Our first CSA share showed up yesterday, delivered from Burning River Farm by farmer/owner Mike Noreen. What a bounty: bok choy, broccoli rabe, crispy-fresh head lettuces, baby kale, spinach, and a basket of herbs for planting so that we'll have herbs later on this summer. Oh, those greens - they looked so good that I felt better just opening the box, even before I had eaten them.
Then, my mom arrived at my door with bags of freshly snipped leaf lettuces and just-picked asparagus. By now I'm feeling like a queen, with all of these riches of the new summer garden season arriving in my kitchen.
Shortly after the whirlwind of first-day CSA share pick-ups last night, my doorbell rang – it was my friend and neighbor Mary Jo holding in her hand a bunch of greens, wondering what they were and what she should do with them. This marks the other start to the summer garden and market season - shifting our way of eating away from the typical shopping list and grocery store options, to choosing what's here, right now. Excitement can easily give way to feeling stymied or overwhelmed, though, when good intentions for opening the CSA box, buying arms full of veggies at the farmer's market, or watching rows of Swisschard come up in the garden turn into vegetable panic.
But it's not that hard. Eating fresh using the best vegetables of the moment actually takes less time – fresher food takes less work to make it taste good and vegetables cook more quickly because they are still plump and full of water from growing in the soil and not being shipped cross-country.
My advice to Mary Jo was to gently sauté the broccoli rabe with some olive oil and garlic and then throw in an egg or two to scramble, tossed with the greens. She reported back this morning that it was delicious.
So that's the new bottom line, when we're heading into this season of bounty and "of the moment" fresh foods. Quick is good. To use fresh greens after work but save time, rinse the greens, roll them gently in a kitchen towel and store them in a plastic bag – they'll stay nice and crispy fresh, and won't lose their moisture or nutrition to the dehydrating environment in the fridge. Take some out for lunches or dinner all week, and make a green smoothie with some of them in the morning.
Dinner can be quick as well. All greens taste good lightly steamed and served with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar or freshly-squeezed lemon juice, and some good salt and fresh pepper. Or sauté them with some garlic or maybe even some Texas sweet onions (also in season right now - delicious), add a little crumbled Wisconsin or Minnesota feta cheese and toss the whole thing with some whole wheat pasta for a more substantial weeknight dinner (see recipe below). Or, put steamed greens over some cooked sweet brown rice or wild rice and top with a Thai peanut sauce – coconut is slightly sweet and it makes a great pairing with the flavors of the greens. With all of these options, using a little fat from the eggs, olive oil, cheese, or coconut milk is key - dark leafy greens and fresh head lettuces are Vitamin A-rich, and we need a little good, healthy fat to help us unlock and absorb the available nutrients.
Try eating more salads, too. Salads should become more of the main story, at least a few times a week in the summer. A big pile of fresh greens can be topped with your favorite grilled mushrooms, fish, chicken or meat, as well as thinly sliced raw vegetables of every variety for extra crunch, flavor and nutrition. Keep the dressing light to let the flavors really sing in your mouth – drizzle with fresh olive oil and lemon or whip together a quick salad dressing. (Homemade is so much better than bottled, in every way – tastes better, doesn't have all of those thickeners, stabilizers, modifiers, preservatives, and colorings, and it costs much, much less.)
The key is that if you want to eat well, then yes, it will take a little more time than dialing for take-out. But the rewards are literally life-giving. Instead of your poor little old body fighting inflammation and fatigue, you will be giving yourself energy and fuel from the original source. Real food. From the earth. Grown not by accident, but with purpose and a reason – and, incidently, chock full of things that we really, really need. Eat!
Fresh Greens and Feta with Whole Wheat Pasta
A painless way to eat your greens!
6 T olive oil
4 cups chopped Vidalia onions (or red or yellow onions)
7-8 cups mixed greens - kale, chard, collards, arugula, spinach, bok choy - washed, dried, cut off the stem and coarsely chopped
sea salt
3/4 lb whole wheat bowtie pasta (I prefer the Bionaturae brand)
1/2 lb. good local feta (try Shepherds Way), crumbled
freshly ground pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
Set the pasta water on to boil.
Heat olive oil in a deep skillet dutch oven. Add onions and cook for 10 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until golden and sweet.
Add the chopped greens to the skillet, salt lightly, and stir until the greens begin to wilt. Cover and cook 5 minutes over medium-low heat.
Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente in salted water. When the pasta is just about done, remove the cover from the greens, turn it down to low and add the crumbled feta. Drain the pasta and add it to the greens mixture immediately, tossing to mix thoroughly.
Season with fresh pepper, red pepper flakes and salt if needed. Serve immediately.
