CSA Farmers Box Inspired Meals: part 1
Last year we signed up for a CSA box from a local Tennessee farm and it was one of our best decisions for the year! My least favorite part of cooking is grocery shopping, so avoiding that hassle was a great benefit. We picked up our box every 2 weeks from May- October at the farmers market which is less than a mile from our house. I love to support local farms and trying the new ingredients which they introduced us to.
Fair warning, it is February and 30 degrees out and some of these pictures are from the summertime last year. Proceed with caution as you may get FOMO for summer weather!
When I would see certain produce I got excited to try new recipes. Here are a few of my favorites.
- Pesto using garlic scapes carrot tops, kale or spinach: 3 ways to eat pesto in your pasta, rice or quinoa bowls
We are obsessed with pesto in our house. I love a traditional pesto with basil, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil, lemon and garlic, however, I learned that you can also add in more greens like kale, blanched carrot tops or spinach for extra fiber. I was surprised with how delicious it tasted. Garlic scapes were also a basket surprise I used in place of garlic cloves for pestos or hummus. Their taste profile was slightly midler than garlic cloves with a hint of lemon.
Of course we all know and love pesto in pasta dishes. Here’s my version with crispy chickpeas and kale. This could easily be vegan if you use nutritional yeast instead of parmesan.
A second use for pesto, making wild rice with roasted vegetables and adding the pesto sauce. My version is pictured below.
Lastly, you can use pesto in your quinoa bowls. It’s useful to make a big batch of quinoa and roasted vegetables on the weekends and then use as lunches throughout the week!
2. Black cherry tomatoes: used in quinoa enchiladas or corncakes and summer salad
I’ve never tried black cherry tomatoes before, and when I did last summer I became obsessed. They taste like sweeter ripe cherry tomatoes. I did not roast them because they taste so fresh, I thought it was best to eat them raw.
Quinoa enchiladas- my friend recently had a baby so I made her dinner one night once she got back from the hospital. I loved this meal pack because it’s vegetarian using a lot of fresh produce, but also really filling. The quinoa enchiladas had bell peppers and beans inside. I put kale in olive oil on the bottom of the dish and it got crispy as it cooked in the oven. I also put toppings to add on the enchiladas separately, the black cherry tomatoes and turnip. We made some kale chips with olive oil and sea salt on the side. Lastly, some strawberries, apple and mint with honey for dessert!
The next dish I made is very summer and seasonal- corn cakes with honey butter and a summer salad with field greens, grilled corn, and black cherry tomatoes. I found that black cherry tomatoes and grilled corn in summer go together like 2 peas in a pod. The flavors really compliment each other.
I have many more recipe inspriation ideas, but this blog post is long so I’ll create a part 2!