In This Week’s Distribution

Lettuce: Salads, sandwiches… you know what to do.

Garlic Scapes: These are the flowers of the garlic.  You can chop them up and use them just as you would use cloves of garlic.  My favorite thing is to brush them with a touch of oil and put them on the grill until they get a bit crispy.  Eat them on their own as a crispy garlic snack, or chop those up and add them for flavor to any dish.

Bok Choi: (aka pak choi or bok choy) is a member of the brassica family, related to broccoli, cabbage and kale.  It is a type of Chinese cabbage, slightly resemblant of mustard greens or celery. The entire vegetable can be used in cooking, and it can be steamed, boiled, shredded, grilled or sauteed. If you haven’t cooked it yourself before, you’ve probably eaten in in a stir fry, miso soup or noodle dish. It is an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron, as well as vitamin C, A, and K.

Scarlet Salad Turnips: like a radish but with more cooking greens on top and no spice to the root.  Crisp and delicious, these can be cooked, pickled or eaten raw in many ways.

Kale and Quinoa Salad

from allrecipes.com

• Ingredients
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 10 leaves kale, cut into small pieces
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon ground sea salt
  • 1 cup pecans
  • 1 cup currants
  • ¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
• Directions
  • Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Stir quinoa into the boiling water, reduce heat to medium-low, place cover on the saucepan, and cook until water absorbs into the quinoa, about 12 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and let rest covered for 5 minutes. Remove cover and allow quinoa to cool completely.
  • Put kale in a large mixing bowl.
  • Whisk olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, pepper, and salt together in a bowl until oil emulsifies into the mixture; drizzle over kale. Add cooled quinoa, pecans, currants, and feta cheese to the dressed kale and toss to incorporate.

Braised Baby Bok Choi

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 8 heads baby bok choy, trimmed, and halved lengthwise if large
• 1/4 cup homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock, or water
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions

1. 1.     Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add bok choy, and cook, turning once, until just beginning to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Add stock and soy sauce. Cover; reduce heat to medium, and simmer until bok choy is tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer bok choy to a serving platter, reserving cooking liquid in skillet.
2. 2.     Cook liquid over medium-high heat until it is reduced by half, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour over bok choy, and serve.

Ginger-Sesame Bok Choi

From marthastewart.com

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 5 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
• 4 to 5 heads baby bok choy, (1 pound), each halved lengthwise

Directions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid, bring 1 cup water and ginger to a boil. Add the bok choy; reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook until leaves are vibrant green and stems are fork-tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain well; discard ginger.
3. Transfer bok choy to a serving platter; drizzle with the vinegar-soy mixture, and serve immediately.