"Use up my Veggies" Slaw

I've been traveling and/or eating out a lot, and my CSA vegetables from the past week have sat largely unused. The snap peas and cherries made good snacks on a camping trip, though, and I boiled the potatoes for dinner last night. Tonight, in a desperate attempt to use up what's in my fridge, I made a cole slaw with the bok choy, kohlrabi, beets, and carrots from last week. I hand-cut all the veggies (the whole while wishing I had a mandolin) and mixed in some white wine vinegar, mayo, dijon mustard, and sesame oil. The oil gave a great flavor to the slaw and I'm glad I used it-- I had almost used olive oil but this turned out much better.

Creamy Polenta with Kale and Ricotta

This Food & Wine recipe for polenta with kale and ricotta caught my attention a few weeks ago, and tonight I realized I had all the ingredients, plus some cheese, on hand. I followed the recipe but added a few cups of mozzarella and some fresh parmesan at the end and let it melt into the polenta. I also needed quite a bit of salt to get it to my taste, and I'm not particularly a salt-lover.

Week 7 pickup

Cherries, Snap peas, Carrots, Potatoes, Beets, Kohlrabi, Mixed Greens, Bok Choy, Basil

Rhubarb and rice pudding

Lettuce Wraps

Used some of the lettuce I've accumulated over the past few weeks to wrap up ground chicken that I cooked with onion and chili-garlic sauce.

Shrimp and snap pea curry with noodles

After the success of my kung pao chicken last week, I almost made it again with this week's batch of snap peas, but I figured I should mix things up a bit. I wanted to use the garlic chile sauce I'd bought though, so I found a curry that looked like it'd be good with a kick to it. I followed this recipe for shrimp bean curry. I used garlic scapes and spring onions in place of shallots, snap peas in place of green beans, fresh lime instead of lime leaves, and added some garlic-chile sauce until it was as spicy as I like. At the end, I added a bag of cellophane noodles, which ended up soaking up all the sauce, but added some nice substance to the dish.

Week 6 Pickup

Potatoes, kale, garlic scapes, snap peas, lettuce, mixed greens, rhubarb, parsley

Swiss chard with balsamic vinegar

Tonight I boiled some swiss chard for a couple minutes and then ate with balsamic vinegar and a baked potato. Delicious without the need to mix it with anything.

White Bean Dip

Can of white beans + garlic + garlic scapes + parsley + lemon + olive oil= perfect dip with tortilla chips

Pasta with kale and alfredo sauce

Made up a quick alfredo sauce tonight with random combinations of cheese I had lying around and then boiled the end of three different boxed of pasta I also wanted to use up. Mixed in kale at the end. Great way to use up things filling my kitchen.

Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken with snap peas, garlic scape, peppers, spring onions. Loosely based on this recipe. I found a chili-garlic sauce at the grocery store that ended up lending lots of spice to my sauce. Here's my version:

-Marinate chunks of boneless chicken breast in mixture of chili-garlic sauce, soy sauce, sherry, and sesame oil. I didn't measure these things, but had well over a cup of marinade total, which became my sauce. Only marinated for the time it took me to chop everything else.
-Start rice cooking.
-Chop garlic, ginger, garlic scape, tops and bottoms of spring onions, 2 fresh chili peppers, 1 red pepper, snap peas.
-Heat up sesame oil in pan. Add garlic and ginger until starting to brown, the add chicken and all the marinade. Cook chicken. Add spring onion bottoms, chili, garlic scape, snap peas, and red pepper. Cook 5-10 minutes, until peppers and snap peas are softening. Add cashews and spring onion tops and turn heat to low.
-Make sauce with: 3 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp cornstarch, 1/2 cup water. Mix until cornstarch is dissolved, then add to chicken and vegetables. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
-Serve over rice.

Week 5 pickup

(Picture of a full share, not just my half) Head of lettuce, snow peas, strawberries, spring onions, mint, kale, garlic scape(!), swiss chard

Pickled Radish

The results of my pickled radish from last week: very pink, slightly too sweet, not sure what I could use with (I ate a few plain, then tried a few on a humburger, which was ok). Would try again, but would decrease sugar and add some other flavors-- garlic maybe?

Easy way to use Kale

Mix with macaroni and cheese. Seriously, this was delicious and took almost no time to make.

Easy way to use strawberries and rhubarb

Cook into a sauce with a bit of sugar and cornstarch. Eat with biscuit and heavy cream.

Mushroom phyllo cups

I like cooked mushrooms much better than raw ones. So I sauteed my mushrooms with some garlic and spring onions, put into premade phyllo cups, sprinkled cheese on top (Gruyere was what I had on hand), and baked for 10-15 minutes. Voila!

Week 4 pickup

My half-share this week: Parsley, strawberries, snap peas, mushooms, kale, spring onions, rhubarb.

Pink Pickled Radishes

I'm still surviving of a plethora of leftovers, but found an easy radish idea that won't involve making a whole new main course to stuff into Tupperware in my fridge. Pink Radish Pickles! I only had about 6 radishes, so quartered the vinegar mixture and have them sitting in a little glass bowl. Check back in four days to see how they taste!