Our 2nd CSA box from Johnson’s Back Yard Garden contained a lot of the same veggies as last time – which meant we repeated a few of the recipes from the first box and threw in a few new ones too.
Photo from of JBG, Week of April 20th CSA Box
Artichokes & Leeks – I really hate fresh artichokes. They’re so fussy and the end result is hardly worth my efforts. Personally, I’m more than wiling to pay a premium at the grocery store to have someone else do all the prep work so I can easily begin cooking with just the artichoke hearts.
That being said, I did waste a half hour of my life trimming the ‘chokes, steaming them and plucking out the rich hearts in order to make an Artichoke & Leek Frittata (recipe below). It’s something I’ve made before, it’s delicious, healthy, and filling. We enjoyed ours as is but it’s also great served with a side salad or some garlic bread!
Beets – If it ain’t broke, why fix it? I went with the same pickled beet recipe as last time and am still enjoying them on my salads and in wraps for lunch!
Carrots & Red Spring Onions – Carrots in our house usually end up as hummus dippers on the side of a salad or as roasted carrot fries, as last time. But with this CSA box, I wanted to get a little creative and was inspired to make a carrot soup.
The bright orange color and the fresh carrots just sang spring, making this soup delicious, filling and satisfying. The soup is very simple with only a handful of ingredients but the result is a refined, slightly spiced, carrot soup. I garnished our soup with some homemade, roasted chickpeas which gave the soup texture and a wonderful crunch. Here’s a recipe similar to what I made for both the carrot soup and the spiced chickpeas.
Carrot Soup, Tahini Kale Salad & Spiced Chickpeas
Kale – Sometimes simple is best. This time around, I made a simple kale salad with a tahini-lemon dressing massaged into the kale. This salad is flavorful, slightly nutty and has a fresh, spring lemon flavor that compliments the earthiness of the kale. We paired the kale salad with the carrot soup and topped the salad with more of the roasted chickpeas. I’ve detailed the kale salad recipe below.
Parsley – Last CSA box, we really enjoyed the Chimichurri sauce and used the leftovers as dressing on salads for lunch the remainder of the week. So when we received another beautiful bunch of parsley, I had to recreate the Chimichurri sauce once more. We topped both grilled chicken and grilled salmon with the sauce. While creating the sauce, I also utilized a few of the red spring onions from our CSA box. This time around, I did tweak the Chimichurri sauce, reducing the olive oil by half and swapping in vegetable stock to ‘healthily’ it a bit.
Romaine & Spinach – At heart, I’m a true salad lover. So our two heads of romaine and bundle of spinach were quickly turned into salads for lunch, wilted into tomato, feta, and spinach omelets and made into lettuce buns for turkey burgers, keeping with the low-carb dinners.
- 2 medium leeks sliced and cleaned
- 8 artichokes heart, chopped into ½ inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon, chopped fresh tarragon (or 2 tsp dried tarragon)
- ½ teaspoon salt & ½ teaspoon pepper
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup non-fat ricotta cheese
- 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 oven proof pan with olive oil or non-stick spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and ricotta. Whisk in the flour, salt, pepper, Parmesan, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Spray a large skillet with olive oil and place over medium-heat on the stove. Once warm, add the sliced leeks and gently cook until softened, about 10 minutes stirring often to avoid excessive browning.
- Once the leeks are cooked through and softened, add the artichoke hearts to the skillet until warmed then remove from heat.
- Gently stir the artichokes and leeks into the egg mixture. Note that the color of the mixture may change, don't worry if this happens, it will go back to normal when cooked.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan and place in oven to cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the top should be slightly brown check for doneness by pricking a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, it is done. If not, return to over for 5 additional minutes and repeat toothpick process until the toothpick comes out clean.
- To serve, cut into 4 large pieces and sprinkle each with a bit of additional Parmesan.