Member Diary #11 – Katerina & Greg

My boyfriend Greg and I have a Fully Monty Deluxe share.  This week the share included white onions, red onion, carrots, beets, celery, kale, lettuce, squash, sage, lemongrass, eggs and blueberries.

We cook mainly vegan at home, but love the “happy” eggs we get from the farm.  We both enjoy cooking, but as we’ve been particularly busy lately, our meals have been very simple.  Also, once summer hits, I find that I just want to eat huge salads all the time anyway.

My one useful tip, taught to me by a Parisian girl, is to wrap greens in paper towels before putting them in the vegetable drawer in the fridge.  The paper towels absorb moisture and keep the lettuce/kale/herbs crisp and fresh for over 2 weeks.

Since the CSA started last month, our default dinner has been a frittata and salad.

For a 2-person frittata, beat together 4 eggs, some almond (or regular) milk, a little water, salt and pepper.  Chop up and saute any CSA vegetables.  We’ve used onions, leeks, beet greens, chard, zucchini and garlic scapes.  When the vegetables are cooked, add the egg mixture to the saute pan and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Once the edges of the frittata start looking solid, put the pan under the broiler in the oven.  Take out when the top is golden brown.  Eat immediately.

My current favorite salad includes grated raw beet, grated carrot, celery, red onion and lettuce in a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and grated garlic.  The beet, carrot and celery are deliciously crunchy.  And the lemon juice and garlic give the salad a tangy kick.

I love kale, and I often eat it sauteed, piled on a plate and topped with fried eggs.  It’s the perfect super-quick meal.

Over the weekend, I had time to try a more adventurous dish.  I like making vegetables pies and galettes, so I decided to make a squash pie with mushrooms and caramelized onions.  But instead of one big pie, I made individual pies in muffin tins so they’d be convenient to take to work for lunch.  I didn’t really have a recipe.  I just made it up as I went along.  First I sauteed the onions for a long time on a high heat to caramelize them.  Then I separately sauteed the mushrooms and the squash with some thyme.

For the pastry, I used whole wheat flour and Earth Balance margarine, but then also added in some lemon juice and plain soy yogurt to give the pastry more flavor.

Once the pies were assembled, I baked them at 350F for 30 minutes. They turned out delicious.

We haven’t used our sage yet, but will probably make gnocchi and stir fry it in margarine, garlic and sage.  I’m not sure what we’re going to do with the lemongrass, as we still have a lot of Thai green curry paste in our freezer from last summer’s lemongrass.

Oh, and the blueberries we eat by the handful, as snacks, throughout the week.