CSA Box: Week 6

CSA Box #6 | December 21

I’m a few weeks behind in posting this recap of my latest CSA Box – mostly due to the chaos of the holidays! Thankfully, I was able to put quite a few of the veggies to good use in my festive cooking & baking sessions!

It’s definitely a LOT cooler these days and the change in weather is reflected in what I received in the CSA Box this week – lots of root vegetables and hearty veg like cabbage. It’s so cold in fact, that the delivery has moved indoors to keep the produce from freezing!

Week 6 Haul:

Item Breakdown:

• 7 potatoes

• 2 sweet potatoes

• 8 shiitake mushrooms

• 8 daikon radishes

• 1 head garlic

• 1 bag carrots

• 1 butternut squash

• 7 apples

• 1 head red cabbage

Total: 9 items

Week 5 Recipes & Meals:

I ended up making the roasted romanesco again, with the addition of broccoli! I love the flavours in this dish and I can see myself making it a regular in my dinner rotation.

I used the sweet potatoes in The Full Helping’s recipe for Tandoori Roasted Chickpeas with Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. WOW this meal was amazing! I opted to use fresh greens (kale & pea shoots) instead of steamed, but I was blown away by the flavours of all of the other components of this dish. I’d highly recommend making this – it was fairly simple too!

Some of the carrots and potatoes got used in Dreena Burton’s recipe for a vegan Mac n Cheese (“Mac-nificent”) in her Plant Powered Families cookbook. The recipe calls to roast the onion with carrots and potatoes, but I found my onion wasn’t roasted enough and the raw onion flavour really came through in the final result. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this dish, but would maybe consider making it again with a few tweaks.

I did make Ashley’s Garlicky Farro and Sautéed Mushrooms (using buckwheat instead of farro) and it was delicious as predicted! You can’t really go wrong with sautéed garlic & mushrooms!

Week 6 Recipes & Plans:

Mushrooms: I used the shiitakes as well as some store-bought creminis in a recipe for Mushroom Lentil Sliders from the new Blissful Basil cookbook (which is beautiful btw!).

Sweet Potatoes & Butternut Squash: These babies got peeled, chopped, and roasted before being tossed with a whole whack of other fresh veggies, crispy lentils, and a maple dijon dressing in a festive Christmas salad.

Sweet Potatoes (again): There’s a recipe in the Plant Powered Families cookbook for Chocolate Cake (with Chocolate Frosting) and both components feature sweet potatoes! I’ve actually made the cake & frosting before in Auckland, but it’s been WAY too long since I made it! I figured New Years Eve was a perfect occasion to whip it up again! (And it did NOT disappoint – seriously, this cake is SO good!)

Daikon Radishes: I will make pickled radishes this time. I will make pickled radishes. I will make pickled radishes. Maybe if I say it often enough I’ll actually get around to doing it!

Red Cabbage & Carrots: I’m thinking I might buy some rice paper wraps and make some fresh spring rolls this week. Something about the abundance of fresh, crisp veggies in one bite (with a delicious dipping sauce of course!) feels so right after a week of more indulgent meals!

___

I’ll be pausing the delivery of my CSA Box for a few more weeks as Mac & I will be away next week! I’m happy about this because it’ll give me time to work though the red cabbage & butternut squash – vegetables that always seem to last foreverrrr!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season! If your New Year’s Resolution was to eat more veggies, I can’t recommend a CSA Box enough! Do some research & see if there’s one in your area – it’s 100% worth the investment!