This week your basket contains: new potatoes, carrots, kale, broccoli, cucumber, snow peas (half shares), CABBAGE, zucchini, GARLIC, and beets.

BEET AND BROCCOLI SALAD 

A great salad can be made with beets and broccoli. We steam the broccoli and beets together with the sliced beets on bottom.  Generally, when the broccoli is done (i.e. just turned dark green and starting to get tender) the beets are also done.  We then toss them in a simple vinaigrette and serve them either warm or cold.  This vinaigrette is the one we use:

VINAIGRETTE

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

3 Tbs red wine vinegar

1 tsp wet mustard

5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

black pepper

Press garlic into the bottom of  your salad bowl.  With a fork, mix well with salt until it forms a paste.  Mix in vinegar and mustard until salt is dissolved.  Whisk in olive oil to make an emulsion.  Add black pepper to taste.  These proportions are in no way set in stone.  You should experiment to find the proportions you prefer.  Also, other spices, herbs and vinegars can be used to vary the dressing.

Summer cabbage is perfect for coleslaw or other cabbage salads.  We have a friend who has told us that when a cabbage shows up in their CSA basket, the recipe below is the first thing they make.

ORIENTAL CHICKEN SALAD

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

½ cup thinly sliced onion

3 Tbs cider vinegar

2 Tbs sesame seeds

1 head cabbage

1/3 cup cilantro

2/3 cup fresh mint

2 Tbs roasted unsalted peanuts

3 Tbs sweet and sour fish sauce

In a 5-qt saucepan, bring 3 cups of water to a boil.  Add chicken and when water returns to a boil, cover the pan and remove from heat.  Let stand until chicken is white in the thickest part (cut to check).  This should take 12-15 minutes.  Combine onion and vinegar and let stand 15 minutes.  In a heavy frying pan, stir sesame seeds until golden brown.  Remove from pan.  Shred chicken by hand. Shred enough cabbage to make 6 cups.  Drain the onions and combine in a large bowl with chicken, cabbage, onion, cilantro and mint.  Add peanuts, sesame seeds and fish sauce and mix well.  Makes 4-6servings.

BEET ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD

2 to 5 beets

half a small onion

2 tablespoons vinegar

sea salt or kosher salt to taste

Pinch of sugar

2 to 3 oranges

2 tablespoons olive oil

handful of black, oil-cured olives, pitted and halved

Place beets in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then cook at a gentle simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour or even longer, depending on the size. Just cook them until they are tender — when you stick a small knife into each beet, it should go in smoothly. Let beets cool in the water, then drain them and peel them. Cut each beet into wedges or small cubes and place on a serving platter. Season all over with salt.   Meanwhile, mince the shallot or onion and place in a small bowl. Cover with the vinegar. Season with a pinch of salt and sugar and set aside. Trim off the top and bases of the oranges, and with a sharp knife, slice down along the flesh of the orange to remove the peel. Remove the segments by slicing between the membranes. (Alternatively, cut the oranges into slices, then cut the slices again so that the oranges are in bite-size pieces.) Squeeze the membrane and any orange peels with flesh still attached over the bowl with the macerating shallots. Pour half of the shallot-vinegar-orange mixture over the beets and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Scatter the oranges over top. Pour the remaining shallot mixture over top as well as the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Scatter olives over top. Let sit a few minutes before serving. As you serve, spoon the dressing pooling at the bottom of the plate over the beets and oranges. You could, of course, give everything a toss, just know that the beets will color everything red.   Adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi