[Week 5] Eggplant Tikkas, Cabbage Tortillas (?) & Cold Peanut Noodles

Plus: Chioggia Beets, Snow Peas & More

Hello Farm Share Friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful and restful July Fourth weekend.

Last week I so enjoyed reading your thoughts on salad spinners, all of which have made me feel more at peace with my mixed feelings toward them: hard-to-store unitaskers but also kind of indispensable.

But also, as I am discovering, not so much unitaskers after all. I spent part of the long weekend visiting family in Vermont, during which time I stored the farm share arugula in my salad spinner in the fridge, just as I had the week prior, and last night I opened it to once again find crisp and vibrant arugula.

Salad spinner-as-lettuce-preserver: who knew?

I dressed the arugula in this lemon vinaigrette and shaved in lots of parmesan (photo above). It’s such a simple, classic combination and it is especially good with farm share arugula. The preparation would work with head lettuce and kale, too, as we’re not receiving arugula this week.

Last week I also made cabbage tortillas. This is what happened: I had made okonomiyaki but got tired of frying the batter, so I added some grated parmesan cheese to what remained, dropped it onto a parchment-lined sheet pan in six small mounds, spread each mound into a circle, and baked them for 25 minutes or so.

They were surprisingly good! I melted cheese over the top and filled them with sauteed greens — all I had! — but any number of fillings would work.

Question: Does the idea of cabbage as a tortilla sound appealing? Or odd? I’ll write up the recipe if there is interest.

PS: Reminder: Always snip away rubber bands before storing your vegetables and separate greens from roots, too. Turnips are not in this week’s share, but you’ll want to do this with your beets, which are expected in this week’s share:

---

Week 5 Vegetables

We did not actually receive a share this week due to the holiday, but my Roxbury Farm email newsletter tells me many of you will be receiving lots of goodies this week including eggplant 🤗 and Chioggia beets 🎉

Check out these posts for more recipe ideas, particularly for tatsoi in Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and other vegetables in Week 4.

• ​cucumbers → Cucumber Recipes

• cabbage → Cabbage Recipes

• snow peas → Snap Pea Recipes

• eggplant → Eggplant Recipes

• basil and cilantro → Herb Recipes​​

• head lettuce → Salads

• kale → Kale Recipes

• red onions → Onion Recipes

• tatsoi → Bok Choy Recipes

• Chioggia beets → Beet Recipes

• zucchini or summer squash → Summer Squash Recipes

Find recipes for all the vegetables here → Farm Share Vegetables

---

8 Recipes

I’ve very excited to try many of the recipes my friend Erinn and several of you have passed along this week, namely:

Tanya Holland’s Kale and Peach Salad with Hot Honey Vinaigrette — I had my first perfect, juicy peach of the summer this past weekend, and this salad is calling my name:

Maunika Gowardhan’s Eggplant Tikkas: How fun do these look? Maybe on homemade naan?

This Cold Peanut Noodle Salad with Cucumber is perfect for super hot summer days:

Jenny Rosenstrach’s snap pea salad with peanut dressing sounds addictive:

Susan Spungen’s Bucatini with pea pesto, which I think I’ll make using a few of the summer squash I have from last week’s share in place of the asparagus:

Hetty McKinnon’s cabbage carbonara-ish:

For the Chioggia Beets, Charlie Bird’s Farro Salad:

For the summer squash: 4-Ingredient Zucchini Tortillas (This recipe is the inspiration behind the cabbage tortillas mentioned above.)

---

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 :)