Tag Archives: vegan

Adventures in CSA (week 6): Leek-tastic!

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When I got the teaser e-mail for this week’s box, I was excited at the prospect of getting leeks. I don’t get potato-leek soup often, but so have the basic components of the same in one veggie box was like handing me one of my favorite meals that I have no reason to avoid making in the first place. So, picture my joy when I opened the box and the teaser was correct – a quartet of luscious leeks, plus a couple pounds of red potatoes…all just calling out “Make us into soup! Make us into soup!” D’okay…if you insist!

Looking over the contents and putting them into my tracking spreadsheet, I think this is the first week that I may not get a savings over the grocery store, but we’ll have to see. As I’m looking at price variability, quality may end up becoming more of an issue. as it is, color me shocked to find that the corn we got in this week’s veggie box was not only good – it was excellent. Unlike the prior weeks, when it was immature, this week’s corn was mature and intensely sweet. I’m not sued to the idea of corn in the fall, and this stuff was light years beyond what you can still get in our grocery store, so I know that – on a quality basis – the $0.60/ear stuff at our store just won’t compare at all.

 

Week 6 CSA

Potato-Leek Soup...and more!

 

This week’s veggie box contents:

  • Leeks
  • Macintosh Apples
  • Beets
  • Butternut Squash
  • Garlic
  • Parsnips
  • Red Potatoes
  • Corn
  • Carrots
  • Globe Eggplant

 

The eggplant still presents a challenge – I just don’t think that I’m ever going to love eggplant. But, I’m willing to give it a shot. I found a recipe that involves doing things to eggplant with an oven and cheese, and if there are two things that I think go great together: it’s an oven and cheese. I’ll report back later on how it all went.

In the meantime, expect this week to hear about how to make potato-leek soup in the crock pot and what to do with CSA honey and veggies to provide a simple, sweet accompaniment to any weeknight dinner. I also suspect that the parsnips and beets will meet a happy roasting end in the oven this weekend. Now that I’ve learned how good roasted beets are, I can’t WAIT to get those babies in the oven. OM NOM NOM…

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.

Adventures in CSA (week 5): How do you price what you can’t find?

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I knew this week would be a bit of a challenge to price, since there were a couple of items that were different than what I suspected our store would carry. I already knew that our grocery store, while very well stocked, doesn’t carry Italian eggplant. I also suspected that purple kale would be a no-show, since I’ve never seen it there. And pea greens…? I’d never even seen them before, so I didn’t suspect we’d find them there. Strangely, upon dh’s return from the grocery store this morning, he said that not only were those three missing from our grocery store’s produce section, scallions were apparently hidden from sight, too!

Thus, this week’s list is a little tougher to put together. Caveats that I have to note, then, for complete transparency:

  • The price of the purple kale and the Italian eggplant are those for the *regular* items (meaning regular green kale and the standard eggplant). This likely depresses the prices I’m using, since the more specialty items would surely cost more at my grocery store.
  • The price for scallions is taken from the price noted in week 2. Based on what I saw last week, and this week as well, it’s possible that this price should have gone up a little bit in recent weeks. (Note also that scallions are priced by the bunch, not by weight.)
  • There was no equivalent for the pea greens, so I checked online and found a price for them at Green Garden Organics. I got a 4oz bag, so I used the price they listed for a single unit of a 4oz bag. I’m guessing that the price on this would have been higher at our local store, but I had to use something as a starting point.

And so, now we have the list of prices…

Week 5 CSA

Weight
(lb)

 Grocery Store Unit Price
(per lb)		 Grocery Store Total Item Cost
Tomatoes 0.76 $2.79 $2.11
Purple Kale* 0.43 $1.29 $0.55
Scallions* 1.00 $0.99 $0.99
Pea Greens* 1.00 $4.75 $4.75
Carrots 1.45 $0.99 $1.43
Green Peppers 1.15 $1.79 $2.06
Macintosh Apples 1.51 $1.19 $1.79
White Onion 0.72 $1.49 $1.07
Corn** 3.00 $0.60 $1.80
Italian Eggplant* 0.63 $1.17 $0.73
Asian Pears 2.00 $2.00 $4.00
Grocery Store Total Cost $21.29
Week 5 Savings (Deficit) $1.29
Program-to-Date Savings (Deficit) $15.77
Notes:
* Items were not available; closest equivalent was used.
** Closest equivalent is husked corn cobs sold in 5pks; unit price was derived from this comparable item

Wow. Where’d my savings go?

Well, first off, I’m not convinced that the prices I listed above would be as low as they are. Referring back to my caveats above, it’s highly unlikely that the purple kale, Italian eggplant and pea greens would have been at the prices listed above. more likely, they would cost more. Second, the non-specialty items would really be considered fairly pedestrian, so the prices aren’t going to be nearly as much. And this brings me to one of the potential takeaways from this exercise: perhaps one of the big lessons is that, through a CSA, you have access to produce that otherwise is really only available to those who know to look for it. It’s kind of like how we discovered green chickpeas at the Mediterranean grocery store near our house the other week. GREEN CHICKPEAS? FOR REALS? I’ve got my eye on a bean salad with these little guys (along with the white kidney beans we found at the same store). Now, had someone asked me 5 minutes before I saw them what color chickpeas came in, my answer would’ve been a resounding: DUH, they’re tan! Well, apparently, that’s not always the case.

So, the price “difference” isn’t necessarily just based on whether you buy it regional or local…it may also be a function of what you get that you didn’t even know existed. The CSA taught me that I like beets. I never knew that. I can’t even imagine what else this can teach me. And, given that I’m a stone’s throw from my 40’s, I think it’s a damn fine thing that I can learn anything at this point.