Produce Prep for the Week: CSA Week 3

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My CSA and Farmer’s Market Cooking Method

I joined a CSA this year! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. This is a way to support local farmers and to learn more about where your food comes from. Every CSA might be a little different, but the basic idea is you pay a farmer upfront for a whole season of produce.

In my latest YouTube video, I show you what I got in week 3 and what I made with it!

The great thing about joining a CSA, is it forces you to try new things. As a whole food vegan, you have probably already found yourself trying all sorts of new foods. It’s funny how people often think a vegan diet is restrictive, when in reality, I have found that my diet is so much more interesting and varied now that I’m vegan. And as part of a CSA, you generally get whatever veggies the farmer gives you, and if you’re new to local eating, this often means trying new things!

This week my share included garlic scapes! I had heard of them before, but had never tried them. Check out the video to learn more and see how I used them! Plus, we got strawberries again, so I made a special sweet treat to go with them this week.

Find the “recipes” for everything I made below. But feel free to swap ingredients and change amounts. I put that in quotes because I don’t actually consider these to be recipes. The purpose of this video is to give you ideas and teach you a method of cooking rather than to provide tested recipes.

This method is a must when you’re cooking based on a CSA. I don’t like to cook with recipes because I may not always have all the ingredients I need, and you won’t want to waste anything, so it’s time to be creative. Use recipes as a guide to inspire ideas rather than something that has to be followed perfectly every time. Have fun and experiment in the kitchen!

Fudgy Chocolate Pudding with Aquafaba Whipped Cream

First up, I made a decadent treat to go with my strawberries! Who doesn’t love chocolate with strawberries? And what about vegan whipped cream? Yes please! We also had mint in the share this week, so I added that for garnish.

Servings: About 2-4
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Pudding Ingredients and Directions

• 1 package silken tofu (12 oz)*
• ¼ cup cacao powder
• ¼ cup date sugar*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor.
2. Pulse a few times, and then blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed to make sure everything is incorporated.

*I used date sugar because I prefer this whole food sweetener, but feel free to use maple syrup or date syrup for an even sweeter treat!

Whipped Cream Ingredients and Directions

• ¼ cup aquafaba (liquid from can of chickpeas, try to find a no-salt added can)
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons date syrup*
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder

1. Drain aquafaba into a mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl and add cream of tartar.
2. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the aquafaba for a minute or two until it starts to get frothy.
3. Add the date syrup and vanilla and continue to beat until soft peaks start to form. This will take 5 minutes or more.

*Again you could use maple syrup here, or powdered sugar would work too.

Serve chocolate pudding with strawberries, whipped cream, and garnish with mint leaves.

As always, you can swap out ingredients as you like. This will be a smoother pudding if you use maple syrup, but I was going for a whole food version using date sugar, which is made from whole dates that are dried and ground up. This made for a much thicker pudding, with an almost Greek yogurt-like texture.

You could also use maple syrup for the whipped cream. I prefer date syrup as it has a few more nutrients than maple syrup and I’ve grown to love the flavor. Using date syrup does make the whipped cream turn a little brown though, so if you wanted a bright white cream, you might use maple syrup or powdered sugar.

Lentil Potato Salad with Garlic Scapes

Next for my first attempt at using garlic scapes, I decided to simply use them as a flavoring in a delicious summer salad that can be served warm or cold.

Servings: About 3-4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: About 20 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ large red onion chopped
• 1 cup garlic scapes, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 small zucchini, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 4 yukon gold potatoes, precooked and then diced*
• 1½ cups cooked lentils (or 1 can drained and rinsed)
• 1½ cups cooked whole grains*
• 3 small tomatoes, diced
• 2 teaspoons dried dill
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mustard

1. Water sauté the onions for a couple minutes until they start to turn translucent.
2. Meanwhile combine the spices with the red wine vinegar and mustard in a small bowl or measuring cup. Set aside.
3. Add the garlic scapes to the pan with the onions and sauté a few more minutes.
4. Add the zucchini and a splash of water to the pan. Cover and cook for about 4 minutes to steam the zucchini.
5. Add the pre-cooked potatoes, lentils, and whole grain and gently stir to combine.
6. Add the sauce and mix until everything is well-coated. Cover and continue to cook for a couple minutes to let the flavors come together.
7. Serve warm over a bed of greens. Or refrigerate and serve cold over a bed of greens.

*I precooked the potatoes for 12 minutes at high pressure in the Instant Pot with a quick release.
*Any whole grains will work, I made a combination of wheat berries, barley, and sorghum.

This lentil potato salad is delicious both warm or cold. The leftovers keep getting better and better as they sit in the fridge, so I recommend making it at least a day ahead for the best flavor! Feel free to top with some sunflower seeds or hempseeds and a bit of sauerkraut also pairs nicely with it.

Lemon Mint Broccolini “Pesto”

And then to use up the rest of the mint, I made up this pesto of sorts.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch broccolini
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves
• ½ teaspoon dried parsley

1. Chop broccolini into 1 or 2 inch pieces and steam for about 5 minutes until just turning bright green.
2. Allow broccolini to cool for a few minutes then add to a food processor with the remaining ingredients. Blend until it turns into a fine crumbly paste.

This was a last minute idea I had because I had a bunch of broccolini that needed to be used up. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the rest of my mint from my CSA so I decided to make this crumble. It turned out really delicious to sprinkle into salads along with my delicious lettuce from my CSA. I also used this as a spread on some lentil patties in a pita. Finally I mixed it with pasta and a creamy white sauce made of white beans and jersey sweet potatoes.

Last but not least, I also had kale in my share this week. We’ve been getting a lot of kale, so I actually froze some of it. Kale freezes really nicely and you don’t even have to blanch it in my experience. I just chop it up and throw it in a freezer bag to use later in soups or sautés. I did save a little of the kale that I steamed and dressed with vinegar and mustard as a side with a few meals this week.

As you can see farmer’s market or CSA cooking can be exciting and fun. The longer I cook this way, the more fun I have coming up with different ideas. And most of the time everything is delicious. It has only been a rare occasion where something wasn’t fantastic. But even then you can usually adjust some seasonings or add a tasty sauce on top to fix it.

The point being, it doesn’t have to be intimidating or scary to cook without a recipe or to use ingredients you may not be familiar with. Use recipes as guides to give you ideas and then mix and match with what you have. Stay tuned for more recipes based on my CSA shares, and if you missed it, you can also check out my video for my CSA week one.