Cherry Pepper had been hoping to make this with her beets, but didn’t get around to it (yet!). I was fortunate enough to have a little more time in the kitchen, however, and was glad I did. Roasting beets – something I’d never done before – maintains their firm texture while increasing their sweetness and taking the edge off their earthiness. This was an immediate win for both Habanero and me, especially since we’d only had beets in the pan-fried rosti form before.

Tender, caramelized strips of spring onion (or scallions) gave these beets some much-needed character, as did a final application of Parmesan cheese. (The original recipe calls for blue cheese, but as I didn’t have any, I substituted with Parmesan. I also substituted olive oil for the walnut oil. I was not about to go out and buy a whole bottle of some condiment that would most likely go rancid before I used it again.)

Baby Beets with Spring Onions

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp walnut oil (I substituted with olive oil)
3 Tbsp olive oil, separated
12 to 16 assorted variety of baby beets with greens attached
3 sprigs fresh thyme
6 medium spring onions, cleaned; stems trimmed to 2 inches
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp (1 ounce) blue cheese, crumbled (I substituted with Parmesan cheese, shaved)

Whisk together balsamic vinegar, walnut oil, and 1 tablespoon olive oil to make vinaigrette.  Set aside.

Heat oven to 400°.  Remove leafy greens from tops of beets; reserve greens and discard stems.  Rinse greens thoroughly, and refrigerate.  Pare away tough skin at top of beets.  With a firm-bristle vegetable brush or the back of a paring knife, scrub beets clean under cold running water.  Place beets in a small roasting pan.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and the thyme.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add enough water to just cover the bottom, and cover tightly.  Cook 20 minutes, remove lid, and continue cooking until beets are tender to the tip of a sharp knife, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Slice the onions in quarters lengthwise.  In a large sauté pan over medium-low heat, add remaining tabelspoon olive oil and onions, and sauté 5 to 7 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium high, and continue cooking until caramelized, about 5 minutes.  Transfer the onions to a bowl, and set aside.

Remove beet greens from refrigerator.  Using the same pan as the onions, sauté greens over medium-high heat until just wilted, about 2 minutes.  Transfer immediately to serving plate.  Place onions over greens. Trim “tails” from beets, and slice larger ones in half.  Arrange over wilted greens with onions.  Drizzle vinaigrette over beets and greens.  Sprinkle with blue cheese.  Serve immediately.

In this week’s share:

• green beans
  
• lettuce mix
• zucchini & summer squash
  
• cucumbers
  
• green romaine lettuce
  
• green crisp lettuce
  
• scallions
  
• parsley

We were also supposed to receive purslane and Red Norland potatoes – the first potatoes of the season! – but, for whatever reason, there weren’t any in the box. Someone erroneously thought that substituting carrots and (more) beets for these would suffice. Alas: it was a sad, sad day, and a salad-filled week.

In this week’s share:

• Swiss chard
• scallions
• green kale
• broccoli
• zucchini
• romaine lettuce
• radicchio
• beets

Sadly, we didn’t have time to do anything fun with these veggies, and actually had to give some of them away. More photos and recipes to come in a few weeks’ time.

This cornbread, adapted from a Cooks Illustrated recipe, fell far short of what I’d hoped to bake. I had envisioned a tall, buttery cornbread with a light crumb and a hint of sweetness – basically something like what we recently (and shamelessly) devoured at Amy Ruth’s. Instead, what came out of the oven was a decent-looking but rubbery pan of cornbread, specked with bits of bacon and scallion.

Usually, Cooks Illustrated pulls through very nicely – and this recipe also might have, save for the fact that I didn’t have milk on hand and instead substituted buttermilk. Hence, the absence of a recipe in this post: but if I get around to making it again (with no substitutions!), I’ll hopefully be able to share it with you.

In this week’s share:

• Boston Lettuce
• Scallions
• Kohlrabi
• Arugula
• Broccoli
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Escarole
• Swiss Chard

It has been hard finding time this summer to consume all of our veggies – even only our half-share’s worth!

The boston lettuce will probably become a gift for a friend who’s in town for the summer and loves eating healthy and supporting local agriculture.

We actually didn’t take home any broccoli this week. The one broccoli crown we found in our share was so small that it would’ve been ridiculous to split with our share partners, so I just left it for them.

The sugar snap peas were too good to not eat raw – refreshingly light and crisp. (I just snapped off the stem top, peeling off the stringy fiber that runs down one side of the pod.)

As for the other veggies, here are some ideas I’ve had:

Escarole: I’d like to cook something with this (versus eating it in a salad). Perhaps a soup?

Scallions: Chinese-style scallion pancakes? Or maybe pair them with bacon in a cornbread?

Still trying to figure out what to do with the chard and kohlrabi. What would you do with these vegetables?