Green Bag Special

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Yet again, we got the joy of venturing into new food territory as we sample our fresh beets from the CSA.  I tried a bite of a raw beet, and then roasted the rest using a recipe from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. We coated them in olive oil, added some salt and baked them.  They come out like a cross between a roasted vegetable and a potato chip.  I enjoyed the ones with the crispiness of a potato chip, while my husband liked the softer roasted ones.  Unfortunately, I can’t claim to be a beet convert.

New to our repertoire this week: peas in the pod.   We have eaten these before and look forward to using them in a salad or stir fry.

Note: Beets are messy!

In a previous post, I mentioned an inedible green that ruined our mandarin orange salad.  It turns out that was radicchio.  After our unfortunate first encounter, I decided to try it again–cooked.  Several things I read mentioned it being popular in Italy, added to pasta dishes.  Our CSA sends out a weekly newsletter, which included an interesting-sounding radicchio recipe.  So, we decided to give it a shot.  The result: 6 thumbs up!  Of course, I’m not sure we’ve fallen in love with radicchio itself, as I think the melted mozzarella and the heavy cream had something to do with its pleasantness.  Truly, in this dish, the radicchio’s bitterness is a nice complement to the rest of the flavors.

Here is the recipe:

BAKED RADICCHIO, ENDIVE AND MOZZARELLA PASTA
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick)
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 medium white onion, small dice (about 1 cup)
7 medium Roma tomatoes (about 2 pounds), cored and coarsely chopped
1 head radicchio (about 2 cups), ends trimmed and sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
1 head belgian endive (about 2 cups), ends trimmed and sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pound penne rigate or ziti pasta
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, small dice (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the upper third. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When it foams, add garlic and onion, season well with salt, and cook until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and let simmer until slightly reduced and thickened, about 10 minutes. Add radicchio and cream and cook until radicchio is wilted, about 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in the salted water for about half the time recommended on the packaging and drain. (Do not rinse.) Set aside.
4. Once the sauce has finished simmering, combine it with the half-cooked pasta and mix until the pasta is evenly coated. Place the pasta mixture in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and sprinkle the mozzarella and Parmigiano over top. Place in the oven and bake until the mixture is bubbling, the pasta is al dente, and the top is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Note:  The sauce and the pasta can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated in separate containers. To assemble, heat the oven, pick up the recipe at step 4, and bake the mixture until it is heated through and golden brown (which may take a little longer than 20 minutes).

This was  a nice change of pace to the salads we’ve been eating lately!  I’m so glad the CSA shared this recipe.  It’ll go in my recipe book as one to eat again, especially if we have more radicchio in our green bag special.

Upon seeing our green bag special full of mixed greens this week, my husband joked that it wasn’t food, it was just weeds plucked from someone’s yard.  I think this bring up a good discussion of what we call “food.”  We are not accustomed to seeing the wide range of lettuces and greens we have been receiving, so to us, this doesn’t look like food.  However, think about the wide range of crazy things we eat.  Blue candy, pink cereal, banana-flavored pudding, sliced white bread, margarine that’s colored yellow just so it looks like butter…and so on.  These are things our ancestors wouldn’t have recognized as “food.”

In the book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan recommends eating only foods that your grandma or great-grandma would recognize as food.  Our ancestors would probably recognize these vegetables that are new to us.  So, we’ll learn and grow.  I can now name a wider variety of greens than I could just a month ago.  Instead of that fructose-laden rainbow we are used to, we are eating the more natural rainbow of green peppers, red beets (new in our bag this week!), white onions, and purple eggplants.

Oh, and my husband really was just kidding about the greens.  He’s looking forward to tonight’s salad.  I discovered that mustard greens are super yummy!  I’ll report on the beets after our first experience with them.  I can’t recall ever having eaten one before.

I just read a fascinating NPR article about how scientists are trying to bring the taste back to supermarket tomatoes.  Turns out, our current system has sacrificed taste for yield.  Indeed.

In the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which I reviewed here), Kingsolver talked about the importance of heirloom seeds.  Her favorites were the Dolly Parton tomatoes.  I’ll let you imagine why they are called that.  Modern seeds for big farms don’t carry the attributes of those heirloom seeds.

While I have an enjoyed our spring greens, I am REALLY looking forward to the summer CSA veggies, especially tomatoes.  My favorite summertime sandwich is what I call “toast and tomato.”  You make some toast, butter it, add a bit of mayo, slices of tomato, salt and pepper.  Yum!  Just.can’t.wait.

So far, our experience with the CSA is helping us make the exact changes we hope to make.  In the book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan promotes the manta: “Eat food, less of it, mostly plants.”  (I need to tattoo this to my forehead to force myself to follow it!)  Our CSA deliveries have definitely increase our plant eating.  Our first two harvests included mostly greens, so we’ve eaten a lot of salad.  Before the CSA, we would eat salad maybe once a month.  Lately, we’re averaged at least three times a week.  This week, I’ve made fajita salad and taco salad.  We’ve also had a simple green salad.

When we got this week’s CSA delivery, my oldest son asked, “I wonder if there’s any ruby-red chard in there.”  Ha!  How many eight-year-old boys know what ruby-red chard is?  We watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and were shocked by the class of kids who couldn’t even identify common veggies, so I was thrilled my boy remembered ruby-red chard.  Yay!!  Unfortunately, he liked the looks more than the taste (it IS a beautiful veggie with deep red veins flowing through the dark green leaves–which even I didn’t know until last week).  To answer his question, no ruby-red this week.  Instead, Swiss Chard, with leaves so gigantic they resemble elephant leaves.  It look so freakin’ healthy you just knew it had to be packed with nutrients!  On tap for tomorrow, sauteed chard.  Last week, the sauteed kale wasn’t a big hit, but I think the chard might be less bitter.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Here are some pics of our ruby-red and Swiss chard.

With another load of greens coming our way, I’m preparing for some great dinner salads.  Though I like vegetables, I’m not a big salad girl, and when I do eat salad, it’s with my dad’s homemade ranch dressing, which certainly negates some of the healthful benefits of the greens due to the creamy fat-filled dressing.  When we eat salads for dinner, we tend to like them topped with some kind of protein, such as beef brisket, BBQ chicken, or taco meat.  My family recently enjoyed this recipe from the Hungry Girl cookbook.   Hungry Girl is a great website that promotes yummy, healthful foods, and I have found dozens of great recipes from her, including Sliced ‘n Diced Fajita Steak Salad:

6 cups chopped romaine lettuce (we’ll use whatever greens are in season)

6 oz. raw boneless lean top sirloin steak, sliced

8 oz Coke (the recipe calls for Diet Coke, but I prefer real sugar)

Small onion, sliced

Yellow bell pepper, sliced

Red bell pepper, sliced

1 cup salsa

sour cream

8 baked tortilla chips, crushed (we left these out)

The recipe didn’t call for the following but we added these ingredients:

1 cup corn kernels

1 cup black beans

plus, you can add any seasonal salad veggies

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Marinate steak in Coke for app. 30 minutes–refrigerate meanwhile

Spray skillet with non-stick spray, and turn burner on med-high.  Heat pan, and add steak and marinade.

Cook until steak is brown (a couple of minutes).  Remove meat, but leave juices in pan.

Lower heat to medium, add onion to the pan, return to burner.  Cook a couple of minutes.

Add peppers, and cook for another minute.

Prepare individual bowls with salad greens; add steak and vegetables.  Top with salsa, sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips.

Makes two entree-sized servings.

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The results? The steak takes on a slightly sweet taste, which is a good contrast for some of the bitterer salad greens.  The salsa makes a tasty topping for the lettuce (and satisfies me without the fat of the ranch dressing), and I always enjoy the sweet pop of the corn kernels.  Leftovers can be used for great wraps, too!

I’ll try to post pics after we enjoy our Fajita Salad supper.  Edited to add:  I forgot the beans and corn this time!  I was so sad, too, because I bought a corn cob just for the occasion.  Here’s a picture of the finished product.  It was yummy!

I don’t remember where I saw these ideas, so I apologize for stealing them without acknowledgment.   If your family is in a rut of eating the same meals, you might consider adding these to your rotations:

Meatless Mondays

Fish Fridays

I’m going to try to get my family on board with these special menus.  I think we can, I think we can.