CSA Box #4

Box #4 includes:  varietal head lettuces, Tuscan kale, strawberries, baby mokum carrots, greenhouse cucumber, English peas, varietal summer squash, cilantro, greenhouse tomatoes, Swiss chard, fava beans, red basil, fresh shallots, French breakfast radishes, baby lettuce mix.


Here is what I'm making:

First I'm just going to wash and freeze the radish greens, chard, and kale for breakfast smoothies.  It's easier than trying to use them all up before they wilt.  The carrot greens are in really good condition too, so I'll have to see what I can do with those.  If you look online for what to do with any odd kind of green, the internet says to make it into pesto.

Spiced Little Carrots with Chickpea-Sauerkraut Puree (Vedge)
Vedge says this would go well with their pierogi recipe (pg. 127), which I've always wanted to try.  Hopefully I can make myself do this much cooking in one day.  All this would achieve is using up the carrots, but I really want to eat pierogi.

Grilled Zucchini with Green Olives, Cilantro, and Tomato (Vedge)
I basically already have all the ingredients for this and it'll use up some of the new zucchini ("varietal summer squash"), cilantro, and tomato we just got.  I think this would be a nice side alongside some black beans, maybe guacamole, and something else to fill out the meal. 

Moroccan Carrot Salad with Savory Granola
One of the best things I've ever eaten was a soup topped with savory granola and preserved lemon at Green Zebra vegetarian restaurant in Chicago.  They have since closed and I don't remember what else was in that dish (it was a creamy sort of bisque I think -- coconut milk?) but when I looked up savory granola with preserved lemon, this recipe came up, and I'd like to try it for putting atop some of my new salad greens and some (blanched? sauteed? lightly cooked somehow) fresh fava beans that came in the box today, as well as the English peas, which are just nice raw.  I figure, even if this turns out badly with all my changes, I can try the leftover savory granola and preserved lemon again on something else.  

The French breakfast radishes (I'm so delighted we got these again as the email had just said "radishes") will end up in that avocado and tamari and nori dish again.  I just need to buy more avocados at the store tomorrow.  I have legit not gone shopping in two weeks.  Someone bringing a huge box of fruit and veg to the house every Friday makes it a lot easier.