It’s the Fourth of July. In addition to celebrating the United States, Independence Day is a wonderful excuse to consume the mayonnaise-dressed picnic food I secretly adore. I severely limit my consumption of potato salad, broccoli salad, and macaroni salad, however, choosing to indulge only a few times a year. Honestly, I think these tasty salads would lose their appeal if I ate them more frequently.
This year, instead of purchasing it, I made broccoli salad for our July Fourth cookout. I gave the broccoli a quick bath in boiling water and used about half the dressing along with the traditional onions and sunflower seeds. The salad had all the flavors that make it one of my favorites, but I could actually taste the broccoli because it wasn’t hidden under a thick coating of mayo.
In addition to broccoli, this week we received baby carrots, snow peas, the biggest kohlrabi I’ve ever seen, joi choi, Chioggia beets, Vidalia onions, turnips, baby summer squash, and arugula.
A very large kohlrabi
Marinated and grilled summer squash also was part of my July Fourth cookout. One of the perks of a CSA share is it encourages you to mix up your vegetable consumption. Left to my own devices, I usually default to some kind of potato and green beans, broccoli, or Brussels sprouts when I can’t think of anything else to make.
Summer squash marinating before grilling
This week, however, I made a couple of recipes that will definitely return when I’m stuck for a vegetable side dish: spice-crusted carrots with harissa yogurt, and Chioggia beets and arugula with raspberry mint vinaigrette.
Beets and arugula with raspberry mint vinaigrette
The beets, carrots, and roasted kohlrabi accompanied grilled pork chops with cilantro-lime sauce. And the snow peas and joi choi were part of a quinoa stir fry that should be on the menu at Protein Bar.
Quinoa stir fry
If I had all the time in the world to stand in my kitchen, I think you’d find me either baking or pickling. I don’t have much experience with pickling. I’ve made a few quick pickles here and there, but I love to eat them, and I’d like to have the opportunity to try different recipes—from spicy to sweet. I planned to make some pink pickled turnips this week, but I was headed out of town the Thursday after the Fourth, and in the melee of packing, I didn’t get a chance to make my pickles. I plan to get to it this week, though. They have to sit for two weeks, and I’ll report back in a future post.