Perfectly Imperfect Produce: Box #11
Perfectly Imperfect Produce: Box #11
A colorful, rainbow-filled box this week: red tomatoes, yellow onions, orange carrots. green peas, and purple cauliflower! And let's not forget the orange butternut squash and the green artichoke! Check out what I did with the produce below!
What's in the box?
Purple Cauliflower
Butternut Squash
Artichoke
Tomatoes
Sugar Snap Peas
Onions
Carrots
Cucumber
Apples
Pear
Peas, Carrots, & Onions: Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
The pea pods in the box this week were so yummy! Crisp, fresh, sweet, and green... I love sugar snap peas! When I saw the peas, I immediately knew I was going to make a stir fry. I haven't made stir fry since moving to Ohio, so it was about time. Juicy pieces of chicken with a variety of fresh vegetables covered in a flavorable sauce then served on top of rice, hits the spot every time! It tastes good and is healthy... you can't go wrong there! I blogged this recipe a while ago! Check it out below!
Recipe: Here
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| Cashew Chicken Stir Fry |
Butternut Squash & Onion: Butternut Squash Tortellini
We love butternut squash at my house! While the squash can be tricky to cut up, the yummy dishes are worth it in the end! This week we tried a new recipe, Butternut Squash Tortellini, and it was *amazing.* Creamy, comforting, packed with flavor, and fall-like, this pasta dish utilizes the butternut squash perfectly. Cooked in the Crockpot, it was so easy and gave the sauce so much flavor. When my husband tried it, he exclaimed, "What is in the sauce?! It tastes soo good!" The sauce is balanced and restaurant-quality. You could almost just eat the sauce as a creamy butternut squash soup. Delicious! Give this recipe a try! You won't regret it! Recipe attached below!
Recipe: Here
*I used the whole 8 oz of cream cheese, and I added my whole butternut squash (which was more than 2 pounds.) Just like this recipe suggests, I bought my tortellini from Costco.
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| Butternut Squash Tortellini |
Purple Cauliflower: Purple Cauliflower Soup
No artificial food coloring here! While this soup may look slightly like a blueberry smoothie, grape punch slushie, or witches brew, it is, in fact, purple cauliflower soup. Despite its purple color, this soup tasted like normal cauliflower soup and was actually delicious! In the future, I will probably just buy the normal white cauliflower, but the purple color definitely adds a twist to the normal soup! I attached a "white" cauliflower soup recipe below! Enjoy!
Recipe: Here
*Tweaks: I used a yellow onion instead of a red onion. My cauliflower was purple instead of white. I omitted the nutmeg and parsley.
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| Purple Cauliflower Soup |
Artichoke: Artichoke Leaves with Lemon and Butter
This week was my first time cooking and trying a freshly steamed artichoke. With a bit of a learning curve, I was able to get the "meat" off the leaves and dip them in melted butter and lemon juice. The flavor of the actual artichoke was mild but tasted really good with the melted butter. Definitely fun to try something new!
To prepare the artichoke, I followed the article attached below! They did a good job explaining step by step how to properly cook an artichoke. I found it very helpful to cut the ends off the pointy petals. This made the artichoke easier to handle and saved my hands from being sharply stabbed. Those petal ends are sharp!
From cooking this artichoke, I learned that only a portion of the artichoke's petals is edible. When you pull off a petal, the part that was connected to the "heart" is white. This white part is where the editable flesh lies. To eat the white part, I first dipped the white end in a bowl of melted butter and lemon juice. Then using my teeth, I placed the white end of the petal in my mouth and scraped off the white flesh. I continued this process with each petal until I reached the middle. I enjoyed going around eating the ends off the petals!
Once all the petals are gone, you are left with the artichoke heart (beneath some fuzzies you clean away). I cleaned up the artichoke heart and stored it for the next day. Little did I know, that you need to use the artichoke heart right after you uncover it or else it turns dark. I did have a roasted tomato and artichoke heart pizza planned but that will have to wait until another week! Sorry!
Let me know if you have ever cooked/eaten a fresh artichoke!
How to prepare an artichoke: Here
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| Steamed Artichoke with Petals Still Attached |
The cucumber, pear, and apples made great snacks this week! I love snacking on fresh produce. What's your favorite snack?
The tomatoes were supposed to be made into a roasted tomato and artichoke pizza but my artichoke heart turned black! (Full story in artichoke section.) So another week! But the tomatoes were so yummy as snacks! Just pop them in your mouth.... delicious!
How did I do with this week's produce? What would you have made? Let me know your ideas and if you recreate any of the recipes above!
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