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Author: mo

  • Celeriac Soup

    Fall and Winter crops are here and one of my favorite vegetables is a choice this week-Celeriac! Days are noticeably shorter and cooler and I wanted some soup.

    I say all the time ‘use what you have and what you like’ and that is what I did to make this Celeriac Soup.

     

    I looked at my basic potato leek soup recipe and gathered pretty much equal amounts of whatever ingredients I had to make this soup. I bet you have most of these ingredients, or similar enough in your refrigerator and can make this soup too.

    • 1 little leek and a couple little onions washed and cut into circles.
    • 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of celeriac and a few smalls potatoes
    • 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil to sauté the vegetables, I used a little of both
    • 4 cups of liquid maybe a little more to thin it outt. You can use vegetable or chicken stock, or water or milk-dairy or plant based. I used chicken stock today, I thought I was going to use some oat milk too, I like to mix liquids, when I took this photo, but I didn’t use it after all. But you might want to.
    • Salt, pepper and any herbs you like. I had some celery leaves so I am using those instead of herbs. I also added some bay leaves, not in this picture.
    • You can always add optional toppings to finish the soup like cheeses, seeds or nuts or some crunchy raw vegetables are all a nice way to finish a hearty soup and make dinner feel special and fun. Look in your refrigerator and pantry for yummy toppings.

    Peel the celeriac and cut up everything else and add it to a large pot. Sauté on medium heat with some butter and or olive oil and salt and pepper.

    When all the vegetables have started to soften a little add whatever liquid you are using (I added my bay leaves at this point) and cover the pan with a lid and let that simmer for at least 45 minutes or an hour or so until everything is really really soft.

    When the vegetables are done your soup is done, it’s that easy. Taste it and see if you want to add some milk or cream or salt or pepper, maybe more liquid? I blended mine a little with an immersion blender. I left some chunks, I like it chunky. If you do blend it and you used bay leaves make sure you take the bay leaves out don’t blend them!

    My soup was really nice at this point and I didn’t want to add anything except a few chives. I thought I was going to add milk or cheese but no. I had made some pumpkin bread that went perfectly with the soup. Super simple and fast.

    Taste yours you may want to add something, otherwise, your done! Dinner is served!

    Well Friends. This is Week 22. Thank you so much for your support. Winter CSA starts next week and I hope to see you at the Winter pickups, but if not hopefully next year in our regular season CSA.

    Be well.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

  • Any Vegetable Coconut Milk Soup

    I love a ‘clean out the refrigerator’ simple meal. I like this because it’s quick, adaptable and uses up any and all vegetables you want to throw at it. Any protein you like too can easily be added, chicken, salmon, tofu. You are basically making a tasty broth that will compliment any vegetables you like.

    Start by gathering and chopping into bite size pieces any vegetables you want to use. I find about 4 cups of chopped vegetables and 1 cup of protein (if you are adding that) is about right for 4 servings .

    You’ll also need;

    1 14-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
    4 cups of any seasonal vegetable chopped plus protein if you are using any
    1/2 can water or broth(use the coconut can to measure)
    2-inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated (~1T grated), more if you like ginger a lot.
    1 cup minced shallots, onions or leeks
    1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt, or to taste
    Optional, but highly suggested ingredients; lime, sweetener like (raw) sugar or agave, curry paste or powder. I used about 1 tablespoon of curry paste and 2 tablespoons of agave and one (sad) lime, I wish I had more lime. Herbs like basil, cilantro or mint are great too.

    I added the tomato, radish and jalapeno raw to the dish at the end, like a garnish/side salad, but you can add anything at anytime. I LOVE winter squash in this dish and serve that with rice. Depending on what vegetables you use like broccoli or eggplant, this would be great over mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. Collards are really good here too if you blend them into the broth it reminds me of saag.

    These are the vegetables I had today.

    Cook whatever allium you are using with some oil, ginger and the curry powder or paste if you are using it, until the alliums and ginger soften.

    Add the coconut milk, water/broth and vegetables and any of the optional ingredients you are using and taste taste taste. Lime, salt and agave or sugar add so much here.

    That’s it. Serve it with noodles, potatoes, rice, naan, anything you like.

    Fall is in the air. Only two more weeks of Main Season CSA. Then the winter CSA starts.

    See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Aphids in Organic Produce

    Aphids are natural part of organic farming. I’ll admit they are a nuisance and can be icky sometimes (they are a great food source for beneficial insects) but luckily they can’t hurt humans and are usually pretty straightforward to manage.

    Try as we might to get rid of and control aphids, you still might find aphids on some of the vegetables you get like; lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Probably others I can’t think of right now, oh, Brussels sprouts. Holy moly do aphids like Brussels sprouts.

    You might find them on the underside of leafy greens.

    Here are some on the top of this cauliflower.

    And the underside too. There are only a couple, they are hard to see, but they are there.

    We have a machine that is a conveyor belt/sprayer we use to wash soil off vegetables and also use it to try to spray aphids off vegetables we harvest. Aphids are great at hiding so you might need to do some aphid control at home in addition to what we do.

    I think the easiest way to get rid of them is to put your vegetable in a sink and spray them with the strongest spray you have and simply wash them away. Spray from the top and the bottom!

    You can also soak your vegetables before or after spraying them to give them a good once over. While they are soaking give them a good swish around the water to help dislodge the aphids. We like to soak the vegetables at the farm in addition to using the conveyor sprayer, the aphids dislodge and float to the top of the water. Wyatt likes to add some salt to the water at home and says that helps dislodge them. I’ll have to try it.

    This picture I am soaking the cauliflower after spraying, you can see a few aphids floating that I missed with the sprayer.

    Sometimes soaking or spraying isn’t even necessary. I had a cabbage with a few aphids and I just peeled off a couple leaves and it was clean as can be under a few leaves I composted.

    The only way to control aphids 100% is to use pesticides (I think about pesticide use when I am in the grocery store looking at broccoli or Brussels sprouts with no aphids or caterpillars and personally, I keep walking) obviously we aren’t willing to use chemicals and we’ll deal with aphids as they come, as best we can.

    It does involve an extra step or two on our part and sometimes yours. We hope you understand and think it is worth the trouble/effort.

    We do.

  • BIG (really big) Celery This week

    This week CSA is getting celery. It’s all really big. Bigger than what you get at the grocery store. It’s so big I had to stand across the room to take the photo. I put my rolling pin in there for scale.

    Fresh celery has a stronger, more pungent flavor than long stored celery and has more fiber (strings) than store bought. If you quickly sauté this celery to add it to vegetables or sauces, or marinade it in olive oil with lemon or vinegar for a salad, it will tame any bitterness but keep the strong celery flavor. This bean and vegetable soup would be great featuring celery. Or how about making a celery stock? Use this recipe and sub celery for the corn cobs. Risotto is so tasty made with celery stock.

    Until you are ready to use this huge celery, how are we going to store this big thing?

    I’ll show you. Cut and trim about 1/2 the outer stalks off until the stalk is the size of a store bought celery. The inner part of the plant is more tender and mild. Look at this post to see how to best store it for later. It will keep for at least a couple weeks if you store it properly.

    Chop up the outer stalks and leaves to use in the next week or so. It will keep just fine until you are ready to make something like this, subbing celery for beans. Or how about this soup, subbing celery for Bok choy?

    Here is a photo all broken down to a reasonable size to store.

    And another photo show how you can actually get it all in your refrigerator, it did take a little shoving to get it in the drawer, haha.

    Celery Butchery 101. If you want more ideas, ask us at pickup.

    Have a great week.

    Mo

  • Shallots and the Perfect Vinaigrette

    We have a magnificent crop of big and perfectly grown shallots this year.

    I love how the mild flavor of shallots elevates just about any dish. There is no bitterness or hot bite like an onion or garlic. Shallots are lovely raw in salads or salad dressings because of the mild flavor they bring-rounding out the different flavors in a dish. Raw they have a pleasant crunch not fibrous like an onion. Cooked they melt into the background of a dish, only bringing a bulby allium background flavor with no texture.

    Shallots are a great substitution for garlic if you don’t want the punch or bite garlic brings to dishes like guacamole or hummus.

    I went to Culinary School (years and years ago). The first thing we learned to make and and incorporate into our dishes was a vinaigrette using shallots. We learned to taste for balance-the flavors of the oil, vinegar, salt and shallots in different proportions. When these 4 ingredients are in harmony it is magic and can make any simple vegetable or salad shine.

    Start with;

    • 2 large shallots minced
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar or a mix of any really good vinegar you like
    • 1 cup really good olive oil

    In a bowl or jar combine the shallots, salt and vinegar and stir until the salt has dissolved. Gradually whisk in the oil and taste, really taste. Is the vinegar to sharp? Add more oil. Is it too mild? Add more vinegar or a squeeze of lemon or lime? Want it a little sweet? Add honey or orange juice. Taste and adjust, taste and adjust.

    Use this as a dressing for any fruit, vegetable cooked or raw, legume, proteins or cheeses you like. Serve it with a crusty bread for sopping up the juices left and you will be very happy.

    My new favorite dish this year is using this vinaigrette on the roasted chilies we have been getting in our CSA share. I just clean and cut up the roasted Anaheim’s and top it with this vinaigrette and some queso fresco (chef’s kiss*).  So simple.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

  • Roasted Pepper Ideas

    We have a bumper crop of beautiful peppers this year. That means this week we lucky CSA members are getting 2 pounds of roasted peppers! Most of the peppers will be mild Anaheim peppers, all I have had are very mild with great fruity flavor and very thick juicy walls.

    I am going to post a few photos of how I used my roasted chiles this week to maybe inspire a few ideas. But also check out our past recipes here for green chili or green chili sauces, breakfast potatoes, casseroles and more. Remember too, you can stash some roasted peppers away in your freezer to use this winter.

    After cleaning the charred skin and most of the seeds off the chiles I have been making sandwiches and salads with them. They are so mild and tasty we have been eating them like we would tomatoes or cucumbers…just eating them. Nothing fancy.

    I got some ground beef from Gamma Grass and Livestock. They are selling their grass fed beef at the farmers markets around here and also at some of our CSA pickups (This week on Wednesday at our farm on 63rd St and on Thursday at our store in Lafayette! Pick some up for dinner). I love supporting local food and this is so tasty – like expensive bison. I cooked a burger and stacked two roasted peppers and as many vegetables as I could fit on top! That orange stuff is cheese, it got kind of translucent when I melted it, but darn, it was good. I did the same ‘stack’ a few nights later with a veggie burger (if beef isn’t your thing) and it was so delicious too.

    I get home pretty late on nights I work and I’m hungry and I want something fast. Grilled cheese sandwiches are often what we have. I always add some vegetable from the farm to my grilled cheese, kale grilled cheese has always been one of my favorites. This might be my new favorite now, grilled roasted pepper with tomato and cheese.

    Fall is sneaking up on us, enjoy the summer vegetables for a few more weeks.

    See you at pickup.

    Mo

  • 5 minute Tomatillo Peach Salsa

    Salsa is basically salad, right? This is a very very basic raw salsa that comes together in less then 5 minutes and can be endlessly adapted  to whatever you have or are serving. Start with this basic recipe. The flavors are intense so adding other ingredients are fun because they don’t get lost. Try adding some black beans, corn or tomatoes to make it more of a salad or relish or you could blend in some avocado to make it creamy. Adding some crumbly cheese like feta might complement a dish you are serving it with like burritos or tacos?

    I used only 6 ingredients;

    • 6 tomatillos peeled and husked,
    • 1 peach blended in the salsa I used one more for garnish I didn’t put in the picture
    • 1/4 of an onion
    • 1 clove of garlic
    • juice of one lime
    • a large handful of cilantro

    I put it in a blender all at once and ran it until it was smooth and add salt and pepper and tasted it if I needed more lime or salt.

    Voila Simple as is but have fun to make your special house salsa with your own add-ins.

    Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

     

  • Basil Pesto

    Summer is in full swing and we have lots of basil, that means it’s time to make some pesto.

    Making it couldn’t be easier. You just need a few ingredients and most of them are pretty much optional. Don’t like garlic? Leave it out. Don’t have any nuts? OK it will be delicious without them. Want it vegan? Leave out the cheese or use a vegan option. Have extra herbs like mint or tarragon or any other soft herb? Add them! It will make it more interesting.

    This recipe is for a fairly small batch. You can easily scale this up if you have more basil or other herbs. I gave a span of amounts in the recipe, so start with the small amount and taste and add more as needed.

    Start by grabbing your bunch of basil.

    • This bunch is about 4 cups loosely packed basil, like I said, scale this up or down as needed and taste!
    • 2 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled
    • 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
    • 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated Parmigiana (optional)
    • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, almonds, or walnuts (optional)
    • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

    You’ll notice I didn’t add salt or pepper. I used Parmigiana cheese and it was plenty salty. Taste and see if you need salt or not.

    Strip the basil leaves off the stem. The soft stem on the top are ok to leave.

    Combine basil, garlic, nuts, lemon, and the cheese in a food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the oil and purée until smooth. Taste and add more salt, lemon or oil if needed.

    This made a little more than a cup which was plenty for a pound of pasta.  If you have any leftover you can put it in a Ziplock bag or ice cube tray and freeze it for winter or add it to any salad, roasted or grilled vegetables or any grain dish. Pesto makes everything better.

    I didn’t freeze my leftover pesto. I slathered on a few sandwiches.

    Yay summer. Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

  • Leeks

    This week we are getting leeks in our share, they are one of my favorite alliums to eat and cook. Leeks are mild and tender and beautifully compliment just about any vegetable or protein you want to pair them with. The taste is distinct and the texture meltingly tender. We usually see leeks in the Fall or Winter CSA shares where soups and braising techniques are seasonally popular. What a treat it is to have them now, in July!

    If you are new to leeks, or really any vegetable, I suggest preparing them simply to showcase their most basic taste and texture. See how to clean your leeks here then maybe try grilling them whole like this? You could serve your grilled leeks with a simple dressing or just olive oil and salt and pepper.

    If you don’t want to grill or even have a grill maybe cut them into coins

    and sauté them in a little olive oil and or butter. I like to use both. I added some zucchini but you could certainly just have sautéed leeks as a lovely stand alone side dish.

    Herbs would be nice added here at the end of cooking. I have some pesto I think I’ll add to this and have it with salmon tonight for dinner. Here is a photo with the pesto. It was really a nice addition, yum.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Green Shakshuka

    Shakshuka generally is a creamy saucy tomato dish made with tomatoes, cream, herbs and spices. This green shakshuka uses lots and lots of greens and herbs. I used nut milk because that is all I had and it wasn’t very creamy but had a nice mild rich flavor. This is one of those dishes that is endlessly adaptable to use whatever you happen to have and customize it to your personal taste.

    Here is the recipe I very loosely followed with my changes in parentheses.

    Green Shakshuka

    • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 large onion chopped (I didn’t have an onion!)
    • 3 large cloves garlic crushed
    • 1 1/2 pounds mixed greens (I used 2 bunches of collards. ANY greens will work here), stems removed and roughly chopped.
    • 1/4 cup vegetable stock (I used water)
    • 1 cup packed mixed fresh herbs finely chopped (I used parsley and chives. Basil, cilantro, tarragon, a little mint, any soft herb would work. Feel free to mix and match what you like.)
    • 1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeño, (I didn’t have a jalapeno. I would have added it if I did)
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • 1/2 to 3/4 cup half-and-half, cream, yogurt or nut or oat milk depending on how creamy or saucy you like it.  (I used cashew milk)
    • 8 large eggs (I used 4 for two of us and had leftover shakshuka)

    Heat a skillet to medium heat, add the olive oil. Once the oil shimmers, add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring, 1 more minute or so. Add the chopped greens and water or broth and cook that for a few minutes until it wilts.

    Add the herbs you are using and cream or milk and cook that for a few more minutes until it all sort of collapses and melds together.

    Make some dents in the greens, add the eggs then cover the dish and cook that over a medium heat for about 5 minutes.

    The cream or milk does two things, 1. it steams the eggs so they cook evenly and 2. makes the dish luscious and rich. Serve it with crusty bread, pita or potatoes.

    ….or maybe tortillas for breakfast tacos

    Have a great week. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo