Salad Spree, Day 4: Cranberries and Kale

 In honor of Thanksgiving last week, today's salad includes tangy cranberries and toasted pecans. I mean, it's virtually a dessert! 

Okay, maybe not quite. But it is a sweet salad. 

I have a few friends who will admit they don't like kale. I argue they haven't tried fresh kale. Did you know that veggies and fruits start losing sugar the moment they are picked? So the fresher the veggie, the better it tasted. I knew this academically, but it wasn't until I tried kale that wasn't ours that I realized what a difference fresh makes.

And so I challenge you. Come out to the Farmers Market this Saturday by the mall in Manhattan and get some freshly picked kale from Jay and his helper of the day. Or email us and arrange a delivery. Try one of these salads. And give fresh kale a try. 

But I digress. Here is the recipe for this week's salad: kale salad with apple, cranberry, and pecan. We used dinosaur kale, red king radishes, plus cranberries, pecans, goat cheese, and green apple. The dressing turned out a lot better than the previous orange gloop.

Remember, kale likes to sit in dressing for a while before you eat it. Make this salad ahead of time, for the flavors to really build and mingle.

Salad Spree, Day 4: Cranberries and Kale

You Eat With Your Eyes Salad

Day 3 of the Salad Spree features of a rainbow kale salad. 

Maggie said this is the prettiest salad I've ever made. Katie called it a veggie charcuterie board. John called it baby food salad. 

You win some, you lose some.

This salad is based on this recipe from loveandlemons.com. Kind of sounds like love 'em or leave 'em, which is how most people feel about kale: you either love it or hate it. The secret to kale is to soften it before you eat it. Kale prefers to have the salad dressing put on ahead of time, and will maintain that nice crunch in its leaves. And kale is good for you -- actually helps provide calcium, iron, and potassium to your diet. 

This salad had a few new ingredients to our household, including raw beets, roasted chickpeas, and pepitas. But, it sure looked pretty! The full list of ingredients for our version are as follows: purple kale, red beets, orange carrots, yellow carrots, purple carrots, watermelon radish, sunflower seeds, avocado (had to buy that), pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and roasted chickpeas.

Except... the salad dressing. I dont know if it's because I had to use a food processor instead of a blender. I don't know if it's because I didn't cook the carrots enough. But the carrot ginger dressing looked more like carrot baby food. Tasted great, especially after we added 1/4 cup of orange juice to try to thin it out. But a little gloppy.

Still, the variations in flavors and textures made this salad really yummy. It's definitely on the make-again list.

You Eat With Your Eyes Salad

CSA session 5, week 3: Colors galore

This weeks basket has green onions, cilantro, kale, collard greens, watermelon radish, a beet and carrots. For once, you're not getting sweet potatoes!

One of our favorite things to eat is this egg drop soup recipe. We always make it with plenty of extra egg. 

What are the holidays without homemade cheese balls! This cheese ball is perfect for anyone who likes garlic and cheese, and also features our green onions. So it sounds great to me.

With all these greens starting to grow in our garden, we're trying a new thing called 30 days of salads. These rollups aren't technically a salad, but what really makes things a salad? There's a green thing, some veggies and some protein. That makes it a salad. Right?

While we haven't tried this fancy kale salad, we're making it tonight and it sounds like a delicious way to use your kale, watermelon radish, beet and carrots! 

We hope you enjoy this week's basket. Check out our Web site for daily salad recipes. 

CSA session 5, week 3: Colors galore

30 days of salad, day 2: Chef Salad

With six Sleichters in the house, it's challenging to make something everyone will eat. We don't really allow picky eating; you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit. Still, it's nice to have a meal where no one turns their nose up.

Impromptu salad bar does just that. This chef salad on steroids is the result of our latest salad bar. We had Muir summer crisp lettuce; chopped rainbow carrots; green onions; purple onion; chopped cooked chicken breast; pickled carrots; white radish; boiled eggs; croutons; and the leftovers from the charcuterie board, including pepperoni, ham, horseradish cheese, and cheddar cheese.

Above is Lainie's creation, with more egg and less dressing. I'm a sucker for homemade ranch, so mine is the drenched bowl below. The nutritional value of a salad is directly related to the dressing. Don't be like me. A light hand on the salad dressing is much better for you.

And those picked carrots I mentioned above? That's Jay's contribution to the meal, a recipe he found last week while making collard green roll-ups. They are a tangy addition to salads, but also yummy on lettuce wraps or as a topper on stir fry.  

The summer crisp lettuce will last for a couple weeks, if you rinse the leaves and spin them out with a salad spinner, so shake them off before storing them in the fridge. The longest we've had a head last here was 4 weeks, but usually we eat them before that much time has past. 

30 days of salad, day 2: Chef Salad

30 Days of Salad, Day 1: Roll-ups

Most of us have eaten our fill of delicious pies, desserts, and cream-filled appetizers... or is that just our house? The calorie overload was delicious and worth it. But, with that in mind, now is a great time to start a salad spree. So, the Sleichter squad goal is a salad every day for 30 days.

But, since we rarely do things "normal", we are starting the salad spree with lettuce roll-ups. Except without lettuce. Like I said, not normal. 

Recipes are just a suggestion for most of our meals, but it is nice to have a starting point. Lettuce roll-ups are made for improvising, as you can use about any green and fill it with about any filling. Usually, we do assorted chop veggies, cut up fried chicken, and your favorite salad dressing.

For today's recipe, we started with PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. But, we had frozen chicken strips instead of ground chicken. I made the sauce in a saucepan, and substituted soy faux peanut butter for the hoison sauce. And we used collard greens instead of lettuce. It was yummy and kid-approved. We added potstickers and egg rolls, to make it feel more like a Chinese restaurant meal. 

To prepare the collard greens for roll-up, bring a pot of water to boil. Cut off the stem on the collard green leaves, and shave off about half of the thick middle rib of the collard green, so it isn't as thick and easier to roll. Rinse off the leaves. Dip them into the boiling water for about 5 seconds, just until they start to soften. Remove and let cool slightly, while you blanch the remaining leaves. They are now ready to fill.

Collard greens aren't a nutritional powerhouse; their only benefit is added calcium and potassium. But, they are a great filler, a low cal, fat free option to fill you up and keep you from eating other foods... like those cream-filled appetizers and pies.

LS 

30 Days of Salad, Day 1: Roll-ups

CSA Session 5 week 2: Thanksgiving!

 

In this week's CSA baskets we have Lettuce, Carrots, Purple Sweet Potatoes, Orange Sweet Potatoes, watermelon radish, purple daikon radishes, and a bunch of red radishes.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This Thursday, if we want to be exact. This week's basket is full of vegetables to make your Thanksgiving great! The sweet potatoes can be made into a delicious sweet potato pie. Like most recipes for sweet potato pie, this one calls for the orange sweet potato,  However, you could also use the purple ones and have a pie with a pop of color on your table of Thanksgiving goodies. 

Pie isn't the only use for sweet potatoes you can make Sweet Potato Casserole, or make some Baked Sweet Potato Fries, or make a Sweet Potato Carrot Bake, which all of us loved.

Of course, there's more than just sweet potatoes this week. The lettuce, carrots, and radishes would make for a delicious salad for Thanksgiving. With how beautiful these heads are, I'd hate to not use them. If salads aren't really your thing, you could eat them plain in a veggie tray!

 The vegetables are so colorful that you just have to try one (or maybe all) of them. My favorite is the watermelon radishes and purple carrots. The flavors of the two are just absolutely delicious. If we didn't have to sell them, I'd probably be eating the purple carrots all year long. The watermelon radishes are full of color and flavor- it brings a delicious punch in such a pretty package. It's one that you wouldn't expect at first, but once you try it you can't get enough.

For our family's Thanksgiving, we're always the ones in charge of bringing the vegetables. We normally would bring a salad or two, a veggie tray, and some pie. By the end of the night, the veggie tray would be gone, the salad pretty much gone and there would still be plenty of pie left for tomorrow! Of course, this year since we're staying at home, its going to be a little different- but we're still going to have our sweet potato pies.

I hope that you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!

By Maggie

CSA Session 5 week 2: Thanksgiving!

CSA baskets- Session 5 Week 1

 This weeks basket is: 2 pounds sweet potatoes, kale, 1 pound of carrots, radishes and a garlic.

Our breakfast this morning had a few tasty treats that are in todays basket. We had this Bacon and Eggs Phyllo Breakfast Pizza and it was wonderful. 

We're also making these Sweet Potato Gnocchi's which can go well in any soups and to top that, you can freeze it and use it at a later date! Its so fun to make because it adds some fun color to the soup. 

If you really would like a fun baking challenge, you can try this Sweet Potato Souffle Pie. I think it would be hard, but would have a great taste in the end.

-mcs 

CSA baskets- Session 5 Week 1

Sweet potato gnocchi

I don’t often make pasta from scratch, but this recipe for sweet potato gnocchi is worth the effort. It’s actually pretty easy to do, makes enough for a few meals, even for a family the size of ours. If you use almond or rice flour instead of wheat flour, it’s a gluten free pasta option. And they are delicious, whether you use the purple or orange sweet potatoes. 

This recipe I use for the gnocchi also explains how to sauté them as a side dish. But our favorite use of sweet potato gnocchi is in this chicken gnocchi soup that tastes like the Olive Garden soup.

Sweet potato gnocchi

Session four, week 5 CSA delivery

 In this week’s basket, there is one spaghetti squash, 1 pound of beets, 1 pound of carrots, 2 onions, a garlic and some cilantro.

A fun recipe for your beets and carrots is theMaple Roasted Beets and Carrots. It sounds really good. Now for your spaghetti squash, this Harvest Squash Casserole sounds like something great for a cold night (not that there's going to be any this week) 

Feeling creative? Our market customers brag about their carrot pesto.We haven’t made this yet ourselves, but our family sure enjoyed the other pestos we’ve tried. Except for baby John; he called it green slime. 

Personally, green slime on spaghetti squash is always a winner for me.

Session four, week 5 CSA delivery