What do I do with all these vegetables? Part 5: When the going gets tough, the tough pickle the hell out of their share!

 

 

Last week's share brought with it the smell and taste of the summer harvest from Rogowski Farm! We received all sorts of vegetables we had not yet seen this CSA season, including baby kohlrabi. If anyone has seen an "adult" kohlrabi, you know just how daunting they can look: big, purple, with multiple limbs stretching out into its greens, the root of the kohlrabi really looks like a purple alien before you undress it of its skin and find something very similar to a jicama and which can be used in similar ways.

 

I usually make a kohlrabi slaw with my CSA kohlrabi, but I wasn't in the mood this time, and sometimes when we get into a fixed mindset about a vegetable, we can forget there are other things to do with it. So on and on my kohlrabi sat during the week, pretty much forgotten until I finally got some time to work on the project I had in mind to use up the large amounts of sweet, hot, and Banana peppers we have received in the last few weeks, namely pickling them to enjoy their crunchy, tangy, spicy goodness in later months.

For more information on how you (yes, YOU) can pickle in your refrigerator with a minimum of work and a small amount of space, read on!

What do I do with all these vegetables? Part 4: In which a share is decimated (but the kitchen sink is left intact)

I think I may have found the ultimate summer soup recipe that uses up a good deal of the vegetables we have been receiving in our share (or can be added). The herbs are flexible (my suggestions are a guideline) It can be made vegan, it can be made vegetarian, it can be made with meat! Most importantly, it is yummy for adults but very healthy! Maybe even more importantly for some of us, it is easily made for kids (see below for more instructions) and our young taste tester found it pretty tasty.

The recipe is after the jump, and modified from Veggie Venture's Summer Best Corn Chowder (the really, really healthy stats for the recipe, including Weight Watchers points, are also at the site. Be sure to include points for meat if you add it, or calories, if you are watching those!) Thanks to Jessca for posting the original recipe!

What do I DO with all these vegetables? Part 3--The New Mom makes Pink Worm Soup and Oven Roasted Beets and Zucchini with Orange-Paprika Compound Salt

 What my vegetable soup COULD have looked like -- courtesy of http://www.all-creatures.org/recipes/images/soup-vegnood_small-3.jpg

My daughter has decided that regular, jarred baby food is beneath her. This might be because of all the amazing table food she had while were on vacation in Puerto Rico--and the fact that this week, she went out to eat three times (jetsetter AND gourmand): She sampled the carrot soup at a Mediterranean restaurant downtown, had pupusas at a Salvadoran restaurant (her tamale never got to the table), and finished the week off with gazpacho, some chicken, and melon for dessert at lunch with her grandparents.

Figures she would turn her nose up when I tried to serve her baby oatmeal this morning, but I panicked. She had never liked any of the baby food I had made for her in the past--she SPIT OUT some baby hummus I lovingly made for her at five months, ditto oatmeal wih peaches at 8 months--and now I was either going to have to take her out to eat every day...or I would have to learn to make something for her that she would enjoy.

This week's share and recipes after the jump!