October 31, 2024 - This Week's Box Contents Featuring Red Mizuna

 

What's In The Box

Red Mizuna: You can identify this item by its dark burgundy/purple leaves that have green stems and serrated leaves. Mizuna is related to mustard and has a spicy bite to it. This is our favorite time of the year to enjoy this vegetable, after it’s been kissed by some frost which balances the flavor. At this stage, it is best used as a cooking green. Read more about this vegetable in this week’s feature article.

 

Yellow Onions: The key to caramelizing onions is patience! Sauté them in a pan with a large surface area over medium to medium low heat and stir periodically to keep them from getting crispy brown. As they cook, the moisture will evaporate from the onion (as evidenced by steam rising from the pan), thereby concentrating the natural sugars in the onion which give caramelized onions a sweet flavor.

 

Italian Garlic: Roasted garlic makes a bold and tasty base for a salad dressing that would be great on this week’s Red Magenta Summercrisp head lettuce! Recipe suggestions for this as well as roasted garlic sauce are below.

 

Sweet Potatoes: This week your box will contain either Bayou Belle or Evangeline sweet potatoes. Both are orange fleshed varieties. Roasting sweet potatoes is a great way to enhance the natural sweetness of the sweet potato. They may be eaten on their own, or add them to a salad, mix them in with grain bowls, or turn them into soup.

 

German Butterball Potatoes: This variety of potatoes is known for its creamy “buttery” gold flesh. It is a waxy variety that is a great choice for making au gratin potatoes, roasting, or for making chowder.

Black Futsu Pumpkins: This is a Japanese squash variety that has the shape of a pumpkin, with brownish skin and golden flesh. If roasted, the skin gets crispy and is edible. You can also cut the squash in half and bake it, either with a filling or just scoop the flesh out of the shell once cooked.

Jester Squash: This is the variety in this week’s box that is oblong in shape and has yellow, orange and/or green markings against a cream/yellow background. This squash is similar to a delicata but has much longer storage potential. The flesh is light yellow in color, sweet and flavorful.

 

Orange Carrots: Shredded carrots are a handy item to have on hand. Use them to put together quick vegetable salads or add to stir-fry, noodle dishes or baked goods.

 

Green Curly Kale: Notice how the flavor of kale changes (sweetens) from summer to fall after it is “kissed” by frosty nights! Use this week’s kale to make a massaged kale salad or add it to soup.

Red Magenta Lettuce: This week’s gorgeous head lettuce is a red summercrisp variety that resembles redleaf lettuce, but with more crunch factor! Wash and dry the leaves well before using them as the base for a tossed salad.

 

Green Kohlrabi: The kohlrabi in this week’s box is a different variety in comparison to the ones we grew in the spring. These kohlrabies are intended for long-term storage, and we’ve found they will store for several months! This is a great vegetable to use in winter salads and slaws, allowing us to enjoy a fresh, crispy, crunchy, refreshing vegetable throughout the winter when we no longer have fresh vegetables coming in! Store it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag to keep it from getting soft. Peel it as you would peel an apple, then use the solid, inner flesh to make salads, slaws, stir-fry, or just simply eat it raw with salt, chili powder and a touch of lime juice!

Red Cabbage: These densely packed heads may be on the small side, but you will likely be surprised at how much you get out of this vegetable if finely sliced! Enjoy it raw in a salad or braise it with apples and fennel.

Recipe Suggestions & Inspiration For This Week’s Box Contents

Simple Mizuna Salad with Radishes

Garlicky Roasted Potatoes with Wilted Mizuna and Bacon Gremolata

Congee with Chicken & Greens

Curried Lentils & Sweet Potatoes with Greens & Hazelnuts

Shredded Carrot Salad with Lemon and Feta Cheese

Shredded Carrot Salad with Apple & Lime

Super-Easy Sesame Soba Noodles with Shredded Carrots & Red Cabbage

Massaged Kale Salad with Apples & Cranberries

Roasted Garlic Caesar Salad

5-Ingredient Creamy Garlic Sauce for Chicken or Pasta

Creamy Roast Garlic & Lemon Pasta Sauce

Sweet Potato & Kale Salad with Roasted Chickpeas and Creamy Honey Mustard Dressing

Roasted Sweet Dumpling (sub Jester) Squash with Brown Butter

Simple Lettuce Salad (That Tastes Amazing!)

Mama Kathy’s Potato & Onion Chowder

Creamy Cider & Black Futsu Pumpkin Soup

Maple Sage Roasted Black Futsu Pumpkin

Red Cabbage Taco Slaw

Pork Chops with Red Cabbage & Apples

Chili Dusted Kohlrabi Fries

Chili-Lime Kohlrabi Salad

Vegetable Feature: Red Mizuna

Red mizuna is a stunning “green” that has dark burgundy/purple leaves with green stems. The shape of the leaf is unique and has distinctly serrated edges. You may not realize this, but this is not the first time you’ve had this green in your box!  We actually plant red mizuna in the spring and fall as one of our baby “greens” selections that we use in our salad mix and/or sauté mix.  We like to include red mizuna in our salad mix because it is beautiful and adds nice color contrast, but also because its spicy flavor is a nice complement to the mild lettuces. Sometimes we have a crop that grows faster than the lettuces they were intended to be paired with, and when that happens, we have the opportunity to let it grow to full size and harvest it as a bunching green.  Such is the case this week. 

Red Mizuna is similar to mustard greens or arugula, with a distinctly spicy flavor profile.  We like to enjoy mizuna as well as mustard greens and arugula in the cool parts of the season when the spicy flavor of the green is more well-balanced. When grown as a baby green, red mizuna is tender and may be eaten raw. When grown to full size, it may still be eaten raw, but you may find the texture to be a bit more coarse.  As such, full-size mizuna is best used as a cooking green, however it doesn’t require a very long cooking time.  It may be added to soups, stews, stir-fry, noodle dishes, etc., but do so at the very end as it just needs enough time to wilt down which softens the leaf. 

Preparation & Usage: Remove the twist tie from the bunch and remove any damaged leaves.  Wash well in a clean sink of cold water. Shake off excess water or spin the greens in a salad spinner before using. Trim off the lower 1-2 inches of the stem and then roughly chop the remaining leaf and stems into bite-sized pieces or into whatever size is desired.  

Storage Tips:  Store red mizuna in a plastic bag in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.  It is best used within a week for optimal quality.

Health & Nutrition: As with other vegetables in the brassica family, red mizuna is strong in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals which support overall health and well-being.  As Farmer Richard says, “Eat your greens every day!”

 Red Lentils with Winter Squash & Greens

Yield:  4 servings

This is a recipe we published in our newsletter back in 2015 in a week when we included red mustard in the box. I remembered how good this combination was and it’s equally good with this week’s red mizuna!  The spicy flavor of the mizuna is a nice complement to the more subtle flavors of the lentils and squash. This recipe is a layer of flavors with the addition of the ginger, turmeric, cumin and mustard seeds.  If you don’t have access to fresh lemongrass, you may choose to add lemon zest and/or juice to the recipe.

1 cup red lentils

3 Tbsp olive oil

¼ cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 inch fresh ginger, minced

¼ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp salt, plus more as needed to taste

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds (optional, but highly recommended)

2 Tbsp fresh lemongrass bulb, minced

1-2 pinches of dried red pepper flakes

5-6 cups water

1 cup diced kabocha or butternut squash

1 bunch red mizuna, mustard greens or other bunching greens, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces

Fresh lime and cilantro, to garnish

Cooked basmati rice or potatoes

1. Rinse the lentils well using a mesh strainer.
2. Heat a skillet to medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the olive oil is shimmering, add the onions & garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes, then add the lentils, ginger, turmeric, salt, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, lemongrass, and the dried red pepper flakes.  Stir to combine, then add 3-4 cups of water, or enough water to bring the level of liquid over the lentils by about ½-1 inch.
3. Cover and bring to a simmer.  Once the lentils are simmering, remove the cover, and add the squash. Continue to simmer until the squash is tender, the lentils are soft, and the mixture looks smooth. You may need to add an additional 1-2 cups of water during the cooking time.
4. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the greens. Simmer for just a few minutes more until all the greens have wilted into the lentils.
5. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve alongside cooked basmati rice or boiled potatoes. Garnish with a squeeze of fresh lime and chopped cilantro.

Recipe adapted from a recipe originally published by McKel Hill for her blog, www.nutritionstripped.com.