Winter Farmshare Recipes

Last year, I signed up for a winter farmshare with my local CSA. The summer farmshare rocks my world. The winter farmshare was pretty great too. Of course, I live in New York, so local food in the winter means LOTS of root vegetables, onions, leeks or garlic, winter squashes, winter greens and cauliflower. My favourite thing was the delicious flavourful, sweet carrots. My farmshare also sent some frozen summer vegetables like corn and tomatoes which are lovely, but what I want to focus on today is the real winter stuff.

In addition to being limited to a fairly local palette of vegetables, I am usually really busy winter in terms of work. So ease of preparation is important. Last year, my winter cooking boiled down to five basic kinds of dishes…Soups, Roasted Vegetables, Gratins, Savoury Tarts and anything I can think of to use up beets.

If you have a winter farmshare in the NorthEastern United States (or somewhere with a similar climate) and have limited time to plan and prepare meals, I hope that you find this post helpful!

WINTER SOUPS

Soups are easy to make and can allow you to use up all of an overwhelming amount of particular ingredients. Freeze the soup in small batches, to speed up the thawing process later. Winter soups freeze really well. Even a winter farm share stops delivering in Feb, March and April so a freezer full of soup will come in handy later.

  • Borscht uses beets, carrots, potatoes, onions and cabbage. Some weeks my entire farmshare can get made into borscht. Borscht tastes much better after having been frozen for a while.
  • Caldo Verde uses Kale, Potatoes and Garlic (and leeks too if you’ve got ‘em) and wins the prize for being one of the fastest, simplest and most delicious soups in the world
  • I have become obsessed with this Red Lentil and Autumn Vegetables Soup since it can use butternut, pumpkin, sweet potato, yam or carrots.
  • Smokey Pumpkin Soup can be made with Butternut or any kind of winter squash and with leeks or onions depending on what you get. Aside from being totally delicious, this recipe does not require you to peel or cut the winter squash, which can be challenging and downright dangerous sometimes! You just bake the whole thing and scoop the flesh out of the skin once it’s soft. MUCH EASIER!
  • Carrot Soup with Fennel Seeds and Garlic is one of my favorite easy soups. It has three steps. 1. Throw everything but the stock in a pot and let the vegetables sweat. 2. Add the stock and let it simmer until the carrots are soft 3. Puree.

I actually did not get large quantities of cauliflower from my CSA last winter, but I imagine that some years you would. Here are three easy cauliflower soups.

BROILED OR ROASTED VEGETABLES

Roasting is such an easy way to prepare a filling and comforting meal. Leftover roasted vegetables also pack into nice lunches.

If I am lucky enough to receive Cauliflower I will make…

GRATINS AND SAVOURY TARTS

Even the most humble of winter vegetables can be made into a fancy special gratin or savory tart. I’m not going to lie. These dishes are time consuming but very worth it for a nice dinner, or if you want to pack yourself fancy lunches for a week.  You can use one of my gratin recipes or just invent one.  Basically, if you have some root vegetables, some cheese, a bit of cream or stock and the patience to thinly slice vegetables, you can make a gratin.

WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL OF THESE BEETS!!!!

Oh my word! I like beets, but WOW! If you are drowning in beets from your CSA read on

  • This Spicy Beet Salad with Horseradish saved me last year. It manages to take a really sweet vegetable and make it into something truly savoury. I can eat a lot of this salad.
  • I started making this Beet Caviar at the end of my CSA deliveries. I plan to make it more this year. It is amazing with whipped ricotta on seed and nut bread.
  • I happen to think that this is the world’s best Pickled Beet recipe.   I like to eat pickled beets on green salad topped with smoked fish and hard-boiled eggs. They are also good with sharp cheddar on toast or served alongside a roasted bird or salmon.
  • Ruby Salad is delicious and will use up beets and red cabbage.
  • Don’t forget the classic Green Salad Topped with Roasted Beets option.
  • Of course there is always Borcht which uses up beets and everything else in your box as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Glenda Berry says:

    Love these comforting winter veggie recipes. Especially the Calo Verde and Beet Caviar!!

  2. Glenda Berry says:

    Beautiful photos and yummy food!

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