My third basket of CSA veggies arrived this week and I’m really excited about some of the goodies. The best thing I got this week was fingerling potatoes. I’m going to make hashbrowns with those tomorrow. I also got
- Green beans
- Summer squash
- Carrots
- Many many mustard greens
- Turnips
- Spring onions
- Sprouts
Unfortunately there weren’t any salad greens this week. However, my own spinach and beets are coming on. So I’ll probably harvest that for a salad one night. I dismantled the turnips and got rid of the greens before I realized that they are edible 🙁 Read that I can make them similar to kale or mustard greens. Found a recipe that takes them and okra which looked good. So I’m a little sad I messed up and threw them out.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with the 3 big bunches of mustard greens I got. Braise and make casserole probably. Last week’s kale casserole was tasty, tasty. Another option is to riff on the Ethiopian dish Ye’besha Gomen and substitute mustard for the collard greens. Or I can make Gomen Sega which combines mustard greens and beef. The recipe I found needs to be reduced to a smaller size but BOY does it look good.
The other challenge this week is the turnips. I’ve never really liked them. Although many suggest making chips, my experience with chip making didn’t go well. So I’ve been reading up on how to cook them so they aren’t bitter. Two suggestion are:
- Peel really well. Back to the ring you see when you cut the top off. This can be like a 1/4 inch for larger turnips
- Change water several times while cooking
The best recipe possibility I found is Spinach and Turnip Bhaji. Reading the post the it seems like it originally took greens of some sort. Because I’ve got many mustard greens I might revert it which means tweaking it a bit because mustard greens are MUCH hardier. It is certainly worth a try though!
Each week what amazes me is that many of the recipes I’m finding to use up my share are ethnic in nature. From an anthropological standpoint this makes sense because many other part of the world just can’t afford to eat the amount of meat we eat here in the US. Eating more veggies is probably better for us anyway. So really I don’t mind. Since I removed most of the processed carbs from my diet and halved my meat portions, I’ve had a much easier time losing weight, without being hungry.