Ravioli with homemade pesto sauce

Nate made homemade pesto sauce, but changed it up a bit by adding kale and broccoli raab.  Here is his recipe:

Add into the food processor in no particular order:

• Frozen CSA basil from our summer overload (handful)
• Fresh CSA kale (handful)
• Fresh CSA broccoli raab (handful)
• Rosemary (three twigs full)
• Lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
• Garlic (about 8 cloves)
• Roasted Walnuts (about three handfuls, toasted in a cast iron skillet)
• Olive oil (probably a cup or more)

As you add stuff, keep adding olive oil to keep the moisture level up and the food processor working.  Add it all in no particular order, but add it at a slow enough pace that you don’t clog up the works, and use the olive oil as a moisture keeper.  Just add it in until you get that pesto consistency.

 

Then Nate put some of the pesto in a skillet, added some chicken cut into bite-sized pieces, and cooked until the chicken was done.  Meanwhile he cooked some spinach and cheese ravioli, added that into the skillet, and topped it off with chopped tomatoes.

 

Unfortunately I did not capture a very good picture.  But trust me, it was amazing!   It tasted great leftover too.

 

This recipe only used a small portion of the pesto sauce Nate made.  Here is a cool pesto trick: use what you need, then pour the rest into an ice cube tray.  Once it’s frozen you can crack the cubes, put them in a baggy, and keep the frozen bundle.  Pull out one cube and throw it in your hot noodles whenever you want pesto.  It’ll melt and be just the right amount.  An easy, healthy way to have dinner on those weeknights when you only have a few minutes to cook!

Week 5 veggies

This week we got:

- a bunch of kale
- a bunch of mizuna
- a large bag of dill
- a large bag of spinach
- green onions
- a large bag of broccoli
- 5 oranges and/or tangelos
- a huge bag with green and red leaf lettuce

Kale chips and salad with beets

The other night we made kale chips and beet green chips as an appetizer while we prepared a big salad.  To make the chips, tear pieces of kale and beet greens (or any type of green) into medium size pieces.  Don't make them too small, because they will shrink as they cook, and you want good-sized pieces to eat.  Toss the pieces in olive oil, salt & pepper, and any other seasoning you might like - we added a dash of cayenne pepper.  Put the greens on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until they get nice and crispy.  Thicker greens will take a little longer.  Turn the greens over a few times during baking so they cook evenly.  This pic only shows kale chips, and it's kind of hard to see, but you can get the idea:

Next we made a big salad with lots of stuff in it.  I don't normally blog salads, but this one was a little different so I thought I'd share.  It was almost entirely made up of CSA veggies!  For greens we used red and green leaf lettuce and spinach.  Then we added chopped radishes, salad turnips, broccoli, raisins, walnuts, and warm cooked beets, then topped it off with fresh grated parmesan.  The dressing is a simple olive oil and red wine vinegar.

It was delish!  We made a bunch and ate it leftover for lunch the next day (store the leftovers without dressing) and it was still just as good.

We eat lots of salad, and it's a great way to use CSA veggies, and to fill up while staying healthy.  The trick to keep salad from getting boring is to mix up the toppings.  Adding beets to this salad made it a very different meal.  You can change it up a lot by adding fruits (oranges, cranberries, strawberries), nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts), and of course different veggies.