This week’s box includes: apples, sweet peppers, hakurei turnip bulbs, kale, mustard greens (or turnip greens), green beans, radishes w greens, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes! You can see a photo that can help with identification on our Facebook page or check out our weekly video on Instagram.
Need storage instructions? Visit our fruit & veggie home pages. Click on the pic and a new page opens with storage instructions and a list of recipes curated by Conne Ward Cameron over the years.
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Another beautiful fall box! And rain today, lovely rain. It’s raining at the farm too, which hasn’t been the case much of this fall.
Were those the prettiest green beans you’ve ever seen? They’re sweet, tender, and crunchy raw – great with a quick dressing of your choice, or dipped in hummus. At our house, I’ll be lightly braising them with garlic and serving as a side tonight. But I don’t want to miss out on making Green Bean Crispy Sushi Roll with these young beans that have yet to develop pesky strings.
Carrots have returned for the second time this year – the first was way back in early May. Time for warming fall recipes like a healing Carrot Apple Ginger Soup or Roasted Carrots with Cumin for the coming cold spell this weekend.
I’ll be dicing my carrots into quarter-rounds and adding them to my favorite pot pie recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. An adapted version is below. If you’re lacking time to make a crust, the Cuban picadillo inspired Sweet Potato Cottage Pie can also incorporate this week’s sweet potatoes, carrots, hakurei turnips, and greens.
This recipe calls for chicken but we’ll be using pork instead.
Chicken Pot Pie
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 onions, chopped fine
½ pound carrots, peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
1 celery rib, sliced ¼” thick
Salt & pepper
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cup broth (chicken or veggie)
1.5 pounds cooked chicken (or pork), shredded
¼ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon dry sherry
½ cup frozen peas (or chopped stems from kale, mustard, or turnip greens)
3 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 egg, beaten
Optional: diced hakurei turnip roots; 1 cup shredded greens.
Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, celery, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until softened and lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. (This is the step to add the diced turnip bulb, if you’re including it.) Stir in tomato paste and thyme and cook until browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.
Slowly whisk in broth, scraping up any browned bits and smoothing out any lumps. Stir heavy cream and sherry into sauce, then stir in the chicken or pork and shredded greens, if using. Bring to a simmer and cook until greens wilt. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Off heat, stir in the peas (or chopped greens stems) and parsley.
Add filling to pie or casserole pan. Top with pie crust brushed with beaten egg. Cut vents in crust. Place pie on foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and bake, uncovered, until crust is golden, 35-40 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.
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The pot pie would be delicious with applesauce on the side. Apples are piling up here, at the ready. I’m also going to be checking out our apples archive for baking ideas. Would love to try them all. Butternut Apple Bake for the win this week.
Did you get mustard greens? They’re lighter green, tender, and have ruffled edges. See the pic at the link if you’re not sure.
With their spicy tang, mustard greens boast the most individualized flavor profile of all of the cooking greens that we deliver. They’ll happily substitute in any recipe that calls for greens (frittata, anyone?), but why miss out on the opportunity to highlight their unique flavor profile? Try Curried Sweet Potatoes and Mustard Greens Salad or Salade Lyonnaise, a Mark Bittman recipe with bitter greens, bacon, and poached eggs. Either qualifies as Salad of the Week! I love them in Chef Steven Satterfield’s Greens Grilled Cheese. Love is perhaps not a strong enough word.
Finally, I would remiss to not include the following recipe for hakurei scrambled eggs. Hakurei turnip bulbs are mild enough to eat raw in salads, but oh my, when they’re cooked they get indescribably juicier.
Hakurei Turnip Scrambled Eggs
1 large hakurei bulb (or multiple smaller ones)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 green onions, chopped
1 teaspoons soy sauce
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup milk
3 eggs, beaten
Salt & pepper
Sour cream & avocado, for serving
Dice turnip bulb into small cubes.
Heat non-stick skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add olive oil, then the turnip cubes. Let them sit undisturbed until the bottoms are lightly browned, then turn the heat down a notch and toss. Lightly salt & pepper, add soy sauce and allspice and let cook until tender, another 2-3 minutes.
Mix and beaten eggs in a bowl. Once the hakureis are tender, push them to one side of the pan and turn the heat to low. Add the egg mixture to the exposed pan, lightly salt and pepper. Let the eggs cooked covered, stirring them frequently as they congeal. Incorporate the hakureis as the eggs cook, or leave them to the side to toss with the cooked eggs.
Serve with a spoonful of sour cream and diced avocado.
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Only one more week left in this year’s CSA. I wonder what it will bring?
~Suzanne