radishes, bibb lettuce, lettuce mix, spring onions, mustard greens, tomatoes, rice, spinach
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The first thing I saw when I opened this week’s box was that entire box was filled with a beautiful frilly enormous head of leaf lettuce. It immediately made me wish I had 10 people coming to dinner so I could rinse and arrange those gorgeous leaves in a big bowl, sprinkle sliced with radishes and green onions, and then diced tomatoes (tomatoes! in May!), drizzle it with a lemony vinaigrette and hand everybody tongs so they could dig and enjoy.
Because I don’t have 10 people coming to dinner, I will serve smaller versions of that salad all week. Wondering if you’ve been doing as I have, tearing apart the big head of lettuce, checking for dirt between the leaves, discarding any tough ends, and then spinning the leaves dry in a salad spinner. I have cloth produce bags that I use to store the lettuce, so it retains a little moisture but not enough to make for slimy leaves. I have done the same last week and this week with the bags of mixed salad greens. Lettuce has a good bit of water on it when harvested, whether due to rain or dew. You want to get those leaves out of that water as soon as you can. I sit for maybe 10 minutes going leaf by leaf, discarding tough ends, spinning dry, and then mixing up all the lettuce in that bag so when you’re ready for a salad, all you have to do is pull out a hand full.
The bag of rice was such a nice surprise and I’m crazy about mustard greens (and we have lots of mustard green recipes at grassfedcow.com) so was delighted to see them in the box again. I’m going to take inspiration from Stella Dillard of Dandelion Food & Goods and combine the rice and greens in two dishes. These are just ideas – you’re on your own for recipes.
First Stella often offers jerk chicken. She marinates Springer Mountain chicken thighs with peppers, allspice and thyme. I’m not sure if she grills or sautés the chicken but she serves it over a bed of brown rice that’s been cooked with coconut milk, lime, ginger, onions and mustard greens. Hugely flavorful and spicy or not as you choose.
Second idea from Stella is to make chicken soup with the mustard greens and rice. You could also make a soup but use the spinach in this week’s box instead of mustard greens. What’s critical in her recipe is that she makes a really lemony broth.
But I do have a recipe for a salad, this one from “Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit” by Abra Berens. I love that the only dressing is buttermilk. Could it be more simple? Helps that I love buttermilk! Berens includes fennel, but I’d substitute radishes and green onions if I wanted to stick with what’s in the box. The grapes are just a nice addition to a salad, but you’re right, we’ll never see those in a Georgia produce box.
Butter Lettuce, Grape, Fennel, Walnut + Buttermilk Salad
1 to 2 heads butter or other wide-leaf lettuce, core removed and leaves left whole
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grapes, any variety, halved and seeds removed, if necessary
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 head fennel, thinly shaved and stored in acidulated water
1 cup buttermilk
On a large serving platter or individual plates, lay out a single layer of lettuce leaves. Season with salt and black pepper. Scatter a handful of the grapes and walnuts evenly over the lettuce leaves. Add a few pieces of shaved fennel, patted dry if stored in water.
Drizzle a bit of the buttermilk all over.
Repeat until all of the ingredients are gone and serve.
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