Plea for help with CSA veggies and Cabbage salad recipe

[abyssinia]

Hi all -

I'm sure I'm not the only member of this community enjoying the wonders of a CSA, but also struggling with finding a way to use all these vegetables week after week. I was thinking it might be nice to compile recipes people have used to get through the vegetables that visit their kitchen every week. So please, comment with recipes (or links to recipes) you love that have helped you get through giant piles of vegetables.

To start us off, something I made last night that I'm loving

(adjust all proportions to your taste - I like minimal dressing)

* One or more heads of cabbage (I used one medium sized)
* Cucumbers (I used two medium sized)
* Carrots (I used three)

Shred cucumber in food processor, then put in colander with salt and leave in sink to drain, occasionally pressing water out with paper towel. Shred cabbage and carrots and place in large bowl.

* One packet raman noodles
* Almonds - slivered or sliced
* Sesame seeds

Break up the raman noodles in the packet and sprinkle them on a cookie sheet. Add almonds and sesame seeds and a little salt. Put in oven around 350 degrees until lightly toasted (starting to turn brown, maybe 15-30 minutes).

Dressing:
3 Tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoon vinegar (apple cider or wine)
1/4 teaspoon peppe
1/2 cup salad oil (olive, vegetable, whatever)
1 Tablespoon water

Mix together. Add cucumber to cabbage and carrot mix. Mix in dressing. Add toasted bits from cookie sheet. Toss. Enjoy.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

That sounds lovely! I make a similar dressing with Rice Vinegar and Sesame Oil, which adds to the Asian theme. Love the ramen noodles for "chow mein" crunchies!

[nitoda]

What's a CSA?

[shadowspar]

CSA ::= Community Supported Agriculture. You pay a farmer or group of farms a chunk of money at the beginning of the growing season, and every week you get a share of their output. Here's the Wikipedia CSA article.

[nitoda]

Interesting - the closest we seem to come to that in the UK is our system of organic vegetable box deliveries, where you specify a general size and what you like/don't like, but leave it up to them what exactly arrives. It's not usually direct with a farm though. I've often thought about it, but haven't ever done it except the odd box via my online grocery supplier, which wasn't always so good, so it never became a habit.

[jesseh]

I don't like zucchini, so that was the biggest problem when I had the CSA last year, but I found a solution! Grate it all each week, and freeze in one- or two-cup portions (in plastic bags). Then through the winter, I threw it into chili, pasta sauce, etc., where it was totally unnoticeable, as well as making zucchini bread, which is delicious, when the weather cooled off.

[shadowspar]

Hear, hear. Usually we eat enough zucchini to get through it by chunking it into stirfries and veggie burrito filling, but this year haven't managed to keep up. Other ways we deal with zucchini are shredding it into hash browns and making these zucchini patties, which tend towards the greasy but are pretty good. =)

[explorer0713]

Just this evening I thick sliced a yellow summer squash and roasted it and a carrot and then put them inside a tortilla with some swiss cheese and salsa verde.

I have also made variations of this with different cheeses, eggplant, zucchini, onions, bell peppers, enchilada sauce, ranch dressing, peperoncini slices, black olives.... whatever I have on hand that needs to be used up.

Just pick things that take about the same amount of time to roast.

[shadowspar]

We've been getting a deluge of cucumbers this year -- last week alone we had well over a gallon of cukes (>4l) after they were peeled & chopped. I can only handle so much of them in salads, so I've been turning them into pickles instead. There are a lot of "refrigerator pickle" recipes you can make without having to get into canning; here's one for Japanese-style pickles (amasuzuke) and another for Bread & Butter Pickles.

[rosefox]

You might try posting this to iron_chef_csa too.