Tips for using up a CSA share without ODing on chard

1. Sharpen your knives. You'll have more fun cooking if your tools are ready to go.

2. Batch process: wash 'em all. CSA veggies often have a little more dirt on them than grocery store veggies. When you get home with your haul, fill a clean sink or a big pot with cold water for the things that need washing. Soak briefly, swish gently. The stems are the muddiest parts (makes sense, right?) and may need a little scrub with your thumb. Roll the greens up (also gently) in a dish towel and store in a plastic bag. The moisture that the towel absorbs will help to keep them fresh. If your greens are too tall to fit in a food storage bag, just chop them in half. Organic CSA veggies may also have the occasional six-legged passenger. The first year that we were part of this CSA, my husband and I were a little grossed out by finding a bug! or two! in our FOOD! I have since become more worried about what, exactly, they're putting on the conventionally grown veggies that kills all the wildlife.

3. Batch process: roast a panful. Tamar Adler's book An Everlasting Meal has a lot to say about streamlining your cookery, in part via batch-processing. It's worth a read. If you have starchy root vegetables in your CSA share, you can simplify your week by popping them in the oven when you get them home: zap a baking dish with non-stick spray and load it up with your beets, potatoes, sunchokes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, even radishes. Bake at about 375 until tender, keeping in mind that you may want to pull them out of the oven at different times. Cooled roasted veggies add staying power to summer salads. You can also reheat them later in the week. One recipe I love: heat some oil and add onion/garlic/ginger. When they are tender, toss in cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, and sesame seeds. Turn the seeds in the hot oil briefly, and then add the cubed veggies. After a minute, add a little water to keep things from sticking, a little lemon juice for zip, and some cayenne pepper because spice makes the world go 'round. Madhur Jaffrey's books have a bunch of delicious recipes calling for pre-cooked potatoes, and they can be adapted to include other root vegetables. You will use more CSA vegetables if you can get them on the table in 15 minutes than you will if it takes you an hour and 15 minutes. Batch-roasting will speed up your cooking for the rest of the week.

4. Green things tip #1: boil 'em down. The thing I found most daunting about our first CSA share was the greens. So many! My children hated them! What to do? Here's what to do. Take your favorite potato soup recipe and add a bunch of coarsely chopped greens to the water while the potatoes are boiling. Hit it with an immersion blender when the potatoes are tender. If you blend in some sour cream, the tang will help to smooth out any bitterness.

5. Green things tip #2: reduce, reuse. Plan on serving one bunch of greens at two meals. Fine ribbons will go down more easily than big chunks, so make yourself a lovely chiffonade with your newly sharpened knives. Sauté an onion and some garlic in hot bacon fat. When they are tender, add your greens and watch them cook down like lightning. Pour in a splash of water or wine (and maybe some raisins -- the sweetness goes nicely with the bitter greens) and cover. Turn down the heat and simmer until the greens are tender and sprinkle with slivered almonds or chopped olives if you're in the mood. Serve these as a side dish in one dinner, and use the leftovers in quiche the next night. (Quiche might deserve its own entry in this list: turns out that if you swathe anything in eggs and cheese, it's more likely to get eaten.)

6. Green things tip #3: make delicious gumbo. Crescent Dragonwagon's gumbo recipe is a hassle, but it is also one of my favorite things to eat in the world. It makes a giant batch and will accommodate all the greens you care to throw at it. It freezes beautifully.

7. Green things tip #4: pesto is the best-o. I don't know about you, but in my pre-CSA life I rarely used an entire bunch of grocery store herbs. I'd add some cilantro to my guacamole and then watch guiltily as the rest of the bunch deliquesced in the veggie drawer. And then! A discovery! Our CSA cookbook has lots of pesto recipes -- basil, sure, but others too. Cilantro pesto is so fabulous I can't even tell you about the fabulousness. Arugula pesto is scrumptious too. (I hear you can make dill pesto, but I feel about dill the way some people feel about cilantro so I can't actually recommend that one.) You can whizz up the whole bunch of herbs or tender greens, and what you don't eat with dinner (or with a spoon, straight out of the food processor), you can freeze. (Or you can invite me over, and I will eat it with a spoon for you.)

8. Green things tip #5: think flexibly about crudités. My kids don't like to eat green salad, which used to make me think I couldn't use all of the CSA lettuce. But if I put out a plate of separated lettuce leaves along with the carrots and dish of ranch dressing that are usually on the table for pre-dinner snacking, an entire head of lettuce will often disappear before dinner is on the table. Go figure.

9. Make candy. When we get to August and you are inundated with tomatoes, you must make these. Promise me you'll try them.

Happy cooking!

Comments

[Celeste]

I LOVED Tamar's book! I think pairing it with a CSA is genius. It's daunting for me to get to a farmer's market in time on a weekend from where I live.

[Angela]

Love the ideas in this post. I will share it with Kevin after I edit out the part about the cilantro ;)

Maybe that should be part of my summer plans: eat lots of cilantro, smile and think to myself, "yum, this is delicious." Maybe I will eventually believe it. I like Indian food way too much to continue cringing at the occasional big bites of cilantro.