Red Wagon Farm

Coconut Bacon

Posted on June 24, 2019 by mo

Crispy, smoky, salty and a little sweet.

So many salad and vegetable main and side-dish recipes call for bacon. If you are anything like me, at least 1/2 my family and friends are non-meat eaters. Bacon does bring a chewy satisfying finishing element to dishes, and just leaving it off is unsatisfying. At least it is unsatisfying to me.

Coconut bacon solves this dilemma, everyone can eat this and so far, everyone I have fed it to loves it.

Coconut bacon is nothing new. It is all over the vegan and vegetarian blog world. All the recipes are almost all the same ingredients and it takes about 20 minutes to make.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups large, unsweetened large flake coconut (not regular shredded coconut!)
3 tablespoons soy sauce or liquid aminos, or tamari sauce. I like to mix soy sauce and Bragg’s liquid aminos 1/2 and 1/2.
2 tablespoons liquid smoke, don’t leave this out, the smoky element is what makes this work. It’s in the condiment isle in most stores, it’s easy to find.)
2 to 3 tablespoons maple syrup. I used 3 tablespoons this time.

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Measure the coconut flakes out onto the baking sheet. Drizzle the coconut flakes with tamari, liquid smoke and maple syrup. Mix well. Spread the flakes into an even layer on the parchment paper.
Bake on the middle rack for 15 to 20 minutes depending on your oven and how dark you want your ‘bacon’, flip every 5 minutes or so, until flakes are mostly dry and turning golden on the edges. (Keep an eye on the coconut as it can go from golden brown to deep burnt brown fairly quickly. The coconut flakes will crisp up as they cool, so don’t judge doneness just by crispy or not.
Let the coconut bacon cool, to crisp up to eat right away, or transfer to a jar or plastic bag.

Here are some pictures; just mixed and after baking for 20 minutes.

Coconut bacon keeps well on at room temperature for a couple weeks or in the refrigerator or freezer for at least a few months.

Posted in 2019, Miscellaneous, Recipes | Comments Off

Radish + Salt + Butter

Posted on June 18, 2019 by mo

Butter, salt and radish. Simple, classic, delicious.

This post is an ode to the humble radish.

I chop them up and throw them in just about any salad. I love adding them to my avocado toast in the morning. Lots of coffee shops serve this very dish.

I saw this idea for butter dipped radishes and made it for a Father’s Day pre-dinner snack. Everyone really loved them and they took about 5 minutes to make and were really super impressive looking. I’ll make these again and again I am sure.

I will trim the greens better next time to make them prettier. Opps. Funny that didn’t bother me when we were eating them. But now that I see the picture-ekk.

Much like the butter dipped radishes for an appetizer, I like to set out an array of radishes, butter, salt and bread to snack on with drinks before dinner.

People can grab what they like, just butter and bread or bread with slices of radish, or they can put a little butter on a radish and salt it sans bread.

Yup. Simple, classic, delicious.

Posted in 2019, Radish, Recipes | Comments Off

Rhubarb Crumble Breakfast Yogurt

Posted on June 18, 2019 by mo

I have never posted a Fruit Crumble recipe because I figure everyone already has a favorite one. One your mom or grandma made probably. It is of course, interchangeable with any type of fruit or berry and you can serve it with ice cream, whipped cream, egg custard, or just alone.

I was talking with Lauren about crumble, as you do, and she nonchalantly commented how she has her crumble for breakfast, with yogurt.

Mic drop.

Mind blown. How have I never thought of this.

This should be on every breakfast menu.

Use your favorite recipe, add any nuts or seeds to up the protein, or don’t use any if you don’t like them. Use any grains or grain substitute, or make it gluten free. Use honey, sugar, agave, applesauce, or any sweetener you like. Make it to your liking.

Just make it, and thank Lauren for the great idea.

See you at pickup.

Posted in 2019, Recipes, Rhubarb | Comments Off

Grain Free Kale Tabbouleh Salad

Posted on June 10, 2019 by mo

I went to a friends for dinner last night and was asked to bring a grain free salad. I had just made this tabbouleh salad and loved it so much I made it again leaving out the bulgur and upping the greens and parsley amounts.

This comes together in about 5 minutes and it delicious.

Ingredients

4 cups of mix of greens like kale, chard finely chopped (I used one bunch of kale)
1/2 cup of parsley finely chopped and 1/4 cup mint finely chopped
1/4 cup Scallions finely minced
2 Tomatoes medium, seeded and diced
1 Cucumber medium, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
3 Tbsp Lemon or lime juice
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Optional additions are

garbanzo beans
feta cheese
goat cheese
olives

Instructions
1. Combine everything in a large bowl and mix well. Chill for 1 hour.
3. Before serving taste and add more olive oil, lemon (lime) juice or salt and toss again.

Posted in 2019, Greens, Herbs, Kale, Recipes | Comments Off

Saag Paneer

Posted on June 10, 2019 by mo

We are getting lots of greens in our CSA share of late, here is a great way to use lots of those greens up.

Saag is a quick easy one dish meal or side dish. It travels well and is good warm or at room temperature. Saag is usually made with spinach, but you can use any green. I actually think saag means ‘leafy green’, so use kale or chard, or turnip greens-use what you have! You can make it luxuriously rich making it with cream, or vegan by using coconut, or any plant based milk like almond or soy. If you don’t have or like paneer sub, tofu, garbanzo beans, cubed potatoes, cauliflower or just make saag and let it stand alone.

Basically you cook some garlic and onions and ginger in a pan and add some Indian spices, then add a TON of finely chopped greens to that pan. When the greens have wilted down you add the liquid you like and cook that to a creamy texture. Sometimes I use an immersion blender or a regular blender to get a really smooth texture, other times I leave it a little choppy.

Here are two basic saag recipes that you can springboard off.

I pretty much followed the recipe from 101 Cookbooks. I like that she uses weights for the spinach. I’ll note the changes I made in parentheses.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds fresh baby spinach, well washed and dried (I used collards and chard)
2 tablespoons ghee, clarified butter, or unsalted butter
8 – 12 oz paneer cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium onions, finely chopped (I used a mix of our CSA green garlic, leeks and scallions)
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
3 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped (see my note above)
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (I used two tablespoons)
1 tablespoon spice mixture* see below (I used a premix Indian spice)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup buttermilk (I used a mix of butter milk and yogurt because I didn’t have enough of either. Feel free to use coconut milk, or a plant based milk. )
splash of cream or dollop of plain yogurt (I like it with a splash of cream)
fresh lemon to finish, and toasted sesame seeds to sprinkle

INSTRUCTIONS

Chop the spinach well, and set aside in a large bowl.
While you’re chopping spinach, cook the paneer in one tablespoon of the butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Make sure the paneer is in a single layer and use a spatula to flip it regularly so all sides get deeply brown. This typically takes 7 minutes or so. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Heat the other tablespoon of butter in your largest soup pot. Add the onions and salt, and saute until the onions soften up, five minutes or so. Add the garlic, ginger, spice mixture, and turmeric. Cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant and nicely combined – a minute or two.
Turn the heat up to medium-high and add the spinach to the pan all at once, if possible. Cook, stirring all the while, until the spinach is collapsed and wilted, a couple of minutes. If you need to add the spinach in batches (adding more spinach as it collapses), that is fine too, just do it as quickly as possible.
Stir in the buttermilk and cream and heat gently while stirring. If the mixture seems dry, add more buttermilk a splash at a time (this rarely happens to me). Taste and add more salt if necessary and more red pepper flakes if you like. Add a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice, stir in the paneer, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

This is my biggest mixing bowl full of a bunch of collards and a bunch of chard. Next photo is step #1 all chopped up and then the other ingredients assembled.

Step #3 and #5 look how much that cooks down.

The next two pictures are, first, where I left the saag chopped and second, where I used a blender to puree it. I prefer to puree it when I make it with more hefty greens like collards and kale. I cook it a little longer too and added an extra dollop of cream. It makes it a little less chewy.

If you don’t already have saag in your ‘easy meal’ repertoire I hope you give it a try.

Have a great week, see you at pickup.

Posted in 2019, Chard, Collards, Greens, Kale, Recipes, Spinach | Comments Off

Braised Bok Choy

Posted on June 3, 2019 by mo

Word has it there is a lot of bok choy in the field so I wanted to add one more fast delicious prep for the bok choy you are getting this week.

Bok choy is a substantial vegetable that can stand alone as a main dish or as a side. When you braise it the liquid you use becomes a tasty sauce you can serve with rice, grains, pasta or potatoes.

Make sure you wash your bok choy really well, especially around the stem area. They are a little bit like leeks, that they hang onto soil around their stems. See?

Braised Bok Choy

1 bunch of bok choy, washed and halved. Don’t worry if some leaves fall off, just throw them in the pan to cook with the intact halves

1 tablespoon sesame oil, butter, or olive oil, your choice

1 cup chicken, vegetable stock, I used 1/2 coconut milk and 1/2 water

Salt + pepper

I added a handful of leeks and green garlic too.

Bring water and butter or oil to a simmer over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add bok choy and other vegetables if you are using any, the liquid won’t cover the vegetables, that is ok. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook about 5 minutes or until stalks are tender. Transfer the vegetables to a shallow serving dish and cover them to keep them warm. Taste the liquid and decide if you want to reduce it or make it thicker, or maybe it’s ok? I added a little corn starch to mine this time to thicken it up. Most times I reduce it down to about half. Whatever you decide when you are happy with how it tastes, pour the braising liquid over the bok choy, tasted again if it needs any more salt or pepper and enjoy.

We had our bok choy with fish and rice. This isn’t a great picture but I am adding it to show you the braising liquid, see in the bottom right? There isn’t much left, it is absorbed by the vegetables, but it is very tasty and ties the dish together, with a little squeeze of lime and we are done in less than the amount of time it took to cook the rice.

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

Posted in 2019, Bok Choy, Recipes | Comments Off

Miso Soup with Bok Choy

Posted on June 3, 2019 by mo

Wyatt suggested this healthy quick meal because it is so adaptable to any array of vegetables that may come your way via CSA.

I used bok choy, green garlic, a handful of kale, soba noodles and an egg. But feel free to replace or add any vegetables or protein you have.

Here is the basic recipe, it makes enough for 2 bowls and takes about 10 minutes to make.

3 ounces dried soba noodles
2 – 4 tablespoons miso paste (to taste I used white miso, I like red too)
4 cups of water or broth
2 – 3 ounces firm tofu or 2 eggs or chicken
a handful vegetables washed and chopped
2 or 3 green onions or green garlic (garlic scapes would work too) finely chopped
Grated fresh ginger to taste- I used about 2 tablespoons

Cook the soba noodles in salted water, drain, run cold water over the noodles to stop them from cooking, set aside.
In a medium sauce pan bring 4 cups of water or broth to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and add the chopped vegetables, onions and garlic and simmer for 3-5 minutes until they are just cooked.
Pour a bit of the hot water (or broth) into a small bowl and whisk in the miso paste – so it thins out a bit and keeps the miso from clumping.

When the vegetables are cooked turn off the heat and stir the miso into the pot. You don’t want to boil the miso because will kill the probiotics in it. Taste, and then add more (the same way) until it is to your liking. Taste and see if it needs any salt, some misos are saltier than others.

Split the noodles and grated ginger between two bowls, and pour the miso broth over them and divide up the vegetables between the bowls.