This week your basket contains: potatoes, winter squash, leeks, carrots, salad mix (turnip thinnings, arugula, spinach, corn salad, miner’s lettuce, endive, baby bok choy leaves, cabbage, and kale) and RADISH microgreens.

The salad this week is quite hardy (plants have to be hardy to still produce after surviving 16⁰).  This kind of salad takes a hardier dressing. I made a dressing by blending blue cheese into a vinaigrette and added some buttermilk.  It came out very well.  On our web site (and in a note back in January) we have a recipe called buttermilk dressed greens that was the inspiration for the dressing I made.  Check it out and give it a try.

We are coming to the end of the leeks for this year, which means you’ve seen a lot of leeks in your baskets.  The serving suggestion below may be a welcome change to the way you’ve been using them.

MIDDLE EASTERN LEEKS

Try splitting them in half to clean and then chopping into one or two inch lengths and simmering  until tender in olive oil with some lemon, salt and pepper, dried mint, crushed garlic, a little bit of water and a tiny bit of sugar.  They are supposed to cool and then be topped with chopped parsley but they usually don’t last that long here.  They can also be boiled and the other ingredients (minus the water) poured over as a dressing.   See Claudia Roden and The New Book of Middle Eastern Food for more.

As written, the recipe below calls for butternut squash, but it works with any squash you have on hand (not spaghetti squash, though!).  If you have celeriac use it (minced) in place of the celery.

AUTUMN GOLD SQUASH SOUP

1 med. to large butternut squash

1 large onion, chopped

2 Tbs. vegetable oil

¼ tsp. nutmeg

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. dried thyme

2 bay leaves

1 medium carrot, diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 ½ c. water

1 ½ c. tomato juice

1 c. apple juice

1 c. orange juice

salt and pepper

For a full recipe, you need about 2 c. cooked squash pulp.  Bake or boil the squash.  To bake, halve the squash and scoop out the seeds. Place the halves cut side down on an oiled baking sheet and cover loosely with aluminum foil.  Bake at 350 degrees until tender (45 minutes-1 hour).  Scoop out pulp and discard skin.  To boil, peel the squash, halve it and scoop out the seeds.  Cut it into chunks and place in a saucepan with water to cover.  Bring the water to a boil and cook until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.  Drain and reserve the liquid.  Meanwhile, sauté the chopped onion in the oil with the nutmeg, cinnamon, thyme, and bay leaves until onion is translucent.  Add the diced carrot and celery and the water (if you boiled the squash, use the reserved liquid).  Cover and simmer until the carrots are tender.  Remove the bay leaves.  In a blender or food processor, puree the cooked squash, the onion-carrot mixture, and the juices in batches.  Gently reheat the soup and season with salt and pepper to taste.  From Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant.

The recipe below works with any potatoes, not just the purple ones (though they are visually striking!)

PURPLE POTATOES WITH ROSEMARY AND OLIVES

1 pound purple potatoes

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

2 to 3tsp. fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut into thin slivers

Cut the potatoes into 1 inch cubes and put them in a large saucepan with enough water to cover by 2 inches; season with salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer. Simmer until a paring knife just pierces through the potatoes.  Meanwhile, combine the oil and rosemary in a small skillet. Heat over medium heat until the rosemary sizzles; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute, and then remove from the heat and let stand.  Drain the potatoes. Very gently toss with the rosemary oil and olives. Season with salt and pepper. Serve warm. Adapted from Food Network Kitchens