Wendy Van Wagner is a public health educator who has spent the last ten years providing direct nutrition education to rural communities in Northern California. Wendy has seen how increased health literacy and education can positively impact our health behaviors. She enjoys collaborating with artists to create compelling health messaging tools that invite the habits we wish to include in our lives. Prior to her career in public health, Wendy founded In the Kitchen cooking school and catering in Nevada County where she built a thriving business that connected people to delicious, wholesome food and imparted the skills to take charge of their health and happiness at home. Wendy has a master’s degree in health education and lives in Nevada City, CA.
Here are my tips to help you make the most of your CSA box!
As delightful as these weekly boxes are, it’s best to have a plan for managing your produce haul, and remembering to stay flexible for when you receive new-to-you items or 5 pounds of zucchini ;)
1. Brace your kitchen & have cookbooks at the ready.
Make sure you’re prepared for the influx of produce that’s coming your way. Clear out ample space in the fridge, give yourself a refresher on the best ways to store fruits and veggies, and have some veggie-centric cookbooks on hand for recipes and inspiration. The night before I pick up my CSA, I like to do a quick fridge inventory and use up anything left from last week.
2. Deal with the items in your pickup right away.
A good way to manage your CSA — to make sure you get the most out of your fruits and veggies, and prevent anything from going to waste — is to deal with everything as soon as you get home. Clean and store the produce immediately, have a plan in place for how to use everything, and prep what you can right away.
3. When it doubt, roast it, stir-fry it, or make soup.
Whether you have more radishes than you know what to do with, you’re bogged down with greens, or you’ve got a new-to-you veggie that leaves you stumped, you can always fall back on these three cooking methods. Just about any vegetable can be roasted, stir-fried, or tossed into a soup.
*Roast for an easy way out
When I first joined my CSA, I was overly ambitious about the recipes I could make from the wildcard shares like eggplant, purple cauliflower, and beets. My go-to now is to throw about two-to-three servings of any fibrous and root-like veggies in the oven with some olive oil and, 40 minutes later, they’re a beautiful, edible mess. I eat some of it that night, save the rest for lunch the next day, and repeat until my supply runs out.
4. Wait to plan meals until after your pickup.
Typically we plan meals and then go shopping, but when you have a CSA, it’s best to work in the opposite direction. First see what’s in your box, then plan meals around what you have. I have rotating “concept meals” that I rely on and create variations on based on what comes in the CSA. My current rotation is something like this: Pasta and salad, rice and bean bowls with veggies sides and lots of condiments and toppings, soup and salad with fancy bread and cheese, Sheet pan roast, tofu and veggies over rice, pizza/savory tart and salad night.
5. Wilt down greens asap.
As great as they are, leafy greens take up a lot of space in the fridge. Since it’s easier to store a few cups of chard than a few bunches, consider wilting them down as you get them and adding them to dishes as needed. Don’t overlook the beautiful greens on beets and radishes! Wash them well, chop and cook as you would other greens.
6. Pickle, can, or preserve your haul for later.
If you’re finding it too difficult to use everything in your delivery immediately, then don’t. Instead of getting stressed about finding recipes to cook everything now, consider pickling or canning or freezing for use later.
7. Go big or go home by stocking condiments/toppings that amplify simple meals.
Tahini is a godsend (see one of my favorite recipes below)
Local kraut
Sour cream
Yogurt
Soy sauce
Miso paste
Hot sauce
Flavorful cheeses
Toasted nuts and seeds
Nutritional Yeast
Lemons
Quality olive oil
A Few Staple Recipes to Try……
Three-Ingredient Tahini Sauce
I drizzle tahini over roasted vegetables, whisk it into a salad dressing with miso and rice vinegar, and dip carrots and cucumbers in it. It’s nutty and sweet with just enough bitterness that stops me from eating 10 tablespoons at once. Whenever I feel like I physically can’t eat vegetables for another day in a row, I whip up a tahini concoction and get a second wind.
This three-ingredient sauce can go on anything. Make a double batch and spoon the extras over just about any meat, your next grain bowl, or thin it out with a little extra vinegar and use it as a salad dressing
Mix 2 Tbsp. tahini, 2 Tbsp. miso, 2 tsp. vinegar, and 1 Tbsp. water with a fork in a small bowl until smooth.
Finish the week off with a savory tart or pizza
Come the weekend, when the pickings run low and the reject vegetables are all that’s left, I turn to an old adage I learned from some French friends: Everything tastes better surrounded by pastry dough. I make a simple tart dough from flour, butter, water, roll it into a free-form galette/tart, and fill it with whatever’s left over—potatoes, kale, chard, onion—and cheese, because no matter what you cook in cheese and pastry dough will be elevated beyond belief.
Savory Tart Dough
Alice Waters tart crust is my no-fail go-to recipe. For one open-face tart, you need.
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold butter cut in cubes
• 1/4 cup ice-cold water
Use a pastry blender or (my preference) your hands and a plastic scraper to cut the butter into the flour and salt until a few large clumps remain. Pour in 3/4 of the water and stir it in with a fork. Using your scraper (or another tool, but I find a scraper to be the best for this), continue lifting and folding the dough over onto itself until it holds together, which should take about a minute. Add more water a few drops at a time if needed. Wrap it all in plastic and refrigerate it for an hour.
Blanching Greens for Another Time
Winter and Spring bring a bounty of leafy greens—lacinato kale, Boston lettuce, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, and collards that many of us are not initially prepared to consume in one week’s time. I’ve discovered that by bleaching them and having them ready in the fridge is a great way to use them up. Here is my method:
Bring a pot of water to boil. In the meantime, rough cop the greens, stems and all. Wash them in a bowl of water. When the water is boiling, submerge the greens in the boiling water for 2 minutes or until bright green. Prepare a bowl filled with ice and cold water and remove the greens from the water directly into the bowl of ice. Let the cold shock them and as soon as you can, gather the greens up in the ball and squeeze the remaining water out. Chop the greens ball into smaller pieces and then store in a plastic bag or a container and store in the fridge or freezer for future use.
Something to make this week…
Lemon, Ricotta and Pea Pasta with Chives and Mint
Ingredients
• 1 lb of penne pasta
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas, cooked (or try using sugar snap peas cut on the bias)
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper
• 1 pound ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced mint leaves and a handful of chopped fresh chives
• Grated Parmesan cheese to serve (optional)
Directions
Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente. Drain and return it to the pot.
Add the lemon juice, oil, peas, salt, and pepper to the pot and toss to combine.
Add the ricotta and gently toss again.
Spoon the pasta onto plates and top with the mint, chives and fresh Parmesan cheese
