[Week 6] Mandolines: Yea or Nay?

Plus: An Indispensable Seasoning

Hello Farm Share Friends,

If you’ve belonged to a farm share for any period of time, you’ve likely found managing a heap of greens to be as challenging as figuring out what to do with one bulb of fennel or a small bundle of radishes or a single, tiny head of broccoli.

When I find myself in such situations, I most often reach for my mandoline. Fennel, radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, and countless other hard vegetables transform when shaved thinly, becoming more palatable without any cooking.

I find these raw, thinly shaved vegetables add great texture, heft, and color to salads of all kinds.

I have two mandolines in my arsenal: a Benriner mandoline (pictured above), and a Once for All mandoline, which is safer than the Benriner but also bulky. Because of its many pieces, I store the Once for All mandoline in the basement, and because it’s in the basement, well, I rarely pull it out.

I can’t imagine not having a mandoline in my toolset, and what I love about the Benriner is its slim profile — I store it in a cupboard above the fridge (where the children are not likely to be exploring) tucked against the inside wall. It’s easy to pull out and easy to stow. It comes with a small, plastic finger guard, which works effectively.

Friends, do you find a mandoline to be essential? Please share.

Arugula, Fennel and Parmesan Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette.

PS: This is what I do with the farm share cucumbers 90% of the time: peel them, slice them, and shower them with sea salt. I cannot imagine going through farm share season without a bucket of Maldon sea salt by my side. It’s reasonably priced and makes summer salads and salsas shine.

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Week 6 Vegetables

This week I’m most looking forward to the beets. My mother sent me a photo of a beet-marinated burrata ball from a restaurant she dined at in Spain last month, and I’ve been dying to re-create it. Stay tuned!

I’ll shoot to use the snow peas, head lettuce, and summer squash earlier in the week. Everything else will keep fine in the fridge or on the countertop (parsley, scallions, and maybe the fresh onions?) for one week.

• ​cucumbers → Cucumber Recipes

• beets → Beet Recipes

• zucchini or summer squash → Summer Squash Recipes

• snow peas → Snap Pea Recipes

• cabbage → Cabbage Recipes

• kale → Kale Recipes

• eggplant → Eggplant Recipes

• fennel → Fennel Recipes

• bell peppers → Bell Pepper Recipes

• parsley → Herb Recipes

• ​​fresh onions → Onion Recipes

• head lettuce → Salads

• Swiss chard → Swiss chard recipes

• scallions → Scallion Recipes

Find recipes for all the vegetables here → Farm Share Vegetables

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8 Recipes

Thank you Teri and Jenny for sending along more cabbage recipes and Erin, as always, for all of your wonderful ideas. I’m so looking forward to making:

Susan Spungen’s Zucchini Baba Ganoush…

… and Hetty McKinnon’s Roasted Cabbage Caesar Salad…

Linda Pugliese for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini.

and Ali Slagle’s haluski (buttery cabbage and noodles), which I have never heard of, but which Teri told me has become her cabbage-hating husband’s favorite meal.

Joel Goldberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

I’m also looking forward to making this simple, old favorite:Balsamic-Roasted Eggplant & Arugula Sandwiches and this…

… Salt-Roasted Beet Salad.

I bet this would work with the Swiss Chard in place of the spinach:

These look simple and good:

Eggplant Involtini: a summer favorite:

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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 :)