Farm Box Menu Plan - October 18, 2017

Here’s what I received from Farm Fresh to You (FFTY) on 10/18/2017, and my menu plan built from that list, based on the planning methods mentioned in this post.

Produce	Recipe
Green cabbage	Simply Spiced Spring Cabbage (yeah, I know it’s fall) from Made in India. This will make a great side dish with a yet to be determined something else.
Baby bok choy	Sautéed tofu with oyster sauce and cilantro from The Sunset Cookbook. I found this one by searching Eat Your Books for cilantro main dishes. The headnote says, “To gussy up this recipe, double the sauce and add bok choy.” Ok, it’s a plan! I already have tofu on hand.
Celery	Used in red beans and rice, egg salad, stir fry, etc. Oh, also these delicious rolls.
Cilantro	See #2
Collard greens	Collard greens were a learning experience for me when we first started getting farm boxes. It took me awhile to get used to their bitter taste and to find recipes that I liked. I learned that I greatly prefer them in long cooked recipes (soups) or with lots of other strongly-flavored ingredients. I will probably add these to red beans and rice with kielbasa or andouille (whichever is on sale), since I haven’t made that since last winter. I have cobbled together a few recipes for this, but it gets made in the Instant Pot. This always makes a ton so I have plenty to make into freezer lunches to bring to work. Yay! Leftovers!
King Richard leeks	I’ve never heard of this particular leek variety, but they sound very grand. This calls for one of the very first recipes I made when we started getting produce delivered (way back in...2012?): Potato leek soup. It’s a very simple soup that ends up tasting like way more than the sum of its parts. I use the recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, which is similar to this one. The keys to amped up flavor are to not peel the potatoes (dice them very small), use homemade chicken broth, saute the leeks in butter for much longer than the recipe says, and add lots of pepper. And then puree only partly (I use a stick blender) so it has a  robust texture.
Nantes carrots	Curry roasted carrots make a really nice side dish with all kinds of things. To be paired with #1 and a roasted pork loin.
Red leaf lettuce	I always clean and tear lettuce right away and store in the salad spinner for ready-to-go salads throughout the week.
Red potatoes	See #6
Sugar pie squash	This depends on the size of the squash that gets delivered, but my tentative plan is to make it into ravioli.
Zucchini	I will add these to #7 for more green veg in that meal.
12. Carrot greens	Last week’s carrots came with big, beautiful tops that seemed like a waste to throw out. I can’t eat carrots raw (they make my throat feel funny), so I am assuming their greens are the same. Most of the recipes I found use them raw, but I saw lots of references to adding them soups and cooking with other greens in a simple saute. So, I will give that a try.