Category Archives: side dishes

Sweet Summer Squash

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Necessity being the mother of invention, and me being the mother of two hungry children (plus a wife to a hungry adult), I needed to invent some quick and tasty dish to go with dinner last night. We were piecing dinner together using the corn we got in our week 6 CSA box, and I wanted to see if we could work more veggies in. So, using the yellow (summer) squash and honey from a prior week’s box, plus carrots from this week’s box, I was able to make something that totally worked. Best of all, it hit on my primary requirements: fast, simple & tasty. That’s just a wonderful trinity.

Note: this dish doesn’t cook the carrots fully, although the squash will be cooked nicely. If you mind having carrots that have crunch to them, you may want to steam the carrots for a few min before you add them to the pan for this dish.

 

Sweet Summer Squash

Cinnamony goodness

 

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 8-9 mins

 

Ingredients

1 medium/large summer squash

2 carrots

1 Tb butter

1 Tb wildflower honey (sub clover if you don’t have wildflower)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

 

Make it Happen

1. Cut the squash into small pieces. Peel and cut the carrots into small coins.

2. Melt butter in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat.

3. When the butter is melted, add the squash and carrots to the pan, stirring frequently to coat and heat evenly.

4. After about 5 min of cooking time, drizzle honey and sprinkle cinnamon on top of the veggies. Stir well to combine.

5. Cook for another 3 min, stirring frequently. Then, remove from heat and serve immediately.

Purple Kale Chips

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So, I was introduced to the idea of kale chips by my friend Lori, and she easily converted our friend Cyndy into a true believer…but somehow I’d never gotten around to kale chips. Then, the one time I tried them recently (with CSA kale), I managed to flub it. I was so excited about making the kale chips and jumping on this bandwagon that I didn’t really question whether I was putting too much on the tray. Turns out, I had put too much on. I didn’t realize at the time that kale chips need to be in a single layer to crisp effectively. When you have kale piled on top of kale (even just one extra layer), you can have limp kale instead of crackling, crunchy kale. It’s a critical difference.

Shot #2 at kale chips came when the week 5 CSA delivered into my hot little hands a bunch of purple kale. Ooh baby. Purple is one of my favorite colors, and when you put that together with a leafy green (leafy purple?), I just think that’s magic. As dh noted, “Purple IS a color found in nature!” So it is. I used the same amount of kale, but this time I divided it between two pans. That certainly made all of the difference, both in texture and in acceptance (everyone in the family eagerly dug in).

Thus, we have Cyndy’s recipe for kale chips with a slight set of mods. As I’d noted previously, I put Penzeys 4S seasoning on the regular kale chips (and the ones that came out crunchy were very tasty). Today, I did two pans – one with the 4S and one with a light sprinkling of salt and a very light dusting of ground white pepper. YES. This worked. Where the white pepper took hold, the kale had not only the green flavor of the kale but also the nice bite from the pepper that gave it a little kick.

 

Purple Kale Chips

So nice, I made 'em twice!

 

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10-13 mins

Serves: 1-6 (depending upon how good people are about SHARING)

 

Ingredients

1 bunch purple kale, stems removed

olive oil (no more than 1 Tb per baking sheet)

seasoning: your favorite seasoned salt, Penzeys 4S, or (for a spicier kick) salt and ground white pepper

 

Make it Happen

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Wash and dry the kale, then tear the leaves into small pieces.

3. Place the kale on baking sheets in a single layer. This is VERY important. If you have enough kale that you have to stack it in anything more than one layer, employ an additional sheet. The pieces can be touching (horizontally), but they should not be stacked.

4. Drizzle olive oil lightly over the kale, then toss with tongs to coat the kale with the oil.

5. Lightly sprinkle your seasoning of choice over top of the kale, then place the baking sheets in the oven. Cook for 10-13 mins.

6. You can tell the kale is done when you lightly touch the tops of some pieces and they make a light crunching sound. If there’s softness or give, then you need to leave it in longer.

Acorn Squash Risotto

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Week 3’s CSA brought us an acorn squash, and though I’ve never made anything with one before, the idea of a risotto just seemed right. And so it was.

I haven’t made a risotto in an age. Most days, if I want some form of rice with cheese, I’m reaching for a box of Rice-a-Roni. Let’s face it, risotto takes TIME and a lot of watching. And, as the parent of two small children, it’s often hard to be able to stay in the kitchen for that long without someone needing *something* from me. During the work-week, it’s impossible, so I never would have attempted this for anything other than a weekend. But, it worked. Oh my, was I happy with the results.

The sweet flavor of the squash was subtle and unassuming, and the cheese was in small enough quantity to lend a little more stickiness to the rice without giving it too much weight. I cooked this in my Le Creuset round dutch oven; the enamel cast iron makes for easy clean-up, and the size of the pot gave me room to spare. When DH plugged this into his calorie tracker, the entire batch came out to about 1800 calories – meaning that 4 meal-servings would be about 450 calories each, and 6 side-servings would be about 300 calories each. Not bad at all!

Fair warning: the majority of the prep time is lost in trying to peel the dang squash. Also, if you’re not sure what to do with the seeds, I suggest that you separate them from the strings, then toss them in a small bowl with 1 Tb olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Then, roast them in a single layer on the tray in your toaster oven (or on a cookie sheet in your full-sized oven) at 300F for about 35-40 mins. YUM.

 

Acorn Squash Risotto

Acorn Squash-rrific!

 

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Serves: 4 if using as a main dish; 6-8 if serving as a side dish

Ingredients
1 acorn squash, peeled and cubed (~1/4-1/3″)
1 yellow onion, minced
14-1/2oz can low sodium chicken broth (1/2cup reserved)
4 Tb butter (1 Tb reserved)
1/2 cup white wine
2 cups water
1/4 cup grated parmesan
Make it Happen

1. Over medium heat, add 3 Tb butter to a large pot. Let the butter melt, then add the onion and stir to coat.
2. Cook the onion until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add 1/2 cup reserved broth to the pot and the squash, stir to combine and then bring to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat to low; leave covered for about 10 minutes, so the squash can cook and soften.
4. When you cover the pot, pour the remaining broth and the water into a saucepan. Heat on medium heat.
5. Once the 10 minutes is up, remove the cover and add the rice to the pot. Stir to combine. Let this sit for 30-60 seconds (just enough to heat the rice), then add the wine and stir to combine.
6. Add 1/2 cup of the heated broth/water mixture from the saucepan to the pot every few minutes, increasing the heat on the pot to medium-low or medium, to bring it back to a very gentle simmer. (I found that a ladle-ful for us is about 1/2 cup, so it made it easy for transfers.)
7. Stir the mixture in the pot frequently, to make sure that A) the rice isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pot, and B) the liquid is cooking off properly.
8. Keep the rice gently simmering in this fashion, adding 1/2 cup of the broth/water mixture every few minutes and cooking that off, for about 20-25 minutes. Continue to stir frequently throughout cooking.
9. When the rice is firm but not crunchy, then it’s ready to be removed from the heat. Add the 1 Tb of reserved butter to the rice, stirring well to combine.
10. Next, add the grated parmesan to the pot, stirring to combine just prior to serving.