October 17, 2019 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Red Cabbage!

Cooking With This Week's Box

Italian Garlic: Warm Red Cabbage Salad (see below); White Bean and Escarole Pizza; Italian Wedding Soup; Utica Greens; Roasted Garlic Butter; Lemony Cauliflower and Carrot Soup; Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce; Creamy Penne Pasta with Greens and Parmesan

Broccoli OR Cauliflower: Lemony Cauliflower and Carrot Soup; Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce

Peter Wilcox Potatoes: Swiss Chard and Potatoes

Orange Carrots: Red Cabbage Slaw with Maple-Mustard Dressing (see below); Italian Wedding Soup; Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce; Winter Veggie Wraps with Carrot-Miso Spread

Calibra Yellow Onions: Warm Red Cabbage Salad (see below); White Bean and Escarole Pizza; Utica Greens; Lemony Cauliflower and Carrot Soup; Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Honey Balsamic

Baby Beets: Winter Veggie Wraps with Carrot-Miso Spread; Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Honey Balsamic

Red Chard or Red Mustard: Creamy Penne Pasta with Greens and Parmesan; Swiss Chard and Potatoes

Escarole: White Bean and Escarole Pizza; Italian Wedding Soup; Utica Greens

Red Cabbage: Red Cabbage Slaw with Maple-Mustard Dressing (see below); Warm Red Cabbage Salad (see below); Winter Veggie Wraps with Carrot-Miso Spread 

Salad Mix: Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Honey Balsamic

Spinach or Baby Arugula: Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheeseand Honey Balsamic; Creamy Penne Pasta with Greens and Parmesan; Swiss Chard and Potatoes

This week we have another beautiful vegetable to feature, red cabbage!  We love to eat and grow vegetables with a variety of colors.  Of course you know that color also equals flavor and nutrients!  It’s win win on all fronts!  This week I’ve shared a recipe for Red Cabbage Slaw with Maple-Mustard Dressing (see below).  I’ve been making this recipe for years and it comes from Lorna Sass.  Her book was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks in my collection and I still reference recipes in it frequently.  This is a very simple recipe to make and goes well as a side along with a bowl of soup.  The second recipe in this week’s feature is also a salad, Warm Red Cabbage Salad (see below).  This recipe comes from one of my other favorite vegetarian cookbook authors, Deborah Madison.  You could add pancetta or bacon to this recipe if you like.

Utica Greens, photo from homeinthefingerlakes.com

Last week our featured vegetable was Escarole.  We featured two recipes using this delicious fall green.  If you didn’t have a chance to make the White Bean and Escarole Pizza  or the Italian Wedding Soup, take some time to try one of these recipes this week.  I’m not sure how I missed this in my research, but a friendly market customer this past weekend told me about a traditional recipe using escarole called Utica Greens.  It’s very simple and includes prosciutto, wilted escarole and hot pickled cherry peppers with a crumb topping of herbs, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  I’m going to have to try this one!

If you don’t use all your garlic when cooking the escarole, turn it into Roasted Garlic Butter.  You can use this on bread and sandwiches, or put a dollop on top of grilled steak or roasted winter squash.

Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce
Photo from gimmesomeoven.com

One of my favorite parts about the farmers’ market is talking to customers about the dishes they make with our vegetables.  In addition to the recipe for Utica Greens, I got a tip on this Melissa Clarke recipe for Lemony Cauliflower and Carrot Soup.  I haven’t tried this yet myself, but some of our longtime CSA members tell me this is a super simple soup to make and there’s no dairy in this.  The creaminess of the soup comes from pureeing the vegetables and the addition of lemon brightens all the flavors in your mouth.  If you receive broccoli instead of cauliflower, consider this recipe for an Asian Broccoli Salad with Peanut Sauce.  This recipe calls for edamame.  If you don’t have any in the freezer, I’d suggest that you substitute some chopped sweet peppers or carrots in their place.

Looking for a quick lunch option?  This is a great week to make Winter Veggie Wraps with Carrot-Miso Spread.  Instead of shredding the carrots and using them as part of the vegetable filling, they go into making a flavorful, healthy spread for the wrap.  You can stuff these with the toppings of your choosing, but the recipe suggests shredded red cabbage and beets.  What a perfect recipe for this week!

The other thing I want to use the baby beets for is a simple roasted beet salad.  The baby beets we’re delivering this week are perfect for roasting whole and then using them to make a delicious salad with any of this week’s greens as a base.  This simple Roasted Beet Salad with Walnuts, Goat Cheese and Honey Balsamic can stand alone or serve it as a side dish to a meal.

Swiss Chard and Potatoes, photo from italianfoodforever.com

There are a lot of greens in this week’s box, so I wanted to share the link to this recipe for Creamy Penne Pasta with Greens and Parmesan.  We featured this recipe in a newsletter back in 2007.  You could use chard, mustard or spinach to make this recipe.  It’s simple to make and you can add chicken or sausage to it if you so desire.  Here’s another recipe for a simple greens based recipe, Swiss Chard and Potatoes.  You could use this week’s Peter Wilcox potatoes for this recipe.

I believe we’ve cooked our way to the bottom of another box.  Before I close, I just want to let you know the sweet potatoes are  about half way through their curing process.  It looks like we’ll be able to start washing them for CSA boxes as early as next week!  Start pulling out all of your favorite sweet potato recipes and get ready!  Have a great week!—Chef Andrea

Vegetable Feature: Red Cabbage

By Chef Andrea

We call it red cabbage, but others may refer to it as purple cabbage.  Perhaps it’s splitting hairs to debate whether it’s red or purple when the bottom line is that it is simply gorgeous!  Red cabbage is different from our green cabbage in several ways.  First, it’s obviously much different in color which means it also has a bit of a different nutrient profile.  Purple and red pigments in vegetables indicate the presence of chemical plant compounds called anthocyanins.  We talked about these several weeks ago when we delivered the black nebula carrots.  Anthocyanins have many health benefits including being antioxidants that combat free radical damage in our bodies.  Thus, they play a role in cancer prevention as well as enhance cardiac health and boost our immunity, amongst a long list of other benefits.  In addition to the benefits from anthocyanins, red cabbage also offers all the similar benefits of other vegetables in the Brassica family including phytonutrients called glucosinolates and sulfuraphane.  These two nutrients are important for reducing the potential for carcinogens to damage our tissues while also assisting the liver with detoxifying the body.  Red cabbage heads are also more dense and the leaves are thicker in comparison to green savoy cabbage or the sweetheart salad cabbages we delivered earlier in the season.

Red cabbage may be eaten both raw and cooked.  One of the simplest ways to use it is to just slice it very thinly and mix it in with salad greens or other vegetables when making vegetable salads or slaws.  It can also stand alone to make beautiful and tasty slaws and salads which may be served either cold or warm.  This week I’ve included a recipe for a simple Red Cabbage Slaw with Maple-Mustard Dressing (see below) that I’ve been making for many years.  Red cabbage is also often used to make braised red cabbage, a more common part of German and northern European cuisine.  Recipes for braised red cabbage will often include apples, juniper berries, caraway seeds and either red wine or red wine vinegar.  This is a good place to talk about how to retain that bright purple color when cooking red cabbage.  When you cook red cabbage, you can retain the bright purple color by adding an acidic ingredient such as vinegar or lemon juice.  If you don’t add acid and cook it for any period of time with the lid on the pan, the cabbage will turn to more of a blue-green-gray color.  This is kind of a fun kitchen experiment to do with kids so they can see how the color pigments change when in an acidic versus basic environment.

Beyond braised red cabbage and slaw, there are a lot of other ways to use this cabbage.  While I don’t have any experience using red cabbage in Indian cuisine, I did find some interesting recipes using Indian spices.  I also found a recipe that used the red cabbage to make Purple Cabbage Paratha, an Indian flatbread.  You can also use raw cabbage in spring rolls and wraps such as this Winter Veggie Wrap with Carrot-Miso Spread that we featured several years ago.  It’s also a great stir-fry vegetable, however I’d recommend using a sauce that has some citrus in it to help retain the bright purple color.

Some other foods that are complementary and are often used with red cabbage include the following:  apples, oranges, lemons, currants, onions, shallots, caraway, juniper, clove, star anise, red wine, vinegar, carrots, beets, blue cheese and goat cheese.  Red cabbage stores well, so don’t feel like you have to use it all right away.  It’s best to store red cabbage in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  You’ll be surprised by how much you will get out of a head once you start slicing it!  If you don’t use all of the head, simply wrap up the remainder and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it again.

Red Cabbage Slaw with Maple Mustard Dressing

Yield: 6 servings

“The compliments will start pouring in for this tasty, gorgeous salad, which you’ve thrown together in about 5 minutes….Don’t be tempted to leave out the juniper berries: They are the secret ingredient that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”

1 tsp coarsely ground juniper berries
½ to ¾ cup Maple-Mustard Dressing (see below)
1 ½ lb red cabbage, finely shredded
1 large carrot, grated
⅓ cup tightly packed minced fresh parsley
Sea salt to taste (optional; you may not need it)

1. Stir the juniper berries into the maple-mustard dressing and, if time permits, let set for an hour.
2. Just before serving, toss the cabbage, carrot, and parsley in a salad bowl.
3. Toss in just enough dressing to coat the salad.  Add salt to taste if desired.

Recipe borrowed from Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen.

Maple-Mustard Dressing

½ cup sunflower oil

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

¼ tsp dry mustard

Pinch of salt

1. In a small jar, combine all of the ingredients and shake well.
2. Use immediately or refrigerate in a tightly sealed container for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe borrowed from Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen.

Warm Red Cabbage Salad

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

The cabbage is cooked just enough to soften it, then tossed with apples, goat cheese and roasted walnuts.  This is a very nice salad for fall when both walnuts and apples are newly harvested.  For variation in flavor and color, mix the cabbage with other greens, such as spinach or curly endive.

15 to 20 walnuts, enough to make ¾ cup shelled

2 tsp walnut oil

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

1 small red cabbage 

1 crisp red apple

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 ½ Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced

3 to 4 oz goat cheese, broken into large pieces

1 Tbsp parsley, chopped

½ tsp marjoram, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Crack the walnuts, leave the meats in large pieces, and toss them with the walnut oil and some salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Toast them in the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until they begin to smell nutty.  Then remove them from the oven and let them cool.
2. Quarter the cabbage and remove the core.  Cut the wedges into thin pieces, 2 to 3 inches long, and set them aside.
3. Cut the apple lengthwise into sixths, cut out the core, then slice the pieces thinly, crosswise.
4. Put the garlic, vinegar, and oil in a wide sauté pan over a medium-high flame.  As soon as they are hot, add the onion and sauté for 30 seconds.  Next add the cabbage and continue to cook, stirring it with a pair of tongs for approximately 2 minutes, or until just wilted.  The leaves will begin to soften and the color will change from bright purple-red to pink.  Season with salt, plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and more vinegar, if necessary, to sharpen the flavors.  Add the goat cheese, apple slices, herbs, and walnuts.  Toss briefly and carefully before serving.

Recipe borrowed from The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison with Edward Espé Brown.