Travelling with greens and using all those stems

This week you'll find a sun-tea bag in the shares with three types of mint and red clover. If you like a strong tea, add a couple bags of green or black tea with the contents of the bag to a quart jar and leave it in the direct sun for a couple hours. Use a larger jar for a more dilute flavor. Sweetened with honey, this makes for a delicious and refreshing drink on a hot day.


_______________________________________





 Lettuce, lettuce, and more lettuce. Buttercrunch is really putting on a nice show this spring, and the colors are really starting to pop.






__________________________________________

The greens bunches are getting huge. We're eating them in everything, from scrambled eggs to pasta dishes.

I know a lot of you are traveling this summer. If you're wondering how to use the greens in a car-friendly dish, try making a nut butter salad:

Chop the greens up in fine ribbons, like in the Greens Crash Course. In a blender or food processor, combine raw cashews, a liberal amount of curry powder, healthy drizzle of apple cider vinegar (ACV), lemon juice, and some salt and pepper with enough water to form a thick sauce. Add more cumin if you feel like it. Toss with the chopped greens and let everything meld for an hour.

Other combinations to try:
cooked chickpeas, curry, garlic, onion, ACV, healthy oil (nut free)
peanut butter, soy sauce, ginger, honey or sorghum, ACV, healthy oil

These dishes are fine for a few hours without refrigeration. They make great summer potluck salads, in addition to healthy road food.
____________________________________________

What about all those colorful stems? Don't throw them in the compost bin just yet!

The stems are crunchy and have way more flavor than celery, so you can chop them up and use them anywhere you'd use raw celery:

deviled eggs
tuna, egg, chicken, pasta, potato, etc salad
inside wraps
sprinkled on top of green salads
baked into quiche or a fritatta
delivery vehicle for creamy herb dips
crou d'etat platters

Chopped up stems looks like confetti!

If you like spicy foods, try these Siracha fridge pickles.

Lovely Lettuce

While popular and familiar, iceburg lettuce, by itself, makes for a pallid salad. Unless, of course, it's a wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon dressing garnished with sliced green onions and cranberries.

Romain and butterhead type lettuces are far more nutritionally dense than iceburg, which is mostly water. Lettuce leaf stalks have more fiber than the leaves, where vitamins and minerals are concentrated. 

Lettuce stored as a full head maintains quality longer than if prewashed and cut. Damaged or cut leaves release an enzyme that causes the degradation of Vitamin C and discoloration.

If storing cut leaves, dry thoroughly with a spinner or by gently tumbling in a clean towel. Store wrapped in a damp paper or dish towel in a sealed plastic bag or container.

 

The tight, blanched inner leaves of a head of Romaine or butterhead lettuce make crunchy, delightful scoops for egg, tuna, and chicken salad or dips like guacamole and chunky salsa.

We're used to eating salads as a small primer to the main dish, but fresh lettuce is so delicious and beautiful, you really can showcase it as a main dinner event.

A giant bed of lettuce can be the base of a “taco” salad. Pile on browned ground beef seasoned with cumin and chili powder, cooked brown rice, chopped green onions, cilantro, and salsa. If you're feeling indulgent, be generous with the sour cream and cheese; otherwise trying substituting Greek yogurt for the sour cream. Crumble some tortilla chips on top and dig in!

Another favorite main dish salad at our farm is a dish that my mother taught me, and her mother taught her. Buttercrunch is my favorite to use for this salad, but any fresh lettuce will do. Mix one part honey or sugar with one part lemon juice. Toss the lettuce with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil and some salt. Pour the sweetened lemon juice over the salad and server with chopped boiled eggs. I have found bacon to be an excellent addition to this salad, but then there are few things that don't taste better with bacon! Served with a thick slice of whole wheat toast, this sweet and savory salad makes for an excellent light dinner at the end of a hot day spent planting okra and corn.

Make a vegan-friendly, but still robust and filling, salad by using chickpeas. I highly recommend buying (and then cooking) dried chickpeas, as they taste much better and have no added sodium, but canned will do in a pinch. In a blender, combine half the chickpeas with some water, a lot of curry powder, generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and fresh or powdered garlic. Process until smooth. Salt to taste. Toss the rest of the chickpeas in this curry chickpea dressing and pile the combination onto a mounded plate of lettuce. A ripe avocado makes a great addition to the dressing or topping the salad.

Whether you're working to improve or maintain your health, including salads as a major part of a few meals per week will help you towards your goal. With a little culinary creativity, there's no way you'll get bored with green salads before the spring lettuce bolts and makes way for summer tomatoes.