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Category: Recipes

  • Watermelon Waldorf Salad

    happy watermelon

    I don’t think anything takes me back to my childhood more than Waldorf salad or melon balls. I thought it would be fun to combine the two.

    watermelon waldorf salad

    Watermelon Waldorf Salad

    The flesh of one watermelon diced or use your melonball tool
    1 cucumber diced. I used 2 lemon cucumbers since they are small
    3 stalks of celery diced
    1 jalapeno diced (optional)
    Dressing
    2 or 3 tablespoons of mayo
    Juice of one lemon or lime, I used lime
    Salt, pepper and honey to taste.
    A handful of basil or mint minced (optional).

    A handful or two of toasted nuts, I used pecans.

    Combine the melon and vegetables and make the dressing. Just before serving add the dressing to the melon and vegetables.
    Top with the nuts.

    You can make more dressing if you like. I tend to like my salads very lightly dressed.

    Have a great week.

  • Storing and Handling Melons

    August 12, 2016: This is a re-post of a blog from August 2013. Melons are coming in strong right now. Soon to be followed my winter squash and more fruit, yay! Sometimes it is easy to forgot that, though we are organic, we still need to wash melons, and all produce from ANY Market or vendor before eating.

    August, 2013 repost; The most important thing to know about melons, any melons, is that you need to wash the melon before you cut into it. Even though you don’t eat the outer rind of the melon, any pathogens on the outside of the melon can be transmitted to the flesh when you cut into the melon.
    You don’t need to wash it if you are storing it. Wash the melon before you cut into it.

    Watermelons won’t ripen after they are picked. We are very careful to pick only ripe melons so rest assured the melon you get from us will be at it’s best. It will be heavy for its size and usually have a yellow spot on it’s ‘tummy’ where it was sitting growing on the field.

    Cantaloupe, honeydew, and musk melon will continue to slightly ripen after being picked. If you get a really firm melon with no fragrance leave it on the counter for a day or two, it will ripen.
    When perfectly ripe, the melon will be firm, the blossom end should smell fragrant and fruity, and the stem end shouldn’t smell like anything. If the stem end smells musky or moldy it is over ripe.

    Watermelons whole will keep in the refrigerator for at least two or three weeks. If you have a cool room, 55 to 65 degrees it will keep for 3 or 4 weeks. I don’t have anywhere this time of year that stays that cool, maybe you do.
    A watermelon cut up will keep in an airtight container for 3 or 4 days.

    Ripe melons, cantaloupe, honeydew, and musk melons will keep in the refrigerator 7-15 days depending on the variety. They will be good and safe to eat but they might be a little over ripe if you leave them a couple weeks.

    You can freeze any melon in an airtight container and use them in smoothies or fruit soups.

  • Shishito Peppers (again)

    Oh Shishito peppers, how do I love thee?

    This is pretty much a re-post of the blog I did last year. Is that bad?

    In my defense, I did it because I don’t think enough can be said, or blogged, or consumed when it comes to these peppers. I also wanted to blog again, in case some of you don’t look back at the recipes.

    Shishito’s are possibly one of my top 5 favorite vegetables. Oh, wait, it is a fruit isn’t it? It doesn’t matter, it is complex, smokey, deep flavor is like the best part of every pepper and chili you have ever had in one delightful bite.

    Most pepper seeds are bitter or very spicy and you discard them, but not these. They add a creamy taste and texture and add to the overall experience.

    I like Shishito’s best roasted or grilled. Put a little olive oil and salt on them and cook them on a hot grill.

    shishito peppers

    Keep turning them every few minutes. They will pop and steam as the inside of the pepper cooks and as the outsides char.

    on the grill
    Almost done.
    nicely charred

    Done.

    blistered and ready

    This isn’t a great picture, but it shows how the peppers collapse down after you take them off the grill.

    with new potatoes

    I made an omelette with Shishito’s and some shallot, it was so good.

    shishito omelette

    Again, not a great picture. I ate it all before I realized I didn’t get a good photo. I never do that. I always check to make sure I get a decent picture but got lost in my omelette…that how good these peppers are.

    I hope you like them too.

  • Golden Beet and Tahini Salad

    I really like to have this tahini salad dressing on hand to add to salads or vegetables. It’s just garlic, tahini and lemon. Together it adds nice bright flavor to lots of different dishes.

    Golden beet and tahini salad

    1 bunch of roasted or boiled beets, peeled and diced. Any variety of beet will do.
    2 garlic cloves
    1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
    2 tablespoons tahini
    Juice of one lemon.
    water as needed to thin the tahini

    Slice the beets and put them in a bowl.

    Smoosh the garlic and salt into a smooth paste using the side of your knife. Keep smooshing until the garlic and salt are fully incorporated.

    garlic
    paste

    Add garlic paste to a bowl with the tahini, lemon juice, and a couple of tablespoons of water. Whisk until smooth. Depending on how thick you want the sauce you may want to thin it with one or two more tablespoons of water. I really thinned mine out. Taste it with some beets before you thin it again so you don’t thin it too much.

    Add the beets and toss.

    beets with dressing

    I forgot to take a picture of it tossed. Opps. That is just golden beets and tahini sauce not tossed. I wanted to show you how thick/thin the sauce was.

    You can just serve the dish as is, or build a salad with the tahini beets. I had some quinoa and peaches so that was todays lunch. Take that Whole Foods.

    salad with beets

    One bunch of beets and 2 cups cooked quinoa and the tahini dressing made lunch and lots of leftovers. I love having leftovers like this.

    leftovers to enjoy

    Have a great week. Thanks for looking at Red Wagon’s blog.

  • Beet and Lentil Salad

    I don’t go to Whole Foods very often. I found myself there this weekend. When I am there I love to see what they have in the prepared foods area. I am always inspired. I think they do a really good job of (mostly) using in-season whole foods. Whole to me means, minimally processed.

    As inspired as I might be, I always leave shaking my head at the prices. Especially of the prepared foods. A lunch or light meal for just one person would cost over $10 or $12. I was going to a pot-luck. If I bought enough salad to bring it would easily cost $25 to $30. I wasn’t going to do that.

    Basically Whole Foods ‘recipe’ for most of the prepared salads is, take a whole grain or pulse, add some vegetables or legumes, dress it and maybe toss in some nuts or dried or fresh fruit and charge a whole lot for it.

    The variations are endless and always changing with the seasons, and super easy to do at home.
    With all that said, let’s make us a couple salads that, I think are Whole Foods worthy. Maybe better.

    You can substitute the ingredients in these salads for what you have available to you. This is what I had.

    Beet and Lentil Salad

    beet and lentil salad

    1 Bunch of Mixed Beets cooked
    2 cups of cooked grains or legumes
    Optional stirred in items; additional vegetables, like carrots, onions, shallot, garlic cooked or raw.
    Optional toppings; nuts, seeds, fruit fresh or dried
    Dressing to pull it all together, or just oil and vinegar.

    I had a mixed bunch of beets from last weeks CSA share that I boiled. See the golden beets, the Chioggia are kind of pink and the red are like jewels.

    1 cup of dry lentils= 2 cups cooked. I find if you start with 1 cup of dried beans or grains that is about right ratio for one bunch of beets.

    I used the beet greens and a little chard I had, and a shallot and cooked them until they were just wilted.

    wilted greens

    I added the cooked lentils and 1/2 the juice of a lemon to the chard mixture.

    add cooked lentils

    I made a basic vinaigrette and poured 1/2 of it on the lentil mixture and arranged that on some arugula.

    Finish the salad by cutting up the beets and arranged it all in a bowl on top of the arugula and lentils.

    I like the crunch of seeds so I added some pumpkin seeds and feta cheese is never a bad idea so I added some feta.

    At this point you want to taste your salad, get some of all the ingredients in your taste, and pour some more vinaigrette over the beets and toppings if it needs it.

    Look back at the first picture and you will see all the components.

  • Refrigerator Pickles

    refrigerator pickles

    This is a super simple way to have homemade pickles. I like to have a mix of crunchy stuff like carrots or cauliflower in with the cucumbers and onions. I chop these pickles up and add it to lettuce or arugula for an easy salad.

    Brine for 1 Quart

    3 (at least) cloves garlic, peeled
    2 cups water
    1 cups white vinegar
    3 teaspoons kosher salt
    Several sprigs of fresh dill if you have it
    1 teaspoon celery seed
    1 teaspoon coriander seed
    1 teaspoon mustard seed
    1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

    You can use any vegetables you have. I like to always use cucumbers, onions, and some hot pepper. Other than those I use what I have.

    For this quart I used two cucumber, baby carrots, 1/2 a red onion, and a jalapeno. Wash and peel your vegetables if you like them peeled. I left some peel in the cucumbers and didn’t peel the carrots since they were so little.

    Directions
    In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil, reduce the heat so the water simmers and add the garlic. Cook for 5 minutes. The garlic might turn blue if you skip this step.
    Add the vinegar and salt, raise the heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

    In 1-quart jar put in the seeds and peppercorns. Put in the garlic the jar. Then pack the jar with the vegetables you prepared. You want them to be tightly stuffed.

    packed in jar

    pour in brine

    Bring the brine back to a boil, pour it over the vegetables to cover completely, let cool, then cover and refrigerate. The pickles will taste good in just a few hours, better after a couple of days. And they’ll keep for about 3 months.

  • Green Bean “Fries”

    green bean fries

    I saw this recipe and had to try it.
    It was really fun and tasty so I wanted to pass it on.

    The beans are baked, not fried. The result is crunchy and still healthy.
    I followed the recipe except I didn’t trim the beans. I figured that we could just eat the bean to the stem like you do jalapeno popper. It worked fine. I also used bread crumbs I made, not panko. It looks like mine were not as well coated as in the recipe made with panko. I am fine with the outcome and would make it again with my own bread crumbs.

    Here is the recipe http://www.preventionrd.com/2011/06/baked-green-bean-fries-with-basil-aioli/

    I want to try this with zucchini sticks too and I think I would add some parmesan cheese to the bread crumbs next time..

  • Broccoli with Ginger Sauce

    I serve this with rice or noodles and double the sauce so it is almost ‘soupy’. I like a lot of sauce.
    As written it is a light amount of sauce like a normal stir-fry. You can add other vegetables like onions or carrots. This is just a basic recipe to start with.

    1 pound of broccoli
    1/4 cup of broth
    1 1/2 teaspoons dry sherry or rice wine
    1 teaspoon grated ginger
    1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/8 teaspoon sugar
    1 tablespoon vegetable oil

    Cut the (beautiful) broccoli into bite size pieces. broccoli pieces

    Cut the tender stalks into small pieces, keep the stalk separate from the flower. The stalks need to cook a little longer than the flower, that’s why you keep them separate.

    See where the stalks are thicker and tougher? You can see the fibers. Those fibers are tough.

    chopped stems

    You don’t want to eat the thick tough stalk, but the smaller tender stalks are great.

    In a small bowl combine the broth, rice wine, ginger , cornstarch, salt, and sugar.

    Heat a pan and film it with oil, add the small broccoli stalks and onions or carrots if you are using them, and cook for a couple minutes, add the flowers to the pan, and cook until they are bright green.
    Stir the broth mixture so the cornstarch isn’t settled on the bottom, and swirl it into the wok. Stir-fry 1 minute or until the sauce has thickened slightly and lightly coats the vegetables.

    That’s it.
    Broccoli in the bowl

  • Two Potato Salad Recipes

    red potatoes
    How pretty are those? Yum. Way to GROW Red Wagon Farm Crew!!

    Here are two of my go-to potato salad recipes. The first one is mayo based. The addition of vinegar and mustard dials back the gloppy high calorie factor and coats the potatoes and other vegetables lightly.
    The second is a classic “French” potato salad. I have found the ‘trick’ to not having dry potato salad, without a ton of mayonnaise or oil, is to save and add back some of the water you boiled the potatoes in.

    Both recipes use the same preparation, the dressing are the only difference. I am usually OK with substituting ingredients like red wine vinegar for white or apple vinegar (it’s a recipe, not a contract, right Toti?).
    But in this first recipe the wine vinegar and whole grain mustard shouldn’t be substituted, especially the mustard. Trust me on this one.

    Potato Salad

    1 1/2 to 2 pounds  potatoes scrubbed (new spring potatoes work great here)
    2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
    1/2 cup mayonnaise
    3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
    6 scallions, chopped
    1 onion, diced
    1 tablespoons sugar (optional, taste and see if you are ok with the tangyness of your vinegar and mustard)
    Salt and pepper
    2 hard boiled eggs, chopped

    French Potato Salad

    1 1/2 to 2 pounds potatoes, any kind
    1/3 cup olive oil
    2 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
    1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    1 teaspoon each, fresh dill or basil, and garlic
    6 scallions, chopped
    1 onion, diced
    salt and pepper

    Directions for both recipes

    Place potatoes in cold water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and turn down the heat to medium, letting them cook until fork tender, about 15 minutes, maybe more depending on your potatoes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and set it in the drained pan to cool a bit.Cover potatoes with a kitchen cloth, and save the potato water. What you don’t add back to the potato salad use for bread making or water your plants or throw it away after you are happy with your potato salad.

    boil potatoes

    While the potatoes are cooking, combine the dressing ingredients, scallions, onion, salt and pepper.

    Cut the potatoes into bite size pieces when they are cool enough to handle. Put potatoes,and about 1/4 cup potato water, dressing, hard boiled eggs (I added some basil I had too) into a bowl and fold that all together. Add more potato water when you serve the salad if it isn’t as moist as you like.

    potato salad ingredients

    I didn’t make both salads since they are basically the same.

    Here is the first one all mixed up.

    finished potato salad

    Such pretty potatoes. How lucky are we to have this great food?

  • Onion Relish and Grilled Zucchini Steaks

    grilled zucchini steaks

    This idea has been rumbling around in my head since the Farm Tour last month. I was talking about food, which is pretty much all I talk about, and I said something about grilling vegetables. The person I was talking to said that they are vegetarian and don’t own a grill. I said, that is pretty much the best reason to own a grill.
    Since then every time I grill vegetables, which is several times a week, I think of that conversation.
    So, this one is for you mate. A very, very basic grilled vegetable meal.

    You will need 1 to 1 1/2 zucchinis for each person. Eggplant would be a good addition or sub for this meal.
    Simply cut your zucchini in 1/2 rub some olive oil on both sides, season with salt and pepper and grill on a medium hot grill.

    grilling the zucchini

    It will take about 6 minutes on each side.
    A few people have commented to me that they get tired of stir-fries. I think grilling is a great alternative and you will like the char-smokey flavor it adds.

    For the onion relish you will need.
    3 or 4 small onions sliced thin
    a couple tablespoons of oil.
    2 cloves of crushed garlic
    1/4 cup of ketchup
    1/2 cup of water
    2 tablespoons of mustard (I used yellow, use less if you use Dijon)
    a squirt of hot sauce (optional).

    Simply saute the onions, garlic and oil until they are nice and brown

    saute onions and garlic

    Add the rest of the ingredients and cook a few minutes until it is nice and thick.

    add seasonings

    The onion relish will keep for a couple weeks in the fridge. You can use it on grilled vegetables, scrambled eggs, or mixed with some white beans and lettuce for a salad.
    This goes really well with cheese. I put a little blue cheese on my zucchini steak with onion relish.