For the love of Produce...

SafariGalNYC

Did someone say beets, beetsters ? ☺️

Rosemary Beet chips. They are addictive! I made a batch in oven and they came out pretty good.

kbrown1527

I wish I liked vegetables more! These all looks so good and fancy! I usually stick with simple stuff.. I made cabbage soup this week, I add spinach and broccoli to just about everything. I go through phases where I will eat a lot of Spaghetti squash.

I’m more fruit obsessed! Blueberries and bananas are a staple at my house. Plus whatever is in season. I’ll get dragonfruit occasionally for myself.. that is my favorite but so expensive!

mtaratoot

Back before I stayed away from fresh juice (all the calories with almost none of the fiber), my favorite was beet, carrot, ginger (with extra ginger). Maybe I should bust out the juicer and make some anyway.


@kbrown1527 - experiment with less common vegetables, and try different methods of prep. I'm fortunate that I do like vegetables, and I like to cook. You might be surprised that you like jicima sliced thin in salads or steamed. You might decide you like roasted rutabaga or parsnip. You might slice some cabbage very thin, add some thin sliced red onion, some herbs, and some lime juice. Let it sit a few hours. Slice some fennel in there too, and the result might amaze you. None of this is really fancy even if it looks like it.

Shred some potato. Salt it. Let it drain in a colander over another bowl to catch the liquid. Shred some onion and carrot. Add salt and pepper and garlic. Decant the liquid off the potato starch in the bottom of the bowl and mix that in. Add that to a hot cast iron skillet and bake in the oven until crisp. Now that's fancy.

Find a friend or three and join a CSA. You get a box of produce every week or two. It will be local and in season. You might have to do some research on good things to do with it, or your CSA might provide some ideas. You might find some new favorites. I only "discovered" adding fennel to salads a decade ago.

gentlygently

Beetroot is also really good raw…

Finely chop into thin matchsticks (or grate?) and then coat with yoghurt/salt/pepper and lots of ‘popped’ mustard seeds (Ie fried in oil)

Or try with seasoned yoghurt and lots of mint (this one works better with cooked beetroots, but can be for raw too).

I made a fab beetroot and orange preserve, and also beetroot chutney. And it makes a good moist chocolate cake (same impact as carrot or courgette in cake).

Add cooked beetroot to corn beef hash for one of the ultimate comfort foods (but send my hubby and daughter out, they both hate this one!).

acpgee

I tried out a shortcut with the beet root chips, using the spiralizer and air fryer. Mine were a little scorched so will use a lower temperature next time.

acpgee

I am in Tuscany on vacation and the most extraordinary thing I ate today was a piece of roast zucchini garnish on a steak tartare. The courgette had the distinctive taste of anchovy but didn't look like it had been tossed in anchovy butter. I need to figure out how to reproduce this. Going to try a coating of melted butter with SE Asian fish sauce as a first attempt when I get home.

acpgee

A side of grilled veg in Siena, Tuscany.

acpgee

I tried to reproduce a roast vegetable dish I ate on vacation in Tuscany that tasted of anchovy. First attempt at brushing/tossing radichio and courgette destined for the griddle pan in a mixture of melted butter and SE Asian fish sauce. Good and worth doing again, but not a reproduction of what I ate in Siena.

acpgee

Braised celery was a new veggie side for me. Surprisingly good.

acpgee

I tried a new Szechuan green bean side, I blanched the beans by tossing a kettle full of water over them and draining a minute later. Stir fried with garlic and a condiment called "Chinese Olive Vegetable" which gave a great vegan umami hit. This is going to be my go to green bean treatment from now on.

AnnPT77

Scored this, for a treat:

mtaratoot

If it has to be a plant to be produce, then ignore this post. If you were going to look for mushrooms in the grocery store, they would be in the produce section, so there's that. There's also the fact that they are more closely related to animals than plants. Fungi are heterotrophic.

I do love to eat them, and it's fun to go look for them in the forest.

A couple days ago I took advantage of the great weather and went to a place I often find chanterelles. I had been there once before about a month ago and found nothing. They are late this year. I went back out and enjoyed the sun which makes it easier not to get turned around and means that I don't get as wet if I skip the rain pants. I did find a few chanterelles.

Then I was back out in a different part of the forest yesterday for another outdoor activity. I took the "long way" home because I hadn't driven that way in a while, and it's nice. It's about 20 miles farther. I figured maybe I'd also scout for new places to find mushrooms. As I drove down the road, I saw a "tuft" of what looked like mushrooms smack in the middle of the gravel road. I was pretty sure I knew what it was. I slowed to a stop, walked back behind the truck, and harvested a clump of Fried Chicken Mushrooms. They're really not all that tasty, but I might clean 'em up. Really dirty from being in the MIDDLE of the road. Then less than a mile later I saw what I thought was a Sparassis on the side of the road. They grow on tree trunks, so I suppose it fell off someone else's truck or something. It was a little wet and mushy, but I can trim out the good parts. It's one of my very favorites! I also found a place to take a very short walk, and I found a few older Lobster Mushrooms. I just took two of them.

So yesterday my basket had the full-meal-deal: lobster, fried chicken, and cauliflower!

Chanterelles:





Full Meal Deal:

SafariGalNYC

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Scored this, for a treat:

Ann -- inquiring minds want to know.. pear?

AnnPT77

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Scored this, for a treat:

Ann -- inquiring minds want to know.. pear?

@SafariGalNYC, slice of fresh jackfruit.

I should've included something identifiable, for scale. It's about 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter, and just under 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick.

Jackfruit are huge, like 10-20+ pounds (4.5-9+ kg). The local big produce market sells whole ones (!), and occasionally slices or wedges like this that are a more manageable size for my household of one. This one was especially fresh-looking. I like eating them fresh/raw (the yellowish oval bits, primarily).

SafariGalNYC

AnnPT77 wrote: »

SafariGalNYC wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Scored this, for a treat:

Ann -- inquiring minds want to know.. pear?

@SafariGalNYC, slice of fresh jackfruit.

I should've included something identifiable, for scale. It's about 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter, and just under 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick.

Jackfruit are huge, like 10-20+ pounds (4.5-9+ kg). The local big produce market sells whole ones (!), and occasionally slices or wedges like this that are a more manageable size for my household of one. This one was especially fresh-looking. I like eating them fresh/raw (the yellowish oval bits, primarily).

Love it! I almost went the jackfruit route.. the photo looked like it could be a fruit tart lol with pears.

My local Asian food Mart has a ton of Jack fruit and Durian! 😱 I may have to get one! (Jack fruit not durian, I had that experience in SE Asia. 👃)

Looks great!

mtaratoot

Beets. I really do like beets. Yesterday I peeled and grated some raw golden beets to put on a salad. Today I pressure cooked some red beets for 15 minutes, then peeled, sliced, and flavored with salt, pepper, ginger, and balsamic. I let it soak up the vinegar for an hour or so. Mmmmm..... Beets!

acpgee

Som tam with spiralized carrot and apple substituted for green papaya.

mtaratoot

So I went back out to the forest today to my chanterelle patch. I didn't find very many. That's OK. It wasn't raining, and it was nice to be in the forest. It for sure looked like someone else had been there recently.

I got back to the vehicle, and I decided I had a little more time to poke around. I walked down the road and looked up into an area that "should" be a good place for chanterelles, but was a real bugger to climb up into and then to hike around in. I was rewarded pretty quickly with several prime specimens. Yay!

Then I stopped. That's when I saw it. The one I found last week was by the side of the road, so it probably had fallen off someone else's truck or something. This one was the real deal.

Sparassis! Cauliflower mushroom! This one weighed about 1.25 pounds when I got it home.

acpgee

Smashed cucumber with black sesame dressing.

acpgee

Cambodian dessert of coconut custard cooked in a cleaned out butternut squash. Traditionally cooked in a steamer but I find a low microwave to do a good job.