Pasta with Zucchini, Squash, Arugula, Basil, and Lemon

Tonight we prepared a light and easy meal using zucchini, squash, baby spinach and baby arugula from our Farm Share.  We made slight modifications to the recipe (chopped vegetables instead of julienning, pesto instead of basil) and it turned out wonderfully!  This is a nice summery pasta that requires little cooking.

Pasta with Zucchini, Squash, Arugula, Basil and Lemon
(Adapted from Epicurious.com)

Ingredients
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 lb pasta (e.g. whole-wheat fettuccine)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium zucchini, julienned
1 medium yellow squash, julienned
4 or 5 sprigs basil, leaves shredded
1 bunch arugula, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 c.)
3/4 c. halved cherry tomatoes
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Preparation
Bring 4 qts water to a full boil.  Add 1/4 tsp salt and stir in pasta.  Cook 5 to 8 minutes or until noodles are al dente (tender but firm).  While pasta cooks, warm oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat.  Add garlic, swirl for a moment and reduce heat to low.  Do not let garlic get brown.  Add zucchini and yellow squash and sauté gently until zucchini softens slightly, about 5 minutes.  Season mixture with 1/4 tsp salt and remove pan from heat.  When pasta is finished cooking, drain noodles.  Combine noodles thoroughly with zucchini mixture over low heat.  Add basil, arugula, and tomatoes and season with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt.  Sprinkle with lemon zest and juice and stir to combine.  Serve immediately

3/17 Farm Share Arrival

Welcome Home!

After being out of town for several days I was welcomed home by another week's Farm Share.  Look for updates this week on how we plan to catch up on 2 weeks at produce (!!), which so far includes sweet potato gnocchi and a grilled shrimp satay with bok choy.

This week we received: carrots, yellow apples, grapefruit, a huge turnip, yellow squash, potatoes, kale, green leaf lettuce, and baby arugula.

3/10 Farm Share Arrival

We welcomed another Farm Share box last night and are excited about a few arrivals we haven't seen for a while: Lacitano (or blue) kale, bok choy, celery root, and zucchini.  We also received red leaf lettuce, grapefruit, baby spinach, flat leaf parsley, sweet potatoes, a large beet, and apples.

I will be out of town until next Wednesday, at which point I'll have another weekly delivery update and lots of eating and cooking to catch up on.  Until then, here are a few recipes to leave you with for this week while I'm away:

Spaghetti with Braised Kale (from Bon Appétit)

Celery Root and Apple Soup (you can add parsnips, too)

Potato and Celery Root Gratin with Fontina Cheese (we made this before with our root vegetables, very good!)

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage

Potato, Sausage and Kale Frittata

And last (but certainly not least):

Ginger-Garlic Bok Choy

Ingredients
1 bok choy cabbage.  Separate leafy tops from stems and chop into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped into pieces
handful of snow peas (optional)
handful of shiitake mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 tbs. minced fresh ginger
1/4 c. oil (vegetable or olive)
1/8 c. soy sauce
4-6 drops toasted Sesame Oil
Red pepper flakes, to taste

Directions
Heat oil in pan (Wok or frying pan) until it is at a very high heat.  Add chopped stalks of bok choy, stir until they become tender.  Add remaining vegetables (red pepper, snow peas and mushrooms).  Stir.  Add ginger, garlic and soy sauce.  Stir and allow to become tender.  Then add leafy tops of bok choy.  Add drops of sesame oil, and then red pepper flakes to taste.

This all cooks quickly!  It takes approximately 8-10 minutes to cook everything, so you are constantly stirring and adding ingredients.

Adding the leafy tops of bok choy later keeps them from getting overcooked.  We serve this on top of a bed of steamed brown rice.  Delicious and healthy!


Until next week, happy eating!

Parsley Pesto Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Green Swiss Chard and Shrimp

We receive parsley somewhat frequently in our Farm Share, and I have to be honest that I haven't done much with it.  I did some recipe searching, which lead me to parsley pesto.  We had shrimp we needed to cook and the parsley pesto seemed like a good fit, so we went with it.  To use more Farm Share ingredients we also added our green Swiss chard.  I wasn't sure how the pesto and chard would work in the pasta, but it turned out really well!  I think the lemony fresh parsley flavor and ricotta added a nice balance to both the shrimp and dark leafy green.  I imagine it would work great with chicken, too.

Parsley Pesto

(recipe from Epicurious.com)

Ingredients

2 c. (packed) fresh Italian parsley leaves (from 2 bunches)

1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbs. pine nuts, toasted

2 tbs. fresh lemon juice

2 tbs. water

1 small garlic clove, peeled.

Directions

Blend all ingredients together in food processor until almost smooth.  Season with salt and pepper.  (I would like to note that I used 1 bunch of parsley and added about 1 c. ricotta.  I thought the parsley flavor was strong enough with the 1 c. parsley and ricotta, so you may want to start with 1 c. and add more if you prefer a stronger parsley flavor.  We only used about 2/3 of the total pesto volume in our pasta.)

Chard in pasta?  Not knowing how this dark leafy green would blend with the rest of the flavors, we threw it in simply to use it and it turned out better than expected!

For preparation, you can follow directions I previously posted (the Non-Recipe Recipe for Cooking Kale), or look here on Epicurious for more specific but similar directions.  We did the same thing here where we separated the leaves from the stalks, chopped up the stalks and sautéed in olive oil with onion and garlic.  Once the stalks are softened, we threw them and the onions in a pan with the chopped chard leaves and sautéed for another 3-5 minutes.

The pasta was boiled and strained with about six chopped sundried tomatoes.  Once the greens were cooked through a little bit, the pasta and sundried tomatoes were added, along with the shrimp and mushrooms.  This was cooked until the shrimp started to turn pink, then pesto was added, and then all ingredients were further cooked until the shrimp were done, about another 5 minutes.  

And the finished product!  Our shrimp were from Maine--not quite sure if that qualifies as  local--but in New England everything seems so close, we'll call them local fare.  Parsley, onion, and green Swiss chard were from our Farm Share.  Thanks for another delicious dinner (and lunch for the next day)!

Gorgeous Greens!

Green Chard

Green Leaf Lettuce

I can't help but love how pretty our produce is every week.  These are both from our 3/3 Farm Share.

Baking Success!! Vegan Carrot Spice Muffins with Wheat Berries

If you have read through some earlier posts from this blog you might know that I am NOT a baker.  I really try, but more often than not my attempts are failures.

So, this is why I am so excited to share this recipe!!  First, if I can do it, anyone can bake these muffins and they will turn out splendidly.  Second, they used both wheat berries and carrots from our Farm Share.  Third, It is a vegan recipe and if a vegan baked good turns out well you know it's a keeper!  This is my adapted version, enjoy!!

Vegan Carrot Spice Muffins with Wheat Berries

Ingredients
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. powder ginger
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. Turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
1/2 banana, puréed
1 c. boiled wheat berries (you don't have to add this, but it works if you want to!)
1 c. soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. shredded carrot
1/4 c. golden raisins
Sugar in the Raw sprinkled on top before baking

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl mix the flour, wheat berries, salt, baking powder and spices.  In a medium bowl mix the soy milk, vegetable oil, banana, sugar, vanilla, carrot and raisins.  Add to the dry mixture and stir until just mixed.  Don't over-mix.  Pour evenly into muffin tins (greased or lined with baking cups) and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Check to make sure they are done with a toothpick.  Cool and serve.

"Homemade" Bread

(FYI: This post, like the one before, is not about our Farm Share; again I diverge, but only to share the love we feel for fresh-baked bread.)

My husband and I thoroughly enjoy the convection oven bread maker we received as a wedding gift.  I can't say this bread is homemade because we are in no way kneading the dough or giving the bread the love I feel most bakers do when making a beautiful loaf of bread.  However, we do make a loaf about once a week with all-natural ingredients and no additives.

I wasn't sure how much we would use it, but since we got it we have yet to buy a loaf of bread at the grocery store.  We use it consistently to make whole wheat bread (for sandwiches and such), but you can do so much more with it.  Suffice it to say, there is more bread making of all different kinds in our future.

After the initial investment of buying the bread maker, it is so cheap and easy to make bread.  We buy bags of flour at a time and with a few extra ingredients we get fresh bread that contains no preservatives every week at a minimal cost (buying loaves like this from a bakery or specialty grocery store would run at least $4/loaf.  Making it yourself is pennies!)

You can find a bread maker at Bed Bath & Beyond or any specialty cooking store.  The one we have is from Cuisinart.

Here is an example of what you would need to make one loaf of honey whole wheat bread.  Keep in mid that once you buy these ingredients, the supplies make A LOT of loaves of bread:

~ 1 c. warm water
3 tbs. honey
1/3 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. bread flour
2 tbs. butter
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast