then ran cold water over the leaves to cool them down.  After letting them sit for a few minutes, I gave them a light squeeze and put them into the food processor with the green garlic (roughly chopped) and 1/4 cup of pistachios.

I added a drizzle of olive oil and about a 1/2 tsp of salt.

Then I blended in a 1/4 c of Pecorino Romano.  It was still a bit thick, so I thinned it with about a 1/2 c of the water that the pasta was cooking in.

Turned out delicious and has left me hoping that we see broccoli leaves in future boxes.

I'm thinking that I should try a kale pesto, as the farm's email had said that you could use broccoli leaves just as you'd use kale.  So does that mean I can use kale as I'd use broccoli leaves?

Watermelon and pepita salad

Continuing the trend of salads involving mesclun, fruit and pepitas (although no feta on this salad), I made a salad with watermelon.  While feta works well with watermelon, I decided just to have fruit and greens for this salad.

I dressed the salad with some olive oil, peach balsamic vinegar, salt, and papper.

We had the salad with lobster rolls.

The meal was very summery.

What's in the box, 6/4/14 edition

This week marks the end of the 12 week spring share season, meaning that we're already a quarter of the way through the year share.

Lots of green in the box again this week:

In the box today were French breakfast radishes, two kohlrabi that still had their leaves attached, a head of green oakleaf lettuce, a small head of red oakleaf lettuce, broccoli rabe, a small bag of mesclun, a large bag of braising greens (mostly baby kale, according to the farm's email), green garlic, and a bunch of kale.

Thinking of making a quiche with some of the braising greens, cooking the kohlrabi leaves to eat with grits, and making some kale chips (over the next few days, not all at once).  I also still have quite a few parsnips in the fridge, so maybe I'll make some parsnip chips at the same time I have the oven on to cook the kale chips.  And we'll eat salads, of course; lots of salads.