CSA Week 15 and Farm Stand Updates

Despite some clouds and rain, last Saturday turned out to be a great day both on the farm and at the Concord Ag Day Farmers’ Market! The farmers’ market was a great chance to connect with other farmers in town as well as visit with new and returning customers. The farm was also bustling as everyone enjoyed the combination of late summer and early fall crops now in season in the CSA and farm store, including sunflowers!

The crew kept everything going smoothly in the CSA and Farm Store while Melissa was at the market and Lise was shuttling items back and forth between the farm and market. Molly and Rebecca checked folks in and rang up purchases, coordinated the part time field crew, and made decisions about stocking and harvest needs while forever being their cheery, kind selves to both customers and co-workers. Meanwhile, Ari washed the seemingly endless stream of bins on Saturday morning with both attention to detail and an upbeat attitude. Brian oversaw high tunnel irrigation as well as kept up with harvesting and other field work, and Abby who recently joined us for the fall season jumped right into helping wherever needed! Another new crew member, Matt brought his skills and energy to packing for and assisting at the market. Friends of the farm, Jane and Kathy (Lise’s mom), saved the day as usual, splitting their time between the farmers’ market booth and farm store to make sure we were able to keep up and that everyone got a lunch break!

This week while we will continue our usual daily harvests, we will also try to find time to finishing weeding a few crops for later this fall such as the later lettuce and spinach, harvest the popcorn crop and hang it in the greenhouse to dry, and work to clean up and bag the shallots and onions that have finished curing. Whenever possible we will clear fields of irrigation supplies and mulch to make way for cover crop.

This week in the CSA:

• Scallions

• Red Kuri Squash - The skin is edible on this orange squash making chopping for cooking easier! The sweet, nutty flavor of red kuri squash makes it a favorite for adding to curry, as well as simply slicing and baking.

• Kale - Toscano and a new variety, Dazzling Blue, which is like toscano but with a purple stem. We thought it looked fun and tasty, let us know what you think!

• Savoy cabbage

• Fennel

• Salanova Lettuce Mix

• Lettuce

• Garlic- The garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge in a cool dark place.

• Peppers: Green, Sweet Italian, and bell colored peppers

• Tomatoes - We are nearing the end of tomato season but our red slicing tomatoes are still producing some.

• Eggplant

• Carrots

• Baby bok choi

• Mizuna or yukina savoy - Both mild brassica greens, great in salads, sandwiches, or very lightly cooked.

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers - a new bed is blooming this week and another should be ready by the end of the week!

• Green beans - a new (and final) planting is ready near the sunflowers

• Tomatillos - Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple.

• Husk cherries - Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery. To eat, remove the husk - the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only.

CSA Hours*:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

*We will continue to close the pick-your-own gates at 6pm as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts. If you cannot finish picking by 6pm on Tuesday/Thursday you are welcome to pick on Wednesday or Friday.

PYO Flowers

We’ll have bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers, zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!). The PYO flowers will be open until the flowers are damaged by a frost. Flower picking is open any time the farm stand is open, Tuesday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm. We will continue to close picking promptly at 6pm this week as a precaution due to the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts.

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as leeks, potatoes, spaghetti squash, lemongrass, and broccoli. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm whenever available.

Red Kuri Squash Soup

By Alice Waters in Food & Wine February 2012

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds red kuri or butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (3 cups)

• 1/2 medium onion, coarsely chopped

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 medium fennel bulb, cored and cut into thin wedges

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• Chopped toasted pecans and small marjoram leaves, for garnish

How to Make It

Step 1 Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large saucepan, combine the cubed squash with the chopped onion, bay leaf and 3 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover and simmer over low heat until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

Step 2 Meanwhile, on a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the fennel wedges with the 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss well. Roast for about 25 minutes, until the fennel is tender and starting to brown.

Step 3 Discard the bay leaf from the soup. Working in batches, puree the soup in a blender. Return the soup to the saucepan and warm over low heat. Stir in the butter and season the soup with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the roasted fennel, pecans, marjoram leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

The soup can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat gently.

PYO fields closing at 6pm Tuesdays-Fridays

As an extra precaution because of the current EEE outbreak in Massachusetts, we are closing CSA and Flower PYO fields promptly at 6pm Tuesday-Friday until further notice (Saturday PYO hours remain the same: 9am-3:30pm). We also recommend wearing bug spray in the PYO fields. While mosquitoes haven’t historically be an issue in our open fields, we are very close to the river and we feel that it would be prudent to follow the same precautions that the the MA Department of Public Health (MDPH) recommends, and that the Town of Concord is following with public parks. If you are a CSA member and cannot complete your PYO by 6pm, you are welcome to come back Wednesday or Friday 11am-6pm to finish your picking.

We are following MDPH’s risk map and monitoring the conditions around us, and we will keep you posted if anything changes.

Ag Day, CSA Week 14 and farm stand updates

This Saturday is the annual Ag Day Farmers’ Market on Main Street in Concord Center, 10am-2pm. This market is special because it features only farms from Concord. Come see the bounty of vegetables, fruit, eggs, flowers, honey, jam, plants and more produced right here in town. We will have a stand at the market and we will also have a Bucks tally sheet for anyone who would like to use their Barrett’s Bucks at our booth. The farm stand will be open regular hours that day as well.

It is going to be a very busy week for us prepping for the market and then splitting our farm staff up on Saturday to attend the market. We are up for the challenge, but we would like to take this opportunity to encourage CSA members to pick up your veggies Tuesday or Thursday whenever you are able (but particularly this week!). This past Saturday set a record for CSA pick-ups with 113 members (half of our total CSA!) picking up CSA shares.

Weather and harvest-wise it is really starting to feel like fall! Cooler temperatures and shorter days slow the ripening of tomatoes, while cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini are pretty much done for the season. Thankfully, we are starting to see some other classic fall crops like leeks and broccoli!

This week in the CSA:

• Broccoli - We haven’t seen too many cabbage worms yet, but there definitely will be some as the fall progresses - we’ve seen many white moths fluttering around the broccoli and we do not plan to spray. In general, we recommend soaking your broccoli in warm water for a few minutes before prepping to cook in order to get any cabbage worms out.

• Savoy cabbage - this crinkly leaf cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked. The leaves are also great for stuffing.

• Fennel

• Leeks

• Garlic- The garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge in a cool dark place.

• Blacktail Mountain Watermelon - it’s the last of the watermelon this week. There is not enough to make it through the whole week (and they likely won’t keep quite that long anyway), but we will definitely have them Tuesday (and possibly Thursday).

• Sweet Italian and bell colored peppers - The elongated red Carmen peppers look like they might be hot but are actually the sweetest of our peppers!

• Tomatoes

• Green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Potatoes - they’re back! We’re harvesting Keuka Golds (yellow skin and flesh) this week.

• Carrots

• Kale

• Baby bok choi

• Yukina Savoy - mix together with mizuna for a tender and mild salad mix.

• Mizuna - mix together with yukina savoy for a tender and mild salad mix.

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Sunflowers!

• Green and yellow beans

• Tomatillos - Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple.

• Husk cherries - Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery. To eat, remove the husk - the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - tomatoes are still plentiful at the backs of the beds.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only

CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers, zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as salanova, onions, spaghetti squash and lemongrass. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and organic raspberries from Silferleaf Farm whenever available.

Thai-Style Vegan Stir-Fry with Lemongrass

by Jolinda Hackett from thespruceeats.com

Ingredients

• 8 oz. tofu (cut into small cubes, about 3/4-inch thick)

• 3 tbsp. peanut oil (or use a combination of 2 tbsp of another neutral flavored high-heat oil such as canola oil and 1 tbsp. sesame oil)

• 3/4 cup green beans (sliced)

• 3/4 cup carrots (thinly sliced)

• 1 cup broccoli (chopped)

• 1 colored bell pepper (or Carmen), sliced

• 1 green bell pepper sliced

• 2 Thai chilies, minced (or one jalapeño)

• 4 cloves garlic (minced)

• 2 tbsp. lemongrass (fresh, sliced very thin)

• 2 tbsp. lime juice

• 1 dash of salt (to taste)

Steps to Make It

1. Prepare your tofu by pressing it to reduce the water content. This keeps the tofu from excessive crumbling as you cook it.

2. Once your tofu is well-pressed, sauté the tofu in peanut or canola oil until lightly golden, about 5 minutes. 

3. Add the green beans, carrots, broccoli, red and green bell peppers and chilies, and stir-fry for a few more minutes, until veggies are cooked.

4. Add the garlic and lemongrass and cook for another minute or two, stirring well.

5. Once the garlic is well incorporated, add in the lime juice and a dash of salt and remove the pan from heat.

6. Serve over plain white or brown steamed rice if you'd like. Enjoy!

Leek, Cherry Tomato and Pecorino Pizza

Adapted from Food & Wine, October 2009

• All-purpose flour, for dusting

• 1 1/2 pounds pizza dough, cut into 8 pieces

• 1/4 cup plus olive oil, plus more for brushing

• 2 large leeks, sliced 1/4 inch thick

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 32 cherry tomatoes, halved

• 1/4 pound truffled pecorino cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 500°. Heat a pizza stone on the bottom of the oven for 45 minutes. (Alternatively, heat a large inverted baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven for 5 minutes.) On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each piece of dough to a 7-inch round. Oil 3 large baking sheets and place the dough rounds on the sheets. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Add the leeks, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 8 minutes; transfer to a plate. Generously flour a pizza peel. Place a dough round on the peel and brush with olive oil. Top with some of the leeks, tomatoes and pecorino cheese. Slide the dough round onto the hot stone or baking sheet and bake for about 4 minutes, until bubbling and crisp. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and serve.

CSA Week 13 and Farm Stand updates

The winter squash harvest is well on it’s way! We have cleaned and rearranged in the barn to make room for the red kuri, buttercup, buttercup, pumpkins, and spaghetti squash we have brought in over the past couple of weeks. While the spaghetti squash is being distributed now, the others will need time to cure before they are ready for eating this fall. It will take some creative maneuvers to fit in the rest of the incoming harvest of delicata, honeyboat, gourds, and acorn squash. We hope to get these in this week as we are working hard to clear areas of field for the planting of oat and pea cover crops. Around mid September we switch to seeding the hardier winter rye as a cover crop. While it doesn’t fix nitrogen like the peas, it can put on more growth in the fall despite the cooler temperatures to ensure the soil is protected over the winter. While we will need to wait to enjoy some of these squash that are crowd favorites, the wait is now over for the garlic crop! The garlic has finished curing and we will begin to give it out in the CSA this week and will also have it available for sale in the farm stand. Yum!

The fall crops are beginning to arrive but that doesn’t mean the CSA is almost over! We are in week 13 of the CSA. Main Season members pick up for 20 weeks, the last day of the Main Season CSA is October 26th. Extended Season CSA members pick up for 24 weeks so the last day of the Extended Season CSA is November 23rd. Flex CSA members have 20 weeks of pick-ups over the course of 24 weeks so Flex CSA members may pick-up until November 23rd unless you have used all of your 20 pick-ups before then. If you are a Flex member, feel free to ask Molly in the farm stand to find out how many pick-ups you have used so far this season. You may also email Melissa.

While every week in the farm stand feels like a celebration of local food, we hope you’ll also join us and the other farms of Concord for the annual Ag Day farmers’ market event on Main St. in Concord Center Saturday, September 14th from 10am-2pm. We will be open as usual at the farm for the CSA and farm store Saturday 9am-3pm but we’d also love to see you join in the excitement on Main Street! In addition to farms selling all Concord-grown products, there will be music, kids activities, informational tables, and tickets available for the Concord Garden Club’s annual Kitchen Garden Tours, which take place 1pm-4pm that same day. Bring your friends and stop by our tent to say hi!

This week in the CSA:

• Garlic- The garlic has been cured so it can be kept outside the fridge in a cool dark place.

• Salanova lettuce mix - Now that the cooler weather has returned salanova is back in the CSA and farm store.

• Tendersweet cabbage

• Blacktail Mountain Watermelon - This heirloom variety of watermelon is super sweet and tasty! We pick them ripe so all are ready for eating.

• Sweet Italian and bell colored peppers - The elongated red Carmen peppers look like they might be hot but are actually the sweetest of our peppers!

• Spaghetti squash

• Tomatoes

• Green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Fresh Onions - Keep these in the refrigerator, the cured onions for longer storage (outside the refrigerator) are coming later in the fall!

• Cucumbers

• Carrots

• Kale

• Yukina Savoy or arugula

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Green and yellow beans - A new planting ready for picking! We have some green and a bed of yellow just for fun.

• Tomatillos - Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple.

• Husk cherries - Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery. To eat, remove the husk - the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - The sungolds are on their way out but other varieties are still plentiful!

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, cilantro, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as radishes, broccoli, toscano kale, summer squash and bunches of Swiss chard. We are also excited to now have lemongrass from our high tunnel! This was an experimental project this year and one that we think we will repeat next year! Lemongrass generally grows in more tropical climates, but it has done well in our high tunnel. It is great in teas, sauces and stir fries. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds, mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm and the first raspberries of the season from Silferleaf Farm, an organic raspberry farm just down the road from us on Strawberry Hill Road. We may not be able to have them every day in the farm stand, so take advantage when we have them!

Lemongrass!

Roasted spaghetti squash with mushrooms, garlic & sage

by Feasting At Home

Ingredients

• 1 small spaghetti squash (about 2 lbs)

• 1 Tablespoon butter (optional, or just use olive oil)

• 2 Tablespoon olive oil

• ½ an onion, chopped

• 12– 16 ounces sliced mushrooms – cremini, shiitake or chanterelles

• 4–6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 3 Tablespoons fresh torn sage

• salt and pepper to taste

• generous pinch nutmeg

• ¼ cup grated Romano cheese (or Parmesan) OPTIONAL

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F

2. Cut spaghetti squash in half (either way) and place open side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 40 minutes-50 minutes – or microwave for 12 minutes.

3. While squash is baking, heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Sauté onions until just tender about 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms , turn heat to medium and saute until they begin to release their liquid,about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and sage and continue cooking until mushrooms brown, about 4 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper and nutmeg.

4. Check squash, by piercing with the tip of a sharp knife to see if it’s done.

5. When tender, take out of the oven, turn over and let it cool slightly until cool enough to handle, then scoop out seeds. Scoop out the spaghetti squash into the saute pan with the mushrooms and stir to incorporate. Taste for salt, and add more if necessary. Stir in most of grated cheese, saving some for garnish. Place in a serving bowl, top with remaining cheese.

CSA Week 12 and Farm Stand updates

Our summer crew has dwindled over the past week as folks return back to school as students or teachers. Last week we said goodbye to Rachael, Dave, Ione and Leah, and this week we will say goodbye to AnneMarie and Ali. We’re hoping to see many of them again next season on the crew (though if not we’d also love visits!). Thanks to the great summer crew and our strong core season-long crew of Sarah, Rebecca, Molly and Brian, we feel in pretty good shape with our field tasks going into September. We’ve already begun our fall clean-up project of removing plastic mulch and drip tape from finished plantings and seeded over 2 acres of soil-replenishing cover crops.

We’ve also made good progress in harvesting winter squash, which is a crew favorite activity as it involves tossing squash to another crew member, who drops it gently into a bulk bin being driven down the field on a tractor. We are hoping the butternut will be ready to harvest by the end of the week while we still have a few extra hands to help with the harvest. Once the squash is harvested, it will cure in our barn for a couple of weeks. The curing process sweetens the flavor and also improves it’s storage quality so that we can begin selling and distributing squash in the store and CSA over the remainder of the fall.

This week in the CSA:

• Tendersweet cabbage - we are moving on to our fall cabbage harvest! Tendersweet cabbage taste like they sound - sweet with a soft texture.

• Watermelon - We’re starting to harvest a different variety this week: Blacktail Mountain! The outsides look different (solid dark green instead of striped) but on the inside it is a similar red watermelon with excellent flavor. The Blacktail right now seem to be sweeter but the Starlight seem to have a more intense watermelon flavor.

• Sweet Italian and bell colored peppers - Yellow, Red, and orange peppers are starting to ripen! The red Carmen variety are my favorite! Their elongated shape leads some folks to think they might be spicy but they are sweet like red bell peppers!

• Spaghetti squash - Cut in half, remove seeds and bake in oven. When soft enough to easily pierce with a fork scrape, let cool and then scrape out the inner “spaghetti” and top with your favorite pasta topping!

• Heirloom tomatoes - We grow Striped German and Pineapple (yellow with pink stripes), Cherokee Purple (purple with greenish shoulders), Cherokee Green (greenish yellow) and Pruden’s Purple (actually pink).

• Slicing Tomatoes - Big Beef (red), Bigdena (red), Mountain Merit (red), Chef’s Choice (orange) and Damsel (pink)

• Green bells and purple “Islander” peppers

• Eggplant

• Fresh Onions

• Cucumbers

• Carrots

• Beets

• Kale

• Yukina Savoy or arugula

• Lettuce

CSA Pick-your-own:

• Edamame - pick pods that have filled out.

• Tomatillos - Tomatillos should be picked when the fruit has filled out so much that the husk has split, they can be green or purple.

• Husk cherries - Husk cherries should be picked when the husk is brown and papery, to eat remove the husk, the berry inside will be yellow. Husk cherries usually fall on the ground when they ripen, hence why they are sometimes called “ground cherries”!

• Cherry tomatoes - We have longer beds than usual this season (about 250' feet long), but those who walk to the back of the beds will be amply rewarded with very fast picking (it’ll probably take less time overall than if you try to hunt for tomatoes at the front of the beds)! If you’re looking for a really quick pick, Mountain Magic will fill your quarts very fast.

• Hot peppers - Jalapeños (green), fresno (red) and ancho poblanos (green, about 4” long).

• Herbs: parsley, dill, dill seeds, dill flowers, cilantro, coriander seeds, Italian basil, Thai basil, chives, peppermint, spearmint, thyme, oregano, tarragon and sage. For Italian basil, please pinch the tops only so that the plants will branch and grow bigger.
  

  CSA Hours:

Tuesday and Thursday 11am-6pm

Saturday 9am-3pm

PYO Flowers

We’ll have snapdragons, bachelor’s buttons, calendula, orlaya, gomphrena, cosmos, strawflower, statice, star flower, verbena, rudbeckia, scabiosa, celosia, decorative basil, sunflowers (in the flower field this week), zinnias, and more. Picking is open to PYO Flower CSA members as well as to the public for purchase by the bouquet (we provide the a jar for measuring your bouquet size and you fill it with the flowers you’d like to take home!).

This week in the farm stand:

We will have all of the veggies listed in the CSA available in the farm store as well as summer squash and bunches of Swiss chard. We are also excited to now have lemongrass from our high tunnel! This was an experimental project this year and one that we think we will repeat next year! Lemongrass generally grows in more tropical climates, but it has done well in our high tunnel. It is great in teas, sauces and stir fries. We will also have sweet corn from Verrill Farm, eggs from Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds and mushrooms from Fat Moon Farm.

Lemongrass Tofu

from 40aprons.com

Ingredients:

• 1- pound block extra-firm or firm tofu, cubed

• 2 stalks lemongrass, minced fine

• 2 teaspoons fish sauce

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

• 2 teaspoons chopped Thai red chile (or an other type of hot pepper)

• 1/4 teaspoon dried red chile flake

• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

• 2 teaspoons agave

• big pinch salt

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1/2 onion, sliced

• 2 teaspoons garlic, minced

• 4 tablespoons chopped peanuts

• chopped cilantro, for garnish

• steamed brown rice, to serve

Instructions

1. Combine the lemongrass, fish sauce, soy sauce, chilies, chile flakes, turmeric, agave and salt in a bowl. Add the tofu cubes and turn to coat them evenly. Marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Heat half of the oil in a medium to large non-stick skillet over moderately high heat. Add the onion and garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

3. Wipe the pan down and heat remaining oil over moderate heat. Add the tofu mixture and, using chopstick or wooden spoons, turn the pieces so they cook evenly, about 4 - 5 minutes. Add the onion mixture and cook, uncovered, for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add half the peanuts.

4. Remove from the heat and transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with the remaining peanuts and cilantro and serve immediately over steamed brown rice.

Salsa Verde

from Cookie + Kate (cookieandkate.com)

• 1½ pounds tomatillos (about 12 medium), husked and rinsed

• 1 to 2 medium jalapeños, stemmed (omit for mild salsa, use 1 jalapeño for medium salsa and 2 jalapeños for hot salsa, note that spiciness will depend on heat of actual peppers used)

• ½ cup chopped white onion (about ½ medium onion)

• ¼ cup packed fresh cilantro leaves (more if you love cilantro)

• 2 tablespoons to ¼ cup lime juice (1 to 2 medium limes, juiced), to taste

• ½ to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

• Optional variation: 1 to 2 diced avocados, for creamy avocado salsa verde

Preheat the broiler with a rack about 4 inches below the heat source. Place the tomatillos and jalapeño(s) on a rimmed baking sheet and broil until they're blackened in spots, about 5 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, carefully flip over the tomatillos and pepper(s) with tongs and broil for 4 to 6 more minutes, until the tomatillos are splotchy-black and blistered. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine the chopped onion, cilantro, 2 tablespoons lime juice and ½ teaspoon salt. Once the tomatillos are out of the oven, carefully transfer the hot tomatillos, pepper(s) and all of their juices into the food processor or blender. Pulse until the mixture is mostly smooth and no big chunks of tomatillo remain, scraping down the sides as necessary. Season to taste with additional lime juice and salt, if desired. If you'd like to make creamy avocado salsa verde, let the salsa cool down before blending in 1 to 2 diced avocados (the more avocado, the creamier it gets).

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pasta with Spaghetti Squash

adapted from minimalistbaker.com

PASTA

• 4 red Carmen peppers

• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil

• 2 small red onions (finely chopped)

• 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

• Sea salt and ground black pepper (to taste)

• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk

• 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• 1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder (or other thickener of choice)

• 1 pinch red pepper flake (optional // for heat)

• 12 ounces spaghetti squash (about 2 medium spaghetti squash)

FOR SERVING optional

• Vegan parmesan cheese

• Finely chopped fresh parsley or basil

Instructions

1. Cook spaghetti squash. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and place cut side down in a casserole dish filled with about 1/2 inch of water. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a fork easily pierces the skin. Remove and let cool.

2. Heat oven to 500 degrees F and roast red peppers on a baking sheet until charred - about 25-30 minutes. Cover in foil for 10 minutes to steam, then remove (peel away) charred skin, seeds and stems. Set aside.

3. While the red peppers are roasting, bring a large skillet over medium heat and sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until golden brown and soft - about 4-5 minutes. Season with a generous pinch of salt and pepper and stir. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Transfer sautéed onion and garlic to blender with roasted peppers, almond milk, red pepper flake, nutritional yeast and cornstarch. Season with desired amount of salt, pepper, and red pepper flake.

5. Blend until creamy and smooth, taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more salt and pepper or nutritional yeast for flavor.

6. Once blended, place sauce back in the skillet over medium heat to thicken. Once it reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and continue simmering.

7. Once sauce is thickened to desired consistency (see photo), scrape the spaghetti string out and add the “noodles” to the sauce.

8. Serve with vegan parmesan, red pepper flake, and fresh chopped parsley or basil.