Marinated Beet Salad with Pistachios and Dill and Pearl Cous Cous with Roasted Cabbage

From CSA member Maya Binyam and Evan

Marinated Beet Salad with Pistachios and Dill (Maya)

For an autumnal meal that gets better as it sits in the fridge, I make marinated beets. After scrubbing and trimming the beets, I wrap them in aluminum foil, and bake them in a 375-degree oven until they’re tender (but haven’t yet turned to mush). Once they’ve cooled off a bit, I remove the skin, and crush them with the flat side of a knife, rip them into irregular bite-sized pieces, and place them in a large, heat-proof glass tupperware. In a small skillet, I fry fennel seeds in a few tablespoons of oil. Once the oil is hot and the seeds are toasted, I pour both over the beets, and mix in a few splashes of aged sherry vinegar, as well as a big pinch of salt. I let the beets sit at room temperature for a few hours, and then either move them to the fridge, or prepare them for a salad. When I’m ready to eat, I mix them with chopped pistachios and dill. If I have citrus around, I’ll sometimes segment an orange or grapefruit and mix that in, too.

Pearl Cous Cous with Roasted Cabbage (Evan)

Cabbage is the best vegetable. It’s crunchy, it’s sweet, it’s big and round. What more could anyone want from a vegetable? In this simple recipe I roast my cabbage until slightly charred, and then finish in a skillet, to eventually serve over pearl cous cous. Slice the whole head cabbage in wedges (usually in eighths, but this can depend on the size of the cabbage) so that it is in chunks, with several leaves attached at a corner point. Dress the cabbage in olive oil, salt, sumac, aleppo pepper, and a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, and roast in the oven at 450 degrees. While the cabbage is roasting, prepare your cous cous. Cook minced onion and garlic in hot oil for a few minutes. Add a cup of cous cous, salt, and sumac, and fry until the cous cous starts to toast a bit. Add 1.5 cups chicken or veggie (or even miso) stock, and cover. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed. In a frying pan melt butter. Once melted add sliced onion and cook. Remove the cabbage from the oven when is it is soft and starting to char around the edges. When the onions begin to caramelize, add the cabbage wedges and all of their liquids. Toss to combine in the pan, and add lemon juice and chopped dill. Serve the cous cous on a platter with the cabbage and onion mixture spread on top. Zest a lemon and sprinkle some dill over the top.

Roast *Almost* Everything Salad

From CSA member Camie Hoang

After looking at what was left of our box, the easiest way to use it all up was to roast almost everything.
I find that when you get lettuces from the local farm, sometimes it is a bit bitter and rough. Maybe someone will know and can answer why? Is it because it's later in the season that it was harvested or because it is a strain that is bitter? or?!?

But I find that if you roast it in the oven, it counteracts the bitterness and actually adds a bit of sweetness. So here is my version of a roast *almost* everything salad

ingredients:
1x head of lettuce - from CSA
1x red cabbage - from CSA
4 sections of Garlic(half clove) - from CSA 3x zucchinis - from CSA
1 bunch radishes - from CSA
olive oil -6 glugs... so maybe 1/2 cup
salt - 1/2 tbsp
1x lemon- for juice and zest
Parmesan (as desired)
***seasoning

what you'll also need: 2x sheep pans
large mixing bowl

Directions

Pre-heat oven 380F degrees
Do a rough chop of the zucchinis, cabbage and garlic.
Slice radishes into slivers approx same size as the veg above, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the chopped zucchinis, cabbage, garlic, and half of the salt and olive oil together. Coat well.
Place on a sheet pan and spread evenly.
Place on the lower rack of the oven. Roast of approx 30 minutes. Give it a turn once or twice. Add more olive oil if it's looking dry.

In the meantime, slice the head of lettuce in half and place on a sheet pan. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt on top. Place on the top rack of the oven. This should take approx 15min., The desired result is to have a bit of char but the body of the lettuce should be slightly wilted. Remove and plop on some parmesan, it's as much or little as you want. Now, this is ready to eat as is or you can cut it up and set aside to put in with the rest of the vegetables at the end.

Back to the rest of the vegetables- they should be ready at this point (see photo). Remove and place in a salad bowl. Put in the radishes (the only non-roasted member of the team).

Zest the skin of one lemon (or as desired) onto the vegetables.
In a small bowl, you will make a dressing by using 3/8 cup (just a little over 1/4 cup) of OO, half of a lemon's worth of juice, and salt to taste, and beat with a fork until it looks cloudy.
Mix the dressing into vegetables and serve with the lettuce! I've also made a version with some leftover pasta (for anyone who needs a carb version).

Enjoy!

'Week 2' Shakshuka

This is a dish that member Rebecca Silverman likes to make during the 2nd week that veggies live in the fridge. They are getting a little tired, but still perfectly delicious. I have quarters and halves of things like cabbage and tomato left. This is a perfect dish for using up those bits and pieces and slightly tired veggies. It may not be super traditional shakshuka, but there are so many variations, and it's delicious! I do this whole dish on the stove top. There are oven variations but it's August in NYC, so, nope.

Ingredients:

-Olive oil or butter or a combo
-1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
-3 green onions or half an onion, chopped
-1/4 of a cabbage, cut into thin strips
-tomatoes diced (I used half a remaining tomato and the few cherry tomatoes I had left)
-chopped green or red peppers
-jarred tomato sauce (I usually have an open jar of tomato sauce in the fridge, so this is a perfect way to finish it. I used about half a jar. This is a chunky shakshuka).
-1-2 tsp of Yemeni Hawaij (I get this spice blend at Sahadi's)
-salt to taste
-optional chili sauces for garnishing like harissa or a chili crunch
-eggs

Preparation

Start by adding the oil/butter to the pan. Add cabbage, green onions and garlic. (If using a regular onion, sweat the onion before adding the cabbage), cook til softened. 

Once softened, stir in the hawaij.

Add chopped peppers. once softened and the chopped tomatoes.

Depending on how your pan heats, you might want to add a tablespoon or so of water to help the veggies soften and keep them from getting too brown. 

Once all of the veggies are cooked, add the tomato sauce.

Before the sauce starts to boil, but has been heated through, make little wells in the mix and crack your eggs into the wells. Put a lid on the pan to aid in the steaming. Once eggs are opaque (I like to leave the yolks a little runny), turn off heat, season to taste and serve.

I garnish with some of the basil from the plant that we got earlier in the season.

Recipe Round-Up

Member Juliana Guimarães shared a round-up of her favorite recipes from all of last season’s CSA. As you can tell, she got creative with all those delicious veggies and experimented a lot. We’re so happy to share some of the recipes she recommends. If you make them, let us know and send photos!

Breaded Eggplant Cutlets - So delicious and easy to do it!

Butternut-Sausage Lasagna - As a granddaughter of Italians, lasagna is one of my favorite dishes of all time! When I came across this recipe was pure delight.

Brazilian Carrot Cake - As a Brazilian I was so surprised when I tried the carrot cake here in the USA, it’s completely different from the cake I grew up eating. So when I saw all the amazing carrots I got from the share, my first thought was: Carrot Cake!


Cabbage Rolls - For a period last season we got cabbages every week, and I need to be creative to make sure we are eating all before the next week come. So it pops on my mind the dish my grandmother used to do and I never cooked. My husband loved so much that he keeps asking me “When will you do Cabbage Rolls?”

Tabbouleh - I can eat an entire bowl of Tabbouleh on my own. I love it so much!