Rutabaga chopping block

What Do You Do with a Rutabaga? Eat it!

Rutabaga Beet Hash

So in my never-ending adventures with my CSA box, I come across some curious specimens. And by “curious” I mean “I’ve always been too lazy to buy and cook them before.” Case in point, rutabaga. I’ve always known rutabaga existed, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it or how to use it in a recipe. I hate wasting, though, so when a big ol’ rutabaga arrived in my CSA box the other week I knew I had to do something.

After some research, I figured I could use a rutabaga in the same way I could use a potato or turnip. It’s a root vegetable with a similar texture, so hey. I decided to make it into a hash with my CSA spinach and beets and top with runny eggs, because as I’ve been telling you guys time & time (& tiiiiiime) again, runny eggs make everything better. And guess what? I was right, it was great.

I know the name of this recipe might sound scary because it combines two stereotypically reviled childhood vegetables – rutabaga and beets, ahhh! – but I promise it’s super delicious.

Rutabaga & Beet Breakfast Hash

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Polar Vortex Cooking: Pea Pot Pie

Not sure if any of you have noticed, but it is COLD outside. Cara Daffron of EdibleFeast.com joins us to share this slow cooker comfort food recipe. Her pea pot pie uses hardy and readily available winter vegetables and herbs like tarragon and thyme…plus it takes like three steps to make. Stay warm!

Serve this crust-less pot pie on its own or with biscuits. If you really want a traditional feel, you can bake the finished product in a pie tin with a simple pot-pie-style pastry top. To incorporate more protein into the dish and 2 cups of diced cooked chicken or turkey to the pot before cooking.

Pea Pot Pie

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Eyes Before Taste Buds: Panzanella Salad

Sure, it’s great when food tastes good, but any food blogger will tell you that what’s really important is presentation. Colorful, vibrant food is instantly appealing. Looking at a wall of penny candy or a heaping bowl of fruit, you are mesmerized by the abundance of color. If it’s appealing to the eye, it must be appealing to your taste buds, right? We felt this way when we first created this summery, visually enticing side dish. Panzanella salad, a classic Tuscan summer dish, celebrates fresh garden produce.

Classic panzanella incorporates stale, unsalted Tuscan bread. Since we do not keep stale bread on hand (who doesn’t finish bread before it goes stale?) we decided to char a fresh French baguette. The toasted baguette inside the dish absorbs the vinaigrette while maintaining its crunch alongside the fresh cubed vegetables. The married flavors are a kaleidoscope of color and texture.

Panzanella Salad

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Enjoy It Raw While It Lasts

Soon the days of easy prep meals will be over, when you could walk into a kitchen, slice a tomato, wash some greens and be eating in 5 minutes.

Instead, we’ll be forced to wait an hour as thick winter squash bakes to tenderness in a hot oven. In winter it’s easier to wait for dinner, as the cold air doesn’t tempt for evening walks and late-night drinks on a rooftop.

But while it’s still lovely outside, and the season’s produce remains quick to prepare, remember that a raw salad is pretty rad.

Raw Summer Salad with Smoked Whitefish

This salad is ripe for flexibility, so throw in what you’ve got in the fridge. The taste of raw vegetables are much different than their cooked counterpart, so it’s fun to remember the snap of a bell pepper and the nose-tingle of a raw onion. With produce so fresh I didn’t even need a dressing, especially as the fatty whitefish salad complemented the clean vegetables.

I sliced up a yellow roma tomato, half a cucumber (peeled), half of a mutli-colored bell pepper and one tiny, tiny onion. I heavily seasoned all of the cut pieces with kosher salt and pepper and then quickly charred a corn tortilla on the burner. I lumped a few spoonfuls of smoked whitefish on top and called it finito.