CSA Experiment - Week One - Part Two

Radish Top (and Spinach) Soup
2 T butter
1 large onion, diced
3 small potatoes, sliced
1 c. raw radish greens (CSA)
3 c. raw spinach (CSA)
4 c. vegetable broth
¼ c milk
3 radishes, sliced
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and sauté until tender. Mix in the potatoes and greens tossing them with the butter. Pour into the pot with the broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Return to the pot and add milk. Stir until well blended. Serve with crackers and radish slices.
This is a very “revised” recipe. The original called for 4 cups of radish greens, but we subbed spinach (which we had plenty of) for the remainder of the radish greens rather making less (a good thing). I subbed vegetable broth for the chicken since I had plenty of veggie parts and pieces left over but didn’t make anything with chicken this week. Since I am trying to get off the rest of the Caleb weight, I subbed 2% milk for the 1/3 cup heavy cream.
The kids weren’t particularly fond of the soup, but Jason ate 3 or 4 bowls. Jason tried one bowl with the added hot sauce that some of the commenters recommended, but preferred without. We both added table salt. The soup tasted good (not great, but was definitely up from merely edible), but was not filling enough to stand alone for Jason. He ate several bowls of soup with crackers and is still considering a snack later. The kids and I made strawberry banana smoothies for dessert, so we are fine.
We talked a bit about what would be a good accompaniment, but haven’t settled on one yet, but we are definitely open to your suggestions! Jason also wasn’t as fond of the raw radishes (or most any raw food for that matter) so we discussed trying them steamed. I found a recipe for steaming 8 minutes in the microwave and tossing with butter.

CSA Experiment - Week One

CSA Experiment Week One
Saturday Night – Borscht
Ingredients
Stew Beef – (on sale at Kroger)
1 medium onion chopped
2 T olive oil
1. Browned beef and onion in the oil
8 cups water
½ head cabbage chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
2 carrots (CSA)
5 beets with 2 inches of the stems and the greens chopped (CSA)
3 potatoes chopped
1 small can tomato paste
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
2. Combine water, cabbage, celery, carrots, beets, beet stems, potatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

¼ cup fresh dill chopped
2 T chopped parsley
3. Stir in the herbs. Add the beet greens. Simmer for 1 hour longer.
4. Strain out the bay leaves and serve.


Jason & I both enjoyed this dish which made enough food for all of us, plus 2 quarts of leftovers for lunch next week. Jason mentioned that the meat could be optional. One substitute could be 1 cup of pearl barley added in step 2 according to one recipe. Another addition that we considered was ¼ c of chopped chives referred to in one recipe.
We both agreed that we would definitely try this one again.