On Thursday May 27th we got our first CSA box - delivered straight to my front door since we're now Misty Meadows pickup site. It was a overflowing with goodies: a quart of strawberries. a bag of snowpeas, several heads of lettuce, kale, 2 big bunches of bok choy, green onions, collard greens. Some shares had swiss chard, but they ran a littie short on that so we got our bunch the following week. 



I've always struggled with how to use bok choy. It's in the cabbage family and commonly used in Asian recipes, so I've often just chopped it up and thrown it in a generic stir fry. Since we had quite a bit of it, I wanted to find something different. I searched the interwebs looking for the perfect recipe. I didn't quite find it so as often happens, I patchworked a recipe and a little ingenuity together to create a really good dish. My main issue with the bok choy salad recipes was that they called for baby bok choy. We have great big grownup bok choy, so I solved that problem by simply cooking it first.

I used this recipe as a base, but ended up with the following:

Bok Choy Salad

2 tblsps olive oil
2 heads bok choy
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tblsps honey
1 tblsp soy sauce
1/4 cup butter
2 pcks ramen noodles (crushed)
2-3 scallions (chopped)  or  several sprigs of chives (chopped)

Clean well and roughly chop bok choy. Sautee in olive oil until the leaves are wilted and the white stalks are tender. In a separate frying pan, melt the butter on medium heat, add the crushed ramen noodles and stir until the noodles turn golden brown. (Resist the urge to eat them all like candy.) 
In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, honey and soy sauce. At this point I just threw everything together in the large pan that still held the bok choy. I supposed you could put it into a pretty bowl to make a nicer presentation. This is equally good warm, room temperature, or even cold. 

Even my very picky teenagers ate it and didn't complain, which says something. My 4yo, however, only ate the ramen noodles. Maybe next time...



The second week we got green onions, beautiful purple speckled lettuce, two more heads of bok choy, and a bunch of broccoli. I wasn't above making the Bok Choy salad recipe again, so I just needed to figure out what to do with the broccoli. That's not generally an issue around here, but I wanted to do something a little more special than simply chopping it into pieces and serving it with dip. 

I found a lovely broccoli cheese soup recipe. Again, I modified it simply because I can't leave well enough alone. You may notice that I doubled the original recipe, as well. We have a big family. Making small amounts of soup doesn't make any sense to me.

A word to the wise - check the broccoli very carefully. I soaked mine for a long time in a big vat of salt water and I was still picking out worms. The last thing you want is to boil a pot of broccoli and find worms floating to the top.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Several carrots, roughly chopped
4 cups broccoli, chopped 
2 cups water
1 vegetable bullion cube (mine are big, you may need 2)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
ground pepper, to taste
4 cups milk
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
4 ounches (or so) Neufchatel cheese or cream cheese

Combine carrots, water, broccoli, and bullion in a sauce pan. Cook until the veggies are tender.
In a large soup pot, melt the butter, add the onions and cook until they soften. Add the flour and ground pepper. Stir for a minute or so. Stir in the milk, bring to a boil. Turn down heat and add cheeses. Stir until melted, then remove from heat. 
Reserving some of the broccoli florets, add the vegetables to the soup pot. Blend using stick blender or whatever you have available. Add the reserved florets. 

All the kids loved this one - from the picky teenagers and even the picky 4yo.