May 2017

Brooklyn Grange CSA season is back and, with it, my desire to get in the kitchen! Here are our treasures from weeks 1 and 2 and what we’ve enjoyed doing with them.

Hakurei turnips
Easter egg radishes

These are definitely delicious raw, but my personal favorite is to braise these little guys whole (including the good turnip leaves) in vegan butter, vegetable stock, and a splash of white wine. Salt, pepper, and whole mustard seeds are my go-to seasoning, but this time, I added some precious saffron threads that we bought on our trip at Chorsu Market in Tashkent. Tasty as a side, especially on top of some good grains. 

Mint
Wintery savory

Jon used the mint to flavor some apple, orange, and lemon tea, inspired by a fresh fruit tea we fell in love with in Khiva. He also used a few leaves of the savory in a green gazpacho. (A surprising combination of winter and summer!) I chopped up what was left of both bunches and made an herby labne sauce with olive oil, lemon, and NY Shuk’s harissa spice blend. Perfect on top of some oven-roasted broccolini, bell peppers, eggplant, and onion. (Toss everything with lemon, olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper and roast at 450 for about 25 minutes.)

Lacinato kale
Radish microgreens

Jon added a few leaves of green green kale to his quick and tasty gazpacho of tomatoes, cucumber, onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Topped with some sliced radishes and zingy microgreens for added flavor and fanciness.

Flowering chives

Chopped up the whole bunch and folded them into a pound of cream cheese from the local bagel place. Sometimes, you just don’t mess with the classics.

Brooklyn Grange hot sauce

Goes on everything. I especially like it on a breakfast sandwich of eggs, turkey breast, tomato, onion, and cheese (think cheddar, Swiss, American, anything slicey and melty, though feta works nicely for something a little different).

Lovage

Besides loving the name of these beautiful leaves, I haven’t giving them much thought yet. I’ve used it before in celery-heavy soups, but I’m drawing a blank for creative new uses for this bitter beauty. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl in a potato salad like Anastasia from Brooklyn Grange suggests.

Sunflower shoots
Red lettuce

We haven’t used these yet but last year we enjoyed the sunflower shoots mixed in with salads and on top of cream cheese sandwiches. I think with their seedy flavor (they taste just like sunflower seeds!), they’ll probably make a nice topping for Jon’s famous hummus, too. In the meantime, I’ll probably throw them in with the red lettuce for some crunch in a quick weeknight salad.

Mixed greens
Mixed mustards

Speaking of salad, my heart burst with joy finally getting to eat these again. Greens are the Grange specialty, and for good reason. They’re so spicy and flavorful that it’s hard to resist eating them straight from the bag. They really don’t need much but Jon’s all about “robust flavor” in his dressings so I pumped up my go-to lemon mustard dressing with extra whole grain Dijon. Perfection. I eat these salads by embarrassingly large forkfuls.

French breakfast radishes
Wood sorrel

Today, we’ll be taking a cue from Anastasia and making crudités out of these babies. A Greek yogurt dip mixed with lemony wood sorrel to scoop these oblong beauties into. Perfect snack to bring over to Mom and Dad’s for Memorial Day eats. Now off to the store for yogurt!