What the heck's a bonbon?

Super Simple Roasted Root Vegetables - CSA recipe for early summer

Seriously.  This is so easy and sooooo good.  I don't know what else to say.  Just try it.

Roasted Root Vegetables

• 3 small beets
• 1 large potato
• 5 small carrots
• 5 small turnips
• 2 cloves unpeeled garlic
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 sprig sage- leaves separated
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt

 Preheat the oven to 400°.  Cut all vegetables except the garlic into pieces that are about the same size.  Place into a roasting pan along with the unpeeled garlic, rosemary, and sage.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt to taste.  Toss to coat.  Roast for 45 minutes stirring the veg occasionally.

Delicious!

 

Related articles

CSA recipe for late spring: Beef & vegetable lettuce cups with kohlrabi salad

Garlic Scape Pesto Primavera - A CSA recipe for late spring/early summer

How To Roast Garlic: An Easy Guide

Healthy lunch box recipes: courgetti with rocket, spinach and red pepper pesto

Roasted Yellow Pepper & Carrot Summer Soup

Rosemary roast new potatoes

Roasted Garlic Cannellini Dip

Garlic Scape Pesto Primavera - A CSA recipe for late spring/early summer

Have you ever woken up with a certain taste craving in the morning and then thought about it all day hoping that you have the ability to pull it off in a dinner recipe that night?  Me too.  And I am happy to say I think I pulled it off with this one.  

When I picked up my last CSA share, it consisted of more garlic scapes (not snakes, as my kids like to call them), radishes, turnips, lettuce, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, arugula, Chinese cabbage, herbs, flowers, and more peas.  I brought my mother-in-law with me this time to pick blueberries, too, which she promptly turned into the best blueberry pie in the world.

But that craving I had was for something garlicky, something vegetable-y, and it included pasta.  So I looked up how to make garlic scape pesto and found the perfect recipe from the Creekside Cook (although I used walnuts instead of pine nuts simply because that's what I had on hand) which I used to make this primavera pasta dish.  

It turned out absolutely PERFECT, in my opinion.  Hope you like it.

 Garlic Scape Pesto Primavera

• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 pound thin spaghetti uncooked
• 1/4 cup onion sliced thin
• 1 each small zucchini, small yellow squash, large carrot all julienned
• 1/2 cup fresh shucked peas (save the husks for a stir fry or other recipe)
• 1/4 cup Garlic Scape Pesto (or regular pesto)
• splash of whole milk
• salt & pepper

Place butter and oil in a large deep pan and turn on medium.  Break spaghetti noodles in half and add them to the pan tossing to coat with butter and oil.  Let them get slightly toasted and then add all the vegetables.  Saute over medium high heat until the vegetables are softened.  Add ladles full of chicken broth, sitrring constantly like you would with risotto, allowing the noodles to absorb the liquid between each addition.  Stop adding liquid when the noodles are al dente. Remove from heat and stir in the pesto and a splash of milk and add salt & pepper to taste.

I served this to my kids with some crusty bread and they both said it was their favorite meal yet!  Score!

CSA recipe for late spring: Beef & vegetable lettuce cups with kohlrabi salad

So I joined a CSA this year through our local B&B Farms in Egg Harbor, NJ.  Last Wednesday was my first pick up ever and let me tell you something. I am in LOVE.  I can remember not even knowing what CSA stood for a couple years ago - it stands for Community Supported Agriculture-  and now it is my favorite thing in the world.  If you have the opportunity to become a part of a CSA and pick up fresh produce every week, I have two words for you: DO IT.

I picked up the most beautiful veg I have ever seen.  3 heads of lettuce, a bunch of beets, 2 heads of kohlrabi, a bunch of garlic scapes, a pint of arugula, 2 bunches of kale, and we picked 2 pints of snap peas ourselves.  I immediately started thinking of how to use these beauties.  The next night, we came up with some lettuce cups.  They were so good, I wanted to share the recipe in case you were looking for something to do with YOUR share this week.

 

 Beef & Vegetable Lettuce Cups with Kohlrabi Salad

• 1 head hohlrabi cut into thin matchsticks
• 1 1/2 carrots- 1 carrot cut into matchsticks, 1/2 carrot diced
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 lb ground beef (I used 85% lean)
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 small red onion diced
• about 10 snap peas diced
• 1 garlic scape diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper diced
• 1/4 c soy sauce*
• 1 to 2 Tbsp sriracha sauce
• 1 Tbsp honey*
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• one head  lettuce, leaves separated
• sesame seeds as garnish
• *Make it Whole 30 compliant by using coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and eliminating the honey

For the salad:

Toss the kohlrabi and carrot matchsticks (save diced carrot) in a bowl with the sugar and rice vinegar.  Set aside.

Cup filling:

Add the ground beef, garlic, onion, snap peas, garlic scape, diced carrot, and peppers to a medium high pan and cook until meat is brown.  If you're using a leaner beef, you might want to add a small bit of oil to the pan.  In a small bowl, mix together the soy, sriracha, honey and ginger.  Pour over meat mixture and heat until warm.  

Assembly:

To assemble the lettuce cups, place two leaves on a plate.  Add about 1/2 cup meat mixture and about 1/4 cup kohlrabi salad to the top.  Garnish with sesame seeds and YUM! Just pick them up like you would a taco.