Cooking With This Week's Box
By: Chef Andrea Yoder
Chives:
Green Garlic:
Greens and Green Garlic Pesto (See Below)
Asparagus:
Baby Arugula:
Green Top Red & Purple Radishes:
Sorrel:
Sauté Mix:
Hon Tsai Tai:
Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (See Below)
Baby White Turnips:
Baby Bok Choi:
This week’s box is packed with leafy greens, which is the focus of our articles and recipes! Spring greens are an important part of a seasonal midwestern diet and we’ve got you covered this week! Hon tsai tai is a specialty green we plant two times early in the season and is the featured vegetable this week. While it’s related to baby bok choi, it’s special in its own right and stands out with its purple stems and yellow edible flowers. You really can use it anywhere you would use baby bok choi, but this week you could use it to make the Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (See Below). I also included a link to Sesame Soy Hon Tsai Tai Salad with Chicken which has been a popular member recipe in past years.
 |
| Green Garlic Pancakes |
Make sure you get your fill of asparagus as the season is never long enough! This week I included another pizza recipe to couple asparagus and arugula, but I also found a nice article featuring 20 Asparagus Recipes to Make Right Now. Of course, there are some times when I just like to keep it simple and sauté asparagus with a little butter or toss it with olive oil and roast it.
 |
| Creamy Turnip Grits & Greens |
Have fun in the kitchen, eat your greens every day and have an invigorating week until we check in again!—Chef Andrea
Vegetable Feature: Hon Tsai Tai
By: Chef Andrea Yoder
Description: Hon tsai tai is in a group of plants referred to as “flowering brassicas” and has a mild mustard flavor. It is a Chinese specialty green also sometimes called Kailaan. While it is related to such vegetables as mustard greens and bok choi, what sets it apart is that it has beautiful purple stems that produce a sweet, delicate, edible yellow flower. The sweetness of the buds and flowers is the part we love the most! While other vegetables in the brassica family also produce flowers, they do so towards the end of their life cycle and at that point there are often undesirable flavor changes in the edible portion of the plant. Hon tsai tai is unique in that it produces the flower early in its life when all the parts of the plant still taste good.
Preparation & Use: The entire plant is edible and may be eaten raw or cooked. The thin purple stems are more tender when the plant is young. While still flavorful, they may become more coarse as the plant matures, so should be cut very finely at this stage. Hon tsai tai is delicious in stir-fries or lightly steamed or sautéed, but also makes a stunning and flavorful addition to raw salads. A common preparation in Chinese cuisine is to quickly stir-fry hon tsai tai with garlic, onions, and ginger, then add oyster sauce.
Storage: Store hon tsai tai loosely wrapped in a plastic bag in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator until ready for use.
Nutrition: Hon tsai tai has specifically been studied to evaluate its antioxidant potential in the body. In comparison to other vegetables in this family, some studies have shown that hon tsai tai has more antioxidant effect and may be effective in retarding the effects of aging. Just one more reason to make sure you eat hon tsai tai and other vegetables in this family when available!
(Chen J, Zhang J, Xiang Y, Xiang L, Liu Y, He X, Zhou X, Liu X, Huang Z. Extracts of Tsai Tai (Brassica chinensis): enhanced antioxidant activity and anti-aging effects both in vitro and in Caenorhabditis elegans. Food Funct. 2016 Feb;7(2):943-52. doi: 10.1039/c5fo01241d. PMID: 26726147.)
Greens & Green Garlic Pesto
By: Chef Andrea Yoder
 |
| Photo from www.brooklynsupper.com |
2-4 stalks green garlic (Greens and white portion)
½ cup toasted hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) or almonds
2 cups chopped leafy greens, roughly chopped*
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup olive oil (or other flavorful oil)
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
- Cut the green garlic into approximate 1-inch pieces. Place in the bowl of a food processor along with the pepitas or almonds, leafy greens, salt and black pepper. Pulse to break down the ingredients into a coarse mixture.
- With the food processor running, drizzle in the oil and mix just until combined. Stop the food processor, remove the lid and add parmesan cheese, lemon zest and 2 Tbsp lemon juice.
- Blend until fully combined. You want the mixture to still have some texture, so do not try to blend it to be totally smooth. Taste and adjust to your liking by adding more lemon juice, salt and black pepper as needed.
- Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
*Note: For “leafy greens” you may use nearly anything you have available! Radish & turnip tops, spinach, arugula, mustard, sauté greens, etc are all appropriate. Get creative!
Serving Suggestions: This pesto can be used in a variety of ways. Toss it with pasta or stir it into rice or other cooked grains. You can also mix a spoonful into scrambled eggs, spread it on toast or use it as a spread for a wrap or on sandwiches. Mix it with cream cheese and spread it on crackers. Serve it on fish, chicken or grilled steak. Toss it with roasted potatoes or other vegetables. As you can see, once you make this basic recipe there are a lot of options for how to put it to use!
Recipe adapted from www.brooklynsupper.com.
Spring Greens Pasta with Greens & Green Garlic Pesto
Yield: 3-4 servings
8 oz spaghetti noodles
4 oz bacon, sliced thinly (optional)
1 bunch hon tsai tai, or 2-4 cups of other “greens”
1-1½ cups Greens & Green Garlic Pesto (see recipe above)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese, grated, for serving
Olive oil, for serving
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti per package instructions. When cooked to al dente, drain the pasta in a colander and set aside.
- In a medium sauté pan over medium to medium high heat, cook bacon until crispy. You want about 1 Tbsp of fat in the pan once the bacon is cooked. If it looks like there is more oil than that, remove some with a spoon. If there is not enough fat, add a little olive oil.
- Wash the hon tsai tai or whatever greens you are using. Shake off excess water, but note that it’s ok if they are not totally dry as you need some moisture to help them wilt down. Roughly chop them into bite-sized pieces.
- Reduce the heat to medium and carefully add them to the pan with the bacon, if using, or to a pan with a little olive oil if you are not using the bacon. Be careful when doing so as the addition of moist greens to the pan with hot oil can cause spattering. After adding the greens to the pan, immediately put a lid on the pan and wilt the greens down for about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the spaghetti to the pan along with about 1 cup of pesto. Stir to combine. Add more pesto to your liking.
- When pasta is thoroughly heated through, taste and adjust to your liking with salt and pepper.
- Serve hot with a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.
Note from Chef Andrea: This is a very basic recipe for pasta tossed with greens and pesto. The beauty of this dish is that you can build upon this base by adding other ingredients of your choosing. Don’t limit yourself, rather use the ingredients you have available and turn this into whatever you want it to be!
If you don’t wish to use bacon, substitute another meat of your choosing (chunks of chicken, steak, or fish) or eliminate meat totally. Of course, you can add as many vegetables to this recipe as you wish! Just sauté any non-leafy green vegetables in a touch of oil before you add the spaghetti and leafy greens. Baby white turnips, asparagus and mushrooms would be tasty additions this time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment