🥕 Is batch pesto the new Grain Sunday™️?
A summer CSA diary.
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Happy CSA season! I love it, but I’m also trying not to panic about the mounting beets and lettuce greens. As much as I love our weekly produce box, it can be tough to keep up with the wilting herbs and less exciting vegetables (I’m looking at you, kale). To manage it, I am trying to be intentional and not get carried away with other fun, in-season produce until we’ve made it through the box.
This week’s box included scallions, lemon balm, lettuce, cucumbers, garlic scapes, broccoli rabe, carrots, and basil. Our CSA lost its fruit source, so we are sadly without our fruit CSA this year. I’ve been supplementing with what fruit seems the freshest from Chicky’s, the grocery store, and Mitch’s Provisions. I weirdly haven’t made it to the farmers market this year? I’m hoping to remedy this soon.
As usual, we signed up for eggs and a half-gallon of milk from the CSA each week. I typically use the milk to make yogurt. I have also added on a A2 sharp cheddar from Family Farmstead every other week, and I keep forgetting, but I will add back in the Farmer’s Choice cheese from Harpersfield Cheese, too.
Here’s what we made and ate with a very typical northeastern July CSA box from 607 CSA. Bolded items indicate items from the box!
Tuesday dinner
I quickly put the CSA away. I usually spend some time washing and drying the lettuce greens, as well as doing other cleaning and chopping prep, but it was a “stuff in a Stasher bag and deal with later” kind of day.
I took a few minutes, though, to wash the basil, carrot top greens, and a garlic scape to make a pesto. This was a pro-move; we ended up using the pesto in various applications throughout the week, and I felt proud not to have wasted/composted the carrot greens. I loosely followed
’s carrot top pesto recipe, though I used an entire lemon and not nearly as much pecorino.
I had a wine pairing class at Leon & Son with my friend Eric this evening. There would be snacks at the class, but I didn’t want to drink a bunch of wine on an empty stomach, so I made a quick grilled cheese before leaving. I spread the pesto and sliced the sharp cheddar on some Radio Bakery’s seeded sourdough sandwich loaf. This was our first week getting this cheese, and wow, it’s sharp. Cheddar is my favorite cheese, and I wanted to try this one because it’s made with raw A2 milk. Some people believe A2 milk is easier to digest.
The wine class was great, and we learned the basics on pairing wine with acidic, salty, and sweet foods. I also learned that Moscato can be good?
Related
Wednesday breakfast
It wouldn’t be a Kara CSA diary without egg tacos. I soft scrambled three eggs with a pinch of salt and served them on my beloved Caramelo tortillas. In case you don’t know, I buy $100 worth of these tortillas at a time and keep them in my freezer. I also sliced up some chives from my garden.
After breakfast, I soaked a bag of Alubia Blanca beans with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. I’m experimenting with shorter soaks of beans, mainly because Rancho Gordo is so opposed to it (their beans are not years-old like most grocery store beans), but I can’t give up the soaking, as I truly believe soaking with the ACV makes them more digestible. I soak these for about 6 hours, though after eating them, I’m still convinced a longer overnight soak is better for digestion.
Wednesday lunch
My husband told me he had made a bad, but good Italian (American) pizzeria-style salad with the lettuce greens the night before, so I had that on my mind. I dressed the salad with a few splashes of Tart Vinegar’s soup and salad vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper, and cut up a handful of kalamata olives. Perfect.
I boiled the last of a bag of rigatoni and tossed the pasta in a few tablespoons of the previous night’s pesto. I am loving this pesto!
After lunch, I cooked the beans. I changed the water out and cooked them with a bay leaf, garlic scape, and bouquet garni of rosemary and oregano from the garden. These beans were very frothy, so I skimmed off the foam and added olive oil and salt.
Wednesday dinner
Skylar and I went to get a drink at Corto (After Hours, the bar that opens next door to the coffee shop at 6 pm). It was the kind of hot and humid that called for my once-a-year mojito (rum and I are not friendly).
I wasn’t hungry when we got back, but I reheated a small bowl of the cooked beans, added a dollop of the pesto, and topped it with a sweet potato my husband had steamed.
Thursday breakfast
Some people call this dish “egg in a basket,” but I prefer the inelegant term “egg in a hole.” I had my egg in a hole with a bowl of grocery store cherries.
Thursday lunch
Another pesto bean soup! Today, I added salted, roasted pepitas for added crunch and a teaspoon or so of chili oil. This pesto is so versatile, I’m feeling inspired to do this with each CSA box.
Thursday dinner
I had tempeh in the refrigerator. I searched
+ tempeh, as he’s been publishing so many great tempeh recipes recently. I clicked on the first one that appeared, Pineapple-Gochujang Tempeh, as I had a can of pineapple juice that I had purchased for my neglected kombucha. I was feeling too lazy to chop an onion, but I did slice a garlic scape. I put some white rice in the Instant Pot and sautéed a head of kale from last week’s CSA. I sort of hate kale and have to force myself to use it up.The tempeh was great, I love Lukas’ recipes. The cashews added a lot!
Friday breakfast
I had a slice of peanut butter (homemade, of course) toast with Radio Bakery’s seeded sourdough sandwich loaf before heading out on a long walk to Crave Sourdough. The heat has made me less eager to bake bread, so I’ve been using my new work-from-home lifestyle to walk to bakeries (hence the Radio Bakery loaf).
At Crave, they had me try a slice of the bread with their housemade spreads. Wow! Amazing mayonnaise! I picked up their seeded sourdough and a roasted garlic aioli. Maybe the best sourdough I’ve had in the city.
Friday lunch
Skylar claimed the leftover tempeh, and I had white rice, beans, egg, sliced cucumber, Queen Majesty’s ginger hot sauce, and some grilled tofu Skylar had made the day before. The tofu was fresh, from Fong On. I hate to use this descriptor, but their tofu is juicy. It’s worlds better than store-bought.
Friday dinner
My friends Eric and Chelsea were coming over this evening, so I decided to make macaroni and cheese. I loosely followed Martha’s recipe, though I skipped the bread crumbs (bread crumbs don’t belong on macaroni and cheese). I didn’t want to spring for Gruyère, either, so I grabbed a mild cheddar and a sharp cheddar from the grocery store.
Eric brought a veggie board, Chels brought watermelon, and I made Alison Roman’s Plum Pudding from Something Sweet, but with peaches. Although I picked up the peaches from Chicky’s, they weren’t very sweet, and I found the dish rather disappointing. I also had to bake the pudding 10-15 minutes more than the recipe indicated. I’ve had a lot of trouble with the recipes in Something Sweet, unfortunately!
Saturday breakfast
For breakfast, I had a smoothie with a frozen fruit blend from Farm to People (the cherry and blueberry mix), protein powder, yogurt whey, hemp and flax seeds, water, and a pinch of salt.
Saturday lunch
I had a small bowl of leftover macaroni and cheese before meeting my friend Hawa for lunch at Good Ol Days Diner. We both ordered the vegan burger. Although it was made with faux meat (vs housemade), it was a delicious and well-composed burger. We also got their mint lemonade.
Saturday dinner
For dinner, I snacked on my lunch leftovers and had some, along with a snack plate of apples, cashews, and cheese Skylar made.
Sunday breakfast
I had a Pilates class midday, so I wanted to have a protein-forward breakfast of beans, eggs, scallions, and garlic scapes. I softened the garlic scape, added the beans to warm them up, and then made little nests for the eggs to cook. I love a breakfast bean.
Sunday lunch
Skylar made a coconut, broccoli rabe, and potato curry on ramen noodles for lunch. The potatoes were from the prior week’s CSA. Yum!
Sunday dinner
It was late lunch again, so I had a piece of the Crave sourdough with roasted garlic aioli, a bowl of cherries, and a few slices of the CSA cheese for dinner.
Monday breakfast
Egg tacos! Nothing fancy here, just Marie Sharp’s hot sauce, this time.
Monday lunch
I invented a new sandwich! I’m calling it Pizza Sandwich. I toasted the Crave seeded sourdough and then added the roasted garlic aioli, grilled halloumi, fresh garden basil, and Sungold tomatoes. It tasted like a very fresh grandma slice. I will make this again!
This afternoon, I turned the lemon balm into an iced herbal tea. I boiled about a quart of water and let the leaves steep for an hour before adding more cool water. I wish I liked the tea! I felt like I was drinking a Bath & Body Works body spray.
Monday dinner
I had an acupuncture appointment, so before I left, I made an old faithful—Andy Baraghani’s Ginger Scallion Ramen with the last of the scallions and garlic scapes. To bulk up this meal, I usually add crispy crumbled tofu (using my recipe) or roasted cashews.
We were out of tofu, so cashews it was. I buy big bags of peanuts to make peanut butter, but last time I added cashew pieces to my order (cheaper than whole ones), and we’ve enjoyed having them around. They make a good snack, but also serve as a nice ingredient to have on hand for vegan queso or to add to dishes like this.
Not too bad for a busy week! The only items we didn’t get through were the carrots, which had gone limp by the end of the week (the result of my lazy storage). I ended up washing them and putting them in a freezer bag with other veggie scraps, which I’ll turn into a veggie stock soon.
loved this so much