Winter Salad

A meatless main dish salad composed of roasted root vegetables like beets, carrots, and potatoes over tender bok choy, topped with a fried egg.

This vegetarian main dish salad is perfect for the season when your body wants Spring but the view outside the window hasn't quite caught up yet.

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About this time of year, as the days are getting noticeably longer and the time change means I've got more light available in the evenings, I start craving fresh food. I haven't used a winter Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share before, but my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve is proof that much of the Fall harvest can be enjoyed months later if properly stored.

I need more than just long-storing root vegetables, though. I crave leaves! When I am lucky to find a farmer growing winter greens I make good use of their produce. This Winter Salad is a tasty way to enjoy some mild cold weather greens like bok choy or spinach. I first got the idea for raw bok choy in a salad thanks to Alanna's lyrical descriptions of her Bok Choy Salad with Creamy Vinaigrette. Young tender small leaves are best for eating raw in salads. Use the more mature larger plants in Fish Tacos or Yakisoba.

Grilled Greens Salad with Couscous

A concept recipe for using Spring farm share greens in a hearty main dish salad. Grill greens, a protein, and some other vegetables, then toss with a grain and some cheese for a simple salad supper.

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This time of year I'm often out grilling in my driveway. My neighbor comes over to see what I'm grilling, and I check in to see what he's grilling. Since I started throwing the farm share on the grill, my grill plan starts with vegetables. There's nothing like the flavor of meat cooked over flame . . . but don't forget about the effect that fire has on vegetables!

Today's recipe is another concept recipe for using whatever cooking greens appear in your Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. I've used Napa cabbage, Bok choy, and pak choi in this type of recipe, but I am sure that Romaine and radicchio would also work. I know that grilling radicchio won't fly with my kids so I'll save that for another salad.

Inside the house, make a pot of couscous or another quick cooking grain (Trader Joes has some terrific 10 minute farro and barley bags, or if you've got more time how about wild rice, or jasmine rice, or bulgur wheat--there are endless possibilities). Once the grain is about done, head out to the grill.

You're simply going to take your greens, slice them in half, brush with cooking oil, and give them a few minutes on a medium grill. Easy.  While you're at it, grab some additional vegetables (peppers, onions, radishes, peas, and/or green beans) and give them the same treatment. Add a protein. I raided my freezer and grabbed a package of smoked sausage which added additional flavor.

Once all of the vegetables and protein are finished on the grill, chop them into small pieces and toss everything together with your grain. I do this in a large bowl. I drizzle a bit of olive oil over top, and toss again. Add a little drizzle of acid (half a lemon squeezed over the bowl, or a splash of balsamic vinegar) and toss again. A bit of cheese, another toss. Finally some salt and pepper--and the big bowl is ready to dig in.

It's a relaxed meal because there are no hard and fast rules of what needs to go into it, and you taste as you go. My kids like the chunks of meat, my spouse likes the filling-ness of the grain, and I like that leftovers can be served cold or at room temperature.

Fish Tacos with Bok Choy and Peppers

Flakes of seasoned fish nestled against sautéed bok choy and peppers in a warm tortilla, topped with avocado slices and crumbled queso. Use the farm share in unexpected ways with these tacos.

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One of the ways I use less familiar produce in our farm share boxes is to tuck it in alongside other, more familiar to my family, foods. This tip the first one of my Five Tips to Feed Your Family From the Farm Share. When I picked up some marked down pre-seasoned mahi mahi, I thought it would go nicely with the dark purple bok choy from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share in a fish taco.

A typical late Fall farm share box.

Bok choy is a pretty terrific workhorse in a typical cool season [late Spring or Fall, like the photo above shows] farm share box. The mild flavor of this dark leafy green is great in Asian-inspired meals (like this Fried Rice with Greens and Chicken), it's quick in a pasta dish (like this Fast & Easy Greens & Pasta concept recipe), and can usually be substituted for spinach or Swiss chard just about anywhere.

Grilled Korean Chicken Thighs with Squash and Peppers

A flavorful meal of Korean-seasoned farm share vegetables and chicken thighs, grilled and served with bok choy and rice. Told ya I was throwing the farm share on the grill!

I may not be superstitious but I do believe in signs.  When I read a recipe for bibimbap and learn that the secret is a spoonful of Korean hot pepper bean paste (gochujang) which keeps for a while once opened, in the fridge my brain makes a mental note "get gochujang". When I read an article calling for gochujang to make sweet & spicy grilled vegetables and chicken thighs right when I've got the veggies from the farm share--I just go for it. Even with a too small grill (this was last year).

This recipe makes a pretty snazzy meal, a departure from my usual simply seasoned & grilled goodies. This complex flavor is deceptively simple--you throw some stuff in a bowl, whisk it together, pour it into 2 bags, dump prepped veggies and chicken into those bags, throw them in the fridge and walk away. When you're ready to cook, fire up the grill and the rice cooker, do a bit of work on the stove (or use your grill as a summer kitchen) and you're sitting down to a flavorful meal pretty quickly.

For other recipes using patty pan squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipe Collection. For other recipes using peppers, please see my Pepper Recipe Collection. For other recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipe Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me looking for ways to enjoy the produce from the farm share, farmers market, or generous gardener.

Chicken & Bok Choy Wild Rice Skillet Supper

Simple, hearty, homey baked skillet supper of chicken thighs and bok choy with wild rice.

Looking at my blog calendar for the month I realized I could fill it up with grill recipes for a month or more if I maintain my usual posting schedule of 3x/week. Despite my enthusiasm for my new tool [a cool kitchen in summer + gourmet pizzas at home in less than 30 minutes? Who wouldn't be enthused?] I should rein it in and offer other ways to enjoy the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share produce.

This one pot, well really one skillet, meal starts on the stove and finishes in the oven. Though it has rice and bok choy, it is decidedly NOT Asian in flavorings as I used a wild rice blend and Worcestershire sauce for the seasoning. This is a family friendly dish, and simple enough for my kids to make. Not that they did. But they could have.

We like leftover rice. I started with cooked wild rice because if I'm going to the effort of cooking 2 cups of rice for one meal, it's no big whup [?] to add in a couple more cups for a planned over leftover. My daughter uses leftover cooked rice in fried rice, both kids will help themselves to a bowl of rice with breakfast or for a snack, and anything still left when I start screaming that the fridge is too full gets wrapped up in plastic and frozen for a later snack.

For other recipes using Bok Choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. You can find more recipes using greens on my Greens Pinterest board, and I share even more recipe ideas on my FB page. To learn how to use this blog, click here.

Grilled Bok Choy (A story of a picky eater reformed by the farm share)

I'm throwing the farm share on the grill this summer, starting with Bok Choy. This easy and versatile side dish of tender stems and smoky crispy leaves is great with fish or chicken.

In honor of my formerly picky eater's 17th birthday, I thought I'd share a story about picky kids and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm shares. 

Ten years ago we set off on our first CSA adventure filled with loads of idealism (farmers! local food!) and a smattering of technical skills. Our kids really didn't have a say in the decision, but being resilient military kids they were used to going with the flow, living in a variety of settings and being offered a variety of foods. 

The kids were not big on a lot of vegetables, however. Sure, my daughter would eat raw broccoli stems for a snack and my son (a carb and cheese lover) would eat the occasional baby carrot under duress, but mostly they'd eat corn or potatoes. [One glaring exception was Yakisoba.] When a box full of vegetables comes into the house, and then another and another and another every week, though, you have to figure something out or you'll end up wasting food.

I hate wasting food. It's a waste of my money and our farmers' time. If the food came to us all packaged it would be an even bigger environmental waste, but in this case my compost bin doesn't complain.

After the massively steep learning curve of the first year farm share I picked up a few tricks [and shared some of them in a post written during the slow winter months]:

• Make familiar foods with additional vegetables added.
• Perform Vegetable Triage to identify and use what is most perishable first.
• Think outside the salad bowl.

Every season some new-to-me vegetable will throw me for a loop, but eventually I find a way [or fake one, our motto Peary high] to love it. Or at least tolerate it. I've had plenty of failures, some shown on my FB page, but the one that is family legend is Grilled Radicchio. I tried some recipe years ago and we hated it. [Like, straight into the compost bin don't even pretend to eat it for the kids'  sake hated it.] The only Good Thing about grilled radicchio became the story.

When you take your kids to the pediatrician they'll get asked "what fruits and vegetables won't you eat?" I'm sure it's a roundabout way to gauge a child's nutritional status. My kids will always answer without hesitation "Grilled Radicchio!". This usually shuts down that line of questioning. I can only assume it's because a kid who has an opinion on grilled radicchio has probably been exposed to more than just baby carrots, corn, and potatoes.

When I picked up the first farm share the other day I was delighted to see strawberries, spinach and salad mix and unsurprised to see additional greens. It's Spring, after all. I decided to grill some bok choy partly because I had the grill out for tilapia and salad turnips and partly to try and change our family's perception of grilled leaves. I loved how the edges of the leaves got all crispy like kale chips, and was pleased at how tender the stems became so quickly. I kept the seasoning simple--a splash of soy sauce--because we ate it with fish and rice, but I think you could go in a variety of directions. Maybe some lemon pepper seasoning, or hot sauce, or a balsamic vinegar reduction.

For more recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other ideas using greens, please see my Greens board on Pinterest.

Yakisoba--Farm Fresh Feast Style (Quick Take)

Recipe for vegetables and meat tossed with noodles and sauce for a kid friendly Japanese dish.

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If you wander through an outdoor festival in Japan, you can see women fixing a delicious stir fried noodle dish, yakisoba, on giant flat griddles.  Because of these unwitting cooking demonstrations, yakisoba is one of the Japanese dishes I'm comfortable making.

I stock up on yakisoba noodle packs when I am near an Asian market.  In Hawaii I could get them fresh, but here in Ohio I get them in the frozen section of the Asian market down the street from hockey in Cincinnati.  Don't ask. I don't usually arrange my children's sports around my food shopping, it just works out that way. :)

I originally had celery in here, but decided there was enough crunch with the Bok Choy and Daikon.

I'm pretty sure my kids developed a taste for it in utero, because they have loved it from the chicken nugget age.  When I get the right mix of veggies in the farm share (some sort of cabbage, carrots, celery or pepper, and onion) it is their lunch of choice.  Yes, my kids come home from school for lunch.  At least my son is easily persuaded to join us if yakisoba is on the menu.  Oh!  Because it's Japanese, give equal emphasis to each syllable:  yah-kee-so-bah.  Easy!

For more recipes using bok choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection. For more recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes collection. For more recipes using radishes, please see my Radish Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me starting at the contents of a big box of fresh farm share vegetables and wondering how we're going to get the family to eat them. For more recipe ideas, follow me on Pinterest. For a peek at scenes of life, follow me on Instagram. For articles that caught my eye and epic failures because I have my share, follow me on Facebook. Want to know How to Use This Blog?

Beef and Bok Choy Pie

The inspiration for this pie came from my family's love of pasties (the Cornish hand held meat pie) combined with my interest in tourtiere (the Canadian meat pie), coupled with a pile of bok choy from the CSA farm share and a freezer full of cow.  The result is very tasty (there was fighting over the leftovers).  Definitely a keeper.  I bet you could swap the bok choy for Swiss chard, tat soi, collard greens, or kohlrabi.  I stopped short of calling this a pot pie-the filling was moist but not really gravy-like.  If you are not lucky enough to live near a Penzey's, look near the chicken stock/vegetable broth aisle for jars of spoonable soup base.  It really makes the dish.

Crock Pot Chicken Adobo with Sauteed Farm Fresh Veggies

An easy overnight marinade and then a day in the slow cooker for this flavorful chicken. The farm share Daikon and Bok Choy side dish comes together quickly.

If you've ever bought a family size pack of chicken breasts marked down at the grocery store,
if you've ever gotten bok choy and daikon radishes in the farm share and wanted recipe ideas,
if you've ever wanted to cook the meat once and repurpose the leftovers into a new meal,
if you've ever wanted to have an entree ready-to-go in the freezer,
if you've ever wanted a new crock pot recipe,
read on

Update:  Somehow I deleted all the original text between the intro and the recipe.  Here's some new thoughts:

During my time on active duty I was fortunate to work with nurses from all over the world.  In addition to learning about different points of view and different cultural aspects of nursing care, I also got to eat the most amazing foods at work functions.  I've never been to the Philippines, but I first tasted Chicken Adobo thanks to a Filipina nurse.  

It's crazy easy to make in the slow cooker using pantry ingredients (start the night before) and results in a bunch of moist, tender, flavorful meat, along with juices suitable for flavoring CSA farm share veggies in a way that entices your kids to eat them.

For other recipes using Bok Choy, please see my Bok Choy Recipes Collection. For other recipes using Daikon, please see my Daikon Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. If you'd like to know how to Use This Blog, click here.