CSA #1: an update

[taylweaver]

So, I'm not so into this past week's share, and my attempts to eat my way through it have met with mixed results. 

Since it's been an entire week, I may be misremembering when I ate what. 

Things I learned along the way:
- arugula is incredibly bitter
- sauteed arugula is considerably less bitter
- sauteeing flat greens (like turnip greens) doesn't work as well, because they stick together

Attempts I have made to eat my vegetables: (stuff from this past week's share are bolded - don't know whether that will transfer to facebook, though.)

Dish #1: Salad with lettuce and arugula, with a dressing made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic powder, sugar, cilantro and scallions. 
The verdict: the arugula was way too bitter - so bitter it was sharp - and the greens needed something better than that dressing, and possibly more vegetables, but I forced myself to eat some of it anyway.

Dish #2: Sauteed arugula with salt
The verdict: Success! These came out all crispy and yummy. I think I did them a second time with another meal.

Dish #3: Roasted turnips and beets with olive oil, salt, rosemary and thyme
The verdict: I liked some bites of turnip and beet but not others. Not sure whether I liked the bites with more spice, less spice, or just one spice over the other. Roasting them cut up worked better than roasting them whole. 

Dish #4: Sauteed kale with garlic powder
The verdict: This is a dish I do often, but it didn't work as well with this set of kale as it usually does. Go figure.

Dish #5: Sauteed turnip greens with garlic powder
They verdict: They were bitter, even sauteed. I may try parboiling them first next time and see whether it makes a difference. I ate them, but I didn't enjoy them.

Dish #6: Lettuce with cucumber, red peppers and Italian dressing
The verdict: The idea of buying other vegetables to get through the ones in my share is not one I like. Also, these vegetables still didn't help me like the lettuce. Maybe I just don't like this lettuce.

(part of) vegetable I still haven't tried: Beet greens

Vegetables I have left: some of everything: lettuce, turnips and greens, beets and greens, arugula, scallions, cilantro, kale

Vegetables I know what to do with: kale, arugula

Vegetables I have plans for: turnip greens and beet greens (will try a mix of parboiling and sauteeing)

 

Feel free to offer suggestions for the rest of it. 

Comments

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Recipes I'm fond of for using beets:
1. Boil beets. Dress with oil, vinegar, and some salt. They're sweet enough that this is really nice- I eat it as snack.
2. Borsht- saute your basic soup veggies, then boil, adding the beets. Give it a glug or two of vinegar, toward the end, and serve with sour cream or plain yoghurt. It's a favorite of ours, hot or cold.

Scallions go well in stir fry, for me, or in salad. I also throw them in with other veggies to amplify my tomato sauce, when I do pasta and sauce- makes it healthier and tastier. But that doesn't use all that much of your CSA stuff.

Maybe try the arugula salad with a sweet dressing? Or is it too sharp a bunch for that?

[taylweaver.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to try borsht - too many negative associations from Passovers past. But #1 is a possibility.

Scallions in stir fry may also be useful.

The arugula, I will be sauteeing, because yes, it seems to be pretty sharp. It's the other lettuce that may need a sweet dressing.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Turnip greens are more or less interchangeable with mustard greens. You can look up recipes for one and apply them to the other without modification. Another equivalency: beet greens and adult spinach.

Arugula softens when it's cooked in any way. You can chop it up and put it in a hot soup in the final minute of cooking. I sometimes make pizza and put chopped arugula on to after taking it out of the oven, because even the ambient heat from the pie wilts it, but I'm not sure if you're a pizza making type.

Ditto what debka_notion said about scallions: They're very useful for the beginning of a stir-fry, especially if combined with minced garlic and ginger (garlic powder is not interchangeable with fresh in this case). I sometimes use a whole bunch of scallions in a recipe that calls for sautéing an onion; you get a different texture and flavor, but it's rarely a bad thing. (We recently discovered that this works well for shakshouka.)

Are you one of the people who has trouble liking cilantro? If so, using it in cooked dishes can soften the soapiness.

[masteraleph.livejournal.com]

Arugula can also work nicely in a salad with sweet things- Noidue, for example, does an arugula salad with honey vinaigrette, gorgonzola, apple, marinated zucchini, walnuts and dried apricot (of which everything but the gorgonzola is a little sweet). The gorgonzola, of course, has an even stronger taste than the arugula, and therefore contrasts nicely with the sweet flavors (but blue cheese may be too strong for your palate).

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

Probably the best pizza I ever made (to judge by Terri's reaction) included arugula and chopped dates. Same deal.

[noam-rion.livejournal.com]

Yum!

Mature arugula tends to be better for cooking. Save the salad for "baby" arugula.