Or... What's In My CSA Box (March 29th) and What Do I Do With It?

This week's CSA share had a lot of familiar faces - beets, carrots, turnips and kohlrabi - and one fresh new arrival, dill.  Excited at the prospect of incorporating the dill into my dish this week, I started mentally scrolling through recipes where dill is the star.  Aside from fish dishes, dill pickles and my favorite garlic dill sauerkraut, the dish that stood out to me was potato salad.  I looked at these beautiful veggies it came to me - a 'potato' salad with no potatoes at all!

When I found this gorgeous purple cauliflower at the farmer's market (thank you Anne at High Energy Agriculture) I knew I had to bring it home with me.  Not only is purple my favorite color, its one of those hard to find colors in nature.  When you hear 'eat the rainbow' (and I don't mean Skittles), its because the different colors in vegetables correspond to different phytonutrients.  In order to get the widest range of antioxidants and phytonutrients, eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables is essential. 

I've always loved to play with spices and intense flavors and I've experimented a lot with creating Indian spice blends.  I've scoured blogs and watched plenty of YouTube videos with Indian women showing how to combine the right amount of spices from their masala dabba to create the perfect dish but I always felt my dishes didn't quite hit the mark.  That magical something that is passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter when cooking these traditional dishes eludes me still.  And then I found Arora Creations spice blends and the pressure was off. 

And what do I do with it?
This week's CSA box contained a whole lot of root vegetables along with a beautiful head of bok choy.  The bounty of this particular box of veggies highlights the transition phase we're in right now here in southern AZ.  In this time period when winter meets spring, we're enjoying the heartier winter crops like beet and turnip as well as the spring radish and carrot.  Spring is a short season in Tucson; we'll soon be moving on to tomato, eggplant, pepper & cucumber, but for now I'm celebrating the colors and flavors of this in between time.

The benefit of having farmer friends is that sometimes I get an unusual vegetable to try out. Often its something I would not have typically chosen for myself at the farmer's market.

This week, my farmer friend Shannon of Moondance Urban Farm was pulling up her burdock root to make room for tomatoes.  She asked if I could use some and I said 'of course'!  Just because I'm not familiar with a vegetable doesn't mean I don't want to get to know it and befriend it.

Burdock root is a tuber that looks a bit like a woodier version of a parsnip.  It is known to have medicinal as well as nutritional benefits.  Very low in calories, burdock is high in inulin which acts as a prebiotic, helping to promote good gut bacteria and healthy blood sugar. Among other antioxidants and minerals like iron, manganese, selenium and zinc, it is also particularly high in potassium which makes it beneficial for healthy blood pressure.  How on earth do you use this earthy vegetable?

...And What Do I Do With It?
This week's CSA share contained red leaf lettuce, arugula, carrots, radishes, green cabbage and cilantro. 

Adding some local fresh lemons, this week's share became a fresh, healthy salad and a tasty roasted veggie with pesto dish that I could eat every night of the week.

For the salad, I combined the lettuce, arugula, carrots and radish and made a zesty, fresh salad dressing:

I believe that if we look closely at nature's cycles and rhythms, you'll find that she provides exactly what we need at exactly the right time.  It's already allergy season here in Tucson.  Everyone around me is sneezing and stuffy with itchy eyes.  Thankfully, I found a a solution that works for my seasonal allergies. The simple onion. Onions are a spring vegetable, ready to eat just when our seasonal allergies are kicking in. How convenient!