Week 8 - 6/10

Dill flower
Cucumbers
Beets
Baby leeks
Fennel
Cabbage
Celery
Squash

Remember how excited I was last time I posted (far too long ago) about getting caught up on lots of leftovers? And that I was going to make awesome zucchini tacos, and not has a cheezburger by Friday? Yeah, about that. I had the soup for lunches, and the tacos for dinners so I did eat a lot of veggies, but both dishes were just, meh. With the zucchini, I put beans, tomatillo salsa, and sour cream on the tacos, which sounds great, but was really just a mushy mess. The tacos were so uninspiring that I never got around to making the mystery cabbage accompaniment. Cheeseburger happened.

So I set out to learn from my mistakes. I now bring you veggie enchiladas, with not one, but two cabbage sides.



Mystery cabbage 1: cabbage salsa
1/2 small head of cabbage, shredded
1 tomato, diced
2 Tbsp cilantro, coarsely chopped
juice of 2 limes
chopped pickled jalapenos, black pepper to taste

These proportions are just estimates, I like a lot of jalapenos and cilantro. I used about *four* limes because the ones I had were so dry.

Mystery cabbage 2: the one with carrots
I found this recipe while looking for the cabbage salsa. I added black pepper, because I'm used to seeing it with the little flecks, and a pinch of sugar. Also, this recipe is written for a really big cabbage. Since mine was small, I ended up with too much liquid.

Veggie enchiladas:
I sauteed four small zucchini, sliced, with a small onion, diced, a couple minced garlic cloves and dried oregano. when the zucchini was lightly browned, I added a can of hatch chilies and a can of black beans, drained and rinsed. Once the filling was cool, I rolled it up in 6 flour tortillas, placed them in a baking dish, poured over a bottle of enchilada sauce and topped it all with shredded jack cheese.

Other projects from last week: I made vegetable stock with odds and ends I'd been saving in the freezer. I got the idea from this post at 30 bucks a week. I browned everything before adding the liquid, and froze the resulting broth in one cup increments.



Sorry turnips, you don't get your own post this time. I made a gratin with the sliced turnips, a white sauce made with a couple of the baby leeks, and a topping of gruyere and breadcrumbs. This was really good in a "gotta cover it up with a bunch of [cream and butter]" kind of way. When I cut into it, the pink turnips looked like ham, which made me think this would be even better with bacon. I ate it for dinner with strip steak (with Jeannette's amazing African rub) and this salad recipe from Epicurious that used the kohlrabi. At first I wasn't sure about the salad, but by the end of the plate I decided I could potentially live on it. It's got crunchy and salty and oniony and lemony, what more could you want in a salad?