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What can I do with Swiss Chard?

Find yourself stumped by this leafy green?

We posed the question to Chef Anat at neighborhood favorite, Cafe Petisco, whose Green Shakshuka (a weekend brunch item featuring melting, creamy greens, including Swiss chard) is a favorite among the Core. Here are some of the flavorful ideas she shared with us:

Sauteed Swiss Chard with Pine Nuts & Raisins
Saute Swiss chard in olive oil with garlic, salt & pepper.
Move cooked chard to a bowl and mix with raisins & pine nuts.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve!


Sauteed Swiss Chard with Onion, Tomato & Garbanzo Beans
Saute 1 sliced onion, add garlic, fresh ripe diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, tumeric, dried oregano. Add swiss chard and cook for about 10-15 min adding vegetable stock or water when needed. Add garbanzo beans, mix well, and cook for a few more minutes until beans are heated through.

“Mac & Swiss“

Add sauteed Swiss shard finely chopped to your favorite mac and cheese recipe. Just add when assembling the chard in the baking dish, top with bread crumbs & bake

Swiss Chard Tzatziki with Pita Chips
Blanch Swiss chard (Cook in a large pot of boiling water until tender. Removed chard to cold/ice water bath to cool.) Drain chard and squeeze to remove all water, finely chop chard and mix with Greek yogurt, chopped garlic, Cayenne, S&P, lemon juice & extra virgin olive oil to taste. Mix well & serve with pita chips.


Thanks for the inspiration, Anat!

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Poll Result: Bag It!

Apparently those Ziploc bags were a nuisance to only a small minority of our members. Most of you — 88% — like the convenience of our loose greens being pre-bagged. So that’s what we’ll stick with.

(Personally, I have a bit of nostalgic longing for taring the scales, but I guess that’s just me.)

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More Garlic Scape Inspiration …

From our friends at the Hester Street Fair CSA………

Scapes are fleeting. They’re the holiday that comes around once a year. And when they’re gone – they’re truly gone. Scapes are the green tops of the garlic bulbs that farmers cut around this time of year to allow the bulbs to grow larger and stronger. Farmers have known forever that scapes have a delicate garlic flavor and can be used in cooking. Now that farm to table has become a widely agreed upon philosophy, garlic scapes have finally made it into our urban homes.

Slice and add scapes to any stir fry recipe
Add scapes to soup stock for a little fresh garlic flavor
Chop scapes and add them to softened cream cheese for a tasty spread
Chop scapes and add to sour cream to make dip
Scapes are a great additions to salads
Use scapes in any recipe just as you would use green onions or garlic
Add chopped scapes to bruschetta, guacamole, or salsa
Chop scapes and sprinkle them over pasta
Sauté sliced scapes about 5 minutes in olive oil and add to mashed potatoes
Chop scapes and sprinkle over baked potatoes
Toss them in olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper and lightly grill
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This Week’s Vegetables

This week’s share:

  • Beets
  • Kohlrabi
  • Scallions
  • Turnips
  • Fennel
  • Head Lettuce
  • Summer Squash and Zucchini
  • Spinach
  • Cilantro
  • Kale

Comment from Provider Farm:

Watch out, here comes summer with our first summer squash and zuke pick! The plants are beautiful, looks like a good harvest this year.

The whimsical kohlrabi is sweet and crispy. Chop it up in a salad or try cooking with it.

Also new this week, fennel. Tasty in sauces or slice it thin on salads.

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Bagged or Loose?

As you saw last week, our new farmers are pre-bunching our veggies into full- and reduced-share sizes so that you don’t need to do any counting or weighing. Max and Kerry say it’s no problem for them to do this, and helps guarantee that they are providing the right amount of vegetables for all our members. (We were sure to tell them as we prepared for this season that running out of veggies before 8:00 was a nagging problem last year.) It makes picking up your share much easier, too: all you have to do is go down the line — reduced shares to the left, full shares to the right — and pick up one bunch from each bin.

But a few members last week complained that the loose salad greens were bunched into ziploc bags, and it does seem like a bit of a waste. (In fact, since a ziploc is not the best way to store these greens, as soon as I got home I transferred them to a slightly damp kitchen towel and wrapped them up for the fridge.)

What do you think? Should they come bagged or loose for members to weigh at distribution? Please vote below!

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Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe

From our farmers comes this recipe, in case you still have last week’s scapes sitting around:

Garlic Scape Pesto
This packs a flavor punch! Yummy!

Ingredients:

  • 6-7 garlic scapes
  • 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds or pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup basil leaves, parsley, arugula or spinach (if desired)
  • 1/4 cup parmesean cheese
  • salt to taste
  • juice from half a lemon
  • olive oil, about 3/4 to 1 cup

Directions:
Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to blend. With processor running, pour olive oil over the mixture. Blend until pesto is spreadable. Serve over pasta. Pesto can also be frozen.
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Fruit, Eggs, and Pasta start this week … plus Syrup!

Week One reduced share from Provider Farm.

With week one behind us (and most of us already craving a fresh round of greens), we get the full set of shares for week two: fruit, eggs, and pasta shares will be delivered, along with our maple syrup from Circle C Farm.

Circle C should also have a few pints of dark amber syrup for sale for $13 each, in case you didn’t order in time. They’ll also have some maple sugar available — 2oz for $4 and 4oz for $7.

Beef and Veal from Provider Farm can still be ordered online here. If you have already ordered and not yet paid, please bring cash or check with you to distribution on Tuesday. Beef and Veal will be delivered on June 19 (week three).

We should also start getting a vegetable list from Provider Farm a day before distribution, so be sure to check here (or on Facebook, or Twitter) so you know what to expect.

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Veggie Tip Sheets

Don’t forget, we have a great resource from Just Food — Veggie Tip Sheets. There’s a single page for just about every kind of vegetable we might end up with this summer, with suggestions on storage, preparation, and cooking. If you don’t know what to do with your garlic scapes, for example, scroll through to the “G” pages to discover that scapes can be eaten raw or cooked, added to a salad, omelette, or used for pesto.

We also always have the hard-copy version of these tip sheets available at distribution. If you have a question, just ask!

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Provider Farm Beef and Veal Available

Provider Farm has lots of ground beef and steaks from their very own pasture-raised jersey cows available now for order. Jersey cow beef is higher than other breeds in monounsaturated fats (the good fats that help lower cholesterol!) Provider Farm cows are raised in the sun and fed on grass, naturally.

Use the order form below. We’ll be collecting payment during our first distribution on June 5. Beef and veal will be delivered along with our regular shares for our third distribution on June 19.