Pickled Pink and Other CSA Food Adventures

I had to share these beauties with you.

Ironically, BEETS have actually been a rare root vegetable in our weekly share. I am truly not a big beet fan. I like to pickle them, like these, or we will grate them and turn them into a rosti (giant hash brown). On the other hand, we have received a ton of turnips and several rounds of rutabaga. These two definitely have a place on my list of foods I just really never enjoy eating. I can’t explain it really, the best I can come up with is that their flavor reminds me of how body odor smells. Clearly, that is not pleasant. Robert has snuck them into a couple of things, and I have tolerated them. Most have been given away to others whose palate preferences differ from my own.

We have also received a ridiculous amount of RADISHES. I have realized that there are just not a lot of options for radishes besides salads…. We did experiment one night with sautéed radishes and peas. They weren’t bad, but the leftovers were not great. It was an unusual way to eat them, but unfortunately, not something we wanted to repeat on a regular basis. I also pickled a large batch of them (our other pickled pink). These turned out pretty well, but again, you can only eat so many pickled radishes. I think we are done with radishes for the time being, and ironically, I just came across a recipe use for them that sounded quite intriguing: Radish Butter. You dice them up super fine and mix them with butter and some seasoning. You then serve it as a spread and/or dip. So, if I get more radishes, you know what I am doing!

Here is the sauteed radishes with peas.

We have also made some interesting PIZZAS with some unconventional toppings like butternut squash and assorted greens. It is actually pretty fun to come up with creative and tasty combinations to put on pizza. We have also put beets, carrots and broccolini on our pizzas at different times. We recently did one with spinach, caramelized onions, carrots, and fennel, and broccolini along with some chicken sausage, blue cheese and mozzarella. It was quite tasty, but I think I concluded that I just don’t like roasted broccoli that much.

Beets on a pizza? Sure, why not!

Speaking of GREENS, those continue to keep arriving week after week. I think I have enough frozen greens to last until next winter at this point! The nice thing is that I have found that you can substitute quite a few different greens for spinach. In addition to pizza, it has made its way into a veggie lasagna and a tasty tortellini vegetable soup. They have slowly grown on me as the winter has progressed. I have also found that some olive oil, vinegar, garlic and salt will work quite well with the flavor of most leafy greens

Next up is tackling all of our CITRUS. Although we both like oranges, tangelos, and tangerines, we just don’t snack on them nearly enough. I am planning to experiment with some baked goods. For some reason, although I like lemon cake, I have always thought an orange cake sounds weird. However, I am not really sure I have actually tried one. So, that is my next culinary experiment. I have read about a Portuguese Olive Oil Orange Cake that I find intriguing to try. For our first round of citrus baking, however, we ended up making these Citrus-Currant Sunshine Muffins. They were tasty, but we didn’t exactly follow the recipe, so we may need to try it again! We forgot the citrus from the orange and the lemon juice, and we didn’t have any currants. I think some dried cranberries would be tasty next time.

I was excited to get FENNEL a couple of different times. As mentioned, it made its way into a pizza. Along with our citrus, it also allowed us to make one of our all time favorite couscous salads. I highly recommend this one, and grilling fennel gives it a wonderful flavor. It is super simple and filling. Here is the link for Grilled Fennel Couscous Salad.

Other cooking adventures included this Roasted Green Chile and Corn Chowder. Although not all CSA ingredients, it did contain some red potatoes and some of the green chilies that are still hanging out in our freezer. It was quite tasty, and R made the bread bowls for it.

Finally, we have received several bags of DRIED BEANS. We have discovered the joy and ease of using our slow cooker for them. You don’t even need to soak them! Just give them a rinse, cover them with hot water and let them simmer all day long. I will usually throw some chopped onion and garlic in there, but that is about it until the last half hour or so of cooking. At that point, you add some salt and pepper along with any other seasonings you might want. I like to put some Smoked Spanish Paprika in there to keep it vegetarian but still give it that hint of smokiness that would come from cooking some sort of smoked pork product along with it. With some corn bread, it makes an amazingly simple but satisfying meal. I think I will use up the last of my canned beans, and then completely convert to cooking my own in the future. It is healthier, cheaper, and better for the environment (less processed and packaged foods means less trash).