Vegetables

Ingredients
Salt
4 medium zucchini
2 tablespoons butter, melted
²⁄₃ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions
1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.  Slice zucchini into sticks about 3 inches long and ¹⁄₂ inch thick.  Add zucchini to water and cook until barely tender, about 3-4 minutes.  Drain well and rinse well with cold water to stop cooking.  Drain again and spread out on paper towels to dry.

2. Meanwhile, preheat broiler and adjust rack to 6 inches away from the heat. Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray.

3. Arrange zucchini on baking sheet in a single layer.  Brush zucchini with butter and then sprinkle with Parmesan, coating as much of the zucchini as possible.

4. Place baking sheet under broiler and cook until cheese is completely melted and browned, about 15 minutes.

Comments
This recipe is from Kalyn’s Kitchen and I found it while looking for something simple and different to do with fresh zucchini. This recipe is extremely simple which is a huge plus.  There’s not much to say about this recipe other than “You should make it.” 

Shown here with Eye Round Roast, Horseradish Cream Sauce, and Garlic and Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes.

Internet - Kalyn’s Kitchen

Ingredients
Corn on the cob, husks and silks removed
Butter, softened

Instructions
1. Rub ¹⁄₂ tablespoon butter over each ear of corn and then tightly wrap each ear of corn in a piece of aluminum foil. 

2. Place foil-wrapped corn in heated grill and cook until tender, 30 to 45 minutes, turning occasionally.  

Comments
I love corn on the cob, it’s one of the things I look forward to all winter.  I’m the only corn lover in the house, though, so I try to only get it to supplement an otherwise full meal.  Corn was new at the market this week and, since I was already planning a grilled dinner, it seemed like an easy thing to do to get 6 ears of corn to grill along with the meat.  So that’s what I did and it was delicious.  I would only grill for only 30 minutes next time since it was a bit too done after 45 minutes. 

Shown here with Marinated and Grilled London Broil and Pasta with Fresh Tomato-Herb Sauce.

Unknown

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
4 large turnips, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium potato, thinly sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I used McCormick’s Montreal Steak seasoning.)
¹⁄₂ cup chicken broth
¹⁄₂ cup half and half

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F. 

2. Melt butter in a large oven-proof skillet over low heat.  Add turnips, potatoes, garlic, cheese, and spices to the skillet and stir to thoroughly mix.  Add broth and half and half to the turnip mixture.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until top is browned and root vegetables are tender. 

Comments
This is inspired by a recipe from Pioneer Woman with a few modifications since I was feeling too lazy to neatly layer the vegetables.  A friend of mine made the recipe not that long ago and felt it needed more spice, so I added the seasoned salt and felt that it worked well. 

I think that this recipe was much too liquidy and, well, greasy.  If I made it again I would use less butter and maybe a bit less half and half as well.  I think turnip gratin has potential, but this didn’t work too well. 

Shown here with Sautéed Tilapia with Honey-Scallion Dressing.

Internet - Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
2-3 bunches garlic scapes, ends trimmed and cut into 1 inch lengths

Instructions
1.   Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add scapes and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to wrinkle. 

Comments
This is another recipe that hardly seems like a recipe at all.  I love garlic scapes but, until now, I’ve only used them in pesto and in the place of garlic in (recipes.  These were great and delicious!  Next time I get garlic scapes I’ll be making them this way.  Once cooked, scapes have a very mild garlic flavor. 

Shown here with Mom’s Chicken and Pasta Amatriciana.

Person - Gwen

Ingredients
1 bunch kale, trimmed (about 4 ounces)
¹⁄₂ pound Yukon gold or red potatoes, cut into ¹⁄₂-inch cubes
¹⁄₂ pound turnips, peeled and cut into ¹⁄₂-inch cubes
³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups onion, diced
2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
¹⁄₄ cup green onions, sliced
¹⁄₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400*F. 

2. Bring water to boil in a large pot over high heat.  Add kale, cover, reduce heat to medium and cook 5 minutes or until tender.  Remove kale with slotted spoon and chop. 

3. Add potatoes and turnips to water, increase heat to high and return to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 10 minutes or until tender.  Drain and mash, then mix with kale and ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt. 

4. Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add ¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt, diced onion, and chopped sage.  Cook 13 minutes or until browned.  Combine potato mixture, onion mixture, green onions, and pepper. Remove from heat and cool slightly. 

5. Divide potato mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a ¹⁄₂-inch-thick patty.  Place patties on baking sheet coated with cooking spray and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven. 

6. Preheat broiler and broil patties for 5 minutes or until browned. 

Comments
This [recipe](http://find.my(recipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=520583&adsqs=) is originally from Cooking Light and I’m afraid that I didn’t manage to make very cohesive patties.  I feel like the recipe really needed an egg or cheese or something similar to act as a binding agent.  Even though the patties fell apart, I thought the flavor was great!   If it only used more kale it would be a great way to use up all the kale I get from the CSA.  I also enjoyed the patties with the mustard dill sauce from the salmon I served with the meal.  I’d suggest making the sauce to go with these patties whether or not you were making the salmon. 

Shown here with Salmon with Mustard Dill Sauce.

Cooking Light

Ingredients
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs, from two slices white bread
3 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated (1 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
¹⁄₈ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 cup chicken broth
¹⁄₂ cup half and half
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 pounds Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and both cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound spinach, coarse stems discarded, leaves coarsely chopped

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400*F. 
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter and toss with bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, herbs, half of nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste in small bowl. 

3. Boil broth in a small saucepan until reduced by half.  Add half and half. 

4. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in small saucepan over medium heat and stir in flour.  Cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Then stir in broth mixture and boil, stirring, 1 minute.  Season sauce with salt and pepper. 

5. Cook onion in remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot over medium-low heat, stirring, until softened.  Add chard stems, remaining nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring, until vegetables are tender but not browned, about 8 minutes. 

6. Increase heat to medium-high and add chard leaves and spinach by large handfuls, stirring, until all greens are wilted.  Season with salt and pepper. 

7. Transfer vegetables to a colander to drain well and press out liquid with back of a large spoon.  (Alternately, you could salad spin the vegetables to remove as much liquid as possible.)  Toss vegetables with sauce and transfer to a buttered baking dish, spreading evenly. 

8. Top vegetables with bread crumbs and bake until edges are bubbling and topping is golden, about 20 minutes. 

Comments
This recipe is from epicurious.com and I greatly enjoyed it.  The guys found it palatable, but they’re not really loved of greens in the first place.  This is sad. I thought the dish, thanks to the great flavors in the topping, was tasty and I’d be willing to make it again if anyone else wanted to eat it with me.  Between you and me, blog readers, I’m quite content just to have Cheater Greens whenever we get greens in our box.  And not just for the bacon!

Shown here with sautéed goat chops.  Teeny, tiny, sautéed goat chops.

Internet - Epicurious

Ingredients
1 ¹⁄₂ pounds turnips, trimmed, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Salt and pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 500*F. 

2. In a medium bowl, toss the turnips with the butter and season them generously with salt and pepper. Spread the turnips evenly onto a roasting pan with room between the pieces. Roast, 25-30 minutes, or until the turnips are tender and brown in spots.  Toss halfway through cooking for even browning. 

Comments
This recipe is from Cookthink.  I was hoping that the turnips would crisp up like potatoes do when roasted, but they remained pretty soft.  The butter did add a nice sweetness to the turnips and they were tasty, but I don’t think I’ll be using this preparation in the future unless I can figure out how to get them to crisp up a bit – maybe pan frying would be more effective? 

Shown here with Grilled Marinated Chuck Steak.

Internet - Cookthink

Ingredients
2 pounds Swiss chard, leaves and stems chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
¹⁄₈ cup fresh parsley, minced
3 large eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
1 cup bread crumbs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F. 

2. In a large saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic, cook until soft and golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Add Swiss chard and parsley.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until chard is wilted and stems are soft.  Remove from heat and let cool. 

3. Break eggs into small bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add Parmesan and mix with a whisk or a fork until well-blended.  Add the Swiss chard mixture to the eggs and stir to combine. 

4. Oil a 9-inch baking dish with the remaining olive oil.  Dust bottom of baking dish with ¹⁄₂ cup bread crumbs.  Carefully place the Swiss chard mixture into the pan.  Coat top with remaining Parmesan and then remaining bread crumbs. 

5. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes. 

Comments
This is a recipe from Mario Batali that I found while looking for something exciting to do with the first Swiss chard of the year.  The original recipe called for some extra steps, but this version is much more streamlined and fairly simple to bring together.  We did feel that there were too many bread crumbs in the topping, so next time I’d reduce the total bread crumbs to ³⁄₄ cup. 

Art loved this and would have had seconds if we didn’t have gorgeous strawberries waiting for dessert.  I think it’s a great way to prepare chard and will revisit the recipe in the future. 

Shown here with Mom’s Chicken.

Internet - Mario Batali

Ingredients
2 (15 ounces each) cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained (A.K.A. chickpeas.)
3 bunches green onion, cut into ¹⁄₄-inch thick slices
3 stalks celery, cut into ¹⁄₄-inch thick slices
2 teaspoons pickle relish (Finding relish that is HFCS-free is difficult.)
2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. Using fork or masher, mash beans to a rough and chunky consistency.  (This can also be done carefully in a food processor.  You want the beans to be rough, not smooth like hummus.)

2. Combine beans and remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Stir well and chill in refrigerator before serving. 

Comments
The other day I was looking for lunch ideas to take when I visit my brother, the vegetarian, later in May.  A friend suggested that I try this salad and it’s delicious!  The texture is similar to tuna salad and it’s pretty similar in taste thanks to all of the other ingredients, it’s just lacking the fishiness of the tuna.  You could easily modify this to suit your tastes, I might add cherry tomatoes next time or even cucumber.  For a vegan version, just use your favorite vegan mayonnaise substitute.  This will probably be my lunch for the rest of the week and I’ll be making a double batch later in the month when I visit my brother!

I like my salads to be chunky, if you don’t you should cut the onions and celery into smaller pieces.

Person - Gwen

Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
¹⁄₄ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
1 medium head green cabbage
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position. Place rimmed baking sheet on rack and heat oven to 450*F. Combine salt, pepper, and sugar in small bowl. Quarter cabbage through core and cut each quarter into 1-inch wedges, leaving core intact. You’ll have about 16 wedges. (I had 12.)  Brush cabbage wedges all over with oil and sprinkle with salt mixture.

2. Arrange cabbage on hot baking sheet and roast until cabbage is tender and lightly browned around edges, about 25 minutes. Drizzle cabbage with vinegar. Serve. 

Comments
Cabbage is a vegetable that I don’t have a lot of experience with, but this recipe from the 2009 Cook’s Country Annual looked promising.  I did forget to preheat the baking sheet, so I’ll have to try it out again at some point.  Even with my mistake, I still thought the cabbage was fantastic.  The flavor was great, the texture was lovely, and the balsamic added a nice finish.

Shown here with Tourtiere.

Cook’s Country 2009