October 24, 2019 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Parsnips!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Italian Garlic: Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens; Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic; Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage; Sweet Potato Kimchi Pancakes

Broccoli OR Cauliflower: Roasted Cauliflower, Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomato Salad with Chickpeas

Orange Carrots: Carroty Mac and Cheese; Carrot, Feta and Almond Salad

Peter Wilcox and/or Mountain Rose Potatoes: Green Cabbage Soup with Potatoes and Sour Cream; Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic

Red Onions: Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens; Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage; Sweet Potato Kimchi Pancakes

Red Mustard: Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens; Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Spinach or Salad Mix: Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Burgundy Sweet Potatoes: Sweet Potato Quesadillas; Sweet Potato Kimchi Pancakes

Mini Butternut Squash: Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens; Roasted Honeynut Squash

Parsnips: Parsnip Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Cookies (see below); Parsnip, Lemon and Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Drizzle (see below)

Green Savoy Cabbage: Green Cabbage Soup with Potatoes and Sour Cream; Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage

Last week at market it seems like our customers were finally ready to embrace root vegetables.  For the first time that I can remember in the history of HVF, we sold out of both parsnips and rutabagas!  This week we’re facing our first hard frost with temperatures dipping into the 20’s, which makes us all ready to make the transition to hearty fall and winter fare.  Lets kick off this week’s chat with dessert—why not?!  Parsnips are delicious in soups, stews and other savory preparations, but they’re also delicious in baked goods and desserts such as these Parsnip Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Cookies (see below)!  This recipe is the creation of my friend, Annemarie of Bloom Bake Shop in Madison.  I asked Annemarie to make a special sweet treat for our Harvest Party and the one requirement was to include parsnips.  She knocked our socks off with these delicious cookies.  If you weren’t able to join us for the party, be assured these cookies are worth making!  The other recipe featuring parsnips this week is Parsnip, Lemon and Poppyseed Muffins with Lemon Drizzle (see below).  I made these muffins for the market crew earlier this year when we had overwintered parsnips.  They were so delicious!  Both of these recipes are good ones to tuck away and use for your Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.  A bit non-traditional, yes, but both recipes that will impress your guests!

Carroty Mac and Cheese, photo by Andrew Scrivani for epicurious.com

While we’re talking roots, lets tackle carrots.  Everyone loves a good mac and cheese, so why not try this recipe for Carroty Mac and Cheese.  It’s rich and creamy, but the carrots add a sweet, earthy balance.  Serve this as a main dish or a side.  If you’re looking for something a bit more on the lean side, consider this recipe for Carrot, Feta and Almond Salad.

Did you notice how gorgeous the red mustard greens are this week!  This is my favorite time of year to enjoy red mustard and one of my favorite recipes to use it in is this one for Red Lentils with Winter Squash and Greens.  You could also use spinach in this recipe, but mustard greens are always my first choice when making this recipe.  It also makes use of this week’s butternut squash.  If you don’t use your butternut squash in the lentil recipe, then consider making this simple Roasted Honeynut Squash.  If you aren’t familiar with Honeynut Squash, this title is referring to a specific variety of mini butternuts called Honeynuts.  They are a personal-sized mini butternut as well.  In this recipe you do nothing more than bake the squash and top them off with cinnamon, salt, pepper and butter.  They are so delicious you don’t need anything more than these few simple ingredients.

We’re always excited to kick off sweet potato season, so pull out all of your favorite sweet potato recipes and lets get started cooking!  We featured this recipe for Sweet Potato Quesadillas featured back in one of our 2007 newsletters.  You build a quesadilla with mashed sweet potatoes, cheese and greens.  You could use either spinach or red mustard in this recipe.  Prep all the components in advance and you can pull off a quick dinner in about 10-15 minutes!  I am also going to mention one of my all-time favorite sweet potato recipes.  If you’ve been with our farm for awhile this recipe will likely not be a surprise, but it’s so good I want to share it with everyone again!  Try these Sweet Potato Kimchi Pancakes.  They are so delicious!

Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage, photo by Julia Gartland for food52.com

Before we move to above ground vegetables, we need to talk about potatoes.  This recipe for Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic is one of my favorite, simple ways to eat potatoes.  I also really like the simplicity of this Green Cabbage Soup with Potatoes and Sour Cream, a recipe we featured last year.  This soup is very simple, but very satisfying.  If you don’t use all of your cabbage to make this soup, consider trying this recipe for Suspiciously Delicious Cabbage.  With a name like that, I have to try it!  There’s a video link for this recipe as well….and you’ll have to check it out for yourself to find out what makes it so delicious!

Now that we’ve dealt with most of the vegetables that grow underground, we can turn our attention to the last item in the box.  Use this week’s cauliflower and broccoli to make this tasty recipe for Roasted Cauliflower, Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomato Salad with Chickpeas.  Enjoy this salad as a main dish for lunch or serve it in a smaller portion as a side dish.

It’s hard to believe, but after this week we only have five more CSA boxes in the 2019 season.  I’ve already started planning the contents of our final boxes and I have to tell you, we have a lot of vegetables to try and squeeze in before the end of the season!  Have a good week and I’ll see you back here next week for more delicious recipes!—Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Parsnips

By Chef Andrea

Parsnips fill an important place in our seasonal Wisconsin diets because of their ability to store well through the winter, both in our refrigerators as well as in the field.  Parsnips are one of our largest crops and this year we planted 3.5 acres.  That may not sound like very much, but in the world of parsnips it is quite a lot and will yield tons of food!  Parsnips are a challenging crop to grow because their seeds take about 2 weeks to germinate and we have to plant them early in the spring when the soil is still cold.  They also have a very long growing season which means more management in the field to keep them healthy and keep the weeds under control.  Parsnips are often described as being a white carrot.  While they do resemble carrots, they are not really just a white carrot.  They have a distinct flavor that is much different from a carrot.  They also have the ability to survive if we leave them in the field over the winter.  We’ll harvest most of this year’s crop this fall, but we will leave some parsnips in the field with plans to harvest them next spring.  It’s a little risky, but parsnips can be overwintered in the field and when we dig them in the spring they are even more sweet and delicious than they are this fall!

Spiced Honey Parsnip Bread
photo from dishingupthedirt.com

Parsnips are a versatile vegetable that can be prepared in a variety of ways.  Their sweetness really comes out when they are roasted, which is one of my favorite ways to prepare parsnips.  They also make a nice addition to a fall root mash or mix them with other vegetables in hearty soups and stews.  You can also use them in baked goods, similar to how you might use carrots.  I’ve used them to make parsnip muffins that are similar to carrot cake and this week we are featuring a recipe for Parsnip, Lemon & Poppy Seed Muffins (see below)!  You can also use them to make quick breads such as Andrea Bemis’ Spiced Honey Parsnip Bread.  You can also use them in cookies.  Make sure you check out the recipe for Parsnip Oatmeal, Chocolate, Cherry Cookies (see below) in this week’s newsletter!

Parsnips pair very well with other root vegetables, wine, shallots, apples, walnuts and a variety of spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger.  Some people really like the distinct flavor of parsnips, while others may still be learning to like them.  If you’re in the latter group, I’d recommend that you start by using parsnips in a baked good or use them in small quantities mixed with other vegetables in soups, stews or a simple root mash.

Store parsnips in the coldest part of your refrigerator in a plastic bag.  They will store for several weeks under these conditions, so don’t feel like you need to eat them all right now.  When you are ready to use them, Scrub the outer skin with a vegetable brush and trim off the top and bottom.  If you are making a pureed parsnip soup and want it to be snow white, I’d recommend peeling the parsnips.  If you aren’t looking for an art display presentation, I would recommend skipping the peeling part of the process.  

Parsnip Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Yield:  approximately 40 cookies (2-3 inch diameter)

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp cinnamon

⅓ tsp nutmeg

1 ¾ cups oatmeal

½ cup vegetable oil 

1 cup light brown sugar 

½ cup plus 2 Tbsps white sugar 

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups parsnips, shredded

1 cup finely shredded coconut

1 pkg (10 oz) chocolate chips (1 ¾ cup)

¾  cup dried cherries 

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir in oatmeal and set aside.  
2. In a separate bowl, combine vegetable oil, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Mix until smooth and well combined.
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, incorporating well after each addition.  Add the parsnips and stir to combine.
4. Last, fold in the coconut, chocolate chips and dried cherries.  The dough is going to be very stiff and you may feel like you are not going to be able to incorporate all of these last ingredients.  Trust the recipe and keep working them in.  It will come together!  Don’t forget to scrape down to the bottom of the bowl!
5. Drop by the tablespoon full onto a cookie sheet.  Do not flatten the cookies, they will spread out as they bake.  Bake in a 350°F oven for 14-16 minutes.  The cookies should still be a little soft in the middle when you take them out of the oven.  They will set up nicely as they cool.  If you want a crispier cookie, bake them a little bit longer.  Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

This recipe was created by Annemarie Maitri, owner of Bloom Bake Shop in Madison, Wisconsin.  Annemarie dreamed up this cookie recipe when I asked her to make a sweet treat for our Fall Harvest Party this past September.  She was so pleased with the creation that she added it to her cookie menu for the fall!  Thank you Annemarie!

Parsnip, Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Drizzle

photo from veggiedesserts.co.uk

Yield:  12 Muffins

5 oz raw parsnip (approx 1)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 Tbsp poppy seeds

½ cup butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup plain yogurt

¾ cup powdered sugar

4-5 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line a muffin tin.
2. Peel and finely grate the parsnips. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in the poppy seeds and parsnip.
4. In another bowl, use an electric mixer or wooden spoon to beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each in well. Beat in the zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract, blend well and then add the yogurt and combine.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, alternating three times.
6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, filling them ¾ full.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes in the tin and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Make the drizzle topping:  Stir lemon juice, teaspoon by teaspoon, into the powdered sugar until it is a runny consistency. Drizzle over the completely cooled muffins.

This recipe was borrowed from veggiedesserts.co.uk, a very interesting food blog written by Kate Hackworthy.  If you like this recipe, check out her blog where you’ll find more delicious baked goods featuring parsnips as well as other vegetables!