Malabar spinach

What I Made – Week 12

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I tried a new recipe for these blueberry lemon scones, substituting regular milk for the plant-based and was sure I was going to regret it. The dough was so soft I dumped it in a puddle on my baking sheet for the chilling step! But somehow it baked up perfectly, and the crunchy sugar topping was a definite must. Consider adding more sugar to the dough if you don’t have any for sprinkling.
Salmon with wilted chard and a tarragon vinaigrette is a true 30 minute meal with flavor that tastes like it’s much more complex. Four salmon filets will leave leftovers for the next day, but we always eat one bunch of chard in a single meal.
These pitas are stuffed with more veggies than you might realize – oven roasted sun gold tomatoes, cucumbers in the tzatziki yogurt sauce, and zucchini in the turkey meatballs! Don’t skimp on the herbs in the meatballs, they give great flavor.
This colorful salad is just beets, avocado, and a puréed onion dressing, but is a nice light way to enjoy beets in the summer.
This dish looks veggie-free, but it hides 3 sliced and then caramelized onions! This is Adas Polo or lentil rice with chicken from the Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat cookbook. I didn’t have raisins or dates, so I used craisins. Samin would also be disappointed that my dish turned out unseasoned. She says to salt the rice cooking liquid until it’s “uncomfortable” and I thought I was probably just short of that but that it would be close enough. I was wrong and should know better than to not trust her instructions…
The recipe for these wok cooked Romano beans seems too easy to be true: char beans and dried chiles, add 1/4 c water to steam until crisp tender, then toss with garlic and ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil, and top with scallions. I’m here to say it was delicious and much more flavorful than you might expect!
This zucchini chocolate orange cake is pretty much perfection (and a great way to use up zucchini). I swap chocolate chips for the pecans and concentrate the glaze and only use about a half cup of powdered sugar since the cake is plenty sweet without it.

We also ate (more!) sunchoke gnocchi with sautéed spinach and polished off the peaches and cantaloupe as delicious lunch time snacks. We still have more onions and cucumbers to use up.

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What I’ve Planned – Week 12

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Even as hot as the days are, we’re still getting leafy greens along with our beans and squash, so I’m not in full casserole mode yet! Here’s what we are planning to make this week

Well probably eat the peaches and definitely the cantaloupe for breakfast and snack on the cucumbers throughout the week. I’m still hoping to make a chocolate zucchini cake, if I can stand to run the oven that long this week!

What I Made: Mini Spinach Lasagna

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I had some filling leftover from the Malabar Spinach Tortellini that didn’t fit into the pasta dough I made, and decided to bake it into a lasagna! You could always make the filling by itself and make a lasagna to share, I suppose, but the personal size is awfully cute.

Pick an ovenproof container that fits your ingredients. Layer filling, noodles, filling, cheese, and repeat. Since the size is small and everything’s been cooked except your noodles, you can cut the cooking time a bit. Bake covered with foil for about 20 minutes, then uncovered for about 10. So easy!

MiniSpinachLasagna

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What I Made: Malabar Spinach Tortellini

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Every week, before I pick up my CSA delivery, I get an email with a list of what to expect in that week’s box. Many weeks, this sends me running for Google to figure out just what exactly these mystery vegetables are.

For instance, did you know that Malabar spinach is not actually spinach but is instead an edible vine with leaves that taste a lot like spinach? True, the texture is a bit tougher when the larger leaves are raw, but when cooked, it makes a nice substitute.

I was ambitious with this recipe and made my own pasta! If you are not a crazy person, you can buy pre-made dough, usually in the “natural foods” section of the store.

The recipe looks intense, but it really doesn’t call for any complicated techniques. One of the huge upsides is that once made, the pasta can be frozen. To cook, just boil it until they float.

This is served with a super simple sauce of oil, butter, garlic, walnuts, pine nuts, and parsley, but it looks extra fancy.

Tortelloni

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What I Got: Week 9

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Week9
Cantaloupe, Charentais French melon, red onion, Malabar spinach, Hungarian hot wax peppers (5)
Green zucchini (5), peaches (5), red tomatoes (3), Early Gold apples (3), yellow wax beans (2 pounds), grape tomatoes (1 pint)

This week may be a bit light on recipes, since there’s a lot in this basket I can eat plain or in a simple preparation, no recipe needed.