Week 15 of the Redfearn CSA includes (beginning in the top left of the pictured large share):Green Beans, Sweet Peppers, Arugula, Eggplant, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Radishes with greens, Zucchini/ yellow squash, Salad greens mix (middle), Candy Onions, Garlic bulbs, and Bok Choy.
Green beans: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Basic cooking instructions: trim the stem end off and leave beans whole or snap into shorter pieces. Heat a pot of salted water to boiling, add beans, and boil 2 to 3 minutes, until almost tender- crisp. Drain beans very well (if you will be finishing the beans later, cool the bean beans to prevent further cooking). Heat butter and olive oil in a skillet (about 1 T each, can be increased or decreased to taste) over medium heat, add beans and salt and pepper to taste, and stir until tender, toward the end of cooking add 1 or 2 cloves garlic (chopped) if desired. Additions: crumbled bacon, toasted slivered almonds, stirred into the beans after cooking. Also, these Roasted Green Beans are great.
Sweet peppers: Store in plastic bag, in refrigerator. Meal idea: sauté sliced candy onions and sweet pepper for a tasty Philly Cheese Sandwich or Fajitas. Stuffed peppers are also a favorite main dish at our house; zucchini/ yellow squash can also be stuffed using the same recipe. Sweet peppers can easily be preserved by freezing and they can be frozen raw, without blanching first. Cut peppers into the desired size: diced for adding to winter casseroles, soups or sauces; sliced for fajitas; or halved (or the tops cut off) to be used for stuffed peppers (also, after freezing there is no need to parboil peppers before stuffing) and freeze in freezer bags.
Arugula: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. This arugula is a little larger than salad arugula, it can be eaten raw after trimming the stem and slicing/ tearing into smaller pieces. This slightly spicy salad green is wonderful in this Roasted Sweet Potato Arugula Salad! Combine arugula with pasta in this Goat Cheese and Arugula over Penne dish. Arugula can also be sautéed in olive oil with some garlic just until wilted. Arugula is great in this Arugula Soup that our whole family enjoys (2 onions can be substituted for the 6 shallots in the recipe, larger potatoes can be used instead of the salad potatoes). Some other ideas are listed in this: Top 5 Uses for Arugula Besides Salad.
Eggplant: Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator, but use quickly, because eggplant doesn’t store well. The best tip I have for tasty eggplant is to salt and drain the prepared (sliced, cubed, etc) eggplant for at least 20-30 minutes before cooking (this takes away any bitterness and also, helps the eggplant to absorb less oil during cooking). Here’s a page with detailed instructions about eggplant preparation and recipes: Fine Cooking: How to cook Eggplant. Eggplant can be sauteed, grilled or roasted. It is great combined with zucchini and tomatoes (such as in Ratatouille). For eggplant recipes from Italy to China, check out these: Global Eggplant Recipes. A wonderful eggplant recipe (and one that doesn’t require salting and draining the eggplant) is Smitten Kitchen’s Eggplant Bruschetta (which has a Mediterranean style topping). Moussaka is a greek dish with eggplant. Here is a relatively simple recipe for Moussaka recommended by a CSA member (and also tried and deliciously approved by the Redfearn family).
Cucumbers: Store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Pair with tomatoes in an Israeli Salad, Cucumber, Tomato, and Avocado Salad, Panzanella Salad. Cucumbers are the base for the Mediterranean sauce, Tzatziki. Cold Cucumber Soup is also a refreshing way to use cucumbers.
Radishes: The roots and greens are both very good to eat. Store in plastic bag in refrigerator, the roots separate from the greens. Crisp radishes in ice water. You can just eat them straight with butter and a sprinkle of salt. Sliced radishes add great flavor to salads. There are many variations of radish salads, here are a couple: Radish and Mint Salad , Smitten Kitchen’s chopped salad, Radish, Cucumber and Orange Salad, and my favorite radish salad is this Rockin’ Radish Salad. Radishes can be sliced and sauteed to reduce their spiciness, or roasted. Here’s a recipe utilizing both the radish roots and tops: Radish and Radish Top Soup
Tomatoes: Store at room temperature, NOT in a plastic bag.
Zucchini/ summer squash: store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Zucchini is great raw or sautéed, grilled, or baked into zucchini bread (my kids favorite way to eat zucchini!). Raw zucchini/ squash makes a fresh, flavorful salad as in this: Summer Squash Salad with Lemon Citronette. Zucchini (sliced and broiled or pan fried) can take the place of pasta in lasagna. If you want more ideas, you can try Baked Zucchini Fries, Squash baked eggs or Zucchini Fritters (these were very good) or Chocolate Zucchini Bread or this main dish Cheesy Zucchini Casserole (which we make with shredded sharp cheddar, instead of Velvetta). Here’s a couple other zucchini recipes, recommended by CSA members: Curried Zucchini Soup, Zucchini Tots, Sauteed Zucchini with Cherry Tomatoes (don’t overcook the zucchini!), and Zucchini Chocolate Rum Cake. To preserve: Zucchini or Yellow squash can be shredded and frozen to use in Zucchini bread recipes.
Salad Mix: Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator. Wash before eating, and dry well. This week’s salad mix is a combination of baby cut lettuces, baby arugula and baby mixed stir fry greens (for just a little spice). For salad inspiration, look at this: Chart of Salad Toppings Combinations .
Onions: store at cool room temperature.
Garlic: store at cool room temperature.
Bok Choy: Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator. Here is a basic bok choy recipe with great instructions: Stir-fried Bok Choy. Cooked (leftover) Bok Choy can be added to fried rice. Bok Choy can also be cooked and used inside egg rolls (I just followed the instructions on the back of the package of egg roll wrappers). Bok choy can be sliced and added to soups during the last few minutes of cooking.If you would rather eat bok choy raw; it can be chopped and dressed with an asian- style dressing: Bok Choy Salad