Essentials Box | November 20, 2021

This week’s lineup is all-organic with seasonal items that will fit well into your Thanksgiving recipes:

• Brussel Sprouts (Sound Sustainable Farms)
• Granny Smith Apples (OPMA)
• Pomegranate
• Parsley
• Yams
• Cremini Mushrooms
• Yellow Onions
• Chard
• Celery

If you’re looking to shake up your traditional holiday fare, here are a couple of recipes to get you started:

  • Butternut Squash and Brussels Sprout Stuffing with Apples (Food 52). We’ll also have some Butternut and Acorn squash in the store this weekend.
  • Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms With Gremolata and Quinoa (NY Times)
  • Pomegranate Relish (Martha Stewart)
  • Sweet Potato Pomegranate Salad (Two Peas and Their Pod)

In the box this week:

  • Fuji Apple
  • Lemon
  • Cara Cara Oranges
  • Carrot
  • Celery
  • Yellow Onion
  • Parsley
  • Kale broccolini
  • Red Beets 

What to do with it all: 

Hi friends, Kate here again. Spring is springing! We are all getting so excited about what comes next, both for all of us on a weather front, and for the DGC in particular! Thank you to those of you who came by the farmstand last week – we’ll have it up again this week and we’re actively looking at ways to expand our offerings, so stay tuned! 

In the immediate, here are a couple of ideas about what to do with your box contents: 
– a recipe from Bon Appetit for Spiced Beets with Garlicky Labneh. Not to worry, if you are unfamiliar with labneh, the recipe calls for swapping in plain yogurt as an alternative. 
– another recipe from Bon Appetit for beets, but this one is a cake! Try their Heartbeet Chocolate Cake if you want to shake up how you use your beets. Beet sugar was once quite common, and similar to using carrots in baking, beets can be a nice alternative way to get moisture and sweetness into your baking. Although, there is still sugar in the recipe. 

Here’s a tip for your carrots, onions, and celery – chop up 1 cup of each, combine and put in an airtight container in the fridge, and you have the base of so many recipes. The start to a ton of different sauces, if you want to add flavor to a pot of beans, or something you’re going to braise, head start to many soups, or a spring stew, etc. If you are getting out one of your bigger pots, and going to build a lot of flavor in whatever you’re making, this would be a handy head start. 

Have a wonderful and dry weekend, and happy eating!

Essentials Box Feb 26th, 2021

As always we gracefully request you submit pictures to our instagram of the meals you make from your box especially if you try one of our recipes. 

  • Fuji Apples
  • Avocado
  • Lemon
  • Carrots
  • Celery
  • Yellow peppers
  • Romanesco
  • Spinach

*All Organic

As always we gracefully request you submit pictures to our Facebook and Instagram feeds and using #lovemydgcbox of the meals you make from your box especially if you try one of our recipes. 

Smitty here with this week’s choice selection we have curated for you. We brought you a smorgasbord of offerings (carrots, celery, yellow peppers, Romanesco) to compliment the hummus add-on and below is our tahini-free hummus recipe to create on your own with avocado and fresh lemon for those of us smited with food allergies or just don’t happen to have good tahini lying around. As well as a base for a Creamy Salad Dressing.

Some other ideas for this week:

Pita Sandwiches: To add to the excitement we added some spinach to transfer hummus into fancy pita salad sandwiches if you can get some naan or pita bread from where else you get groceries from. It is a bit off the traditional route but since we brought you Red Leaf Lettuce last week we wanted to switch it up a bit.

Pasta: If you run out of hummus then the romanesco is related to broccoli, with some of the yellow peppers (if you have any left) and spinach chopped up and added to pasta with some butter like substance of your choice and dried italian herbs namely basil and chopped garlic if you are feeling spicy. Add some nuts to make it a pesto with the spinach. Pine nuts are traditional but i also love using walnuts and hempseeds instead.

Salad: I have been on a simple salad kick and probably will eat the spinach as a salad with the avocado and yellow peppers, curls of beet and carrot, topped with a creamy dressing, i am adding my base below. I am nuts for nuts so they go on everything. Walnuts have been my favorite lately, they are also high in omega fatty acids like avocados.

Celery Boats: Since I still like to bring joy to food i will also likely create boats out of celery stalks and fill them with hummus or nut butter. Sometimes I even put ants (raisins) on top (of the nut butters). Why should kids get all the fun food. I have found that carrots and apples also make good receptacles for nut butter. For some of you this might seem like common sense but not everyone comes from that life. Learning to feed myself was something i had to figure out as a young person in the world alone. Bringing joy to food and joyful food to people has been a nourishment to my soul for many years since i started working in kitchens. During this time we need to remember to nourish our souls as well. 

One of my first cooking jobs was at a Greek Restaurant where it was completely unheard of to make hummus without tahini. Good tahini too, if it is too old or processed bad it will ruin your hummus. Finding out i was allergic to sesame was one of the saddest moments of my life. I have tried many recipes since to replicate that consistency and avocados have worked the best.

Avocados really help replace the fat of tahini that is what helps make it a good hummus. Avocados are a good source of biotin, a b vitamin that helps our skin and hair by improving the keratin infrastructure but are really just good for everything. Healthline speaks to the 20+ vitamins, lowering cholesterol, helping you lose weight, and more potassium than bananas. As an athlete and bike commuter that and good sources of fat for my body to burn off are always a win! Healthy fat helps you feel full sooner and longer. Avocados are among those healthy fats such as in salmon, trout, olive oil, nuts. These contain Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) form of omega-3s. Fwiw, i am not recommending Healthline as a goto source of information but it is easier for me to link to a piece someone already wrote than to (re)write that article. It is consistent with previous data sources on nutrition that i have researched. 

Avocado Hummus

I found a couple recipes (1,2,3) online for avocado hummus. They are all sameish to what i would estimate i use. Basically throw all this into a food processor and you are good to go. Process until creamy, chunky hummus is no good.

  • 1 cup or can of Garbanzo Beans
  • 1 avocado
  • 1-3 cloves of garlic (some like it hot, the heat is on)
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • cumin, salt and pepper to taste
  • optional coriander
  • optional fresh paprika to sprinkle on top (is this really optional though)
  • optional chop up the spinach and add it at the end

Creamy Dressing Base

  • Fat
    • Avocado
    • Cashews (soaked)
    • Olive oil
  • Sour
    • lemon juice
    • apple cider or other vinegar
    • unsweetened Kefir
  • Herbs
    • Dill makes it ranch style
    • Basil makes a pesto flavored
    • Cilantro

Essentials Box Feb 6th, 2021

  • pinklady apples
  • avocado
  • lime
  • red leaf
  • celery
  • red onions
  • red potatoes
  • purple kale
  • cilantro

All items organic

What to do with it all: 
*Or some of all the deliciousness. Since i live alone often i will eat half the avocado and make a dressing or sauce out of the other half to eat the following day. Since we cannot predict the ripeness of what we will get from the producers there are a few options this week to use them.

  • Red Lettuce Salad with pepitas, avocado, cilantro and pink lady apple with a lime vinaigrette. 
  • Salad with a creamy cilantro lime avocado dressing.
  • That avocado base can also be used to replace the mayo to make Potato Salad with the red potatoes, onions and celery.
  • Leftover celery and onion can be used, all the same ingredients sans potatoes can be used to make chickpea salad sandwiches.
    • Cook the chickpeas forever until they are mush then mash them until there are no chunks bigger than the cut of the celery and onion.
    • Hint: smaller the chunks the more tasty but too small and it is just mush.
  • Alternately the potatoes, onions and kale can be made into a hash. 
  • If you still have zucchini leftover, i recommend using a peeler to make zucchini noodles and make kale lasagna with your favorite filling.
  • Lime Vinaigrette:
    • lime and apple cider, champagne or other wine vinegar
    • olive oil
    • add a clove of garlic if you like
    • salt n pepper
    • optional: make it spicy by adding some dried or fresh spicy pepper
    • optional: pepitas
      • dry roast in a cast iron by warming the iron adding a layer, toasting until they start to pop and then turning off heat, stir occasionally remove from pan when browned
      • or toast: 10-15 mins in a 300-350 degree oven
      • at the end of or immediately after toasting pepitas, add some dried spicy pepper along with some regular snp
      • Or use some tajin seasoning
      • a touch of oil will help seasonings stick
  • Avocado Dressing:
    • add ripe avocado to blender
    • add sour
      • total sour should be around 1/4 cup for one avocado such as two tablespoons lime juice and two tablespoons apple cider vinegar
        • this is flexible depending on how much lime you have and taste
    • add a clove of garlic if you like
    • salt n pepper
    • blend to puree
      • add water to thin
      • add olive oil to thicken
    • optional: add lightly chop cilantro
      • blend lightly so cilantro is still visible aka do not puree
  • Potato Salad:
    • cube potatoes into one inch and smaller chunks
    • add to boiling water.
    • boil until soft but still firm. drain.
    • add chopped onion and celery.
    • add above sauce in substitution for mayo.
    • Important Note: I don’t like the flavors of sweet relish and cilantro together so it is one or the other of the following for me.
    • optional: add your mustard
    • optional: add relish
    • optional: and/or leave the cilantro out of the above recipe and add that directly to the salad. 
  • For some protein, hard boiled eggs can be chunked in.

I tried to make videos last week but until i get a computer that can handle video editing that is going to have to be put on hold. Until then i hope you enjoy these tasty recipes and i look forward to seeing what you all make.

So as always, let us know what you’ve made by tagging our Facebook and Instagram feeds and using #lovemydgcbox

Happy eating! 

In Solidarity,
Smitty and the DGC Crew