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Category: Recipes

  • Lentil Soup using any Root Vegetable and any Green

    Any root vegetable is good here; rutabaga, potatoes, carrots or turnips (scarlet or Hakurei) or parsnips would all be good.

    This is super simple to make and it makes a lot, so you will have leftovers and the leftovers are great. You can throw in any extra grains or vegetables you have to freshen up the leftovers and eat this all week, oh and this just happens to be vegan.

    I love adding a little bit of vinegar to lentil dishes, I add a splash about 1/2 way through cooking when I add the greens, if I am using greens and usually a little more right before eating it. If you don’t think you’ll like the vinegar just start with just a little and add more to taste or leave it out. It will be delicious either way.

    To make this you’ll need;

    • 1 1/4 cups green lentils
    • 12 oz canned (or cartoned?) or fresh tomatoes —  (1 1/2 cups)
    • 2 large onions, chopped
    • 2 cloves garlic, minced
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 2 tablespoons to a 1/4 cup vinegar to taste – I used white balsamic, I like the slight sweetness but any vinegar is good – red wine vinegar is good.
    • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon fresh or dried thyme leaves
    • 2 cups peeled and diced root vegetable(s)
    • 2 cups diced carrots
    • 2 cups chopped greens – collards, spinach, chard – green are totally optional
    • 6 cups water
    • crushed red pepper flakes to taste
    • freshly cracked black pepper to taste

    Peel and dice the rutabagas and dice the rest of the vegetables you are using. I don’t peel carrots. Put everything in the amounts above in a pan except the vinegar and greens.

    Simmer that for a total of about an hour. About 1/2 way through cooking add about 2 tablespoons of vinegar and your greens and finish cooking until all the vegetables are cooked through. It’s fine to cook it longer. This photo is when I added the greens it needs to cook at least 1/2 hour longer.

    I like eating this with an added splash of vinegar and olive oil and bread or croutons.

    See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

  • Pumpkin Risotto

    This love making risotto. I have a pressure cooker that I use to make it. I know lots of people have Instant Pots, the two are interchangeable in this (and most) recipes.

    This risotto is super easy to make with deliciously creamy results.

    Here is what you need.

    • 2 tbsp olive oil (I forgot to put that in the picture)
    • 1 large shallot or small onion finely chopped
    • 2 or 3 cloves chopped garlic
    • 1 1/2 cups uncooked arborio rice (any rice works, arborio is really creamy)
    • salt and black pepper
    • 1/2 cup dry white wine (I use vermouth)
    • 3 cups liquid, you can use broth or water or milk. I used 1/2 milk and 1/2 water
    • 2 cups peeled and cubed squash or pumpkin
    • 1/3 to 1/2 grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
    • squeeze of lemon and some chili powder, optional but delicious.
    1. Sauté onion and garlic until softened. Add pumpkin and rice, cook until rice is translucent. Stir in salt and pepper. Add wine; cook and stir about 1 minute or until evaporated. Add the liquid and mix well.
    2. Secure lid and move pressure release valve to Sealing position. Press Manual if you are using an Instant Pot, if you have a Pressure Cooker cook on high for 6 minutes.
    3. When cooking is complete, press Cancel and use quick release.
    4. Stir risotto about 3 minutes or until it gets creamy. Stir in 1/2 cup cheese.
    5. Replace the lid and let it rest for at least 20 minutes or even longer. It gets creamier while it is resting. Don’t skip this step.

    This is what it looks like after pressure cooking for 6 minutes. It isn’t cohesive yet, it needs some time to rest and get creamy. Stir it really well and add the parmesan cheese and lemon and chili powder if you are using it. Put the lid back on and walk away for 20-30 minutes.

    After resting it will look like this.

    Happy Fall CSA members. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Roasted Green Chile Sauce

    I can’t believe I haven’t posted a roasted chili sauce before. This is a super delicious and easy sauce you can make with any of the roasted chilies you get in your CSA share. Ue your hot, mild or even sweet if you use roasted Carmen.

    You can eat the sauce with just chips or put it inside a burrito or make enchiladas or huevos rancheros or just eat a bowl of it. It makes everything better, just beans and rice and chile sauce is so good. 

    You can make this vegetarian/vegan by using vegetable broth. To make this you’ll need;

    • 1 pound of roasted chilies, any kind. Peel and seed them. 
    • 1/2 cup of broth, again any kind you like, or even just water.
    • 1/2 cup each chopped tomatoes and onions
    • a few cloves of garlic and some spices like cumin and oregano about 1 teaspoon if the spices. 
    • Hot sauce is optional, I didn’t use it this time. My chilies were plenty hot enough. 
    • 1 Tablespoon each oil and flour (I forgot to put those in the picture) any flour will do, gluten free, whole wheat or masa flour. I used plain all purpose flour. 

    Heat a pan with the oil and add the onions and cook until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and flour and stir until the flour is absorbed. 

    Add the spices you are using and slowly add the broth and everything else.

    Let that simmer until the tomatoes have totally collapsed and the sauce is thickened to your liking, about a half an hour. 

    You can change the mood of this chili by using a different thickener than flour. If you use masa flour or even crushed corn chips instead of flour and you get a deep rich flavor that is more New Mexican cuisine tasting. 

    Only 3 more weeks of CSA left. Start freezing some chilies so you can make this for winter.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

  • Super Simple Pickled Watermelon Radish

    Radish pickles make any dish a little more tasty and fun and add a really nice crunch to everyday food. They are super quick and easy to make and dress up anything. Try radish pickles on a simple bowl of rice, a taco or a sandwich or top a salad with it.

    I had watermelon radishes today, but you could use a daikon or a black winter radish if that is what you have. Look at the tap root on that big radish! You’ll have to scroll waaaaayyy down to see the whole thing. Way to grow Team Red Wagon Farm!

    To make this you’ll need;

    • A winter radish
    • 1/4 cup vinegar-any type will do. I used cider vinegar, rice vinegar is good or white wine vinegar is good too.
    • 2 tablespoons of a sweetener-agave, sugar, honey. I used maple syrup
    • Black sesame seeds are optional, but fun with watermelon radishes, they look like watermelon seeds :-).

    Slice the radish very thin. You can use a knife or a mandolin or even a spiralizer if you have one and toss in the vinegar and sweeter…that’s it, you made a radish pickle.

    This will keep in a jar in the refrigerator for a week to 10 days. I hope you try this. It makes me happy to have a jar and try it on different things.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

  • Breakfast Poblano Potatoes

    I like to pull all my vegetables out of the refrigerator every week or two to weed out what needs to be used up and decide what is old and should go to the chickens. This is usually when I decide what to blog on for the week. Today I had some potatoes, poblanos and some corn that really needed to be used. I was going to make a potato poblano soup. Basically using this recipe and adding the poblanos and some corn.

    As I was cutting up the potatoes, they looked so good I decided I wanted the potatoes to be the star and not get lost in a cream soup. There is nothing like freshly dug potatoes. See how buttery they look. I changed my mind and decided I wanted roasted potatoes instead.

    So I made Breakfast Poblano Potatoes

    Preheat the oven to 425F.

    Dice about 1 pound of potatoes, an onion and 2 or 3 peppers, I had poblanos but Carmen or bell peppers would work too. Put the chopped vegetables in a sheet pan.

    Coat everything with oil and toss it all together with salt and pepper and a little cumin, paprika, garlic powder, and/or dry chili powder if you like.  Roast it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, stir it when it is about 1/2 cooked. I’ll add the corn 1/2 way.

    This is what it looks like 1/2 way cooked with the corn added.

    These would be great in a breakfast burrito or made into a frittata.

    Only a few weeks left of CSA. Hope you are enjoying your shares. I’ll see you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

     

  • Beet Tacos

    (Post updated on 9/23/2025)

    I like to roast beets and keep them handy in the refrigerator so they are ready for quick meals. I throw into salads or sandwiches…

    Or tacos

    A local restaurant features beet tacos and this is my attempt at recreating them at home. The menu description says “Griddled cotija cheese, roasted beets, pickled onions, cilantro aioli.” I looked online at a couple of beet taco recipes and liked the idea of garbanzo beans in a taco with beets. I didn’t use a recipe (does anyone for tacos?) but I did use the idea of adding garbanzo beans. Here are some photos of how I made these tacos.

    I had the beets roasted and I had corn tortillas, Cotija cheese is easy to find in most any grocery store and really makes this taco. You can use feta or halloumi cheese, or anything you have. But the Cotija is a little salty and holds it shape and gets toasty brown when you cook it.

    It took me longer to photograph these tacos than to make them. Once you have the beets cooked there is almost nothing to this delicious taco meal.

    I started with some onions and garbanzo beans in a skillet.

    When they were brown I added some diced beets and the Cotija cheese and browned all of that.

    That’s it. I made the tacos and topped them with what I had. I had some corn salsa and  crema Mexicana. Any salsa would do but the I would for sure use a tart spicy salsa.

    This was so good. The sweetness of the beets and the salty browned cheese and tangy salsa and the earthy tortilla together were delicious, it tasted like a restaurant meal.

    This isn’t a great photo and I couldn’t take any more because we ate them before I looked to see if I got a good picture. You’d think I would know better than that by now.

    You should make these. And if you are taking photos don’t eat them all before you see if any of the photos are any good.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

  • Early Goodbye to Summer Crops

    How are you doing? Wow. What a week-month-year 2020 has been.

    A week ago Wyatt wrote how well summer crops were doing . I am sure he never dreamed a week later, we would have freezing temperatures and would be harvesting like crazy to save what we food we can, but that is exactly what has been happening at the farm this week.

    We won’t know until the weather warms up what crops are lost or not, but almost certainly we will lose tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and the pepper plants. Some of the crops store better than others, so we will probably see some peppers in the next week or so. Peppers store well, tomatoes not so much.

    If you follow Red Wagon on Instagram you’ll have seen all the melons harvested Monday.

    We are doing the same with all the high summer vegetables, harvesting and trying to save and store what we can.

    The good news is all the greens and root crops and brassicas will be fine in the snow and cold.

    We will keep you updated how things are going at the Farm. Until then, enjoy the last of the high summer food.

    See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Cheesy Grilled Peppers

    Grilled peppers are one of my favorite summer foods. I love love love grilled peppers of all kinds.

    Poblano, Jalapenos, Jimmy Nardelo, Carmen, Bell and especially Shishitos. I have posted lots of Shishito recipes here.

    This is as easy to make as it is delicious.

    Just wash the peppers and cut them in half and clean out the seeds and membranes, except for Shishitos, leave them whole.

    I like to toss the peppers in olive oil and sprinkle some salt on them before grilling.

    Grill the peppers on both sides so they are pretty much done, then add the cheese. My favorite cheese for grilled peppers is Manchego, especially for sweet peppers like Carmen and Jimmy Nardelo.

    It doesn’t take much cheese, in fact, don’t put too much on or it won’t melt properly.

    That’s it. We had this for dinner with some grilled corn on the cob with lots leftover. Leftovers are great for breakfast with eggs (grilled pepper and egg tacos anyone?!).

    Today it feels like Fall is around the corner. Enjoy the Summer’s bounty.

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

    Mo

  • Roasted Kohlrabi

    This is an fast and easy, “goes with anything” side dish. I had some onion dip I made last week and served with the roasted kohlrabi and it was delicious we had it with BBQ ribs.

    They just look like potatoes when they are cooked don’t they?

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    They are kind of weird looking not cooked.

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    I have other recipes here you can have a look at, kohlrabi makes great slaws and stir fries. I’ll add this simple roasted kohlrabi recipe to the list.

    • Preheat your oven to 400F
    • Peel the kohlrabi, I use a knife. You can use a vegetable peeler if you like.

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    Cut it into bit size pieces and toss it with oil and salt

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    Roast it for 20-25 minute, it will look like this when it is done. I could have roasted it a little longer, but I like it a little crunchy.

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    That’s it. Tasty and simple.

    I hope you try it.

    Have a great week. See you at pickup.

    Mo

     

     

  • Grilled Onions and Grilled Onion Dip

    Ahhh, the humble onion.

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    Amy reminded me the other day just how delicious and versatile grilled onions are.

    They complement any grilled dish and really round out a meal. Plus they are dead easy to make.

    Just a little oil and salt and grill to your liking.

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    I really like to cut the onions thick and carefully grill them so they don’t fall apart (you can put a skewer through them to help hold them together) and right before they are done I like to put BBQ sauce on them and grill them just a little longer.

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    These make great toppings for burgers or grilled vegetable sandwiches.

    I wasn’t planning on posting a dip recipe, but I made an onion dip with some of the grilled onions I made and-oh-my-gosh was this good.

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    I used;

    • 3 small grilled onions chopped up
    • 1 cup of sour cream
    • 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
    • a little less than a 1/2 teaspoon each of dried garlic powder and white pepper and salt.

    I mixed it all up and 4 of us ate almost all if it. You should make this.

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

    Mo