Adventures in CSA 2013: Week 1 Recipes

I'm back to share what we're making with our CSA fruits and vegetables. First up, here's your reminder of what we received this week:

Week One (Vegetables Only)

• Lettuce 
• Mizuna
• Green garlic
• Bok choy 
• Radishes 
• Green kale 
• Spinach 

And now on to the Dishes Made this Week:

Salad of Mizuna and Lettuce (not pictured) with quick-pickled red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and sunflower seeds. It was dressed with oil, vinegar, and crushed fennel seeds.


Chicken Sausage and feta lettuce wraps: After a conversation about stuffed cabbage at the office on Tuesday, I knew I wanted to make more lettuce wraps this year. I think they're a great way to enjoy the crispness and mild flavor of really fresh lettuce. This night, we went super-simple and actually used them as a sort of "hot dog bun" with some chicken and apple sausages (which Dan sliced in half). Feta cheese as topping was a flavorful accompaniment.

I have started compiling a list of other combinations of ingredients for filling that I'd still like to try, so bring on the lettuce!

More Ideas for lettuce wraps
Sweet potato, onion, and carrot
Shrimp, avocado, and tomato
Turkey and guacamole
Bacon, tomato, and onion
Cashew, carrot, corn, rice, and tofu
Mushroom, rice, and black beans


Potato Salad with Grilled Green Garlic: Dan combined two potato salad recipes from the internet, and it turned out really good. Normally, I prefer a mustard-based potato salad, but this one was oil-based without being greasy, and had a fennel flavor that was pleasantly surprising. The green garlic was grilled on our grill pan, and not unlike spring onions. I think I'm coming 'round to warm potato salad.


Pickled Radishes: For this recipe, I turned to the Momofuku cookbook. They didn't discuss radishes, per se, but I mostly followed their formula for quick-pickling liquid. First, I trimmed off the tops and bottoms, then sliced the radishes thinly.  Once I put them in a jar, I mixed up and poured this concoction over the top:

1 cup hot tap water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6 T. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. kosher salt

The recipe suggests waiting several days before eating the pickles, but I have a feeling radishes are harder to "overcome" than some vegetables. They're so naturally sharp, after all. On day one (today) these still had a slight radish smell, which didn't mix particularly well with the smell of the brine, but they didn't taste terrible. I'll try them again tomorrow. I think they'll be better.



Kale Salad: Dan's the kale salad pro in our family, but I composed this one myself. I took one head kale (washed, trimmed and sliced into ribbons), 1 lemon (squeezed over the top), a fair amount of kosher salt, "massaged" this with tongs and let it set for a while so the lemon juice could start breaking down the kale leaves. Then we added parmigiano-reggiano cheese, avocado, and sunflower seeds. Dan completed the dish with this dijon honey mustard dressing.



Bok Choy and Spinach Stir Fry: Dan stir-fried the bok choy and spinach with peanuts, ginger, garlic, onion, and fish sauce. This turned out slightly more bitter than is usual, but I'm very forgiving of stir fry. I love this sort of dish to use up items at the end of the week.


Sooooo... that's everything for week one. I think the sausage and feta in lettuce "bun" was my favorite. It's hard to go wrong with sausage, though. That felt like a bit of a cheat. What did you make from seasonal produce (CSA or greenmarket) this week?

p.s. I received the three cotton muslin produce bags I ordered, and I'm already wishing I'd bought more.