Wednesday, October 26, 2022

October 27, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Brussels Sprouts

 

Cooking With This Week's Box

Brussels Sprouts:  
Shredded Brussels Sprout & Bacon Pizza (See Below) 

Orange Carrots:  

Purple Viking Potatoes:  

Sweet Potatoes:  

Cauliflower or Broccoli Romanesco or Broccoli:  

Porcelain Garlic:  

Red Monastrell Onions:  

Salad Mix:  

Escarole:

Winter Blush Squash or Butterkin Squash:  

Jester Squash: 

Hello All!

After this week we only have 4 deliveries remaining.  Can you believe it?!  It’s almost time to start planning our holiday menus!  This week we’re excited to be sharing the first of the Brussels sprouts with you.  If you’re looking for a new recipe to try, consider this week’s featured recipe for Shredded Brussels Sprout & Bacon Pizza (See Below).  Yes, you can put Brussels sprouts on a pizza! Serve this pizza with a simple green salad comprised of salad mix tossed with either  Orange Vinaigrette Salad Dressing or Pear Vinaigrette.

As we move into the winter months, lets start enjoying a slower pace and more leisurely cooking. This includes long, slow cooking, such as is the case with Perfect Pot Roast or

In the spirit of starting the day off with vegetables for breakfast, consider making  
Sweet Potato Breakfast Cookies or Sweet Potato Kale Breakfast Salad! Of course, you may also wish to use your sweet potatoes to make a Sweet Potato Cheesecake.

What are you going to do with that beautiful head of escarole? Well, may I suggest you go with either Escarole Salad with Pomegranates and Pistachios or this recipe for Rigatoni with Escarole & White Beans!

I’m going to wrap it up here, but before I go, I want to remind you that this is our final Peak Season delivery.   We have a plan for the remaining boxes which will include some fun selections like red daikon and fresh baby ginger!

Have a great week and I’ll see you back next week for more cooking fun!
Chef Andrea 

 

Vegetable Feature: Brussels Sprouts

by Andrea Yoder

Brussels sprouts are a popular crop many members have come to adore when they realize how delicious they are when harvested fresh, in the peak of their season, AND cooked properly. Brussels sprouts are another selection in the family of Brassicas which include cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. They resemble little cabbages and grow on stalks with leaves similar to collards.  We start Brussels sprouts from seed in the green house in the spring and then plant the transplants to the field where they require a 4-6 month period to reach their full potential.  

Brussels sprouts are a hearty vegetable and can take cold temperatures. In fact, we like them to be “kissed by the frost” a few times before we harvest them. The reason for this is that the cold exposure changes the flavor making them sweeter, which contributes to a better tasting sprout overall.  This year was an unusual year and most of our fall Brassicas crops came in several weeks ahead of schedule, Brussels sprouts included. We had to start harvesting the large sprouts from the bottoms of the stalks first and have just continued to work our way up the stalks as the sprouts continue to grow. We waited until they were frosted to start harvesting them for your boxes. We are very thankful to have a productive crop this year and plan to include them in both of the November boxes.  They will also be available for purchase as a Produce Plus offering for delivery the week before Thanksgiving, just in case you want to include them in your Thanksgiving Day feasts!


Now that you know fresh, frosted Brussels sprouts are going to taste the best, let’s talk about proper cooking. In my youth I did not adore the drab, olive green little cabbages that made the house smell funky when Mom (over)cooked them.  In my adult life I realized that it was not the Brussels sprouts I disliked, but rather my mother’s overcooked approach to preparing them!  For just a moment let’s talk about the science of Brussels sprouts. As with other vegetables in this family, Brussels sprouts are packed with phytonutrients that make them nutritional powerhouses! One nutrient compound they contain are glucosinolates, a sulfur containing nutrient that protects and benefits our bodies in many ways including protecting our cardiovascular system and providing anti-cancer effects. These sulfur containing compounds also contribute to their flavor, but this is where we need to talk about the fine line between a delicious tasting Brussels sprout and one that has crossed the line because it is overcooked. As you cook Brussels sprouts these sulfur compounds are released. When overcooked the flavor becomes strong, pungent and, in my opinion, just not very enjoyable.  Brussels sprouts may be roasted, boiled, steamed, or sautéed. Regardless of the cooking method you choose, it’s important to cook them just until they become bright green and are tender, but still with a little bit of firmness remaining.  The next stage after this is where they turn olive green, get soft and mushy and develop a strong smell from all the sulfur compounds volatilizing into the air! The other important thing to remember when cooking Brussels sprouts is to let them breathe. It’s best to cook them uncovered as it lets the sulfur compounds dissipate into the air instead of building up in the pan under the lid.

To prepare sprouts for a recipe, use a paring knife to trim a little bit off the base of each sprout which will allow a few outer leaves to fall off. If the sprouts are small, you may cook them whole. If they are a little larger you may want to cut them into halves or quarters. I should mention that Brussels sprouts may also be eaten raw in slaws and salads. In their raw form they are generally sliced very finely.  Brussels sprouts are a natural pairing with other vegetables including garlic, onions (especially caramelized onions), winter squash, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. They also pair well with fall fruits including apples, cranberries, pomegranate, and lemons. In my kitchen, they also have an attraction to butter! Additionally, they pair well with other dairy products including Parmesan, feta, and blue cheese as well as cream. Their strong flavor goes well with salty, cured meats such as bacon and sausage as well as toasted nuts. A drizzle of maple syrup, honey or even balsamic vinegar is also a nice way to finish off a Brussels sprouts recipe. 

Store Brussels sprouts in the refrigerator in the plastic bag we’ve portioned them in for you.  They will keep for several weeks, but we recommend you eat them within a week or two. We are grateful to share the bounty of this year’s harvest with you and hope you enjoy them! 



Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Pizza 

Yield:  4 servings
½ pound pizza dough, at room temperature
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
1 ½ cups shredded Brussels sprouts
½ cup grated Manchego or Parmesan cheese
1 ½ cups shredded fontina or Havarti cheese
4 thick-cut slices of bacon, chopped

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease a large baking sheet or pizza pan with olive oil.
  2. In a small bowl, combine 1 Tbsp olive oil, the honey, balsamic vinegar, shallot, garlic, thyme, and a pinch each of red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
  3. In a separate bowl, toss together the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil, the Brussels sprouts, Parmesan or Manchego, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
  4. On a lightly floured surface, push/roll the dough out until it is pretty thin (about a 10-12 inch circle).  Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet.
  5. Spread the dough with the olive oil/balsamic herb mix.  Add the fontina or Havarti cheese, then layer the Brussels sprouts over the cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese has melted.
  6. Meanwhile, cook the bacon until crisp. Top the pizza with the crispy bacon and additional freshly shaved Parmesan. Slice and enjoy!
Recipe sourced from www.halfbakedharvest.com.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

October 20, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Tat Soi

 


Cooking With This Week's Box

Tat Soi:  
Photo from melaniemakes.com
Tat Soi Coconut Curry with Chickpeas (See Below)
Soupy Rice with Pork and Greens (See Below)

Orange Carrots:  

Red Prairie Potatoes:  

Sweet Potatoes:  

White or Yellow Cauliflower or Broccoli Romanesco or Broccoli:  

Italian Garlic:

Yellow Onions:  

Salad Mix:  

Baby Arugula:  

Starry Night Acorn Squash or Jester Squash:  

Red Cabbage:  

Photo from giveitsomethyme.com
We have had a chilly start to every day this week including a temperature of 19 degrees this morning! Temperatures that low remind us that winter is right around the corner and our days of eating fresh greens from the field are limited. But we still have a beautiful selection of greens in this week’s box so let’s get cooking!  This week’s featured vegetable is Tat Soi. This is the dark green vegetable in your box with spoon shaped leaves and green stems. It’s an important vegetable in our seasonal line up and it is delicious!  It is also easy to prepare as it may be eaten raw or cooks quickly. This week’s recipe suggestions are very simple. Tat Soi Coconut Curry with Chickpeas (See Below) is a simple recipe from Andrea Bemis. It’s warm, hearty and nutritious.  Serve it with a bowl of rice and you are set. If you have some rice and tat soi leftover, use it the next day to make Soupy Rice with Pork and Greens (See Below). This is a basic Chinese recipe that makes good use of leftover rice, bits of bacon and some greens.  It’s fast and nourishing.  

I intended to select some soup recipes but ended up with a few more than I realized when I finished the list!  I guess my body is ready to transition to warm, comfort food.  You can start with a  basic Ultra Satisfying Chicken Noodle Soup or spice it up a bit with 

This week’s potato selection brings us back to the basic red skin, white fleshed potato. This potato is a good choice for either Classic Potato Gratin or Simple Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes. These are family favorite types of recipes and are a nice accompaniment for meatloaf, roasted chicken, pot roast or even simple smoked ham.  

We are nearing the end of our delivery season, with just five more vegetable deliveries remaining! I am working on laying out the box contents for our final boxes.  We still have some new items to feature in upcoming boxes including Brussels sprouts and baby ginger!  We’ll also have to see how the radicchio, escarole and remaining tat soi look after last night’s frost.  Fingers crossed we can still harvest some of these items! 

Have a great week and I’ll see you back here next week for more fine eats!

--Chef Andrea 

 

Vegetable Feature: Tat Soi

by Andrea Yoder

This week we are delivering one of our favorite late season crops, Tat Soi! Tat soi has dark green, spoon shaped leaves with light green stems that grow from a base. We grow tat soi as a baby green to include in salad and sauté mix, but when you allow tat soi to grow to full size it becomes a beautiful flower-like vegetable! It is related to bok choi and has a mild mustard flavor. We reserve it for the very end of our season because it is more cold hardy and, in our opinion, the flavor is best after a bit of cold treatment!  If you see a little browning on the edges of the leaves, this is likely a little frost damage from a chilly night over the past week.  This is actually a good sign because it tells you its had the frost treatment that makes it go from tasting “good” to “spectacular!”  

Nearly the entire plant, leaves and stems, is edible and you’ll find both to be tender enough to eat raw as well as cooked.  Prior to use, use a paring knife to cut the stems away from the base. Wash the stems and leaves vigorously in a sink of cold water. If you’re using it to make a salad or stir-fry, make sure you pat the leaves dry or dry them in a salad spinner. If you’re using them in a soup or just wilting them, just shake a little water off of them.  

As mentioned above, tat soi may be eaten both raw and cooked and I consider it to be one of nature’s fast foods. Aside from a little time to wash it, the prep involved with tat soi is pretty minimal. It is very similar to spinach and bok choi, so consider using it in recipes or preparations where you may use greens such as these.  In its raw form, I like to use tat soi in tasty salads with lots of fall vegetables such as winter radishes (daikon or beauty heart), carrots, cabbage, etc. and a simple, light vinaigrette. Turn it into a meal itself by adding nuts, seeds and/or meat such as grilled steak, roasted chicken, or seared salmon. It may also be stir-fried, steamed and sauteed in just a few minutes. The stems may need a slightly longer cooking time, so it’s best to add those to the pan first.  The leaves cook very quickly and need just a few minutes to become silky and tender. You may choose to use it in egg rolls, won tons, fried rice, or added to soup.

I tend to use tat soi in dishes with some Asian influences, and rightfully so as it pairs well with ginger, miso, soy, sesame, etc. But it also pairs well with other ingredients including lemon, beans, grains, pasta, winter root vegetables, etc. Of course, you may also choose to incorporate it into casseroles, hot dishes, egg preparations such as quiche and scrambled eggs, pasta dishes, etc.

It’s best to store tat soi in a plastic bag or a covered container in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it.  I have stored this green in my refrigerator for several weeks, but we recommend eating it soon for the best quality.


Soupy Rice with Pork and Greens (Shang Hai Pao Fan) 

Yield:  2 servings

2 dried Shiitake mushrooms
A slice or two of bacon
2 cups tat soi or bok choi, chopped
1-2 Tbsp cooking oil
4-5 slices of peeled fresh ginger
1 scant cup cooked, cooled rice
4 cups chicken stock
Salt, to taste
Ground white pepper, to taste
  1. Soak the mushrooms for 30 minutes in hot water until soft.
  2. Remove and discard any rinds from the bacon and cut into slivers. Cut the mushrooms into slivers and slice or chop the tat soi or bok choi.
  3. Heat the oil in a wok (or sauté pan) over a high flame. Add the bacon and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the ginger, stir a couple of times, then add the mushrooms. Stir a few more times, then add the greens and stir-fry until wilted. Add the rice and stock and bring to a boil. 
  4. Simmer for a couple of minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Recipe sourced from Fuchsia Dunlop’s book, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking.


Tat Soi/Bok Choi Coconut Curry with Chickpeas 

Yield:  4 servings

1 cup basmati rice (or rice of choice)
2 Tbsp coconut oil
1 medium sized onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp curry powder
¼ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup vegetable stock or water
1 (15-oz) can chickpeas, drained
1 (15-oz) can coconut milk
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
3 cups roughly chopped bok choi or tat soi
  1. Cook the rice according to package instructions.
  2. Heat the oil in a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant (about 5 minutes).  
  3. Add the garlic, curry powder, red pepper flakes and a healthy pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook for 1 minute longer, stirring often to coat the onion and garlic in the spices.
  4. Add in the vegetable stock, chickpeas and coconut milk.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the lime juice and greens and keep on low heat until the greens wilt down.  Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
  5. Serve the soup with a scoop of rice and enjoy.

Recipe borrowed from Andrea Bemis’s blog, DishingUpthe Dirt.com
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Wednesday, October 12, 2022

October 13, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Sweet Potatoes

 

Cooking With This Week's Box

Cured Sweet Potatoes:  
Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes (See Below)

Orange Carrots:  

German Butterball Potatoes:  
Orange Italian Frying Peppers:  

Mini Sweet Peppers:  

Broccoli or Broccoli Romanesco:  

Jalapeño Pepper:  

Italian Garlic:  

Yellow Onions:  

Salad Mix:  

Escarole:  

Green Top Gold Beets:  

Green Savoy Cabbage: 

Ok, here we go with another week of eating out of the box!  This week we’re FINALLY ready to send sweet potatoes your way!  It’s always hard to choose just one or two recipes for sweet potatoes as there are so many ways to prepare them!  This week I’ve featured a recipe for Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes (See Below).  This is a recipe I tried last winter and found it to be not only delicious, but also super easy to make. I also included a link to one of my all-time favorite recipes for Sweet Potato Kim Chi Pancakes.

This week’s potato selection is the German Butterball potato. This variety is similar to a Yukon Gold potato.  It’s a moist, waxy gold potato with gold skin.  I like to use this potato to make Crushed Potatoes with Cream & Garlic.  I also came across this recipe for German Butterball Potatoes & Caramelized Onion Tarts, which looks quite tasty.  

For some reason I’ve been on a shredding kick this week.  I’ve been shredding carrots, broccoli stems, sunchokes, potatoes.  Having some shredded vegetables, such as carrots, prepared in advance is really nice for making quick salads, but shredded vegetables cook really quickly too.  I’ve been using shredded potatoes and broccoli stems in scrambled eggs and soups, but you could also mix them into meatballs, pasta dishes, etc.  Anything to save a little time in the day! On that note, check out this article entitled 14 Shredded Carrot Recipes That Will Have You Craving Seconds.  I’ll also be making these Quinoa Carrot Breakfast Cookies with some of the shredded carrots I have in my refrigerator right now!

This week’s box includes a beautiful head of escarole. If you are not familiar with this vegetable or are not sure what to use it for this week, check out our 2021 Vegetable Feature article about Escarole (October 21, 2021).  I also included two links to recipes we’ve featured in past newsletters.  The first is for White Bean & Escarole Pizza. The second recipe for Italian Wedding Soup is a classic way escarole is prepared.

We’re supposed to see some chilly nights and mornings over the next week with temperatures dipping down into the 20’s.  This is great news for the Brussels sprouts still in the field as the cold will only make them sweeter! Just a few more weeks and you’ll see those in your box.  We also have some gorgeous tat soi rosettes coming your way later this month or early into November. They are a rich, dark, deep color and just have “that look” of something that is going to make you feel good! Of course, we also have baby ginger to look forward to!

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Chef Andrea 
 

Vegetable Feature: Sweet Potatoes

by Andrea Yoder

This week we are featuring sweet potatoes, which are actually a tropical vegetable.  Why would we, in the upper Midwest, attempt to grow a tropical vegetable? Well, we like a good growing challenge, but beyond that sweet potatoes have proven over the years to be a favorite vegetable for many CSA members and are an important part of our fall and winter diets. Sweet potatoes are a member of the Morning Glory family, not the ‘Potato’ family also known as the Solanaceae family. Sweet potatoes are less starchy and more sweet and moist than a regular potato.  Although often confused, sweet potatoes and yams are not related. 
We have a rule around here that you don’t eat sweet potatoes for at least 10 days to 2 weeks after they are harvested.  When first harvested the potatoes are starchy, not very sweet or tasty, and the skins are very tender requiring careful handling.  Sweet potatoes aren’t truly sweet potatoes until we “cure them.”  Curing is a process by which we hold the sweet potatoes at high heat and high humidity for 7-10 days, basically it’s kind of like a sauna for sweet potatoes!  During this time, the starches in the potatoes are converted to sugars and the skins become more stable for long term storage. 

Sweet potatoes are very versatile in their use, which is a good thing since they will be a staple vegetable in our diets for the next 4-6 months! You can simply bake sweet potatoes whole until fork tender and eat the flesh right out of the skin. They are also delicious cut into bite-sized pieces and roasted or cut them into wedges or thin slices and make roasted fries or chips. If you’re going to do this, it’s best to put the wedges or slices of sweet potatoes on a rack in a pan.  This allows the air and heat from the oven to circulate on all sides of the sweet potato making it more crispy and less soggy. Sweet potatoes also make delicious, hearty soups, stews, and curries. They may be added to chili, shredded, and fried like hash browns, or just simply cook and mash or puree them. 
Sweet potatoes can also be incorporated into sweet preparations. Sweet potato pie is a traditional way to incorporate sweet potatoes into dessert. You can also use sweet potatoes to make biscuits, rolls, quick breads, muffins, cookies, bars, cheesecake and more! 

Sweet potatoes pair well with a wide variety of ingredients, which is part of what makes them so versatile in their uses. They pair very well with fall fruits such as apples, pears, citrus and pomegranates. They also pair well with other vegetables including a variety of root vegetables; greens such as escarole, radicchio & kale; Brussels sprouts and dried beans.  They also go very well with coconut, ginger, chiles, butter, cream, maple, nuts of any kind and Bourbon.

Sweet potatoes are a nutrient dense food that provide an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), a very good source of vitamin C and manganese, and a good source of copper, dietary fiber, vitamin B6, potassium and iron. They also contain high amounts of antioxidants that boost immunity and aid with brain function.

If stored properly you can eat sweet potatoes all winter! The ideal storage temperature for sweet potatoes is 55-65°F. They can get chill injury with prolonged storage at temperatures below 55°F, so if you don’t have the perfect location to store them at their ideal temperature, it’s better to store them on the countertop in your kitchen instead of putting them in the refrigerator.



Coconut Milk Braised Black Pepper Chicken with Sweet Potatoes 

Yield:  6 servings

2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 2-inch chunks
Photo from www.halfbakedharvest.com
1 Tbsp ground turmeric
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
Kosher salt, to taste
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2-3 sweet peppers, sliced
2 medium shallots or onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ tsp chili flakes, or more if desired
2 cups cubed sweet potatoes
2 cans (14-ounce) full-fat coconut milk
2 Tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Steamed Rice, for serving
½ cup Thai basil leaves (optional)
2 limes
Roasted peanuts, chopped

  1. Toss the chicken with the turmeric, ginger, cumin, pepper, a pinch of salt, and 1 Tbsp oil. Let set 5 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.
  2. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear on both sides until browned, about 2 minutes. Pull the chicken out of the pan.
  3. To the pot, add 1 Tbsp olive oil, the peppers, shallot or onions, garlic, and chili flakes, cook 3 minutes. Then toss in the sweet potatoes and reduce the heat to low. Pour in the coconut milk and fish or soy sauce. Slide the chicken and any juices on the plate into the milk. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sweet potatoes are tender. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of water. Stir in the cilantro and season with salt.
  4. Divide rice between bowls, then spoon the chicken and sauce over the rice. Top with basil, peanuts, and lime juice.
Recipe sourced from www.halfbakedharvest.com.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022

October 6, 2022 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Beets

 


Cooking With This Week's Box

Red, Gold or Chioggia Beets:
Spicy Beet Salad with Tahini (See below)
Photo from thekitchn.com
Spicy Shredded Beet Salad (See below)

Leeks:  

Orange Carrots:  

Adirondack Red Potatoes:  

Red or Orange Italian Frying Peppers:  

Mini Sweet Peppers:  

White, Purple or Yellow Cauliflower or Broccoli Romanesco, or Broccoli:  

Jalapeño Peppers:  

Garlic:  

Yellow Onions:  

Salad Mix:  

Baby Spinach:  

Butterscotch Butternut Squash:  

Dill:

Eggplant: 

Baby White Turnips:

Hello Everyone!  

The bounty of our fall harvests is evident in this week’s full box! We are nearing the end of the season for both peppers and eggplant, although we do have a cover over our mini sweet peppers for frost protection. Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue picking mini sweet peppers, but at this time of year you never know how much more you may be able to harvest.   In the midst of cleaning up fields from our summer crops, we are also deep into fall root crop harvests!  This week we’re harvesting bulk beets and sunchokes.  All of our carrots and celeriac are now in storage and it’s a tight squeeze to get in and out of our coolers!  We also harvested bulk beets earlier this week, and this is the vegetable we are featuring. 

Beets are a versatile vegetable and may be used in many ways. This week I’m sharing two salad options with you.  The two recipes include Spicy Beet Salad with Tahini (See below) and Spicy Shredded Beet Salad (See below). Both of these recipes are pretty simple, but great ways to utilize vegetables in this week’s box!  

This is our final week for leeks, so I included two new recipes for 30 Minute Creamy Mushroom and Leek Chicken Breasts and Cheesy Leek and Broccoli Pasta Bake.  These are family friendly recipes that are pretty easy to execute.  Either of these would go well with Pull-Apart Cheesy Onion Bread!

Speaking of lasts, this is the final eggplant delivery of the season. Throughout the list of suggestions you’ll find several different recipes for using eggplant along with other fall ingredients.  Perhaps you’d like to try this Eggplant and Potato Curry or this Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Salad. I want to try this recipe for Crispy Baked Eggplant with Lime Dill Yogurt.

Hopefully, you’ll find a cooking inspiration or two in this week’s list of suggestions!  You may be wondering where the sweet potatoes are this week? Well, we decided to let them “cure” a little longer before we start washing them. We plan to include them in next week’s box!

Have a good week!
Andrea 
 

Vegetable Feature: Beets

by Andrea Yoder

I realize this is not the first time you’ve received beets in your box this year, but with the shifting of seasons I thought it might be helpful to take pause and put our focus on the humble beet.  Beets are typically available starting in mid to late June. Early in the season we choose beet varieties that are best for fresh harvest with their green tops still attached. As we move through the season, we shift our choice in varieties to those that have the longest storage potential. As we enter fall and winter, beets become an important part of our winter storage vegetable line up. They store particularly well, and we can eat them well into the new year!  We grow three different colors of beets including the traditional red beet as well as golden and Chioggia beets which have a bright pink skin and are candy-striped inside!  A common question many ask is “What is the difference between the different colors of beets?”  In general, all of our beets, regardless of color, are sweet and earthy.  Red beets have more of the traditional earthy beet flavor. Chioggia and golden beets are generally more mild in flavor, but typically are as sweet or sweeter than the red beets.  Individuals who don’t care for beets generally like and will eat golden beets, which is a good place to start for those who are still learning to like them.

Beets, also referred to as beetroot, may be eaten raw or cooked. Thinly sliced or grated beets are a nice addition to salads and slaws. As for cooking, beets are generally either boiled or steamed on the stove top or roasted in the oven. The cooking time will vary depending upon the size of the beet. The general recommendation is to cook beets with their skins on and the root tail intact. For red beets in particular this minimizes the leaching of the water-soluble color compounds from the beet.  Once the beets are cooked, the peel should be easy to remove. You know a beet is fully cooked when the beet easily slides off a skewer, fork or cake tester stuck into the middle of the beet.

Red beets do contain a water-soluble nutrient called anthocyanin. This compound is responsible for giving red beets their color, which will stain your hands (temporarily) and the color will bleed onto other ingredients if you’re using them in a salad, soup, or otherwise.  Golden beets and Chioggia beets don’t lose their color or bleed color onto other ingredients. 

Beets are very versatile and pair well with many other ingredients including vegetables such as fennel, celery, carrots, red onions, shallots, garlic, arugula, kale, winter squash, and other salad greens along with other root vegetables. They also go well with fruits including apples, oranges, lemons, pears, avocadoes, and pomegranates. Additionally, beets pair nicely with goat cheese, feta cheese, blue cheese, butter, nuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds as well as chocolate!

Beets are packed with fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins A, C, and K to name a few. The greens have a higher content of iron compared to spinach. In natural healing circles, beets are known for their ability to purify the blood and the liver. Their iron content, though not terribly high, is of the highest and finest quality making it an excellent blood building food. These colorful root vegetables also contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.

Spicy Shredded Beet Salad 

Yield:  4 servings
3 cups shredded carrots
5 small steamed beets, julienned
½ cup thinly sliced red onion
1 jalapeño, de-seeded and deveined, thinly sliced
½ cup cilantro, chopped
¼ tsp salt
⅛ tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
¼- ½ tsp honey
  1. In a large bowl, toss together carrots, beets, red onion, jalapeño and cilantro.  Season with salt and pepper.  
  2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, apple cider vinegar and honey.
  3. Toss salad in dressing.  Serve cold.
Recipe sourced from www.chelseyamernutrition.com



Spicy Beet Salad with Tahini 

Photo from jewishunpacked.com
Yield:  4-6 servings 

6 medium beets
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or juice of 1 lemon
4 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper, to taste
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
½ cup ready-to-eat tahini
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  1. Scrub the beets well and trim off any roots.  Place them in a large pan, and cover with plenty of cold water.
  2. Bring the beets to a boil, and cook at a medium temperature, covered, for 45 minutes or until a knife slide easily into the flesh of the largest beet.
  3. Drain the beets.  Peel them as soon as they’re cool enough to handle—the peel will slide off between your fingers.  Chop the beets into coarse dice.  Place in a medium-sized bowl.
  4. In a separate small bowl, blend the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, sugar, and cumin.  Pour over the beets, preferably while they’re still warm.  Stir the onions into the salad.
  5. Taste to adjust seasonings if desired.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least an hour.  When ready to serve, spoon the salad out onto a dish and spoon tahini over it.  Garnish with parsley and enjoy.
Recipe sourced from www.jewishunpacked.com
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