Thursday, July 1, 2010

It isn't easy eating greens

So, My summer CSA is in full force. I'm splitting the share with some foodie friends.

But I simply cannot keep up with all the greens they are throwing at me.

I know, I know, the early Summer is all greens. Nothing farm-fresh is ripe yet, locally, here in the Great Lakes region. But if they try to give me yet another variation of spinach, cabbage, and leaf lettuce, I'm going to scream!

To top it all off, I planted a dozen bunches of chard in my own garden. I have greens coming out the wazoo.

In a desparate attempt to get most off my greens off my plate (heh) before an upcoming 4th of July vacation, I pulled out all the stops last night. I made:

* Spinach & Garlic Scape Pesto
* Bok Choy and komatsuna (aka Japanese bitter spinach) stems sauteed in bacon fat and pesto.
* Roasted Kale chips (toss kale with oil to coat, splash of vinegar, salt. Roast at 250 for 10-20 minutes. Stir frequently, check every couple minutes after 10 to make sure they don't burn).
* Shrimp and coconut soup with bok choy and komatsuna leaves.

And in the morning:
* Chard braised in oil and wine, finished with Parmesan.

The kohlrabi will hold, but I'm not so sure about the baby beets and greens. The leaf lettuce may be a lost cause, but I'll toss it when I return.

If any thieves come while we're away, and steal some of my vegetable garden, I'll probably be grateful.

3 comments:

R. Glipglorp said...

I feel like I'm in the same boat - I've been making many oddly greenish soups to deal with the wilting excess. Fortunately, they've turned out rather well.

Carrie P said...

Ooh, soups. If you've got any recipes you'd be willing to share...

I am trying a Swiss Chard pie for next week. Martha Stewart, love her or hate her, but her Food mag recipes are quite good.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/swiss-chard-pie

R. Glipglorp said...

Swiss Chard pie, eh? Interesting...

My recent soup experiments have included Emeril's Lettuce Soup for when I let a CSA lettuce head get a bit too wilty for salad - this ended up tastier than I expected:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/lettuce-soup-recipe2/index.html

I've also done variations on a squash soup recipe I stole from Paul Fischer, which I've found to be good:

http://pfischer.com/2010/06/05/hot-and-cold-mad-science-soup-experiments/

I haven't tried the strawberry soup yet, which is neither here nor there, as they're out of season now. :)