Bulghur Bowls

Do I need a more appetizing name for this dish? It’s my latest favorite quickie: Heat up a little olive oil or butter in a sautée pan. Add garlic or onions. Add rinsed (but not spun) and torn greens – collards, spinach, arugula, kale, or whatever else you’ve got. After greens are wilted, sprinkle bulghur over them and salt. Cover and reduce heat to low for 10 minutes or so – long enough to steam the bulghur. Season as desired. I like soy sauce on mine, and chiles are nice, too. I thought my husband was crazy when he whipped out the salad dressing for his bulghur bowl the other night, but he insists it was an inspired choice.

What are your go-to tricks for eating – FAST – out of the Local Box?

Local Box Lookout, week of 03.02.2009

Here’s the lookout for Local Boxes next week:

• spinach
• lettuce
• cilantro
• green shallots
• kale
• turnips
• green cauliflower
• oranges
• kohlrabi
• radishes
• Swiss chard
• avocado

Remember, you can still order this week’s Local Box through Saturday and later, depending on your zip code. Click here to check it out!

Local Box, 02.25.2009

So many greens… it’s like Christmastime again! With kale, collards, mustard, lettuce, and cabbage in this week’s Local Box, we won’t be suffering for vitamins and fiber this week. On the contrary, this will make for a week of wonderful eating. I think I’ll make a favorite soba salad with the mustard greens for company this weekend – if this great weather holds, we’ll cook-out, and this salad is a great accompaniment to grilled goods. [Note that I'll double the mustard - at least - and very possibly omit some of the other veggies. The sesame oil and the scallions - which I have from last week's Box - are the essentials here.] And I thought I might have been off the hook in my pursuit of sauerkraut, but that cabbage tells me otherwise. I’m going to try a friend’s grandmother’s recipe next. Stay tuned!

What have you got planned for this week’s gratuitous greens?

Broccoli Salad

We made this tasty broccoli salad Saturday to go with the leftover risotto we mixed with egg, then pan-fried to crispy wonderfulness. (Risotto’s one of those foods I actually like better the second time around!) It was the perfect antidote to a few too many cupcakes eaten last week. How have you eaten your Local Box broccoli?

Beets & Kohlrabi for Dinner

For a Friday-worthy feast after a crazy week, last night we raided the fridge and came out with some Local Box vegges ripe for cooking. We selected beets to make this risotto and kohlrabi to make a Greek dish we found in the fabulous (but unfortunately out-of-print) cookbook, Greene on Greens, by Bert Greene. Here’s our spin on the recipe:

Kohlrabi in Avgolemono Sauce

4 medium kohlrabi (about 2 lbs), with leaves

2 cups vegetable broth

1 T butter

1 T flour

2 eggs

juice of 2 lemons

salt and pepper

• Trim and peel the kohlrabi bulbs, reserving about 1 cup of leaves. Cut each bulb into 1/4″-thick slices. Place slices in a saucepan, add broth, and heat to boiling. Then cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.
• Trim any tough stems from leaves. Cook leaves in boiling salted water until very tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and press out water. Chop leaves.
• Melt butter, then stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Whisk in reserved cooking liquid and cook 2 more minutes.
• Beat eggs in a small bowl, then slowly beat a ladle of sauce into them. Beat this mixture back into the sauce. Add lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until thickened, about 10 minutes. Do not allow to boil. Add the leaves, season, and spoon sauce over kohlrabi slices.

We ate leftover kohlrabi cold for lunch today, and we’re looking forward to risotto cakes for dinner.

Local Box Lookout, week of 02.23.2009

Here’s what the folks at Greenling have planned for this week’s Local Box. Remember, you can still order this week’s Local Box through Saturday and later, depending on your zip code. Click here to check it out!

• spinach
• lettuce
• radishes
• green onion
• kale and collard bundles
• sweet potatoes
• carrots
• grapefruit
• kohlrabi
• mustard greens

Local Box, 02.18.2009

There’s lots to love in this week’s Local Box, with more kohlrabi and broccoli, plus ample bok choy and a few oranges to ward off those nasty colds everyone seems to be getting lately. (Note that arugula and beets are also very high in cold-fighting antioxidants!)

A word to the wise: The big bag of salad mix needs a VERY good washing. Whether it’s the dry weather that made lots of dust or the recent rain that splashed everything with mud, those greens are super dirty. My favorite method, adapted from one the head chef taught me in a kitchen I worked in many moons ago, is to pull out my biggest pot or mixing bowl, fill it with cold water, and dump the greens in, swishing occasionally but letting the dirt settle to the bottom. You may even want to repeat this with this batch. Then spin dry and store with something absorbent (like a paper towel or tea towel) until using.

And a question: Do you ever juice your Local Box produce? I recently enjoyed a juice blend made with beets from Daily Juice in Austin.  That made me wonder how I’d go about juicing my own.

My Favorite Brussels Sprouts

They’re caramelly and nutty, leafy and rich. If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you won’t be surprised to know that I got the recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook (“Pan-Browned Brussels Sprouts,” page 526. But virtually the same recipe is also online here.). We made them last night from last week’s Local Box brussels sprouts. My only regret is that we forgot to take a picture!

What’s your favorite way to eat brussels sprouts?

Local Box Lookout, week of 02.16.2009

Look for the following in next week’s Greenling Local Box:

• arugula
• cilantro
• herbs
• green garlic
• mixed salad greens
• broccoli
• chioggia beets (description)
• oranges
• tomatoes
• white mushrooms
• bok choy

Remember, you can order up until two days before your delivery day. So if your delivery day is Tuesday, you can still order through Saturday. To find your delivery day, enter your zip code on the left at Greenling.com. Then click here to add the Local Box to your order.

Local Box, 02.11.2009

This week’s Local Box brings a newcomer to my kitchen: I’ve never cooked with kohlrabi before! (It’s between the brussels sprouts and the green shallots in the picture, if you’re a kohlrabi newbie like me.) So I’ll need to do a bit of research. (I’ll let you know what I find!) In the meantime, do you have any suggestions about how to cook kohlrabi?

Among the many great greens, here, there’s yet another bunch of rosemary. That’ll be a challenge for me this week, as I know have three bunches of it in my refrigerator! We’ve been using it, alright, but not quickly enough to keep pace. I may bake some rosemary bread or stew some white beans with garlic and rosemary this week to make headway. It’s a good thing it keeps well!

Speaking of keeping: If you can only do one thing on the day you get your Local Box this week, free those mixed lettuces from their plastic bag. Leaves can decay if they’re pressed up against plastic. I went ahead and rinsed and spun mine, then left them in the spinner in the ‘fridge. It’s a great way to keep them aerated, yet humid for maximum freshness.