This month we received:
- 2 doz eggs
- tomato puree
- collard greens
- blueberries
- diced peppers
- corn
- butternut squash puree
- green beans
Pasta Bolognes
We used the tomato puree and frozen peppers in this dish. Locally made Severino papardelle pasta made this vegetarian dinner super awesome!
Ingredients:
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 links vegetarian Italian sausage (or the real thing if you like), chopped fine
- 1 12 oz. Amber or Lager beer (you can use wine if you’re fancy)
- 32 oz. tomato puree
- 12 oz. frozen peppers (we had tri-color)
- 3 cloves of garlic, rough chop
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 24 oz. papardelle pasta (you can use any large noodle or tube)
- salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper flakes to taste
- 1/4 cup Parmesan for garnish
Cook the pasta and reserve 1 cup of the water while draining. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch Oven or large saute pan. Add the onions, garlic, peppers and sausage and saute until the onions and garlic are translucent and the sausage starts to get a crust. Deglaze the pan with beer and cook for 3-5 minutes until it is reduced by half. Add the tomatoes and 1 cup of the pasta water and simmer until the sauce loses its raw tomato taste, about 20-30 minutes. Toss the al dente pasta back into the sauce and top that mess with some cheese. Pile your bowl high, sit your butt down and eat that deliciousness.
Coconut, Squash & Ginger Soup
You ever get sick of squash? Of course you do, it’s Winter! But it is one of our staples in almost every region and if you try to eat as local as possible odds are you eat a crap-ton of squash in the fall/winter. This soup was bomb and you should eat it.
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups butternut squash puree
- 1 can of light coconut milk
- 1/2 cup sliced shallots
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tbsp. Thai red curry paste
- 2 qt. homemade frozen veggie stock
- soy sauce, sriracha to taste
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 1/2 cup pepitas (which we saved from a pumpkin during the summer CSA)
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
Just sweat the shallots and garlic in a bit of olive oil, then add the curry paste to coat. Add in the squash, coconut milk and veggie stock and simmer together until it’s all hot and the flavors are melding. Season with soy sauce and sriracha. Serve over rice with a handful of pepitas and coconut for garnish.
Black Bean & Corn Salad
- 1 package corn, defrosted
- 1 can black beans
- 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
- 2 bell peppers, diced
- 1/4 cup scallions, greens thinly sliced
- salt, lime juice and avocado oil to taste
Katie used the corn to make this super fast and easy salad which accompanied slow cooked carnitas tacos at our New Year’s Eve party. Sorry, no photo, too busy partying!
Smoothies
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1 banana
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 Tbsp chia seeds
- 1 scoop protein powder, optional (we use Garden of Life Raw Protein)
We used some of the blueberries to make smoothies for weekday breakfasts. We got this neat little single serving blender that doubles as a to-go cup. About 300 calories of healthy, delicious energy to make the morning L-train commute a bit more pleasant.
Spent Grain Blueberry Pancakes
So, Katie’s family is kinda weird in that they like to celebrate Christmas in January when it’s more convenient for everyone. We call it Second Christmas. It’s actually kinda really awesome because it allows everyone to spend Actual Christmas with their spouse’s families, plus it makes for some major sales shopping deals since we can wait until after Actual Christmas to buy all our presents for each other!
I know, now you’re like “…OK, What the heck does this have to do with spent grain pancakes??” Well the other part of the Second Christmas tradition is home brewing! Yep, Katie comes from a long line of beer snobs and every year we spend the Sunday after Second Christmas brewing a beer together.
So this year we saved the spent grain from the brew, dried it out by baking in the oven on low heat for about 2 hours (spread out in a thin layer on two baking sheets, checking on it and stirring it around every 30 minutes), then ground it finely in the food processor and used it to make pancakes with the blueberries! Pretty cool huh?
Pesto Potato Salad
Shout out to our friend Rusty at Uncle Ruth’s for gifting us with some seriously delicious parlsey pesto! We simply roasted some red bliss potatoes, onions and the green beans and tossed with the pesto and a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano to make a tasty warm salad.
The “Usual” — Sausage & Greens
This is our go-to dinner that we always make. Simply brown some veggie sausage with onions and garlic, then wilt whatever greens you have around (in this case, we used the collards), toss in some chickpeas or cannellini beans, season generously with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and serve over rice, pasta, quinoa, whatever!
Southside CSA 