Using Up the CSA Veggies: Sunday Morning Frittata

Frittatas are excellently versatile and hearty for any meal, and are easy to make. Their leftovers also make great cold or re-warmed snacks. I called this a "Sunday Morning Frittata" because it takes a bit of time to prep the veggies, and frittatas have a festive, "Sunday Brunch" kind of presentation. But of course you could prep the veggies and eggs the night before and quickly and easily make a frittata any morning of the week.

I've been making frittatas regularly with our CSA subscription to Riverdog Farm, as they can incorporate so many veggies with delicious results. Just chop up whatever veggies you want to use ~ onions or garlic always make a nice base, plus maybe a starchy vegetable, such as sweet potato, potato, or beet, and then a huge pile of greens ~ so good for you, and cook down to next-to-nothing, so they don't take up a lot of space. Plus eggs, maybe add a seasoning herb, and some cheese on top at the last minute for added flavor and satiety. Voila! A satisfying, rainbow-nutritious meal in a skillet!

Beet, Spring Onion, and Spinach Frittata

pastured lard and/or grassfed butter or ghee for the pan (be good to yourself; be generous with the fats!)

(I also added a spoonful of nitrate-free, pastured bacon grease for flavor)

3 medium-sized beets, sliced

3 egg-sized spring onions, without greens, sliced

a hefty bunch of spinach, chopped, and rinsed well

10 eggs

a generous sploosh of grassfed cream, or grassfed whole milk, or plain whole-milk yogurt

a teaspoon dried dill, or more of freshly snipped dill

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

yogurt cheese or goat cheese

In a medium-large cast iron skillet, I melted lard and butter on medium-low heat. I sauteed the beets and onions together until they were soft and the onions were sweeeet. I added the spinach and mixed and cooked till they were all wilted. While these were cooking, I mixed the eggs with about 1/4 cup of raw cream (yum!) and salt, pepper, and dill. When the veggies were ready, I positioned them evenly in the skillet, and poured the egg overtop. I turned the heat down to medium, and did nothing else till the egg was set but still runny on top. I turned the broiler on (and shut the bedroom door to prevent the smoke detector from coming on!), and then placed generous dollops of homemade yogurt cheese* all around. Popped it under the broiler for a few minutes until the top was set and browned. This does not take long!

I think frittata is perfect with a side salad and sauerkraut. I served what's left of the Salad Kraut.

*With the consistency of goat cheese, all it takes to make yogurt cheese is just pouring yogurt into a linen/cotton napkin, tying it up with a rubber band, and letting the whey drain into a bowl. I use the whey for fermenting projects ~ like apple butter! Drain for a few minutes, or even overnight, depending on your desired thickness.

Using Up the CSA Veggies: Hidden-Veggie Egg Scramble

Haha. I'm laughing at myself. I was preparing to share with you all the clever ways I find to use up a generous CSA box. I had taken notes throughout the past week, and had my notebook sitting beside my keyboard, poised.

Then we were sitting down for a Sunday Brunch when I looked over at my voracious-eating husband's plate; the pile of sauteed veggie medley was clumped in the corner, close to cold. I asked him (sincerely) if it was to his liking. He admitted: "I'm really tired of all these vegetables. I know there's only so much you can do with them. When I get to the bottom of my jar of soup [I pack him quart jars of soup to reheat at work], I often have a little pile of veggies just like this. I look at it like this: [he made a forlorn face]." Although I was disappointed at this, I count on him to be honest with me, because: who wants to go their whole life thinking their cooking is well-loved, when actually their loved-one is just fibbing and swallowing it down? I know everyone has their own taste, but I'm the cook for my family, and I want to make food that everyone likes for the most part. Now, Troy is a meat-lover. He definitely falls on the "hunter" end of the hunter-gatherer spectrum. Though I fully embrace my omnivorous nature and love me a charcuterie plate appetizer, I tend towards the "gatherer" category. We balance each other out.

At that moment, I realized I've reached the point that I imagine every cook faces when trying to feed their family well: hiding vegetables. Here's how I did it this morning:

Hidden-Veggie Egg Scramble

three-four meal-sized portions, depending on the appetites of the eaters

butter or other delicious fat for the pan ~ don't be shy

3 smallish carrots, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds

1 medium onion, chopped

4 large stalks of chard, chopped

sea salt to taste

7 pastured eggs

1/3 cup grassfed whole milk or whole yogurt

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

fresh red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

more butter or other delicious fat

1/2 cup grated cheddar or monterey jack

~In a cast iron skillet, I sauteed the veggies till soft ~ starting with the carrots and onions, and adding the chopped chard in the last five or so minutes.

~While that cooked, I lightly mixed the eggs with the dairy and seasoning.

~Then I poured the sauteed vegetables into the egg mixture and used that always-handy immersion blender to puree till frothy. You could, of course, simply use a regular blender.

~I melted the butter on low in the same skillet. Then I poured the egg-veggie mixture in there and scrambled.

~When they were still a tad on the runny side, I sprinkled the melted cheese on top.

~Then I turned off the burner, and put a lid on it.

When the cheese was melted, the eggs were ready.

I served it with Salad Kraut.

With all that melted cheese on top, how was my sweetie to know about all of the veggies that were hidden beneath? ;-) His verdict, after all was eaten: "Delicious; but I could still taste the veggies." Well, yeah, but... I think he might have to get over that. And the verdict of the girl: she ate quite a lot of her little bowlful. My verdict: "Yummy! With the sweetness of carrot."

Just a little suggestion from my family test-kitchen here in April. Let me know how it goes.

Fermented: April Veggie Kraut

My assistant is always up for kraut-making. Pounding, stirring, adding the salt, chopping (with very attentive Mommy-supervision!), and of course taste-testing for quality-control. She generally thinks my recipes are too sweet, so she helps me by thinning out the sweet bits before jarring; she's thoughtful that way. ;)

I'm enjoying the weekly culinary challenge that is presented with a CSA. Riverdog Farm sends us a generous bounty of produce every week. My personal goal: to have an empty vegetable drawer when we go pick up our box on Fridays. This means that we eat a lot of fresh veggies, and that we make a lot of ferments! On delivery day, I assess the produce as I sort it into the proper receptacles ~ the fruit bowl, the root drawer, and the crisper drawer in the fridge; I make rough guesses of what I can use for breakfast, what would go great in a soup, what could be eaten raw for salads and snacks, what deserves to be showcased on its own, and what would be yummy in kraut. On Thursday night or Friday morning, what's leftover in the crisper drawer goes to the kraut. For a long time, I only liked cabbage fermented, and disliked it any other way. Lately I've been enjoying it cooked (till soft). So less cabbage is getting dedicated to kraut. But I've also been loving fermented grated carrots, so I've hoarded away at least one every week. Farm-fresh carrots are SO delicious! Instead of winding up forgotten in the back of the drawer until they're limp ~ like grocery store carrots sold in bags tended to in my kitchen, farm-fresh carrots are as sweet as candy simply eaten out-of-hand. They make any meal they touch a flavor treat.

Here's last week's kraut ~ a Springtime rainbow.

One grated carrot

1/4 of a small purple cabbage, shredded

a few red chard stems, sliced

1/2 a pink lady apple left for a day on the cutting board (not from CSA, but still local!), sliced then chopped

1/2 a fennel bulb, chopped

fennel leaves, minced

sea salt

I used some of the pink brine leftover from a Winter kraut of carrots, celeriac, and watermelon radishes, to cover these veggies. In a few days, everything will be pink. I like pink kraut. :)

Fermented: "Salad Kraut"

A note I sent to Austin at 12:30 am before I flew out the next day (I never stay up that late!):

"Just finished a manic clear-out-the-veggie-drawer-before-leaving-on-a-jetplane batch of kraut. I call it salad kraut because I added a bunch of arugula, and then dill and two kinds of mustard seed. Feels fresh and Spring-heralding. : ) Cabbage, carrot, cauliflower and romanesco plus their leaves, and celeriac. Wish it luck!"

The April assessment of this kraut: "One of my favorites," says Sealion! He likes the addition of the traditional pickling spices. The arugula, which I left whole on the stalk, is particularly "pickly" tasting. A success!

Citrus Season ~ citrus drinks

Here in Sacramento, the sidewalks are lined with large orange trees that litter the ground with ripe fruit. It's overly abundant. For the past month we have received a several-pound bag of oranges in our CSA box ~ many tiny mandarins, and a few larger navels each week. Our good friends down the street have a lemon tree that is equally generous with its bounty. So we have lots of citrus to gratefully utilize!

What have we done with all this? Fresh-squeezed orange juice for Sunday brunch (so luxurious), orange juice-infused black bean chili (yum), frozen "Sunshine Squares", warm tea, and my own rendition of a rejuvenating natural electrolyte drink!

Today I'd like to share the last two with you ~ simple and nourishing ways to use citrus in beverages. Orange juice is much too sweet to drink every day ~ especially for breakfast. Talk about a way to spike out your blood sugar! And pasteurized juices lack so much of what makes oranges good for us ~ all the enzymes and much of the vitamins. So here are a couple ideas for enjoying the flavor and sweetness of oranges in a milder and whole way. Water and juice ~ it's how you dress them up that they serve different purposes equally well.

Orange Spice Tea

Fill your cup most of the way with close-to-boiling filtered water. Keep it cool enough that you can almost-comfortably stick your finger in it ~ to preserve the raw goodness of the citrus.

Squeeze the juice of 1 orange,

and 1 slice of lemon into your cup.

Add 2 tsp ginger powder, and

1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Sweeten with honey if you like.

Wrap your hands around the mug, snuggle up in a blanket, and thank Mother Nature that she had the intriguing creativity to make citrus season in the middle of winter. :)

All-Natural, All-Good Electrolyte Drink

I came up with this drink in the heat of Baja. I used limon, which is ubiquitous and delicious there, but I substitute lemon up here in Northern California. In Baja, it was just what the intense sun directed. In rainy season Sacramento, it's a satisfying post-work out drink.

1 glass of room-temperature filtered water

The juice of half an orange

The juice of one limon, or 1 slice of lemon

a generous pinch of quality sea salt.

And the marmalade

Recipe from Nourishing Traditions, using Satsuma mandarins and navels from Gold Oak Ranch supplied by the bag in our CSA from Riverdog Farm. :)

Stoking the home fires

I was gone essentially for three weeks - family in Florida, friends (and more family) in Kentucky, then life adventure in Baja Sur, Mexico. When I got back to Sacramento, I had some work to do to get our kitchen back in production.

What have I been doing?
-Made a batch of chicken bone broth immediately. Jarred and froze for later use.
-Made another batch of broth with mixed bones that had collected in a bag in the freezer, and then in the last hours added a potful of aromatic veggie stems - carrot stubs, onion tips, leek leaves, etc. - that I had also been collecting in the freezer. I jarred this flavorful mix in tiny 1/2 pint jelly jars to use in sauces.
-I bottled the 1/2 gallon of beet kvass that had been brewing patiently in my absence, and added preserved lemon to each bottle! I think I'll like this!
-Anjali and I made a quart of sauerkraut from CSA veggies that I had set aside for this purpose weeks ago. Napa cabbage, cauliflower, red-centered "watermelon" daikon radish, and carrot. I then poured the garlicky brine I saved from a previous batch overtop of it. We ate the first forkfuls last night with dinner.
:)
-Brought the sourdough starter out of hibernation in the fridge, ground some fresh spelt flour, mixed it in with water, and set it up to bubble on the back of the stove. It'll be ready for a loaf tonight! :)
-Made, jarred, and froze quart jars of soup (from CSA veggies and bone broth) for Troy's lunches.

I love all these little projects. I love the bubbling crocks, and the pot constantly simmering on low on the back burner. I love that I have oranges set out next to a cookbook on the cutting board in preparation for marmalade, and bananas ripening for Anjali's favorite of late: "Fozen Mananas" (bananas pureed with melted butter and coconut oil, and then frozen and cut into chunks). I feel so lucky to have these as my day-to-day.
If I could finally get through the dirty dishes and see my way to the countertop, I'd be one totally content kitchen goddess! ;)

This blog post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays!