I'll walk you through what was in the box, what I made, and share recipes and strategies for how to manage a whole box for two people each week. My goal is to make a box only into three meals so you're only in the kitchen a few days a week making a big meal. That leaves four other nights for eating out, grilled cheese, or whatever your fall back "I'm too tired and hangry to cook" food of choice is.
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| In that week's box: Beets, Eggplant, Bell Peppers, Pomegranate, Persimmon, Garlic, Onions, Chinese Luobo Radish, Choi, and Lettuce. |
This is a pretty typical box. One to three servings of 7-10 types of veggies and fruit. It's the best of what is growing in our gardens and what we're able to trade with other farms. I realize this is not how you may shop. This is likely super weird for people. The amounts, kinds, and variety of things are something totally new to tackle. My best advice is meal planning. Unless you're a maverick in the kitchen and cooking veggie based meals comes second nature, you're going to need a good game plan. Search for recipes, write them down, make a list and shop for success!
Meal 1
The first meal I planned was cheesy toast with braised greens and lentil hummus. It was ok, but could have been made amazing with a garlic aoili spread on the toast. Also, if you aren't doing low carbs like me (revisit this blog to see why) go with tortilla chips or pita chips with the hummus.
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| First super secret I'm going to share is browned or caramelized onions. This easy step will launch your food to a new level. Go it slow and low with a bit of oil, salt, and sliced onions in a good, heavy pan. If they're burning, turn it down. This will take about 15-30 minutes, but it's mostly unsupervised. Just let them do their thing browning slowly, developing this amazing caramel sweet onion flavor, and give them a stir every 5 or so minutes. If you're impatient go ahead and fry them, but these guys are worth the wait and will make the bitter in your green far more palatable. |
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| Once they're good and carameled, crank up the heat and add garlic for a minute or so. Chop up that choi (or whatever green) and toss it in until it turns a darker green and begins to wilt. Kill the heat and BAM! Delicious. Go ahead and add a bit of vinegar, lemon, liquid smoke, red pepper flake, or whatever you like to enhance their healthy goodness. |
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| I toasted some whole grain bread, topped it with mozzarella and broiled it to melt the cheese then topped it with cheese. You could also do a grilled cheese situation like this. Like I said before, an awesome aoili will send this over the moon! |
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| We tried out lentil hummus. It was pretty good. I mean, a nice change up from garbanzo, but...probably not again. I'm more into lentil sprouts for my fiber, protein, and folic acid thanks. |
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| Since we're limiting carbs, we went with carrots cut at an angle for dipping. It was fun actually. Great crunch and the sweet of the carrot complimented the savory of the hummus. I mean, not as good as chips, but not bad either. |
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| Tarra approved. |
Meal 2
The next meal started again with braised greens. We tackled more garlic, onions, bell pepper, beet tops and the other choi in making an Italian staple: beans and pasta.
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| Garlic going to town in some butter. |
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| BAM! greens down getting dark and wilty. Bell Peppers next. Then, we doused this in lemon juice |
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| Then in went cooked white beans and shell pasta and a healthy drizzle of olive oil and salt. |
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| We had a mad sushi craving that night, but compromised with a meal we had planned plus some sashimi. |
The last meal took out the rest of the box: lettuce, persimmons, pomegranate, bell peppers, radish, and the beets. It was a night for BIG SALAD.
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| Lentil sprouts, beans and hard boiled egg make this salad a meal. |
I have heard many people lament that they just can't do salads. Me too friends, me too. the worst thing is a giant pile of lettuce with some flimsy vinaigrette. It's the worst. So here are my tips for salad success (for the lettuce hater):
-Toppings: think 5:1 of toppings to lettuce. More crunch, cheesy chunks, sweet fruits, and texture help distract from a bitter green.
Here is a great recipe from Alice Hart's Vegetarian Book for a "savory granola" that replaces croutons with healthy seeds:
Tahini Seeds:
Spread 11/4 cups of mixed seeds (sunflower, chia, buckwheat, hemp, flax, etc) on a baking tray and roast a 350* for five minutes. Mix 2 tbs each tahini and honey with a crushed garlic clove and 1 tbs sesame oil in a bowl. Dump seeds in and mix to coat. Spread them back out and back in the oven for 5 more minutes. Let dry and crumble over salads for a savory crunch!
Her book does an amazing job running you through how to make veggie based meals taste excellent. I can't recommend it enough! It's easy to use as well as being beautiful! She also runs you through how to make sprouts at home. Before you start grab some cheese cloth or for a reusable option get yourself some of these for Christmas! Here is an abbreviated version:
Sprouts:
Fill a tall jar with an inch or two of either store bought sprout seeds, raw sunflower seeds, or dry beans (lentils, garbanzo, mung, etc) and fill it up to the top with water. Let soak for about 8 hours. Rinse (with sprout lid on!) drain, and tip upside down to finish draining. Rinse twice a day until they're sprouted to your taste! (Some people like beans to barely sprout, but I like when they have little leaves. I also like to leave them in the window for the last day to really green them up)
These two recipes should get you on your way to a more flavorful, textured salad that will help you forgive lettuce for it's bitterness, while still eating it for it's nutritional virtue! I also want to share my recipe for homemade ranch that is almost guilt free it's so healthy and makes salad actually enjoyable!
Ranch:
1 small sweet onion of any color
3 green onions or a bunch of fresh chives
1/2 bunch parsley
handful of fresh dill
Several cloves garlic
Salt to taste
3 cups yogurt or soy yogurt
Milk or soy milk
Toss that mess in a blender and enjoy! You can sub buttermilk, mayo, switch the herbs around, add lemon juice or hot sauce, bacon...whatever. It's way better than anything you're going to buy in the store!
I shared the recipes above, step by step for the other two, but I'll write them in a normal recipe format for easier searching next time.
Braised Greens Grilled Cheese with garlic aioli:
Bunch o greens
garlic
onion
oil
melty cheese
bread
moar garlic
lemon
mayo (or vegan mayo)
olive oil
Start with aioli. Lob a big ol spoon of mayo, several galic cloves, juice of a lemon in a blender. Turn on and drizzle oil until a meduim thick (just before it's runny but less thick than mayo) sauce forms. Set aside and enjoy on EVERYTHING. Get to browning onions (caramelizing is best) turn up heat add garlic and greens and cook until they darken and wilt. Set aside. Wipe out and reheat pan. Lob butter or oil down and layer bread, cheese, greens, cheese, aioli, and bread. Make a grilled cheese. Bam, healthy delicious.
Butterbeans and Greens Pasta:
Cooked pasta
Cooked butter or other white bean
Braised greens with garlic, onion and bell pepper
olive oil
lemon juice
parmesan or crumbly cheese like ricotta salata if desired
After you finish braising the greens, add cooked pasta and beans. Splash in about a cup of pasta water to get a sauce going. Add lemon juice and olive oil as well and stir with heat on until heated through and combined. Finish with cheesy goodness or nutritional yeast.
I hope that this is inspiring and empowering. Please let me know what you think. I would love to know how you all make it through your boxes!
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