Fennel, Radish and Strawberry Salad with Sumac

Photo by Yuki Sugiura  for The Guardian.


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JP tells me the June 13, 2017 farm share for Glade Road Growing will include fennel, baby greens, summer squash, cilantro, beets with greens, and red radishes.

The Guardian had this lovely picture by London based photographer Yuki Sugiura of a salad with fennel and radishes with pomegranate seeds.  Given the season and what's available locally, might I suggest strawberries instead?  I've seasoned this salad with ground sumac, often added to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking to add tartness.  While the staff at Eats told me that they don't stock sumac in their bulk spices, they suggest you might try Oasis.  You can also harvest sumac here in the fall.  (Poison sumac has white berries, but for more identification, see this post from the Ashville, NC foraging company, No Taste Like Home.)

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Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 tbsp lime juice
1 fennel bulb, about half a pound trimmed
1/2 pound of red radishes, trimmed
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cups of strawberries, trimmed and halved
1 tsp sumac (optional, if you can't find it)
Sea salt

Directions:

1.  Wash the fennel and trim the root end off the bulb and discard.  Trim off the stems and fronds and cut the bulb into quarters  and slice thinly.  Place in a bowl of cold water with 1 tablespoon of the lime juice to keep from discoloring.  Reserve stems and fronds for another purpose.  (I like to coarsely chop and steam the stems and puree them like I would celery in soups.  I like to puree the fronds with nuts, olive oil and Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese to make a pesto.)

2.  Wash the radishes and trim off the roots and discard. Trim off the leaves, if any and finely slice the radishes.  If there are leaves, you can use reserve them for another use.  (I like to chop and saute them, as I would turnip greens.  They also add a peppery taste to salads.)

3.  Wash the strawberries, drain immediately.  Trim off the top stem and leaves.  Cut in halves, or quarters, if large.

3.  To make dressing, whisk the oil and remaining lime juice together.

4.  Drain the fennel and toss gently with the radishes and strawberries. Drizzle over the dressing and serve on individual plates, dusted with sumac and a little salt.  Serve immediately.

Salad of Tatsoi, Carrots, Radishes and Cilantro Toasted Peanuts and Citrus Avocado Puree

Photo from Alayna Tucker is from a salad she ate at Billy and Kristin Allin's restaurant Cakes & Ale  in Decatur, Georgia.



Tucker doesn't provide a recipe, but she lists the ingredients as tatsoi, carrot, radish, fresh cilantro and peanuts, served with a citrus avocado puree.  Since the October 6 farmshare from Glade Road Growing  is slated to  tat soi, radish and carrot (as well as include lettuce mix, bunch arugula and delicata squash) I used this photograph as inspiration for today's recipe.  Tatsoi, like its more famous cousin bok choy is an Asian green in the mustard family.

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Serves 4

1.  Rinse and drain tatsoi, radish, carrot and cilantro.  (If the radish comes with the greens remove them and use for a savory salad green with the arugula and lettuce mix.  If you're not making this recipe today, go ahead and separate the leaves from the bulbs of the radish, as both will keep better separately.)  Thinly slice the radishes and carrots into round slices using a sharp knife or a mandoline.  Separate the tatsoi leaves.  If the tat soi leaves are large, tear into several pieces.  Pull the leaves off the stems of the cilantro.  Store any extra cilantro in a lidded glass jar inverted in the refrigerator.


2.  To make the dressing, halve, peel and de-pit one ripe avocado. Smash, peel and mince one clove of garlic. Squeeze 2 tablespoons of orange juice and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. In a blender or food processor, puree puree the avocado, garlic, orange juice, and lime juice. Season with 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes and a dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. With the machine on, gradually blend in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.

3.  Dress the tatsoi and vegetables but keep separate.  Divide the tatsoi among four plates or bowls.  Arrange the radish and carrot slices on top of each serving.  Garnish with cilantro and toasted peanuts and serve immediately.   If you'd like this to be a main coarse, rather than a side, you can add cook beans or chopped cooked chicken.

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While I'm at here's another recipe for the squash and radishes, a jewel-toned Moroccan stew I really like. You can use the tatsoi as a cooked green with tempeh or in a stew with tempeh or tofu and the squash, rather than sweet potatoes.  The arugula is yummy served wilted in a salad with pears and cheese or tossed with whole wheat pasta, walnuts and asiago cheese.

Tsimmes

Photo is a screenshot from this video on the Food Network.



The November 11 farmshare from Glade Road Growing is slated to include  sweet potatoes, roasting radish, rutabaga, turnips, fennel, and napa cabbage.  Sally asked for something for folks who don't much like turnips.

I'm guessing some find the taste too sharp when they're raw; roasting will make them taste milder.  You can make them milder yet, if you cook them with veggies with more natural sugar, such as this week's sweet potatoes and/or carrots, onions and beets.  You can even add a bit of honey or sugar and/or dried fruit.

All this brings me to a recipe from the Jewish tradition, tsimmes, which is a sweetened combination of vegetables (or of meat and vegetables), which has been stewed, roasted  or baked.  Joan Nathan has a bunch of great recipes, which inspired mine for this week.

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Serves 8

1.  Wash and halve, a sweet potato, roasting radish and  rutabaga.  Wash, and trim turnips and fennel of root end and any greens.  (Reserve the greens for another use.)

2.   Peel and halve 2 onions.  I also like to use 2 tart apples, 4 carrots,  and one beet.

3.  Roast (cut side up, if applicable) for half an hour at 450 degrees F in convection oven or or wrapped in aluminum foil on a cookie sheet in a conventional oven.

4.  Cool enough to handle and remove skin from sweet potatoes, radish, rutabaga and turnips.  Chop all the veggies and apples into large pieces.  Boil 2 cups of water with 2 TB honey or demerara sugar.  Add roasted veggies and apples and return to a boil, then reduce to simmer. Stir in 2 TB of orange juice concentrate and 1 TB of butter or extra virgin olive oil  and cook until softened and the flavors combine.

5.  Serve warm, topped with toasted walnuts.

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Or if you like turnips just fine raw, you can make a nice shaved salad of the turnips, fennel, radish, carrots and nappa cabbage.

Salad of Shredded Pears, Watermelon Radishes and Hakurei Turnips Served with Asian Dressing and Greens

This photo accompanied a  Sanura Weathers recipe in Frugavore. Check out her blog, My Life Runs on Food (at the link for her name) for more of her creations. Weathers used kohlrabi and a balsamic vinaigrette, but I adopted the recipe for a more Asian flavor, using the October 7 farm share from Glade Road Growing, which is slated to include: tat soi, bok choy, a watermelon roasting radish, cilantro, red onion, salad turnips, and arugula.

Weathers and I both like to combine something sweet such as pears with  the sharp taste of greens like arugula (last year's recipe) and brassica root crops such as turnips and radishes.  If you find the turnips and radishes too sharp for your taste when raw, you can make them milder by lightly sauteing with the onion and letting them cool before adding to the dressing.

1.  Wash tatsoi, bok choy, arugula, and cilantro and dry using a salad spinner or by setting in a colander lined with a clean kitchen towel.   Remove the cilantro from its stems and reserve stems for another use, such as a vegetable broth or pesto.  If arugula is mature, wilt in a lightly oiled skillet and set aside to cool.

2.  Smash, peel and mince a couple of cloves of garlic.  Peel and finely mince fresh ginger root to make 1/2 TB.  Combine in a covered jar with the juice of one lime, 2 TB of extra virgin olive oil, 1 TB of miso,  a dash of freshly ground black pepper, a small pinch of crushed red pepper

3.  Separate turnips from greens, reserve greens for another use. Trim root end.  Peel red onion and discard peel or save for making a vegetable broth. Cut in half and reserve one half for another use.  Trim ends from watermelon radish and peel. (If the greens are included separate and reserve as you did for the turnips.) Peel one under ripe bosc pear, trim ends, cut vertically in half and use spoon or melon baller to remove tough center and seeds.  Using a box grater, coarsely grate the turnips, onion, radish and pear into a large bowl.

4.  Lightly toss the grated salad and dressing. Let marinate for at least an hour at room temperature.
Toss again before serving.

5.  Prepare a bed of shredded tatsoi and/or bok choy either on a large platter or in individual bowls.  Top with grated salad and garnish with arugula and cilantro.  If you like, you can also top with  crumbled goat, feta or blue cheese and nuts such as walnuts, pecans or almonds.

Tatsoi is one of my favorite greens. You can use just the bok choy for this salad and save the tatsoi to make my tempeh recipe from last year.  The tatsoi would also be nice in a salad with clementines, bell pepper, red onion and almonds in a dijon vinaigrette, similar to the one shown in this photo from Shabnam Arora Afsah's Flavor n' Spice blog post:

Or, Martha Stewart has a nice recipe for poached sweet potatoes and tofu with tatsoi  photographed by one of my favorites, Romulo Yanes.

Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai

Photo from The Functional Foodie

The September 23 farm share for Glade Road Growing is slated to include: spaghetti squash, dill, bok choy, Rosa de Tropea onions, carrots and radishes.

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash with flesh that appears solid until it is cooked and falls into  strands like spaghetti.  Many folks cook it with an Italian-inspired tomato or primavera sauce, which is delicious, but I decided to go Asian and provide a recipe for the stir-fried noodle dish Pad Thai, since the consistency reminds me more of rice noodles than of wheat pasta.  The recipe in the photograph called for tofu and bean spouts, but I prefer tempeh to tofu  and substituted radishes and bok choy for the bean sprouts, since they are in the farm share this week.

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Serves 4

For peanut sauce:  Process in a blender, food processor or mortar and pestle:
1/4 c. roasted peanut (or substitute cashew and/or sunflower seeds, if you are allergic to peanuts)
2 tbsp white rice vinegar or lime juice
1 tbsp of miso
1 tbsp demerara or turbinado sugar and 1 clove of garlic.
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

For garnish, in separate bowls prepare:
1/3 cup of chopped roasted peanuts, cashews or sunflower seeds
1/3 cup of cilantro leaves torn loose from stem
1/3 cup of chopped green onions
1 lime cut into wedges

Cook the spaghetti squash.  To prep, cut in half, scoop out seeds and stringy pulp with a spoon.  I roast mine face up in a convection oven at 475 for 30 minutes, but you can also cook it in a baking dish  with 1/4 cup of water face down  about 12 minutes in a microwave or  about 35 minutes in a conventional oven at 350 degrees F or until  soft. Set squash to cool and then use a fork to separate the flesh into ribbons.

While the squash is cooking and cooling, prep the other veggies.  Thinly slice one of the Rosa de Tropea onions.  Cut carrots into matchsticks to make 1 cup.  Thinly slice radishes to make one cup.  Thinly slice bok choy to make one cup.  Mince 3 cloves of garlic a one-inch piece of fresh ginger root. Cut one block of tempeh into thin slices.

In a lightly oiled skillet, cook tempeh until lightly browned, about 3 minutes and remove from heat.

Re-oil skillet and add onions, garlic and ginger;  stir until onions are softened and translucent. Add carrots and radishes and stir for about 1 minute more. Add sauce and tempeh and stir gently, until thoroughly mixed.  Remove from heat and add bok choy and squash, tossing to combine. Pour into a deep platter or divide among individual bowls and garnish.  Serve at once.

Another Moroccan Stew: Beets, Buttercup Squash and Radishes

Photos of heirloom buttercup squash and radishes from the French J&L Seeds and Planet Natural respectively.
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Yesterday evening at the Glade Road Growing potluck, Sally was talking about the survey results.  Although she's only had ten answers to date, the most frequent answer for "least liked new veggie" is either radish or salad turnip.  She asked if I could provide a suggestion for radishes in the recipe for this week's newsletter.

I thought that maybe those folks who don't enjoy radishes object to the sharp taste, which can be  down by slicing them  very thin or by pickling or combining them with fat and acid (think balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil or nuts or cheese. Radishes will also be milder in taste when roasted, braised, sauteed, steamed or stewed. The following is a recipe that combines cooked radishes with the buttercup squash and garlic we are slated to find in this week's farm share.

Other expected veggies this week are napa cabbage (think kimchi, Asian stir fries and soups) and Greenstar lettuce mix.

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Serves 6

If you are going to cook your own dried garbanzo beans/aka chickpeas (which I prefer to canned), start the night before or at least two hours early.  The night before you make this stew or at least two hours before, cover 1/2 # of beans (1 cup) with 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Soak for an hour or overnight, rinse, add three cups of water, bring to boil and cook until tender.  Rinse and drain.


Peel and dice 2/3 pound of beets (about 2 cups).  If you want this to be a little less messy and bring out the sweetness, you can quarter and roast them first before slipping off the skins and dicing.  

Wash a buttercup squash (or other winter squash, such as delicata, acorn, butternut, hubbard or pumpkin).  Winter squash are hard and thick-skinned, which make them store well, but hard to peel and cube unless you first cook them slightly.  You can do this by cutting off the stem end, halving it,  scooping out the seeds and fiber with a spoon and baking, microwaving or steaming until slightly soft. Or, to bring out the sweetness, you can roast the halves at the same time as the beets.   Cut the softened squash into 1/2 rounds and peel, then dice into 1/2 inch cubes.  You will need up to 2 cups for this recipe.  If there is more, you can save it for another recipe.  You can roast the seeds the same way you would pumpkin seeds.

Wash and trim stems and leaves  on about  2/3 pound radishes.(You can reserve the leaves and stems to use as a spicy salad green).

Coarsely dice 1 onion or two small onions.

Smash, peel and mince 4 cloves fresh garlic.

Finely grated zest of 1 medium lemon (about 1 1/2 teaspoons).  If there is more, you can save in a jar with a tight lid.

Measure out the following spices:
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes



Coat the skillet or dutch oven with extra virgin olive oil and saute onions, stirring occasionally until softened.  Add the garlic and spices and stir to combine.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic and spices are fragrant, about 1 minute.  If you don't have a dutch oven, transfer to a 3 quart or larger heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot with a lid.  De-glaze skillet with a bit of water and add to pan.

Add  beets, 2 1/2 cups water and stir to combine. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the beets are slightly softened.  Add squash, radishes, chickpeas, 1/4 cups of raisins, 1 T sweetener such as raw sugar, molasses, honey or maple syrup.  Return the mixture to a simmer and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring every 10 minutes and making sure to stir to the bottom of the pot to rotate the vegetables evenly, until the vegetables are fork-tender but still hold their shape, about 45 minutes.

While stew is cooking, prepare garnishes  coarsely chop 1/4 fresh cilantro. Slice 3/4 cups of almonds and toast in skillet. 

 Taste and season with salt as needed. Remove from the heat and stir in  lemon zest.  Serve stew over a cooked starch.  Couscous is traditional, but this also works with cooked brown rice, quinoa, wheat berries, barley or millet, if you prefer a whole grain.

Sprinkle with the almonds and cilantro.