[Week 1] Swiss Chard Hummus, Simple Sautéed Tatsoi & More Recipes for ALL the Greens
Plus: How to Store Basil and Parsley
Farm Share Friends: it’s here! The first farm share of the season. I pick up my vegetables this afternoon, and I’m so looking forward to having a big bundle of fragrant basil sitting on my countertop for the first time in months.
To review: I find the best way to store farm share basil is in a jar filled with an inch or so of water at room temperature. Note: This method does not work well for the supermarket basil I buy outside of farm share season, which seems to do best wrapped in a bag with all of the air squeezed out.
Parsley is more forgiving than basil, but I find it also does best when treated like flowers. You can store the parsley in the water glass in the fridge (with a bag over the top) or at room temperature.
If you have other storage ideas, please share! And remember: snip away any rubber bands before storing your vegetables.
Week 1 Vegetables
In addition to basil and parsley, we’re receiving lots of greens in the first farm share of the season:
scallions → Scallion Recipes
kale → Kale Recipes
chard recipes → Chard Recipes
basil → Herb Recipes
head lettuce → Salads
bok choy → Bok Choy Recipes
parsley → Herb Recipes
Tatsoi (see recipe below)
Find recipes for all the vegetables here → Farm Share Vegetables
Rough Meal Plan
The recipes scribbled onto this rough meal plan can be found below. Please share your recipe ideas, too.
8 Recipes
One of you — hey, Erinn 👋 — sent along some wonderful recipe suggestions, some of which I’ve shared below and others I’ll share in the weeks ahead. I’m most excited about this Bon Appetit Recipe for Swiss Chard Hummus:
But also these Extra-Flaky Scallion Pancakes, which Erinn makes often.
For the head lettuce, I’ll make a simple salad with this Lemon Vinaigrette. This would be nice aside this grilled chicken.
Bok Choy Salad with Sesame-Almond Crunch This salad is a staple this time of year. I love it with this warm tofu.
For the kale, I’ll either wilt it into these lentils or…
… make a salad.
Basil Pesto: If I have time this week, I’ll make a big batch of basil pesto…
… and freeze it for the months ahead.
I’ll likely make this simple sautéed tatsoi tonight and serve it with potstickers (frozen, Trader Joe’s):
Sautéed Tatsoi
tatsoi
olive oil
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
crushed red pepper flakes
kosher salt
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Place the tatsoi in a large bowl filled with cold water. This will allow any dirt to fall to the bottom of the bowl.
Meanwhile, drizzle some olive oil (use your judgment depending on how much tatsoi you have) into a large sauté pan. Add minced garlic to taste. Set the pan over medium heat. When the garlic begins to sizzle, add the crushed red pepper flakes, and turn off the heat. Set the pan aside.
When the water boils, add the tatsoi, cook for 30 seconds; then immediately drain.
Turn the heat under the saut pan to medium-high. When the garlic and pepper flakes begin to sizzle, add the tatsoi. Season with salt to taste. Shake the pan or turn the tatsoi with tongs to coat it in the olive oil-garlic mixture. Serve immediately.
Fellow Farm Sharers: Please share in the comments links to recipes you are loving for your early season farm share vegetables! Tips, questions, and suggestions are always welcome, too. Enjoy your vegetables! 🥦🥬🥒🌶🌽🥕 See you next week :)
So happy to see the Farm newsletter back!
Re: Storing herbs, with basil I try to use it as fast as possible, usually same day, or I freeze it in ice cube trays covered with olive oil. When available, I buy a basil plant, and keep it on my window sill, snipping when I need some.
I used to store Cilantro and parsley in a glass jar, stems in water, and covered by a plastic bag, in the fridge. The downside was it took a lot of room in my fridge and it was accidentally tipped over a couple of times, which made a huge mess. That is when I decided to try my wide mouth mason jars with the plastic screw lids.
I add water to the mason jar, a few inches, then cut the stems quite short, on the herbs. Remove the ties or whatever around the herbs. Add the herbs to the jar, stems downward. If any are sticking out the top, I gently coax them inside the jar. Put on the lid and store in the fridge. No fear of spillage, and the herbs are completely protected against bruising, etc. And actually, I find most herbs keep longer with this set up than the bag method. To access, simply pull up a few stems at at time until you have what you need and put the rest back in the fridge.
Hello Alex, I've been looking through your farm newsletters and regular posts. I didn't locate the socca/parm "pizza" recipe. Can you point me in the right direction. (ps I keep getting distracted by all the fresh, irresistible recipes I likely have missed the socca!) Thank you.