On Tuesday night, Brian and Lorah, our CSA share family partners invited another couple to join us for a 6 person meal/FEAST based on what we received in our bag from our first week of veggies!
We started with a base of lentils and quinoa, for our protein—we’re all vegetarians! Then we added in the wonderful veggies to make every bite colorful and full of flavor. We added the leeks to the lentils, and made a delicious fresh salad out of quinoa, using our farm fresh spinach, strawberries, cilantro, and onion! We also supplemented fresh peppers, toasted pine nuts and walnuts, and feta.
As a lifelong vegetarian, one of my meal tricks is using food in layers. I toasted some of the wonderful “healthy seeded” bread we get from the Polish Northside Bakery on N 8th, then spread it with a delicious tahini/horshradish aoli I mixed up ahead of time. The next layer was smashed home-made falaafal, followed by the lentils, and topped with the quinoa salad. Eaten with a fork, the layers provide a hearty, flavorful vegetarian meal packed with protein.
To add some spice to the meal, I also whisked up some fresh salsa, using some of the onion, cilantro, and wild garlic from our share.
Topped off with a delicious Bordeaux brought by our guests, the meal was a great success and all the more satisfying due to the knowledge that we were getting to use the freshest ingredients from local farms.
My makeshift recipe for the quinoa salad is as follows:
Mix together in a medium sized bowl:
- Cooled quinoa
- Toasted walnuts
- Chopped onion
- Fresh spiniach leaves
- Fresh peppers
- Sliced strawberries
- Dried cherries
- Sprinkle of salt
- Olive oil
- A splash of balsamic
Enjoy!
The next morning, Aaron and I made further use of the strawberries on one of our favorite breakfasts, which we’ve dubbed “Open-faced Deliciousness.” It’s basically just toast with peanut butter, applesauce, maple yogurt, and berries…yum!
Then, as I am on my own this week while Aaron’s on tour (he left Thurs. AM), I made a batch of one of my guilty pleasures, macaroni salad. But it was made more healthy with the addition of fresh spinach, wild garlic, cilantro, and red onion from our veggie share!
And to wash down all the flavor, I salvaged our swiftly soggying berries by juicing them with 4 carrots and 2 apples. My first swig of fresh berry juice has me hooked and relieved that none of our fruit will go to waste this summer, as long as we put our juicer to good use.
Southside CSA 