Week 14 of the Redfearn CSA includes (beginning in the top left of the pictured large share):Sweet Peppers, Eggplant, Zucchini/ yellow squash, Green Beans (middle), Salad greens mix, Candy Onions, Garlic bulbs, Cucumbers, Radishes and Bok Choy.
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.
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 other vegetables and grilled for a summer side dish. 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).
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.
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.
Salad Mix: Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator. Wash before eating, and dry well.
Onions: store at cool room temperature.
Garlic: store at cool room temperature.
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: Store in plastic bag in refrigerator. Crisp radishes in ice water. Sliced radishes add great flavor to salads. You can also just eat them straight with butter and a sprinkle of salt. There are many variations of radish salads, here are a couple: Radish and Mint Salad , Smitten Kitchen’s chopped salad, and Radish, Cucumber and Orange Salad.
Bok Choy: Store in plastic bag in the refrigerator. Here is a basic bok choy recipe with great instructions: Stir-fried Bok Choy. If you would rather eat bok choy raw; it can be chopped and dressed with an asian- style dressing: Bok Choy Salad