This week your basket contains: red, white, & blue new potatoes, broccoli, summer squash, cucumber, beets, CARROTS, onions, and lettuce.

Happy Bastille Day!  What good luck to have two holidays in two weeks that call for celebration with red, white, and blue potatoes. We hope you enjoy them.

After the difficult year we had with carrots last year we are happy to have a good harvest coming on.  We’ll be working on this first planting for a few weeks and have high hopes for the seeding that is coming along after this one (we do four plantings a year to allow for a succession of harvest dates).  The recipe below is perfect for these fresh young carrots.

ROASTED CARROTS WITH CARROT TOP SALSA VERDE

For the Roasted Carrots

5-10 new summer carrots with tops attached

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pinch sea salt

For the Salsa Verde

1 bunch carrot tops; wash carefully to remove grit

1 handful fresh mint

1 Tbsp capers

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

¼ cup pine nuts or cashews

4 Tbsp olive oil

For the Carrots

Chop the tops off the carrots & set aside

Heat the oven to 425⁰.  Arrange the carrots on an oven tray & sprinkle over the olive oil & salt (add a little smoked paprika if you feel like it).  Roast for approx 20 minutes until softened and slightly scorched on the pointy ends. Make the Salsa Verde while the carrots are roasting.

For the Salsa Verde

Put all the ingredients into a blender or food processor & whizz until combined. Taste & add extra olive oil or a little bit of the caper juice if needed. Serve the roasted carrots dotted with salsa verde & any extra herbs you have. Serve extra salse verde in a little ramekin for people to help themselves to more.

This is likely the last week for broccoli, so this is also the last opportunity to make one of my favorite summer salads 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 can serve 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.

This recipe was passed to us a few years back by a subscriber who says this is always a hit at potluck events (remember those?)

MAYE’S BEETS

2-3 medium beets

3 T. sour cream or yoghurt

1 T. prepared horseradish, or to taste

¼  t. salt

¼ t. sugar

dash of black pepper, to taste

Cut off the stems of the beet greens, scrub but don’t peel. (Save the greens for another dish, or use them as a garnish for this one.) Boil the beets in water to cover until they are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and cool. When cool, rub off the peel, and cut into thin strips, or for the talented among you, julienne them. There should be about 2 cups. Blend the sour cream or yoghurt with the horseradish, salt, sugar and pepper. Add the beets and stir gently. Chill and serve.  From Sundays at Moosewood.