Local Box Meal Plan: Oct. 3-7

Fall is finally here — apples have started to make an appearance in our Local Boxes. I’m so excited.

This week, we’re getting Gala apples; pears from Lightsey Farms; persimmon; Bibb lettuce from Bella Verdi; cucumbers, Thai eggplant and dragon tongue beans from Animal Farm, yellow onions, red potatoes and either patty pan squash or zucchini from Naegelin; basil from Montesino, grape tomatoes, peppers from Tecalote, and radish.

So I’m making:

Lunch:

• Chicken salad with apples and pecans
• Bibb lettuce salad with cucumber, tomatoes and radish

Appetizer:

• Balsamic-glazed pear and goat cheese crostini

Side Dishes:

• Steamed dragon tongue beans tossed with sauteed garlic and basil
• Herb-roasted potatoes

Dinners:

• Roasted patty pan squash and eggplant with herbed chick peas
• Ale-braised sausage with peppers and onions (for our Oktoberfest party!)

Dessert:

• Persimmon ice cream

I’ve been hearing folks say they’re not sure how else to use persimmons. You can use them in salads, in baking, or as a topping for a savory meat dish. Do you have any persimmon recipes you love?

Turkey Meatball Kebobs with Tzatziki

I like subbing ground turkey for ground beef in most recipes. Sometimes it doesn’t work out as well as I would have liked, and sometimes it works out even better than the beef version. In this recipe, I actually prefer using turkey. It’s not as heavy, making it great for summer.

You could easily make this without putting the meatballs on kebobs, but kebobs seemed a bit more “Mediterranean” to me.

Ingredients:

For the meatballs:

• 1 small red onion, chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 lb. ground turkey (I used 93% lean.)
• 1/2 c. breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. fresh dill, minced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Veggies for skewering (I used zucchini, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes.)
• Skewers

For the tzatziki (tzatziki is pretty standard, but these are the proportions that I prefer):

• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 8 oz. yogurt (I used fat-free, you can use whatever type you like. Greek yogurt, like Fage, is especially good.)
• 1 Tbsp. fresh dill, minced (I prefer dill, but mint or parsley can also be used, so feel free to substitute that if you like.)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Finely grate the cucumber with a box grater. Strain it in some cheesecloth over a bowl with a heavy weight on top (a can of Diet Coke works well!) to get rid of most of the water. It takes at least an hour to do this; I usually do this step the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
• Add the strained cucumber to the rest of the tzatziki ingredients and adjust the ingredients to taste, if necessary. Set aside to let the flavors marinate a bit. (You can make this a few days in advance.)
• Preheat the broiler and position the oven rack in the middle of the oven. You could also grill these.
• Saute the chopped onion in a bit of olive oil. Let cool, then add to the turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, dill, and salt. Combine the ingredients together with your hands, then form into 1-1/2″ meatballs.
• Skewer the meatballs with the veggies. Brush the tops of the meatballs with a bit of olive oil (just a bit!) to ensure nice browning on top, and add a bit of salt and pepper to the kebobs.
• Broil the kebobs for ~7 minutes, then flip them over and brush the other side of the meatballs with a bit of olive oil. Broil the kebobs for an additional 7 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let rest for a few minutes, then serve with the tzatziki and pita (if you’re grilling the kebobs, brush the pitas with a bit of olive oil and stick those on the grill too. YUM!).

Verdict:

Well, I could eat tzatziki with a spoon (and sometimes do), so anything with tzatziki will be awesome in my book. But the meatballs were flavorful (to avoid having superd-dry meatballs though, you really need to use at least 93% lean, if not darker meat). Sauteeing the onions added a nice layer of flavor and (I think) increased the moisture by adding a bit of fat, and the fresh dill was a refreshing change from parsley. Next time, I’ll probably add some cumin to the meatballs for a smoky underlying flavor.

Gnocchi with Summer Squash, Zucchini and Tomatoes

I tore this recipe out of Everyday Food, thinking that it would be super easy to throw together before Trivia Night at Flying Saucer and that it would be filling enough so that my husband wouldn’t gorge himself on their soft pretzels.

From Everyday Food

Ingredients:

• 1 package of gnocchi (or any kind of short pasta, really)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 zucchini, sliced and quartered
• 1 summer squash, sliced and quartered
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/4 c. fresh basil, chopped (I omitted this — for those of you who don’t know, I haven’t found basil that tastes great to me yet in Texas! It seems to have a minty aftertaste to me, but the horticulturalists I’ve spoken to think I’m crazy.)
• Pecorino Romano cheese (I just used Parmesan.)
• 1 Tbsp. butter (I omitted this. I thought the Parmesan made it creamy enough without adding too much extra fat.)
• 2 tsp. lemon juice

Directions:

• Cook the gnocchi as directed, making sure to reserve ~1/2 c. of cooking water. Keep in mind that they cook in ~3 minutes, so prepare accordingly.
• Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the squash. Saute for ~3 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and tomatoes and cook for another ~2 minutes.
• When the veggies are finished, remove from the heat and toss the veggies with the gnocchi, 1/2 c. cooking water, basil, cheese, butter (if using), and lemon juice.

I also tossed some crimini mushrooms with the veggies while they were sauteeing.

Verdict:
So I’ll be honest here: I don’t like gnocchi that much. I don’t know why; it’s something about the texture. I definitely would’ve preferred this with a hearty whole-wheat penne. That being said, this is a wonderfully light and flavorful meal, and comes together in a snap. The key is to use really fresh ingredients (since you’re not using a sauce, which would ordinarily mask the flavors of the veggies). You could also roast the veggies if you’re using firmer ones (like carrots or root veggies), but sauteeing = fewer steps = less time to wait to eat. Hey, what can I say — I was hungry.

Local Box Meal Plan for May 18-22

Hi all! Woman With a Whisk here. I’ve been a huge supporter of Greenling and their Local Boxes for a few months now, and I’ve been blogging how I’ve cooked out of my Local Boxes since then. Hopefully, I can share some interesting ways to use the produce that comes to us each week, and I expect to learn new things from you also!

Each week, I’ve been making a meal plan to figure out how best to use the Local Box contents. I find that without planning, it’s hard to use some of the more esoteric items before they spoil. Besides, I get a huge kick trying to use as many local ingredients/Local Box produce as possible in one meal. Don’t we all?

So without further ado, this week’s meal plan. In the current Local Box: blackberries, golden zucchini, green beans, dandelion greens, carrots, red spring onion, mangoes, beets, and red potatoes. Where I’m using recipes, I’ll link to them. Otherwise, the recipes are either in my head (waiting to be blogged!) or are common enough that you may have your own.

This week, I’m planning on making:

Breakfast:

• Blackberry pancakes (though this verrine would make a wonderful dessert for a special occasion or dinner party)

Sides:

• Zucchini cakes
• Sauteed green beans tossed with soy sauce and sesame oil
• Roasted red potatoes with rosemary

Lunches:

• Dandelion greens salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette (I’ll roast the beets and potatoes in the same pan the night before, then peel and cut up the beets when they’re cool for lunch the following day)

Dinners:

• Slow-cooker goat stew (made just like a basic beef stew) with carrots and red onions
• Ginger chicken stir-fry with mango chutney and red onion tops

If my husband would go anywhere near it (he hates mussels), I would make mussels with dandelion greens and linguini for dinner. Mmmmm. This recipe uses beer instead of white wine, which is an interesting twist on the usual.

Edited on 5/19: The Local Box video for this week is on Facebook here (you don’t need to be a Facebook member to check it out!). Turns out that we’re not getting red potatoes, but we are getting broccoli and swiss chard or red leaf lettuce. I’ll still roast the broccoli with the beets, and maybe wilt the swiss chard or use the lettuce to make lettuce wraps (since I’d also like to make dumplings this week!). Have fun!

Local Box Lookout, week of 04.20.2009

Here’s what to expect in this week’s Local Box:

• Swiss chard
• cabbage
• herbs
• mushrooms
• spring onion
• garlic scapes
• carrots
• zucchini
• turnips
• berries

Local Box, 04.15.2009

Mmmm… a beautiful selection of bases (beets, zucchini, kohlrabi) and aromatics (oranges, onions, radishes) to choose from as we nourish our tax-sapped selves this week! I’m looking forward to a salad of roasted beets and orange wedges – and perhaps some radish slices, too. What have you got planned for this week’s Local Box?

Local Box, 11.12.2008

It seems like there was even more food than usual in this week’s Local Box! Collards, kale, and mustard will keep us in the green for days, no doubt. And what a treat to find avocadoes! I’m swamped this week, so I’ll be looking for some quick meals. A microwaved sweet potato and an apple will make a great quick lunch, and perhaps I’ll roast that big ol’ zucchini to toss with pasta for an easy dinner. What have you got planned for your Local Box this week?

Eggplants: Roasted, Not Steamed

When I came home from taking my dog, Moxie, to the dog park on Saturday, Hubby had dinner ready to go. He’d started with a recipe called “Stir-fried Stuffed Steamed Eggplants” from a typically great cookbook called Buddha’s Table by Chat Mingkwan but, he discovered, steamed eggplant wasn’t a great thing. So after he’d steamed it and tasted it, he put it in the oven to roast with some olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and sugar, too. Then, he reports, “I cut up red potatoes, a small red onion, and two cloves of garlic. I put some olive oil in a pan and fried sage leaves in it until they turned dark green. (They get spotty, then turn kind of a deep emerald.) Then I took the sage leaves out of the oil and put the vegetables in. I sliced up some zucchini really thin and threw that in, too. Then I deglazed with a quarter-cup of Marsala and added about two tablespoons of soy sauce. I put a lid on the veggies and turned down the heat to let them steam while the eggplants were roasting, about 15 or 20 minutes total, until soft. Then I toasted some pine nuts. When I got the eggplants out of the oven, I poured the stir-fry over them and garnished with the sage and pine nuts.” My only regret is that we were out of rice. It would have been a wonderful way to soak up this tasty sauce.

Report from Fearless Forager, week of 11.10.2008

Here’s what she’s got planned for this week’s Local Boxes:

• bibb lettuce or baby lettuce/arugula bouquets
• avocado
• key limes
• collard greens
• radish
• mustard/turnip greens
• red onion
• yellow onion
• assorted herbs
• apples
• Meyer lemons
• zucchini
• sweet potatoes
• red potatoes

Local Box, 11.05.2008

Greens season is here! Both collards and Swiss chard appeared in my Local Box yesterday, along with plenty of apples and a few remnants of summer in the form of zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Since I’ve still got plenty of dill butter, I think I’ll freeze this week’s fresh dill to use later in the winter, as it’s a great complement to many root vegetables. And those are some sandwich-sized radishes, for sure!

What have you got planned for this week’s Local Box?