What’s in the box: All Organic!

• Gala apples
• bananas
• navel oranges
• red beets
• carrots
• yellow onions
• gold potatoes
• collards
• zucchini

*skip to what to do with it all

New Blogger Introduction:

Hi, my name is smitty. You might recognize my name as one of your newly elected Board Members. I am going to be helping with the Essentials box and weekly recipes. This is great timing as i have been working with on another project with Conspiracy of Geniuses (CoG) to prove easy and healthy recipe tutorials so you will likely start seeing more cross posts. What i have been working towards is how to share those fundamental cooking skills that i have gained. Some of what i am going to be focusing on is how to prepare the vegetables for recipes more than a list of ingredients. In the future, we will be making some videos showing different prep techniques such as knife techniques. If you have requests for recipes for certain items you might be getting that you don’t know what to do with or if you want to know how to prepare/chop up something feel free to email me at smitty@conspiracyofgeniuses.org and i will do my best to include your requests.

A little bit more about my culinary passion, i started working as a prep cook as a teenager. At 18, i was already working pantry at one of the only fine dining establishments in Spokane (Washington). I moved on to Seattle and began working line at Cafe Flora and Cafe Ambrosia. I moved on to Kitchen Manager of Vegete and then Brunch Chef at Coffee Messiah. During and after that i worked some odd jobs at Retreat Centers and freelance catering gigs. Now i am a Professional Artist and Graphic Designer. Although cooking is no longer my main profession, i still have a passion for sharing healthy comforting food that is easy to prepare with others and i am excited to share what i have learned with you all.

PS – i probably went a bit overboard with this first post so if you have found it useful please let me know! (><)

What to do with it all:

I have included below my recipes for Borscht and Mashed Potatoes and Collard Greens. Some other ideas for this weeks box, if you are adventurous, is a slaw from the beets and carrots (and cabbage for last week if you have left overs) this is also a great use for those apples. Another suggestion is a collard wrap. I love cooking so if anything I have to hide my excitement and desire to share every recipe I could make from these ingredients. So look forward to lots of new recipes for you to try out. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures on ig of the wonderful creations you come up with this weeks ingredients.

#1: If you have left over cabbage, Borscht is a good option this week. There are lots of recipes online but the base of the recipe is pretty consistent—broth (veggie, beef or pork I believe would be the meat broth options), beets, potatoes, onions, garlic and cabbage. Some recipes call for dill and/or bay leaf.

You want to prep the beets by taking off any leafy greens and use them in another recipe or lightly saute them and freeze them for later. Personally I just take off anything super rough with a knife and leave the rest of the skin but you can either use a peeler to take off the skin or use the water bake/boil method* to precook the beets. This allows for the skins to come off easier if that is your preference. Either prep of the beet will come into the pot after softening your onions but if you are precooking them, do it first.

• In a soup pot for low heat as you do not want anything to stick, add some fat (butter, margarine, coconut oil ← my preference).
• Add your chopped onions.
• Once the onions are translucent add garlic.
• Saute until garlic is soft but not brown.
• Add broth or appropriate water and instant broth. Even if I am using homemade broth or boxed broth I will add extra water because you will want to cook the potatoes and beets which will evaporate some of the water. Iow, if one just uses broth it will be very strong flavored. The broth will make that soup flavor. Add your bay leaf now.
• If the beets are precooked wait to add them until the potatoes are soft. If you are adding uncooked with peel then they will have relative cook times, to the potatoes, if the cut is relative in size. The beet should be slightly larger than the potatoes but both need to be bite size or else they won’t cook all the way through well. Precooked beets should also have larger chunks too so they maintain some texture.
• Add some salt and pepper, and dill if you want it.
• After everything is combined you can sit back and let it simmer.
• Some recipes call for shredded ingredients which I have not tried except making raw borscht**. For cooked soup, personally I like chunky soup so I chunk my beets.
• When serving a spoonful of sour cream or equivalent is delicious. I cannot eat dairy so I found that unsweetened yogurt is an easy replacement.

*There are variations my go to is to bake with some water in a covered container. Depending on circumstances I would cook at between 300-350F. If unsure, go for the lower temperature. The beets should be halved and face down. They will be ready when they are soft and the skin easily comes off. When cool enough to handle the skin should come off by putting your thumb nail under the skin to peel it off. There are also recipes that call to boil or to roast the beet whole. Whatever works best for you. You can also use this method to prepare beets for a salad. Once skinned and cooled they can be thinly sliced or chunked depending. Or added to a saute. A quick saute with some garlic, beets would be a delicious addition to Collard Greens and Mashed Potatoes.

**For a time I got to work with the Boutenko Family who transformed their traditional borscht into a raw foods recipe. It is tasty.

• Blend well in a vitamix or blender
  • 2 cups water
  • 3 beets
  • 1 small root ginger
  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • 6-7 bay leaves
• Pour in mixing bowl
• Blend the following for a short time about 30 seconds:
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • salt to taste
• Add ½ cup walnuts and blend on low speed very quickly, so they just break into small pieces but are not blended well.
• Pour into the same bowl and stir.
• Dice or grate:
  • ¼ head cabbage
  • 1-2 carrots
  • 1 bunch parsley
• Add grated ingredients to the blended mixture. Stir and serve
• Serves 7-10.
  
• #2: Another option for this week is to make Mashed Potatoes and Collard Greens. This can be served with mac n cheese, fritters, baked/BBQ’d tofu and/or choice of meat. Or as mentioned about with roasted beets.

For Mashed potatoes:

• boil water, cut potatoes into small chunks and boil them until tender. Again I like to leave the skins on for nutritional value but if preferred peel them with a peeler first.
• Once tender drain water. You cannot ‘really’ over boil them but if cooked too long they will become one with the water and thus you would loose product. I drain into a container so while mashing I can add it back in to get my desired consistency. While draining leave some water but not much because watery potatoes suck thus the using a container to catch and use helps get desired consistency.
• Next add fat. This can be butter, margarine, coconut butter, etc.
• And a touch of milk if you want – vegan or regular. But do not use sweetened because it will taste weird. Go without if you only have sweetened milk and just use reserved potato water. I also like to add kefir, coconut kefir -again unsweetened is important.
• There should be significantly less liquid than potatoes. It is easier to add then take away. I go for about a tablespoon of fat and one of liquid per medium small fist sized potato.
• A bit of salt n pepper. White pepper if you have and prefer. I also like to add some powdered garlic or Ashwagandha* and a touch of turmeric (go light it is a strong bitter).*I first came across Ashwagandha in Indian Cuisine and later found out it is also used to treat various conditions and might impact certain medications. (Medline)
• Mashing can be done with a masher, a fork but it might take some time and effort or my favorite trick is to use a blending wand. I like to mash a bit with the masher or fork then lightly use the wand to fluff the potatoes and also it helps break down the skins into smaller pieces.
• To dress when serving, I like paprika and/or fresh ground pepper can be sprinkled on top for a nice touch of flavor and color.

• While the potatoes are boiling, in a saute pan warm some fat – coconut oil, butter etc.
• Add chopped onion. Saute at low heat until translucent.
• Add chopped garlic.
• The stems will take about the same amount of time as the garlic so should be added around the same time or shortly after. The stems will likely take longer to cook then expected.

• Pre-prep the collards if helpful.
• De-stem the Collard Greens. It is hard to verbally explain, basically rip the leaf part off the stem and put the leafs somewhere for the moment.
• Chop the end off the stems as it is dry and will be bitter and tough.
• Then chop the stems as small as comfortable. The bigger the chunks the longer to cook. Cut thinner towards the end of stem as it will be tougher. At the end where the leaves were attached will be softer and can be chopped larger.
• As the stems and garlic are softening, take your leafy greens and chop them into one inch and smaller pieces.
• Add this to the pan once the stems are soft.
• Cover, stirring occasionally.
• While that is cooking down, drain and mash the potatoes. Serve with protein. Nom!

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