May 5, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents, Featuring Horseradish Whips and Sunchokes!

 

Cooking With This Week's Box

by Andrea Yoder

Ramp Pesto

Wild Ramps:   
Egg Noodles in Ramp Horseradish Cream 

(See Below)

Ramp Pesto 
Ramp Butter 

Overwintered Spinach: 
Creamed Ramps & Spinach 
Spinach Quiche 
Spring Spinach Chop Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Ramp Dressing

Overwintered Parsnips: 
Parsnip Latkes with Apple Chutney and Horseradish Yogurt 
Parsnips with Brown Butter, Pecans & Maple 

Overwintered Sunchokes: 

Photo from: www.seasonedbysilvie.com

Sunchoke, Potato and Horseradish Soup (See Below)
Spiced Sunchokes with Masala 
25 Ways to Use Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) 

 Chives: 

43 Chive-Packed Recipes 
Chive Bacon Ranch Dressing 
One-Pan Chicken with Creamy Chive Sauce 

Red Potatoes: 

Creamy Chive Potatoes 
Roasted Potatoes Tossed with Ramps 

Horseradish Root: 

Prepared Horseradish 
Sunchoke, Potato and Horseradish Soup (See Below)
Egg Noodles in Ramp Horseradish Cream (See Below)
Parsnip Latkes with Apple Chutney and Horseradish Yogurt

Welcome to the 2022 CSA Season!

This is our weekly Cooking With the Box portion of our blog.  Each week you can come here to find inspiration, recipes and ideas for ways to put every item in your box to use!  I try to include a mix of new suggestions as well as reminders of recipes we’ve published over the years in our newsletters.  Within our membership we have a mix of members who may be joining us for the first year or are relatively new along with seasoned members who have been with us for a decade….or more!  Hopefully there will be something for everyone along the way. 

Of course, I also want to remind you that we have a private Facebook Group for our CSA members.  This is a great place to share recipes you have tried with other members, ask questions, and interact with our community of like-minded eaters!

I hope you enjoy this journey through the seasons. Get ready, we’re going to have a lot of great meals this year!

 Chef Andrea 

Vegetable Feature: Horseradish Whips and Sunchokes

by Andrea Yoder

One of the exciting parts of participating in CSA is learning to eat with the seasons.  In our northern climate, spring can be a challenging time to grow vegetables.  Over the years Richard has learned how to work with Mother Nature to figure out how we can eat locally and seasonally during these sometimes challenging times of the year.  In the spring we turn to perennial crops like the chives in this week’s box along with asparagus, nettles and sorrel which we hope to include in the next few weeks.  We also employ strategies of overwintering vegetables in the field that are then available for harvest early in the spring.  This includes root vegetables such as the sunchokes and parsnips in this week’s box along with our crop of overwintered spinach.  The other way we work along with Mother Nature is by foraging wild vegetables.  Every spring we look forward to harvesting wild ramps from our wooded hillsides.  We also hope to harvest watercress which grows in our spring-fed creeks.  So while some of the vegetables in this week’s box may be unfamiliar to you, we hope you will embrace this opportunity to partner with Mother Nature in this season.

Every week throughout the season we’ll feature a vegetable in your box.  This is your opportunity to learn more about vegetables you may be less familiar with, but we also use these articles to share information specific to this year’s crop as well as offer suggestions for ways you might prepare them.  So, hopefully there will be helpful information for everyone from our newest members to our seasoned veterans! 

This week we’re going to focus on the Horseradish Whips and Sunchokes.  These crops are unique because they can both be stored for long periods of time in refrigerated storage, but they also can be overwintered in the field.  Here’s how this works.  We plant both of these crops from our own seed stock that we harvest in the fall.  As we do our fall harvest we carefully select pieces to replant for the next year’s crop.  Nearly one year later we harvest a portion of that crop to put into cold storage so we can wash and pack it for CSA boxes and wholesale orders throughout the winter.  We also leave a portion of the crop in the field and return the following spring to harvest in March or April.  This is one way we can work with Mother Nature to have food available throughout the winter, but also to have fresh things to harvest very early in the spring!

Horseradish whips are the thin pieces of roots that grow off the main root.  You will likely never see whips being sold in a grocery store, which is quite a shame as they are very usable product!  In fact, I prefer them because I can use a small portion at a time if I want to, but also because they don’t need to be peeled.  Horseradish is a bold, pungent vegetable, so you do need to take care when working with it.  The powerful plant compounds in horseradish that give it its peppery flavor have the ability to attack cancer cells and boost our immune systems, but they also can sting your eyes as you’re working with it!  Thus, the less you have to handle it, the better.  To get the most value out of horseradish, you do want to capture its pungency.  To do this you need to either incorporate it into recipes, dishes, etc. in its fresh form, or you can make what is called “prepared horseradish.”  To make prepared horseradish you simply need to grate or finely chop the horseradish.  You can do this by hand if you like, but when you are using the whips I think it is easiest to just chop them into 1-inch pieces and blend them in a blender or food processor.  Once the horseradish is finely chopped you can put it in a jar and fill the jar with vinegar to fully cover the horseradish.  The vinegar helps to stabilize the compounds which will otherwise volatilize into the air and your horseradish will lose its flavor.  You can store prepared horseradish in the refrigerator for quite awhile and just use it in small quantities as you need it.  Horseradish is a great accompaniment for roasted meat, especially beef.  It also goes well with a lot of vegetables including beets, potatoes and sunchokes.  We like to grate fresh horseradish into our soup bowls before we fill them with hot soup.  The flavor of the horseradish will infuse into the soup and the flavor is excellent as its at its peak.  This is a good technique to use when serving hearty beef or vegetable stews, split pea soup or other hearty bean soups.  In its raw form, it will store for quite awhile in the refrigerator, so don’t feel like you need to use it all within the next week or two.  It will store for a month or more.

Now on to sunchokes.  Sunchokes are an indigenous vegetable to North America and one that the native peoples that inhabited our lands before us included in their diets.  Sunchokes are also called Jerusalem artichokes, earth apples and sunroots.  They have a nutty flavor and may be eaten raw or cooked.  When people ask me what you do with a sunchoke my answer is always “You can do anything with a sunchoke that you can do with a potato, plus you can eat it raw!”  Sunchokes have a higher moisture content than most potatoes, which gives them a crunchy, juicy texture more similar to a water chestnut or jicama when eaten raw.  They are excellent when roasted as they get crispy on the outside and are fluffy on the inside.  They are also delicious incorporated into soups, stews and pan-fried.

Sunchoke Field

Now, we do need to discuss one important piece of information about sunchokes.  They contain a non-digestible fiber called inulin.  Inulin is found in other fruits and vegetables including asparagus, onions and bananas, however sunchokes have higher amounts than other foods.  Inulin is an important prebiotic nutrient.  It is an important food source for beneficial probiotic bacteria in our bodies, specifically in our large intestines.  There are many benefits that stem from the synergistic effects of consuming prebiotics including improved nutrient absorption, enhanced immunity, better digestion and overall improved health and well-being.  Unfortunately, the good bacteria produce gas as a byproduct when they feed on the inulin.  As the host in which this is taking place, this means you may develop symptoms of gas and bloating when you eat them.  So, my suggestion is to eat them in moderation as your symptoms will likely be dose-dependent, although some people don’t have any symptoms!  If this is your first time trying them, just have a small portion and see what happens.  I personally only eat about a ¼ cup serving at a time and feel just fine.  When choosing how to use sunchokes, I like to use them along with other vegetables or in preparations where I’ll be eating them more as a condiment than as a main ingredient.  For example, if you are making sunchoke soup, use a small portion of sunchokes along with potatoes.  Several years ago I developed a recipe for Chile & Lime Sunchoke Salsa which is used as a condiment and eaten in smaller quantities.

Egg Noodles in Ramp Horseradish Cream

Yield:  4 Servings

Photo from: www.diaryofamadhausfrau.com

1-12 oz package of egg noodles

3 Tbsp butter

6 ramps, cleaned, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

1 small onion (or additional ramp bulbs), diced

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 cup vegetable broth

¾ cup heavy cream

3 Tbsp prepared horseradish, drained

1-2 tsp lemon juice

Pinch of sugar

Chives, minced for garnishing

1. Cook the egg noodles according to the ingredients on the package.  Drain and place back in the pot, cover with a lid to keep warm.
2. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the ramps (bulbs and leaves) and onions and cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are transparent and the ramps have softened. 
4. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the mixture and stir to combine. 
5. Add the cream and the vegetable broth to the skillet.  Bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to low and let the mixture simmer until it thickens.
6. Stir in the horseradish a tablespoon at a time.  Add a teaspoon or 2 of the lemon juice and the pinch of sugar.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
7. Place the noodles in a bowl and pour the sauce over them.  Toss to combine, then garnish with chopped chives and serve.

Recipe sourced from diaryofamadhausfrau.com.

Sunchoke, Potato and Horseradish Soup

Yield:  4 Servings

Photo from: www.neantog.com

1 pound sunchokes

4 Tbsp olive oil 

1 onion, finely chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp sea salt and a pinch of black pepper

2 cups vegetable stock

1 medium potato, diced

1 Tbsp freshly grated horseradish

2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives

4 Tbsp cream

Spinach pesto, or any other pesto you have available, optional

1. Heat the oven to 375°F.  Cut the sunchokes into large chunks and drizzle with about 2 Tbsp oil.  Toss to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet.  Bake for 30-40 minutes until tender.  Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, add 1-2 Tbsp olive oil to a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions and sauté for 4 minutes, then add the garlic and cook an additional minute.  Add the stock and potato, bring to a boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
3. When the sunchokes are cooled slightly, transfer to a food processor or blender.  Add some of the cooked potatoes and a little of the vegetable stock and process until smooth.  If you want a perfectly smooth soup, blend all of the portion of soup that was cooked with the potatoes in the saucepan.  If you prefer a more coarse, rustic soup, just puree enough to blend the sunchokes.
4. Return the processed mixture to the saucepan and heat gently.  Stir in the freshly grated horseradish and season with salt and black pepper.  Simmer for a few minutes before tasting and adjust the seasoning to your preference.
5.  Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a tablespoon of cream.  Drizzle each bowl with pesto if you are using it and garnish with fresh chives.

Recipe sourced from www.neantog.com.