CSA Week #3 (aka Sour Cherry Week)

This week’s haulage blessed us with kohlrabi, romaine, sugar snap peas (my poor husband isn’t a huge fan, so I felt bad!), cucumber, strawberries, cilantro, bundled herbs and THE MOST SOUR CHERRIES I have ever had the displeasure of tasting.

I wasn’t one of those kids who liked sour anything – and I’m still not a huge fan. Sour patch kids? Pass. We saw them, were pretty excited, but then – oh dear. These are definitely not sweet!

Asian Chicken or Tofu Salad with Peanut Dressing

The size I made of this was for one lunch for my husband (I made my lunch that day with same veggies and dressing, but with tofu, since it was in my fridge and I wanted to use it up). I’ve doubled the recipe below to make 2 servings. If you’re making the tofu version, just leave out the chicken, add in your tofu. Voila.

Leftover grilled chicken, cubed (as much as you like) OR cubed tofu, with water pressed out

1/2 cup whole wheat pasta

2 scallions, sliced on the diagonal

baby carrots, sliced into matchsticks

2 handfuls of sugar snap peas

1/2 cup or more of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

red, yellow or green peppers, cut into strips

handful of cilantro, chopped

soy sauce

honey

olive oil

balsamic, rice wine or white vinegar

lime juice

salt and pepper

peanut oil (you can buy this regular or spicy)

In a pot, boil up the pasta. When it’s about a minute from cooking completion, add the broccoli and snap peas to quickly blanch. Drain everything and set aside.

While pasta is boiling, chop up your veggies and place in a bowl.

I make my salad dressing separately, then pour over. This is all eyeballed, really. About 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of honey, 1-2 of olive oil. Whisk this together and taste. If you need to add pepper or salt, add it now. Then add in juice of about 1/2 a lime and your chopped cilantro. Taste and adjust as needed. Add a little peanut oil. A little goes a long way – it’s pretty strong.

Add warm pasta to veggies in bowl. Pour dressing over.

If you’re making this tofu-style – once water is pressed out, add veggies and tofu, pour dressing over. Nom it up.

Kohlrabi Wraps with Spicy Paprika

I got the idea for these from Mark’s Daily Apple. I had ground beef, said kohlrabi and lettuce that needed to be used up.  My version was tweaked a bit, but I’d say it’s safe to use this recipe for sure! 🙂

Thai Cucumber Salad

I had loads of cucumber to use up. And while I’m more than happy to eat salad multiple times a day, I thought I’d make something I haven’t made in a while. I used less sugar than suggested here. But nevertheless, basically used this recipe from Use Real Butter.

Sugar Snap Pea Salad with Maple Syrup

In some attempt to a) make these more appealing to my husband, and b) use up that remaining red grapefruit, I found this through tastespotting.com. I used only almonds (in place of all the nuts in the recipe), as those were all I had on hand. Here you go!

Coconut Curry with Naan

I had a really crappy Monday. Skipped lunch break, left work early to rush down to gym to swim laps…only to get there to find out they’re dumping chemicals in the pool. The 18 year old kid working the desk said I could come back on Tuesday. So I was really looking forward to  making coconut curry. I put everything together through the “adding-the-coconut-milk-stage”, and was surprised to realize I had not a DROP in the house. Really. I quickly swapped out greek yogurt for coconut milk and you know what? I liked it more. Triumphant Monday, afterall.

2 scallions, sliced

red and yellow peppers (I used about 4 mini-peppers)

~10 cherry tomatoes, halved

frozen peas (looked like a 1/2 cup or so)

2 chicken breasts, cubed

6 oz. plain greek yogurt

2 tbsp curry powder

bunch of cilantro

shaved coconut

salt and pepper

Sautee up the veggies in some olive oil. Add the cubed chicken, curry and yogurt. Simmer on the lowest you can stand until nearly done. Add the tomatoes, a good handful of coconut, cilantro, salt, pepper and peas. Top with more coconut if you’d like! I served it with plain naan on the side.

Blue Cheese Turkey Burgers

We got this 10″ Lodge Grill pan and I LOVE IT.  I want to use it all the time. I also want to make turkey burgers every other day. This isn’t really a recipe, but here’s what I did.

very lean ground turkey

1 scallion

1 handful of mushrooms, diced up, very small

blue cheese

worchestershire sauce

A1 sauce

salt, pepper

A package of ground turkey (I have no idea what size, really) makes about 4 burgers for me. Add scallions, mushrooms, blue cheese, a few dashes each of worchestershire and A1. Salt and pepper. Form into rounds, with a little well in the center of each. Place on hot and oiled grill pan, and do not touch until you’re ready to flip! Flip only once, top with a lil extra blue cheese. Happiness.

Guacamole

The cilantro was just DYING. I mean really on it’s last leg. I had an avocado and some lime. Insta-guac.

Bunch of cilantro, chopped

few slices of red onion, minced

1.5 avocados, mashed (I only had 1.5, but use what you like)

1 lime

5 or so grape tomatoes, cut into tiny pieces

salt, pepper

On top of the cilantro add the juice of the lime, salt and pepper. Add the avocado and mash it up. Add onion and tomato and give it another whack or two. Good to go.

Hope you  like it! 🙂