Part of the fun with a CSA is getting a box full of surprise veggies each week. The challenge is figuring out what to make with those things you might not have picked out if you’d bought your produce from the farmers market. The key seems to be having some good farm to fork seasonal recipes.
My CSA gives us box notes each week with some suggested recipes for the major items in the box. I also have a few good books I got last summer when I decided to eat only the veggies we could buy at the farmers market. I’d kind of forgotten about these books until a few weeks ago when I saw green garlic at the market and remembered a favorite recipe from Local Flavors (Madison) for a green garlic and leeks risotto. Another favorite book for veggie recipes is The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without (by Katzen, of Moosewood fame). Both are good go-to books when you have a vegetable and need inspiration about what to do with it.
I needed such inspiration last week when, for the third week in a row, we got a bunch of radishes. Unfortunately, I’ve never been much of a radish fan. I guess a hold-over from some experience with them as a kid. So I turned to the radish recipes in Local Flavors and found a recipe for radish butter for radish sandwiches and another for a a radish salad with Dry Jack (or parmigiano-reggiano) cheese. Both have been quite tasty, and have made me completely rethink my aversion to radishes.
Do you have any favorite farmers market and CSA-friendly cookbooks?
I just got Local Flavors this spring (I’d been waiting for it in paperback) and got the same inspiration to try radish sandwiches. Now I wish I had planted more radishes!
When I got Local Flavors, I also bought Farmer John’s Cookbook, and I like it as well. I actually just reviewed them both in a post last week. I really like having cookbooks with the recipes arranged by season. Another thing I’m trying is fermenting food and am hoping to score some cabbage the the Montavilla Market this morning so I can start some sauerkraut, old school style, this afternoon.