CSA Week 3 Recipes

First of all, check out this absolutely GORGEOUS beet! 

I have, as promised, been making lots of salads with this week's CSA goodies, like this gem here.

Simple but delicious, this is a combination of salad mix, broccoli, garlic scapes, peas and beets all from the CSA. I find raw beets to be most palatable when shaved with a cheese grater, so that's what I did here. I added some organic cherry tomatoes and dressed with homemade dill dressing. It was about 90 degrees out when I made this, so the crisp coolness of the veggies was particularly pleasing. 

And now for a quesadilla idea. 

I had several goals in mind while concocting this meal. First, I wanted to use my Greenhill Collective Farm shiitake mushrooms, as well as CSA zucchini and greens. I also had some cabbage that really needed to be used up. I was housesitting for my parents so I looked to see if they had anything that needed to be eaten before going bad. Turns out they had a leftover cooked ear of corn, radishes in the garden ready to be eaten and their basil plants desperately needed to be picked to make space for new growth. So, with that being said, here is what transpired. 

I combined all my veggies into one yummy mixture to be the quesadilla filler. Starting with the mushrooms, I realized that they are really spongy and would probably respond well to a little marinating. Using what was available, I soaked them in olive oil, red wine vinegar and red wine. 

Next I prepared the sauteed veggie mixture. First throwing some onions and the cabbage into a pan with olive oil over medium heat, then adding garlic scapes and zucchini. I let this cook for just a couple minutes before adding the mushrooms, some black beans and corn sliced off of the cob. Then I spiced it all up with garlic powder, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, black pepper and lemon juice. I turned off the burner and let it all come together under a lid for a couple minutes.

Then I organized all my ingredients. Lots of fresh basil from the garden, chopped CSA greens, grated fontina cheese, chopped radish from the garden, whole wheat tortillas and the veggie mixture.

Over medium-low heat I melted the cheese onto the tortilla and added the veggies.

Then I topped it all with greens, radish and a generous amount of basil (which I hand-ripped into large pieces, since all the knives I had at my disposal were very dull and I didn't want to bruise the basil leaves).

Finally I folded it all into a quesadilla and flipped it to make sure both sides of the tortilla got nice and crispy.

Cut and serve! It really was delicious, especially with a little sriracha.

And to top it all off, I used the leftover veggies to make breakfast burritos with cheesy scrambled eggs. A very successful cooking experience. A new batch of CSA delights comes Tuesday!