using up our CSA share: mid-July
Our CSA shares have been lovely all season long. I love being surprised by what’s inside every week. Here’s a bit of what we’ve been doing with our shares lately, which have consisted mostly of tomatoes, peppers, greens, cabbages, and squashes.
Using tomato slices as the base for my spicy tuna salad (I subbed out avocado for the mayo in this version, which was delicious).
I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten my weight in this tomato-cucumber salad.
I’ve been making tons of pico de gallo or my Italian version, which is just tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, and lots of basil. We’ve been taking this down to the pool for a pre-dinner snack.
This bok choy is actually from our garden, but we did get some in our CSA as well. I sauteed the stems in coconut oil until they softened up, and then add the leaves, some garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, and a splash of tamari (soy sauce). Yummm!
This picture also shows what we’ve been doing with lots of our peppers (lower left): I chop them up in big chunks, put them in a large bowl, douse with olive oil, garlic, and salt and pepper. Then I throw them on a skewer and grill them for about ten minutes or so, so that they’re still al dente. We make big batches at a time because they’re great as leftovers on top of a salad or thrown in an omelette.
We should all probably be eating far more dark leafy greens than we do. We’ve been getting some beautiful swiss chard and kale from our CSA, as well as our own garden. My favorite way to serve it is just to saute it in some olive oil and butter, and add a bit of garlic at the end. I love it as a bed for scrambled eggs!
My favorite thing to do with small cucumbers (they’re crunchier and have more flavor) is throw them on a cucumber sandwich, like this one with avocado, tomato jam, bacon, and onions. My second favorite way to eat cucumbers is as some refrigerator pickles.
We’ve been getting tons of cabbage from our CSA. I have a few delicious cole slaw recipes that I need to post, but I’ve wrangled Grant into a few nights of helping me shred and process 20+ pounds of various fermented kraut variations. More details on that once it’s finished fermenting.
These are from our garden – we did a better job this year of spacing out our bean harvest, but we still only grow enough for about a dinner’s worth yield at a time. I keep saying I’m going to grow more beans – maybe I need to work on that for next year. I have the kids snap the ends off while I saute some happily-raised bacon in a large skillet with a lid. Once the bacon is just a bit crispy, I scoop it out and put it on a plate to the side. Then dump in the green beans and cook them in the bacon grease over medium heat. Stir the green beans around so that they’re evenly distributed, then put the top on the pan. That way, the steam cooks them a bit. I like mine very al dente, so I only cook them for about 4-5 minutes. Before serving, put the bacon on top. I could eat this every night for at least a month.
I use the exact same method as the green beans with summer squash – so tasty!
What have you been doing with your CSA share or garden bounty?
