Spicin' Up Your Regular Meals with Side Dishes by Similejesu Sonubi

When I first joined the CSA I believed that I would always be learning a new meal and recipe in an effort to get more connected with the vegetables I was being introduced to. This is not reality; it was a nice dream. 

As the eldest daughter in my household, one of the chores I'm tasked with is to prepare the meals for my family, while my mom, the true breadwinner of the family, can concentrate on work and other things (enjoyment, mostly). I work full time (and sometimes overtime). And in regards to meals for the household, I stick to Nigerian staples, like rice and stew and jollof rice. And spaghetti, a means-tested favourite of all households! But truth be told, although those are my favourite foods, my family and I were bored of it. But learning new recipes is a very time-consuming effort, and I get tired. 

Not wanting to waste anything, I just started to think more and more of what I could do to break out of a reliable--yet boring--cycle. I started to think of some other cultures, such as Korean and Japanese cultures, where side dishes seem to have a bigger presence than my own. Instead of trying to "fit" a square something into a very fast-moving wheel (which is a different beast to be tamed), something I have to remind myself is to break things into smaller and manageable pieces rather than all at once. 

So sides dishes are introduced, and to an extent, I'm still learning something, but in a way less overwhelming for me. So thank you to Vaughan for the pesto recipe, still a type of pasta that works for my family, and I was also able to make garlic butter with our scapes. (There were a lot of scapes!) I'm also practicing the art of fermenting items, like some vegetables, because "fermenting is a method to deal with abundance" (thank you to Alica Kennedy and Sandor Katz for the mindset). 

Gratefully, I still have been able to set aside time to make "big meals." But, it has been nice learning to think a bit smaller. 

SB: Would to love to hear side dishes folks like to make or want to learn how to make!

Plenty O' Pesto by Vaughan Myers-Jennings

This week, we received our first CSA veggie haul of the Summer (yay!). As part of the haul, we received garlic scapes…a LOT of garlic scapes.

A green garlic scape against a white background. Photo by Vaughan Meyers-Jennings.

A large bag full of them. While racking our brains on what to do with all of these beautiful scapes, my wife (and the main reason I eat good food) came up with a brilliant idea…PESTO!


To turn your scapes into pesto, you’ll need nuts. Walnuts, pine nuts, or almonds will do; we used almonds. Get a tasty block of cheese (or nutritional yeast for you vegans), combine both in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add chopped garlic scapes and basil and continue pulsing until the mix is gravel-like. After adding some olive oil and water, you should have a mix that looks similar to this:

A black plastic food container full of bright green pesto (paste). Photo by Vaughan Myers-Jennings.

Congratulations, you’ve made pesto! Use it on pasta, chicken, pizza, or whatever you fancy.

For a more detailed recipe, visit https://seitanbeatsyourmeat.com/garlic-scape-pesto.

How to Join the Norwood CSA

Our membership is open two times a year, in the late winter/early spring for the Summer Share, and in the fall for the Winter Share. If you are interested in joining the Norwood CSA, email norwoodcsa@gmail.com and we will reach out when our membership is open. 

You can find out more about how the CSA works here

Quick Spring CSA Frittata

 By Vani Kannan

The bounty of spring CSA veggies has inspired me to experiment with quick homemade frittatas. One of them had leftover roasted beets, radish, and onion; another had spinach and red onion. Today for lunch, I pulled out CSA onions, parsley, and eggs from our last box of the season.

I sauteed the onions slowly in avocado oil, then beat the eggs with a little water, dill, and black pepper and added them on low heat. While this set, I chopped up some gruyere and gouda cheese from Arthur Avenue and added it on top. Finally, I broiled it for a few minutes to cook the top, and added parsley. 

This was so delicious and a welcome relief from boring weekday lunches.

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Sunchokes - Native Species on Your Plate

By : Shannon Haas

Did you know that sunchokes / Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) are native to North America? It’s one of the few native plants we still enjoy eating to this day, although it has not been widely cultivated across the continent.

When it’s flowering in the late summer / early fall the plant looks like a sunflower or daisy, all of which share common traits as members of the Asteraceae family. The part we eat is an underground storage stem called a tuber.

Picture by Couleur (2021). Licensed by Pixaby.

This plant grows fairly tall - up to ten feet in height! And it spreads quickly through its underground stem system (rhizomes). Some consider it a nuisance, as it has a tendency to quickly overtake gardens and can grows well in a sorts of soil conditions - a resilient plant, indeed.

My preferred preparation method for sunchokes is to thinly slice them (around ½ an inch thick) and roast them with olive oil and herbs at 425 degrees for around 20 minutes or so, typically flipping them halfway through. They’ll be tender and crispy along the edges. Check out this recipe for more details.

Next time you’re eating some sunchokes, consider the fact that this plant was once cultivated and consumed by Native Americans, and give appreciation to those that determined that this edible tuber was full of beneficial nutrients (and they’re tasty, too!).

You can learn more about the history of the sunchoke and more about where it’s name came from, by reading gardener Nadie VanZandt’s blog post here or by reading this article from FoodPrint (and some more recipes as well).

Puh-tay-toh or Puh-tah-toh?

By : Jenny Pena

If you have been seeing the pattern in our winter boxes you will notice the consistency on one vegetable: POTATOES. But I have to admit I didn’t really think there where so many types; I knew about the purple ones thanks to JetBlue ☺ but before then I thought they were always yellow. The great thing about potatoes is that they are easy to store and comforting during winter months but what are we to do with all these potatoes and can we even get tired of them?

Here are my personal favorite ways to use different types of potatoes:

Sweet Potatoes – known to be nutrient dense, I personally enjoy them cubed and roasted or cooked in the air fryer with some oil and salt. But having a picky toddler, I mix boiled and mashed sweet potatoes to pancake mix and call it “orange pancakes” – he eats them and also gets some nutrients. See a 2-ingredient recipe here or do what I do; I just add one or two tablespoons of mashed potatoes to the “Just Add water” pancake mix and make it a bit healthier.

Yellow Potatoes – I love to make mashed potatoes. Goes excellent with pretty much any protein and they heat up well so it is perfect for batch cooking and easily paired with salad or pan-fried broccoli in olive oil and some garlic. This is one of my favorite ways to make mashed potatoes but a bit of milk or cream or even butter and salt can make them delicious

Purple Potatoes – I found this purple mashed potatoes recipe while researching on what can be special about these colorful ones; apparently they are higher in potassium and serve as antioxidant. See the recipe and some interesting details here. 

These are creamy and for Easter Weekend I decided to experiment and make potato salad using the purple potatoes, carrots included in this week’s box as well as some yellow potatoes I had from previous box. I have to say I love the combination of colors: orange (from the carrots), yellow (from the regular potatoes) and purple (from the purple potatoes; everyone loved it and it was a hit.

I want to share my own recipe below; I didn’t really take measurements but feel free to adjust.

Jenny’s Simple Potato Salad

• 2-3 medium carrots – peeled and diced (If organic, at times I just brush them and dice without peeling them but that’s your choice)
• 2-3 medium purple potatoes – peeled and diced
• 2-3 medium potatoes – peeled and diced
• 2-3 eggs – to boil and later chop to add to cooked potatoes and carrots
• 1 medium onion (red or yellow) – diced and marinating in a bit of salt, vinegar and drizzle of olive oil (you can use lemon as well)
• 2-3 Tbsp. mayonnaise (adjust to taste)

Boil all veggies with a bit of salt until soft (Probably boiling about 15-20 mins but check).

Drain the water from the potatoes and add the chopped boiled eggs (You can boil the eggs with the potatoes, just rinse them before and make sure you add them when water is still cold).

Add the onions (only the onions, keep marinate oil for later if needed) and mayonnaise and mix.

If you would like, add a bit of the liquid where the onions were marinated and taste to adjust salt content.

ENJOY!

 

Also, I would like to encourage you to try and make homemade mayo. If you have not had homemade mayonnaise this is something you must try. My biggest tip is to use extra LIGHT olive oil, if you use the extra virgin (I’ve been there and done that) the flavor would be too strong and to add the oil slowly to allow the emulsification to do the magic. Here is a simple recipe from nocrumbsleft’s blog.