Recipe featuring collard greens: Chinese stuffed rolls

 

This yummy, easy dish got six YUMS out of the Sleichter squad today. John said it was even better than a corn dog, which is about as high of praise as you can get from our boy. 

Ingredients:

1 pound pork sausage

2 garlic cloves, minced

5-6 stems cilantro, chopped

1 cup steamed white rice

2 eggs

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

12 collard green leaves

1/3 cup sweet chili sauce

1. Wash the collard greens. Remove the stems from the end, and pare down the remaining stem on the leaf, to make it easier to bed. 

2. Bring a pan full of water to simmer. Blanch the collard green leaves in the simmering water for 3-5 seconds until dark green and softened. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the sausage, egg, rice, garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, salt, and worcestershire sauce. 

4. Taking one collard green at a time, place the leaf on a flat surface. Place approximately 1/3 cup of sausage filling in the middle of each leaf. Fold the leaf over the sausage like an envelope. Place the stuffed leaves seam side down in a 13x9 pain. Repeat with remaining leaves.

5. Pour chili sauce over leaves. 

6. Bake stuffed collard greens in oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheits, or until internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. Enjoy!

Recipe featuring collard greens: Chinese stuffed rolls

CSA Session 7: Week 1

 Today, we start what may be our last CSA session of the year. We are so thankful for our customers continued support, and we hope you have enjoyed the fresh, locally-grown vegetables. 

This week's basket includes: collard greens, scarlet lettuce, carrots, purple sweet potatoes, and red radishes. 

With it being super bowl week, we made sure there was plenty of red and yellow in the basket. A fresh salad with the red scarlet lettuce and red radishes is perfect for any Chiefs fans. I suppose it would work for a Buccaneers fan, too, but we won't worry about those folks. :) 

My favorite use of collard greens is the Chinese cabbage rolls. This ham, beans, and collard greens soup recipe would be a great choice for the cold nights coming this week. Or, try this Southern collard greens recipe from Southern Living magazine.

Now, about these sweet potatoes. I have yet to be able to make a good sweet potato fry. If I make them the way I make homemade French fries, they are too hard and undercooked in the middle. If I try cooking them first and then frying them, they just end up mushy. If you have a recipe that works for sweet potato fries, I would love to receive it!

But until this, here is the best option I've found: oven roasted sweet potatoes. If you prefer your sweet potatoes softer, this sweet potato casserole is more dessert than side dish, but it is delicious.

With the cold days ahead, now is a perfect time to heat up that oven for oven-roasted root vegetables. It's a simple, healthy side dish for any cold night. 

We hope you enjoy this week's vegetables and recipes, and thanks for your continued support.

CSA Session 7: Week 1

CSA session 6 week 5: Baja

 This weeks basket has Radishes, Cilantro, Lettuce, Garlic and either Bok Choy or Eggs.

A fun fact about Radishes- the bitterness of the radish directly correlates to the temperature- so a radish that is grown during the hottest part of the summer is going to be really bitter while one grown in the fall or winter is still going to have some of the radish bitterness but its going to be a lot less bitter. Anyway, here are 15 different fun radish recipes to try out.

We made the Baja radish slaw this week and had it as a side dish on day one, and in wonton chicken tacos on day two. I highly recommend that move — yum! For those of you getting bok choy, you could substitute the Napa cabbage leaves for 2-3 bok choy stems for the same result.

And since we are on a Mexican-theme this week, how about cilantro avocado deviled eggs *with bacon*? Or cilantro hollandaise sauce for a kicked up eggs benedict? Or cilantro avocado dressing to put on the fresh lettuce?

Looking for some Chinese food recipes? Here is a great site with some recipes to enjoy: Bok-Choy-Recipes (therootdownfarm.com)

This week wraps up this session of veggie deliveries, and we thank you for your support. Please reach out and let us know if you would like to sign up for the next five week session. We will be able to do this for five more weeks, but that may be our last session of the season, while we flip our crops and get ready for spring planting.

CSA session 6 week 5: Baja

Salad 27: Baja Radish Slaw

This is a great, Mexican-inspired cole slaw. Four out of four Sleichters who ate this tonight said it tasted like guacamole.

We started out with three kinds of radishes, 2 carrots, and about four leaves from a Napa cabbage, although any cabbage would do. 

Shred the veggies, and add chopped cilantro.

In a separate bowl, combine:

-1/3 cup mayonnaise 

-1/3 cup miracle whip

-2 tsp lime juice

-1/3 cup chopped cilantro

-2-3 garlic cloves, minced

-1 1/2 tsp cumin 

-1 tablespoon sugar

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp pepper

Whisk dressing ingredients together. Pour over shredded veggie. For best results, store in the fridge for an hour or so before serving.

And if you have leftovers, this is a great slaw for fish or chicken tacos.

Salad 27: Baja Radish Slaw

Salad 26: Bring out the Pomegranates

 I do love the color of this salad. The bright red of the pomegranate, the dark green of the spinach, and the white of the goat cheese make for a beautiful side dish. 

Ingredients

1/2 pound spinach leaves, rinsed and sliced

¼ red onion, sliced thin

½ cup walnut pieces

½ cup crumbled goat cheese

1 pomegranate, peeled and seeds separated

Simply mix all the ingredients together and top with your choice of vinaigrette. I like the honey balsamic vinaigrette for this one.

Salad 26: Bring out the Pomegranates

Salad 25: My favorite Napa Cabbage

This is one of my top five favorite salads. The heartiness of the Napa cabbage, the crunch of the ramen noodles, and the sweetness of the homemade salad are a great combo. It uses one package of ramen noodles, and I then save back the broth packet in the ramen noodles to use in my egg drop soup recipe.

Ingredients:

1 head napa cabbage, chopped

1 bunch minced green onions

⅓ cup butter

1 (3 ounce) package ramen noodles, broken

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1 cup slivered almonds

¼ cup cider vinegar

¾ cup vegetable oil

½ cup white sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Put the Napa cabbage and green onions in a large bowl. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350. Melt the butter in a pot. Mix the ramen noodles, sunflower seeds and almonds into the pot with the melted butter. Spoon the mixture onto a baking sheet and bake the crunchies in the preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven, turning often to make sure they do not burn. When they are browned remove them from the oven.

In another small saucepan, heat vinegar, oil, sugar, and soy sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from heat and let cool. This dressing can be made ahead and stored in the fridge, or poured over the salad slightly warm.

To serve, top the greens with the dressing and sprinkle the ramen noodle combo on top.

Salad 25: My favorite Napa Cabbage

Salad 24: Oh Sweet Spinach

A very fruity spinach salad or a fruit salad with spinach?

Ingredients:

5 ounces fresh spinach (half a 10 ounce bag)

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1 can (15 ounces) mandarin oranges - or fresh Cuties or Halos

or 1 cup of pomegranate seeds

1 large Granny Smith Apple

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup pecans

Optional: Feta cheese

Dressing:

4 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2-4 teaspoons white sugar - Or use Honey to taste or Stevia

1/8 teaspoon each: paprika, onion powder

1 tablespoon poppyseeds

Throw it all together. A very fruity spinach salad or a fruit salad with spinach?

Salad 24: Oh Sweet Spinach

CSA session 6 week 4

 This Weeks basket includes Kale, Spinach, Turnips, and Carrots.

Kale is great for plenty of things. Quiche for example is pretty good with it. I like quiches for breakfast because its an egg pie and who doesn't like a good pie? 

Spinach Artichoke dip is one of the ways that I like to eat Spinach because it has all the good things. Cream Cheese, Spinach, Artichoke, Garlic, Other stuff. Spinach salad made with strawberries or mandarin oranges is good, too.

With carrots there's about a million and one ways to make something. You can fry them, sautee them, roast them, or glaze them. They taste good raw too. You can make something sweet, or something savory. Basically, you can do anything with carrots and it will taste good. I'm sure that even bacon-wrapped carrots would taste amazing.

Turnips are quite a different story. They're a vegetable that is good raw while also tasting good cooked, baked, fried and sauteed. I thought they originated from Germany or somewhere in Europe, but turns out that they originated from Eastern Asia! Another fun turnip fact is that there is so many different colors of them. There is the purple top, a bright red one, all white round ones, yellow ones, Hakurei turnips and more! They taste good with plenty of things (Parmesan Crusted Crushed Turnips anyone?) 

This bacon-wrapped chicken recipe was our lunch for today. We also roasted turnips using the unused rub. We put butter in an 8x8 size pan and melted it in the oven at 350 degrees. Then we added the turnips to that, covered them in butter and then poured the rub over the top of them. After the rub was poured and covered, the turnips were put back in the oven for 30 minutes and it tasted AWESOME! 

I hope you enjoy this weeks basket and recipes!
-Maggie

CSA session 6 week 4

CSA Session 6, Week 3

It has been a very busy week for Sleichter farms. Seven of our sows and gilts have farrowed this week, bringing 68 new piggies to the world. These will be our 4-H pigs for this spring and summer. Jay is also helping with the cattle in Abilene this weekend. And Jay and the kids returned to school. It’s been a busy but rewarding week.

Today’s basket includes spinach, carrots, purple sweet potatoes, garlic, and either collard greens or Swiss chard. How do you tell which one you have in your basket? Collard greens have white stems; Swiss chard has yellow, orange, or red stems.

This weather is great for soup, and so are the ingredients in the basket. Our house will be having gnocchi soup with purple sweet potato gnocchi and spinach strips added in. Vegetable soup is a bit of a no-brained, and leave it to Martha Stewart to have a delicious, versatile recipe to use. 

For a heartier meal, collard greens or Swiss chard can replace the cabbage in cabbage rolls, such as in this recipe. Or, oven roasted veggies
  can be a side dish for any meal. I am a big fan of one-sheet-pan meals, because nobody likes doing dishes. This one incorporates many of our basket ingredients; just don’t skimp on the spice, for best results.

We hope you all are staying healthy, and hope this year will only get better from here. Thank you for your continued support of our family farms.

CSA Session 6, Week 3

Salad 23... Napa Cabbage Slaw

Here ya go! Cole slaw is better with fresh ingredients. There is so much more flavor in Napa cabbage, and the lighter texture is refreshing. I don’t like heavy dressing on the Napa cabbage, so today’s recipe is a five ingredient vinaigrette. 

The Before:

The After: 

Salad 23... Napa Cabbage Slaw

CSA Session 6 Week 2

Welcome to the first CSA basket of 2021! This Weeks Basket has 1 head of Bok choy, a half pound dinosaur kale, 1 bag of carrots, 1.5 pounds of root vegetables and 1 onion.

Even though there was no CSA last week, it hasn't slowed down here one bit. We've got 7 pigs due to give birth today and school starting on Tuesday we're definitely going to have our hands full. But the piglets are going to be cute and I'm glad to get to go back to school and see friends.

Here is 10 different fun Bok Choy recipes for you to use your families "Chinese food night." I really think the meatballs would taste good. You can't go wrong with a good meatball.

I like Kale because of how good it tastes in a lot of things. For proof of that, here is 57 different Kale recipes to try. The Kale BLT salad looks to be delicious. 

Carrots can be good with many things. I would say that carrot cakes are a great option to use that in, but between Christmas and New Years, I'd rather have something savory. I can't pass up a good tart and this one has Carrots and Ricotta Cheese. 

This Root Vegetable Hash looks like something we had once that we also added Kale to. I liked it and I definitely wouldn't mind having again.

All these Recipes have a bit of onion in them somewhere, so the onion can be added to any of them.

I hope you enjoy your veggies this week
-Maggie

CSA Session 6 Week 2