Produce Prep for the Week: CSA Week 1

Jump to Recipes

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.

Check out my latest YouTube video to see what I got on week one and what I did with my beautiful produce throughout the week. If you aren’t shopping locally, I definitely suggest giving it a try. You might be surprised at what you can find at the farmer’s market!

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 with the CSA you’ll be getting new foods you may not have had before, 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!

Oil-Free Sweet Arugula Pesto

First up, I got arugula in my CSA share this week, so I decided to make a pesto. I used this several different ways as you’ll see in my video: with pasta, beans and grains, pizza, and as a spread for toast!

Servings: About 6 (depends on how you’re using it)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: About 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 onion cut in chunks
• 2 or 3 green apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
• 5 cloves garlic (skins peeled, but cloves left whole)
• 3 packed cups of arugula
• ½ cup walnuts
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
• 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• Water as needed to get the consistency you want
• 1 teaspoon miso paste or a pinch of salt (optional)

1. Roast the onion and apple at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Add the garlic cloves and continue roasting another 10 to 15 minutes, but watch so your garlic does not burn.
2. Add the roasted ingredients along with all other ingredients to the food processor and blend. Scrape down the sides as needed.
3. Add a little more vinegar or water about a teaspoon at a time until you get the consistency you want.
4. Mix with noodles and serve, or place in an air tight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days and use as a condiment or sauce in other recipes.

Easy Crispy BBQ Tempeh

Next up, I made tempeh to go with my pesto pasta. This was not made with CSA ingredients, rather staples that I had in my fridge already. It makes a good crispy topping for pasta, salads, in sandwiches, or just as a snack.

Servings: About 2 or 3
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 to 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package tempeh (8 ounces), thinly sliced
• 1 or more tablespoons barbecue sauce
• 1 teaspoon coconut aminos

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place the sliced tempeh in a bowl or other container to marinate.
3. Add barbecue sauce and coconut aminos. Feel free to add as much as you like. Mix with your hands until the tempeh is evenly coated. For best results, you can let this marinate for 30 minute or longer. But you can also bake immediately.
4. Spread the tempeh pieces evenly on a parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, stir and flip pieces around and bake another 15 to 20 minutes until pieces are crispy and starting to brown.
5. Enjoy!

Potato Leek Soup

For the leeks, I made a creamy potato soup. Who said you needed dairy to make a creamy soup? Plant milk will do the trick! This is an easy dump-in-the-pot method that I use all the time. Sauté some ingredients and dump the rest and cook! Feeling lazy? Skip the sauté step and just dump everything. Easy peasy!

Servings: About 3 or 4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: About 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 leeks cut into half moons and cleaned well (about 1½ to 2 cups)
• 2 or 3 celery stalks chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 to 3 cups vegetable broth
• ½ cup soymilk* or more
• 1 tablespoon mustard (optional)*

1. Sauté the leeks and celery for about 5 minutes until softened.
2. Add the potatoes, garlic, spices, and bay leaf. Mix everything well and sauté another minute or two.
3. Add 2 to 3 cups of vegetable broth, until the veggies are just barely submerged. Cover the pot and simmer for about 15 minutes or longer until the potatoes are cooked through.
4. Remove the bay leaf and add soymilk. Feel free to add more soy milk or veggie broth if you want a thinner consistency.
5. Serve the soup as is, or use an immersion blender to blend to desired consistency. I like to leave a little texture, but get rid of the large pieces. You can also blend until totally smooth.
6. Enjoy!

* Feel free to use any plant milk you like. I prefer soy milk as I think it is the most versatile and has the best taste and texture. But use what you like!

*After I cooked my soup, I wanted a little more zing, so I added a little mustard to my individual servings, but you could add a tablespoon or so to the whole pot.

Sautéed Radish Greens

Last is the radish greens. The great thing about joining a CSA is that your produce is much fresher than what is generally in the grocery store. If the greens are still attached at the store, often they are slimy and brown. But with the farmer’s market or CSA, they are fresh. It’s like getting two vegetables in one! So definitely save those greens. They can be added to soups or simply sautéed like I’ve done here.

Servings: 1
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes

Sauté Ingredients

• Greens from 2 bunches of radishes (about 1 cup chopped)
• ½ red onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Dressing Ingredients

• ½ teaspoon tahini
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• ½ teaspoon date syrup or date sugar
• water as needed to thin out
• ½ teaspoon miso paste (optional)

1. Sauté the onions for a few minutes until they start to soften.
2. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.
3. Add the greens and cook until wilted.
4. Meanwhile, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
5. Once the greens are wilted serve with some of the dressing. I added the greens on top of a mix of millet and beans, and poured the sauce over everything.

For more ideas on how to use your farmer’s market finds check out these other farmer’s market meals.