Collard Greens Pesto

 What? Yes, you can pesto anything.  Normally when I make a salad pizza, I'll use an arugula pesto but this week I didn't have any left in the freezer, and I wasn't about to go and buy more greens when I had a bunch of collards, half a bunch of kale and a good amount of lettuce still sitting in the crisper.  And the collards were from the CSA almost 3 weeks ago!  I will say, that's the advantage of CSA/farmer's market produce, it's so generally so fresh that it lasts a long time in the fridge (especially if you clean and package it like this), unlike the bags and boxes of salad you get at the grocery store that seem to turn to slime after a few days. At any rate, I hadn't had a chance to cook the collards, but I had cleaned and chopped them as soon as I got them home (they fit in the fridge much better that way) so they were ready to be turned into my first attempt at collard pesto.  

Collard Pesto (Recipe adapted from Garden & Gun)

Makes about 12 ounces of pesto

• 4 cups chopped collard greens (a small bunch will give you this much)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2/3 cup EVOO
• 2 oz grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice 
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan halves
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the pecans, garlic, ¼ cup of the oil, the cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice and blend or pulse several times to combine. Add the greens and pulse a few times to get them started (you can use a spatula to push the greens down between pulses). Add salt and pepper Add the rest of the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the food processor is running and process to the desired consistiency. Taste and adjust seasoning.  

This will keep several days in the refrigerator and also freezes well.

Here it is going on the pizza dough:

I use the parchment to help me slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, I bake the pizza for 5 minutes at 500°F, then remove the parchment and bake for 5 more minutes. 

The finished product - I drizzled the lettuce with about a tsp of olive oil and lemon juice and grated a bit of parm on it:

 Full salad pizza recipe and process here. Overall collard pesto was a success! 

Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

 Adapted from Peanut Chicken Soba Salad Cooking Light 2004

 This is a great idea for a delicious chicken salad when it's hot outside.  I've adapted the original Cooking  Light recipe to work with what you've got and to include more veggies.  Serve 2 generously

•  6-8 oz cooked chicken
  
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey or 1 tablespoon Kotterin Mirin 
• 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Siracha) or more to taste
  
• 2 cups cooked soba noodles (about 4 ounces uncooked)
• 2-3  cups thinly chopped cabbage and/or grated carrot
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onions (oh shoot, I forget these)
• ¼ cup minced red onion (maybe a bit more since I forget the green onions above)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (mint, thai basil and cilantro are great additions here and more of all is ok)
• 2 tbs chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts 

Directions:

Acquire 6-8 oz of cooked chicken.  This could be leftover roast or rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken breast or thighs (my favorite is 9-10 oz of chicken thighs, seasoned w/ salt and pepper and grilled).  I reckon it could also be firm crumbled tofu, though I haven't tried that yet.

Put shredded cooked chicken (by whatever method) in a bowl.  Combine vinegar, oil, soy, Mirin/Honey,  chili sauce in a bowl (add more or less of any of these condiment to taste).  Pour over shredded  chicken and let stand at least 5 minutes.  

Chop cabbage, grate carrot, chop onion and herbs as you are using.

Put peanuts in plastic zip loc bag and smash lightly with meat mallet.

Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  When done, rinse briefly with cold water and add to bowl with chicken.  Add veggies and herbs (shredded cabbage and carrot, basil, mint and onions) and toss to combine). 

Portion between two bowls, garnish with smashed/chopped peanuts.

A pic or two:

When you forget the peanuts:

 

When you remember the peanuts:

Week 2 and 3- lots of repeats and one new recipe

Got behind a little bit, but here's what's been in the CSA the past two weeks
Week 2: May 16, 2020

• 1 lb salad mix'
• 1 head lettuce
• 1 bunch carrots (tip: cut the greens off the carrots when you get them home.  You can use the greens like parsley, and the carrots won't go soft)
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 bunch collards
• 1 kohlrabi
• 1/2 lb spinach

Week 3: May 22, 2020

• 1 lb spicy mustard mix
• 2 heads lettuce
• 1 lb swiss/rainbow chard
• 1 buch radish
• 1 cabbage
• 2 cucumbers
• microgreens

I've cooked a number of things over the past two weeks, and almost managed to eat all the salad.  Fortunately since the lettuce we get from the farm is so fresh, it really keeps well.  I know I'm on lettuce overload right now, but I also know I'll miss it later this summer.

Haven't made too much new recently, but here are some good recipes I've repeated:

• kale pizza
• spinach pizza
• pasta with sausage and mustard greens
• lots of salad
• chimichurri, substituting carrot greens for the parsley

One new recipe I made with the carrots was Lemon Rosemary Chicken Thighs with Vegetables

It was pretty good.  I used the recipe as a starting point, and modified it a bit.  You need:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
•  2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 large garlic cloves, pressed through garlic press or finely chopped
•  Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper
• 2 lbs bone in skin on chicken thighs (this was 4 for me)
• 1 bunch carrots, peeled and cut into relatively uniform pieces (about the size of the "baby carrots" you see at the grocery store).
• 1 lb yukon gold potatoes, cut into roughly 1" chunks (I did not peel them)
• 1 vidalia onion (or other sweet onion) cut into roughly 1" chunks

If you have time, season the chicken thighs w/ 1-2 tsp salt and store in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 425°F (I used the convection feature on my oven)  Cover a sheet pan with Al foil and spray with olive oil.  Whisk together the first six ingredients ( olive oil through pepper).  Add the rest of the ingredients, tossing well to coat. Spread everything out on the sheet pan, making sure the vegetables are in one layer and the chicken thighs are skin side up.  Roast for 40 minutes, checking the chicken with an instant-read thermometer to make sure it's at least 165°F.

Still have the cabbage, cucumbers and kohlrabi to use up!

Asian Chicken Salad/Wraps

Wut?  I haven't posted this yet?  A quick search tell me no.  So for folks trying to use up all the salad greens we're getting in the CSA right now, this is for you. This is one of my favorite recipes.  It's designed to be eaten as "lettuce wraps" ala PF Changs (or Phoenix Asian Cuisine if you'd like to go local) but I find that the lettuce wraps fall apart so I just like to serve it as a salad.

Skinnytaste has some amazing recipes, and this is one: https://www.skinnytaste.com/asian-chicken-lettuce-wraps/

I almost always make it with 2x the chicken called for as well as extra mushroom. Multiply the sauces accordingly.   I've also used excess water chestnuts (because what the heck are you going to use with the rest of the can?) as well as more mushroom.  In addition to having used more dried shitake than might be called for, I've also used a good amount of fresh, especially if available through the CSA.  But really, this recipe is all about using up the lettuce.

You'll need to make a trip to Super G to get all the different ingredients, but once you have them, they last FOREVER in your fridge.  I substitute korean gochuchang for the "white pepper" called for in the main recipe, and the same for the sauce (or siracha if you don't want to try and dissolve the gochuchang).

 So, long story short, the easiest way to do this is to cook up the chicken after marinating in all the sauces/spices, chop up the lettuce, and scatter the former over the latter (with a few good spoonfuls of rice).  And then add a good drizzle of sauce, with extra siracha or hoisin as you like.  Eat it up.

Here's a pic:

Panzanella

There are a million recipes for this bread and tomato salad, and here's how I do it:

Serving size 1, multiply as needed
Ingredients

• 1-2 good tomatoes, chopped
• salt and pepper 
• 1-1/2 clove garlic, grated or pressed
• good handful fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1-2 tsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
• 1-2 thick slices (1-1.5 oz) of good bread, cubed and toasted
• olive oil cooking spray
• 2-3 oz fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1-2 tsp toasted pine nuts 
• optional: grated parmesan

Directions:

• Put chopped tomatoes and their juices in a bowl, add garlic, and salt and pepper to taste.  Add olive oil and vinegar.  Let sit a few minutes to draw out more juice from the tomatoes.
• Cube the bread, spread on baking sheet, spray lightly with olive oil and toast in toaster oven until golden brown.  Let cool.  
• Add mozzarella and basil to tomato mixture.
• Add toasted bread to tomato mixture, tossing until the bread soaks up all the juices
• Garnish with pine nuts and parmesan (if you remember, I did not in the bowl pictured below)
• eat! 

Tomato, corn and avocado salad

So, I might have mentioned we've got a thousand tomatoes?  Also, this weekend I might have enthusiastically overbought the first corn of the season (for me anyway), and I had half an avocado kicking around so here you are. 

A pile of cherry tomatoes, some corn, some red onion (also from the CSA!), cilantro, olive oil and lime juice and it's a very nice salad.  Add some chicken chunks and it's a very nice lunch.  Here's the recipe.

Note I did not grill the corn, but used some leftover boiled corn from this weekend.  Still very nice.

This week's CSA box and a melon smoothie

I think we're at week 7 or 8?  I've been traveling and last week's box went to my friend Sarah.  We've moved from the onslaught of greens to more summer veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers.   Here's the lineup from this week's box:

• 2 lbs purple potatoes
• 2 lbs tomatoes (one GIANT Cherokee Purple and a slicing tomato)
• 1 small green cabbage
• 3/4 lbs collard greens
• 4 red onions
• 1/2 lb radishes
• galia melon
• 1 lb zuchinni (one tiny, one enormous)
• 2 cucumbers

So far....

• I've already roasted the potatoes (wash well, cube up, toss w/ 1 tbs olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and roast at 400°F for about 30-45 min). 
• I sauteed the one of the tiny red onion and the tiny zuchinni (both chopped) and added a little bit of chorizo (< 1 oz) and an egg to make a breakfast taco filling.
• I used one of the cucumbers to make a chicken salad: peeled chopped cucumber, 4 oz leftover chopped chicken, 3 tbs greek yogurt, 1 tbs mayo, 1 tbs chopped fresh tarragon, salt and pepper.  Could have used some lemon juice or some other acid.
• The other cucumber and the tomato went into this gazpacho.

 The galia melon (like a honeydew) I already had peeled and cut up into chunks, and I may put some of those into one of these melon smoothies my friend Ara sent me the picture of and recipe for:

To quote "Very easy to make with cut up melons, ice, and agave in the ninja."  I'm hoping that my non-ninja blender will be able to handle it!  Also I'm assuming the Ranier cherry on top is optional (I love them, I just don't have any!).

Week 2 and 3....salad, salad, and the mysterious kohlrabi.

So I got a little behind last week.  No photos of the whole box from week 2, but here's a lovely photo of the mysterious kohlrabi:

What was in the box with this beautiful thing?

Week 2

1 lb salad mix

1/2 lb arugula

1 bunch radish

1 head cabbage

1 lb collards

1 head green leaf lettuce

3 small heads romaine lettue

1 bunch garlic scapes

So, we might have eaten a bit of salad this week!  But not enough, as we've still got the romaine left over and week 3 dropped today:

Week 3

1 head Cherokee lettuce

1 lb salad mix

1 bunch radish (these were much bigger than last week!)

1/4 lb cilantro

1 bunch rainbow chard

2 heads romaine

1 bunch kale

1 broccoli crown

2 cucumbers

One thing we did with week 2 box was to make some of this Zesty Avocado Cilantro Dressing, but instead of adding 1 garlic clove and 2 tbs chopped scallions, I subbed in 3 of the garlic scapes, roughly chopped.  That made it a nice vibrant green:

It also tasted pretty amazing.  This is a throwback to the grilled chicken salad I posted the recipe for here. I've been told however, that this dressing isn't just for salad, it's good on tacos, chips, or just eaten directly from the container with a spoon.

The mysterious kohlrabi, what did I do with that?  A brief internet search informed me that "kohlrabi" is German for "cabbage turnip", and since the head of cabbage wasn't quite enough to make a batch of sauerkraut, I decided to add the kohlrabi to it.

I cut the kohlrabi into matchsticks:

Combined it with the chopped cabbage, salted and massaged it as described in this post and packed it into a mason jar to ferment:

I let it ferment for 6 days, then popped it in the fridge.  Unfortunately, my kitchen was a little too warm, as the brine turned brown on top.  According to the blog www.makesauerkraut.com, that's perfectly normal in warm weather and not harmful, just unappetizing (and if you can't trust a blog named makesauerkraut.com, who can you trust? Anyhow, it smelled and tasted fine, so I think I'm good to go.

Sheet Pan Dinner: Sausage and Potato Roast with Arugula

So, who doesn't love a sheet pan dinner?  Well, I guess I do, though I'm not really sure I've made that many, so it's hard to tell.

Anyhow, there was this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which I DO actually love (the blog in general, not just this recipe).  It does the first thing I want to do, which is to use.up.greens.  It also does the second and third thing I want to do: be tasty, and not too unhealthy.

So, first step, toss the potatoes and shallots with some oil.  I used 2 tablespoons rather than 3. Also, I don't know where she's buying her tiny shallots but I had two that added up to 8 ounces, so I cut them (and peeled them) into several pieces:

Roast that for about 15 minutes, then add your sausage.   I used hot

Italian sausage from PTB farms, very delicious.Roasted for 30 more minutes.
Once you've done that, drop the whole mix onto some arugula, or spicy salad mix from the Guilford College farm, with a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Toss it up and then plate it up:

Delicious.

Week 5 CSA Share beauty shot

I've been remiss about posting what we get each week, so here you go Iain:

What's in this week's basket?

• The triumphant return of SALAD MIX! (0.5 lbs)
• Kale (0.5 lbs)
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 2 bell peppers (I got a green and a red)
• Eggplant (1 lb)
• Okra (2/3 lb)
• 1 head garlic
• Broccoli (1lb)
• Sweet potatoes (2 lbs)

Chopped and washed the greens, but didn't make anything with the basket tonight.  I can tell you to look for a sauerkraut post soon, though!

Shrimp Succotash Salad

So this is mostly ingredients from the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market, but they are all seasonal and I did use two items from the CSA!  I made the Shrimp Succotash Salad from p 154 of Deep Run Roots by Vivian Howard, of Chef and the Farmer fame.  It starts with butterbeans that have been cooked according to the method for the Butterbean Burger recipe posted on the PBS website for A Chef's life (it's also on p 153 of DRR).  The rest of the ingredients are:

Salad:
1/2 lb large shrimp (21-25 count), peeled and deveined
1 1/2 cups Stewed Fresh Butterbeans, drained and rinsed of their cooking liquid - I used speckled butter beans from Smith Farms, they cook up brown rather than green)
1 cup fresh corn (I used bicolor from Rudd's Farm)
1/2 cup celery, small diced
1/2 cup picked parsley leaves (oops, just realized I forgot to put those in)
1/2 tsp salt
1 medium tomato, diced (I used a German Johnson from Smith Farms)

Dressing:
3 tbs extra-virgin olive oil (I used 2)
2 tablespoons minced red onion (yay, from the CSA!)
1 garlic clove, grated on a microplane  (also from the CSA)
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp red chile flakes
3 tbs red wine vinegar
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs honey (could have been from the CSA, but it wasn't)
1/2 tsp hot sauce

Making the dressing:
In a small sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onion and cook gentyly for 3 min.  The onion should not brown, only soften.  Stir in garlic, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and chile flakes. Toast for 45 seconds.  Remove from head and transfer to a small bowl.  Whisk in the remaining dressing ingredients and put it aside while you make the rest of the salad.

Making the salad:
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil.  Slice the shrimp in half lengthwise, and drop them into the boiling water and immediately turn off the head.  Stir the shrimp in the hot water for 30 sec, drain and put in the fridge to cool.

Stir together the butterbeans, shrimp, corn, celery, parsley and slat.  Pour the dressing over the top, stir to mix, and refrigerated, stirring occasionally, for at least 3 hours or, better still, overnight.  Just before serving, stir in the tomato.   Eat cold or at room temp.

A few pics:
Chopped red onion for the dressing:

Cooking the red onion:

Final product:

 Could have used the parsley just to make it a little prettier (as I said, those butterbeans aren't the prettiest when cooked), but it tasted good!  Overnight marinating really helps mellow out the garlic a bit!

A Royal Wedding and Salad Pizza

Hi y'all-
And y'all for real.  I got to spend the very early morning (up at 4am) watching the Royal Wedding live, and my favorite part was Bishop Michael Curry, who BROUGHT IT. And you should take a moment to watch his sermon, with tea or without. Nothing from the CSA ended up in our breakfast this morning, but it was delicious.
We had:
Sausage Rolls (made w/ PTB Sausage)
Scones  with homemade orange marmalade, strawberry jam and clotted cream (hard to find in the 'boro)
Tea Sandwiches with radish spread from Deep Run Roots and cucumber. (see post here for recipe, sandwiches on Pepperidge Farm Very Thin White Bread)
English Breakfast Tea (a proper brew).
All super tasty.

Cut to life after the wedding, folks that need to be fed and who are not as interested in the wedding...

Time for some pizza!

I made Mark Bittman's Pizza Dough from "How to Cook Everything" which is my favorite. This recipe is very similar, but I use 14 oz of flour (see measuring with weights rant earlier). 

This is a "salad pizza" meaning that after you pull out of the oven, you douse it salad greens.  It's very tasty and makes you feel better about eating a pizza.

The base for the pizza is an arugula pesto that I make using the Spicy Salad Mix from the Guilford College Farm (it's very spicy, and has a lot of arugula in it).  I use this recipe - changes I make are using 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/3 cup, and I sub toasted pine nuts for the walnuts.  I whirled some up this afternoon, but I got no pics.  I freeze it in a ice cube tray so I can pull it out all winter.

Pizza:
Rolling out the pizza and covering w/ about 1/4 cup of arugula pesto, prosciutto and mozzarella:

Note: I put the pizza on parchment paper, it makes getting in pizza onto the stone in the oven SO MUCH EASIER!  Then after 5 minutes I take it out so the pizza can crisp up ( you can also make this pizza on the grill, that post will come later this summer!) The pizza cooks for a total of 10 minutes at 500°, so 5 minutes with the parchment, and then 5 minutes without.

When it comes out, cover it up with spicy salad:

Then cut it up and eat!



 

Not much progress on greens today, but I did have a nice salad for dinner:

Mixed greens dressed w/a little olive oil and vinegar, steamed potatoes, grilled flat iron steak and sauteed onions and peppers.  Could have used more salad.

Week two appears:

Aerial view necessary to see all the greens!

What's all in here?  Well, according to the note:

• 3/4 pound salad mix 
• 3/4 pound spicy salad mix (lots of arugula and other spicy greens)
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1 pound kale
• 1 pound collards
• 1 bunch beets 
• 1 bunch turnips
• 1 head lettuce (looks like butter lettuce)

Looks like saladapalooza week two starts here, but tonight I used a couple of the turnips to make this Rosti Casserole with Baked Eggs from Cooking Light.  It's fast to put together, and to be honest, it's one of the few recipes I use regularly that has turnips in it. I also used one of the green onions left over from last week to substitute for the chives.

I also like it with the spicy salad greens dressed with a little balsamic (another example of using 0.003% of the salad greens in the box for a meal)

Check it out!  I didn't cover up the food with cheese this time!

Stay tuned this week to see if I start eating salad for breakfast.

Yesterday I was in a workshop all day so hard to use up CSA items.  I was determined to tackle the worlds largest bag of salad last night for dinner.  Grilled chicken salad w/ vegetables it is!  But then of course I discovered that my grill was out of gas....

Ok, I just spent way too much time looking for a "sad trombone" gif.  And I don't even know how to put a gif on this blog.  Back to food.

Fired up the charcoal grill (because that's how I roll) and dinner was saved.

Grilled Chicken Salad
 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sprinkled with Goya Adobo and marinated in Goya Naranja Agria.
2 red bell peppers, sliced
1 vidalia onion, sliced
2 small yukon gold potatoes, cubed
Zesty Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing from SkinnyTaste
Salad greens, as much of that giant bag of lettuce from the CSA as you can fit in your bowl.

Grill chicken, about 6 min per side.  Let rest for about 5 minutes before you dice it up.

Saute bell peppers and onions (were supposed to be grilled, but ended up sauteed in a little olive oil)

Steam the potatoes until tender

Make the dressing

Plate it up!

Learn to to arrange food more artfully!

And then sometimes a friend comes by and relieves you of some greens:

 And now the giant bag of salad is officially 75% done (Yes, I weighed it. I'm a scientist).  To recap, what was in the box this week:

• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 pound salad mix (mixed lettuces) 75% gone!
• 1 bunch spring onions used 1 to make dressing
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1/2 pound mustard greens
• 1 bunch mint

Obviously there's  some work to do, but it the weekend and I've got ideas...