Beets and Carrots in a Lime Vinaigrette

I've never really been a big fan of beets, but I decided to give them a try again by making them at home. We saved our beets from the last time we got them from the farm, and I got more today so I was able to use a lot of them! I discovered once I cut into them that today's beets were actually striped, which I think is pretty cool. I wish I had taken a photo of them cut open. I'll do so if we ever get them again! I think they might have been chiogga ("candy-striped") beets, but I'm not sure. Anyone know if there are other varieties of striped beets?

Anyway, here's the recipe I made tonight (we're going to have it as a side dish tomorrow for dinner, but I was afraid that it might not look as pretty by then because of the beet juice...):

Beets and Carrots in a Lime Vinaigrette (Red Fire Farm)

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 medium beets, peeled and cubed
- 2 medium carrots, sliced diagonally
- 1 medium cucumber, cubed
- 6 Tbs veggie oil
- 3 Tbs lime juice
- 2 Tbs chopped cilantro or dill
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- salt to taste

PREPARATION:

1. Steam beets and carrots separately until tender.*
2. Combine dressing ingredients (they suggested that a jar works well because you can put the lid on and shake it all up.)
3. Put the veggies, including the cucumber in a bowl and toss with dressing. Chill.

Before adding the dressing:

All finished!

* As you can see below, I like to steam my veggies in a pot with a steam basket. I found this great silicone one that molds to the shape of just about any pot - you can probably find it at most housewares stores. (you can also steam veggies in the microwave - put just a little water in the bottom of a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. I'm guessing that this way is not as nutritious, but I don't really know for sure... and I do this when making frozen veggies)

Finally, here are a bunch of other recipes I considered making before selecting this one:

• Roasted Beet Salad (Claire Robinson)
• Beet Green Gratin (Alton Brown)
• Roasted Beet Salad with Cocoa Vinaigrette (Paula Deen)
• Beet Salad with Watercress Drizzle (Ellie Krieger)
• Beet and Goat Cheese Arugula Salad (Giada De Laurentiis)
• Beet-Orange Salad (Food Network Magazine)

Oh, and if we ever get golden beets, I want to make this recipe!

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This Week's Share - 6/30/10

This is what was available at our pick-up location today:

• Beets
• Cucumbers
• Summer Squash/ Zucchini
• Lettuce
• Pearl Onions
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Herbs
• Kale or Collards
• Cabbage or Broccoli

J decided to take the broccoli, basil, and kale, and we took the pearl onions, lettuce, and carrots. The rest of the items we split.

I was able to go to today's pick-up, so I took a photo for you to see what it actually looks like when we get the share (sorry, random people who ended up in the picture - I was trying to be quick about it):

Some photos I took when I got home:

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Kohlrabi

I realized that I've fallen behind in my explanation of vegetables! We'll have to remedy that right now.

Simply Recipes has a great selection of ideas for how to cook kohlrabi. Here's their description of it: These little sputnik-shaped vegetables come in green or purple, can be eaten raw or cooked, and taste a lot like broccoli stems. The word kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip (kohl as in cole-slaw, and rübe for turnip) though kohlrabi is more related to cabbage and cauliflower than to root vegetables.

Wikipedia has this to say about kohlrabi: The taste and texture of kohlrabi are similar to those of a broccoli stem or cabbage heart, but milder and sweeter, with a higher ratio of flesh to skin. The young stem in particular can be as crisp and juicy as an apple, although much less sweet.

We really enjoyed it and will definitely look for it again in the future! It tasted like broccoli or cauliflower to me when it was raw, but was much sweeter when we cooked it. I agree with the description from Wikipedia! I'd be curious to try the green variety sometime, I've heard that it has a different flavor.

This photo is so funny, I had to post it for you (it's from Simply Recipes) -

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Not-So-Healthy But Super Tasty Nachos

As I'm sure you've guessed from my previous posts, Dan and I tend to eat pretty nutritious meals most of the time. But sometimes you just have to give in to those cravings for comfort food, and nachos are one of our favorite "guilty pleasures."

We've "perfected" our recipe enough that now when I order them in restaurants, I usually find I don't like them as much as the ones we make at home. That's gotta be a good thing, right? Besides, I tell myself that these have to be healthier than what I'd get in a restaurant, just by the sheer fact that we're making them ourselves!!!!

We decided to make them last night using a few of our remaining CSA ingredients from this week - we were able to include pearl onions and cilantro! Here's what else we used:

- Green and red peppers, chopped
- Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
- Wegman's* Garlic Lime Salsa
- Black beans
- Nacho chips
- Reduced-fat 4-Cheese Mexican Shredded Cheese


We use Morningstar Farms Grillers fairly often, but we've discovered that they taste A LOT better when you combine them with some sort of liquid. In this case, we mixed the salsa and the Grillers together, and then heated them briefly before adding them to the nachos.

We've also found that the best way to make this dish is to do it in layers - we started with a layer of chips, then a layer of the Grillers/salsa mixture and black beans.


Then we added another layer of chips, topped with the peppers, onion and cilantro (which we mixed together beforehand).


Cover with shredded cheese, and bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Voila!


I do love how colorful the end result was... and if you don't want to eat so many nacho chips, we've also made this recipe by creating a "dip" of all of the ingredients and then putting it on top of just a few chips.

* PS - We LOVE Wegmans. The grocery store chain started in upstate NY, where we both went to college. There was a rumor that they were opening a few stores in the Boston area, but it has been on hold for a while because of liquor license issues. According to this article, they are still planning to come to our area next year or in 2012. I can't wait!

Whenever we're near a Wegmans, we always stock up on a few products, especially this particular salsa. It's great! NPR had a story about Wegmans a few months ago - you can read it here. Oh, and they were listed as the #3 company to work for in this year's 100 Best Companies from Fortune Magazine.

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R & J - Kohlrabi Ham Souffle

Here's the recipe. R said was "amazing."

I don't eat ham, but it looks really tasty for those of you who do - enjoy!

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Swiss Chard, Scallion and Garlic Frittata

Egg dishes are another staple in our household. Because of this, we often try to limit the number of whole eggs we use when cooking. We've discovered that if you replace some of the egg with just whites, you usually don't notice the difference. (I find that it's a lot easier to separate the whites from the yolks if you use a separator - they're really cheap and you can find them at most stores that carry housewares.) If you find that this dish is not flavorful enough, feel free to use all whole eggs. Just lower the amount accordingly...

Frittatas are really simple, and they're great because you can use any combination of ingredients you'd like. I'm a breakfast person, I would eat it for every meal if I could, so to me this is the perfect dinner-time dish. If you ask my sister though, she'd think you were crazy! She doesn't like eating breakfast in the morning, so she'd hate this meal as supper. To each his (or her!) own - you decide for yourself.

I didn't list the amounts of most of these ingredients because we were making it up as we went along, but it really doesn't matter... oh, and the first four ingredients below came from our CSA!

INGREDIENTS:

- Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and chopped
- Garlic scapes, chopped
- Scallions, chopped
- Parsley, chopped
- Salt and pepper
- 2 eggs plus 4 egg whites
- Skim milk
- Good quality Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease frying pan (we used cooking spray, but feel free to use your favorite kind of cooking oil or butter) and heat to medium or medium-high. Add scallions, garlic scapes and stems of Swiss chard (they take longer to cook than the leaves do). Cook until tender (about 5 minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Combine eggs, egg whites and skim milk in a small bowl and whisk until mixed.

3. Add Swiss chard leaves and parsley and cook until the greens are starting to wilt. Add egg mixture to frying pan. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes or until egg begins to set.

4. Transfer to 9 in. pie plate (unless using oven-safe pan, in which case you can just place it directly in the oven). Cover with parmesan cheese and bake for 10 minutes.

5. Serve with English muffins or toast. Enjoy!

This dish had a bit of a "woodsy" flavor that would definitely have been enhanced with the addition of some mushrooms - the whole time we were eating it, I kept wishing I had some in the house!

My rating: 9/10
Dan's rating: 8/10

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Steak Two Ways - R & J

Coffee-crusted ribeye and Rosemary ribeye, served alongside Swiss chard with bacon and salted baked potatoes...

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Free Cookbooks!

Some of you already know about my love for the public library, but for those of you who don't, I'm a big supporter of the library! Joining the library is almost always the first thing I do when I move to a new town - this move was no exception.

I discovered on Friday that our local library has a great collection of cookbooks, and I took these 2 out - I'm enjoying them so far! I'll keep you updated when I take out some more.

• Field Guide to Produce
• Vegetables Every Day

If you don't have a library card, you should get one - all you usually need to bring with you is proof of your residency in the town or city. It's free - why not?

While I'm on the subject, I recently discovered this blog which I think is awesome - check it out!

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R & J - Portuguese Beans with Linguica and Kale & Sauteed Kohlrabi

Sorry if these photos aren't up to the usual quality, I "borrowed" them from J's Facebook page...

I'm also guessing that the recipe is based off this one, but I can't say for sure!

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Penne with Pesto, Broccoli & Tomato

We used some of my pesto in tonight's dinner - YUM! The broccoli we used came from the CSA - it was quite tasty.

To finish off the pasta, we added some Parmesan cheese and black pepper...

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