The Last Breath of Spring
Seasonal Somethings. The answer to the question “What do I do with ____?” I share with you everything our CSA has had to offer so far and all the ways we’ve thought to prepare it.
Brooklyn Grange’s signature mixed greens. We do as little as possible to these. A light lemon mustard vinaigrette is my favorite way to go, but I’m just as guilty of eating it by hand straight out of the bag, especially the delicate little mustard greens.
Radishes. Perfectly delicious thrown in raw with the mixed greens salad, but also really nice braised, greens and all, in some vegetable stock. I also like roasting them in the oven with other spring vegetables like carrots and onions and sprinkling them with whole mustard seeds.
The pretty purple flowers on that dish are from charmingly flowering chives. Chives are nice to throw into eggs, like in this totally amazing bacon, egg, and cheese that I made with some last scraps of prosciutto from the fridge. I told you I eat flowers.
Scallions are also breakfast gold. I like to char the bulbs in the frying pan when I make eggs. Last night, I also threw some chopped scallion greens into a giant heaping herb salad salad in place of chives. My dad might recoil at the thought, but I learned in Armenia to eat spring onions whole instead of just the slivered white bulbs. Long strips of scallion would top our sandwiches and they were a staple of the requisite greens platter on the dinner table. I’m forever changed.
They’re also really nice tossed with tomatoes, dill, and feta, which made a nice accompaniment to some leftover lemon oregano potatoes and sautéed dandelion greens. If I were competing on Top Chef, I’d call this a “deconstructed Greek omelette.” (But I’m not on Top Chef, so I’ll just call it “yes, please.”)
We’re about to savor what could be some of the last hakurei turnips of the season. Last year, we tried these roasted. This year, we mostly enjoyed them raw, dressed with the slightest bit of olive oil, vinegar, honey, ginger salt, and pepper. We tried this once whole and then again cut in thin slivers and tossed in poppy seeds. Tasty both ways. Try the recipe from Real Simple. I literally just scampered off mid-writing to go toss some of these in a little vegan butter and sea salt. They were also nice to dip into the last dregs of olive oil, lemon, and dill from the delicious roasted zucchini and feta Jon made me.
Baby bok choy made an appearance in our haul once. We threw it into a spicy stir-fry with some noodles. The result was tasty but it wasn’t about to win any beauty contests. No glamour shot for you.
We’ve also been feasting on greens. I enjoy this Bon Appetit recipe for sautéed greens with olives, which is a great place to toss in turnip and radish greens, kale, arugula, and chard. I also finally got Jon to enjoy kale last night by chopping it in really small bunches, sauteing it with some onions and red peppers, and then mixing it into our pasta sauce. (Jon threw some tatsoi into a pasta sauce, too, which was nice.) A better experiment than the soggy white bean stew I tried a few days ago, although that was my own fault for cutting corners with canned beans.
Now off I go to sleep, to dream up a plan for some kohlrabi.
