Farm Share Pasta Primavera

Fresh spring vegetables, lightly blanched and tossed with pasta in a creamy sauce. A simple, fast vegetarian dish to let the flavors of Spring shine.

Joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share typically means you make the choice to eat more seasonally. Being a seasonal eater means by the end of one season I'm anticipating the next. Being a seasonal eater with a food blog means I'm working 9 months to a year behind as we approach the end of a season. Perhaps I could turn the frown upside down and say I'm working ahead. I mean, yesterday I made 2 desserts that will appear in April and July, respectively.

As my spouse and I resume our evening walks I see signs of Spring all over--except for my garden, which is still looking like a not-quite-ready compost pile. [It makes me realize how impressed I am with the ingenuity of farmers. With hard work, hoop houses and row covers, they manage to get a jump on Mother Nature every year.] It will be a couple of months until the local vegetables are ready for me to share current recipe ideas.  Instead, I rely on notes [notes get misplaced, it's a spiral binder for me now] a notebook and a well-labeled photo library to bring ideas for what to do with your produce.

This recipe has been on the second* page of my current spiral notebook for 10 months. I made it in the early weeks of the farm share, when the fast-growing crops--like peas and radishes--are abundant in the box. This pasta reminded me of the satisfying and quickly assembled meals my vegetarian roommates and I would fix, then enjoy on the porch while the evenings were ever-lighter and the weather still cool enough that a warm bowl of pasta was appreciated. [You could totally eat this cold, I just prefer the flavors warm.]

For other recipes using broccoli, please see my Broccoli Recipes Collection, for other recipes using carrots, please see my Carrot Recipes Collection, for other recipes using peas, please see my Pea Recipes Collection, for other recipes using radishes, please see my Radish Recipes Collection. These are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient--since it's the easiest way to figure out what to fix in my opinion. If you want to pin your ideas, you're welcome to follow me on Pinterest.

Potluck Asian Chicken Cabbage Salad

Chicken, cabbage and salad greens tossed with an easy Asian dressing. Almonds, radishes, and ramen provide a crunchy contrast to this pot luck salad.

I had cabbage and radishes aplenty when informed of the impending opportunity to use up farm share veggies pot luck. Following my tip to stick with the familiar, from my post Five Tips to Feed Your Family From the Farm Share, I decided to make a chicken & cabbage salad with an Asian dressing. The guests did not include vegetarians or folks with nut allergies, so I felt comfortable making my usual recipe which comes from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (Amazon affiliate link).

I've tweaked this recipe in a few ways, shown below. First off, I added salad greens since I'm serving a crowd. Second, I added radishes since I had some, I thought they'd look pretty, and the extra crunch would go well. Third, I used seasoned rice vinegar (the kind I use for my sushi rice) and, since that is sweetened, I omit the sugar. I double the dressing since it's so good--and so easy to make. Method-wise, I change the recipe by tossing the chicken-cabbage mixture with the dressing and let it hang out for a few hours. Then I toss the whole lot together with a bit more dressing and it's ready to serve.

If I were planning to take this to work for a lunchtime pot luck, I'd cook the chicken, toast the ramen & almonds, make the dressing and chop all the vegetables the night before. In the morning I'd combine the chicken, cabbage & some of the dressing in one container, the salad greens, radishes, and green onions in another, and the ramen and almonds in a third container. At serving time I'd [carefully] toss everything together with more dressing in a large bowl or serving tray, top with ramen and almonds, and serve with extra dressing on the side.

For more recipes using cabbage, please see my Cabbage Recipes Collection. For more recipes using salad greens, please see my Salad Greens Recipes Collection. For more ideas using radishes, please see my Radish Recipes Collection. These collections are all part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Greek-seasoned Salmon, Artichoke and Feta Dip

Greek-seasoned salmon with feta cheese and artichokes in a baked dip--terrific for a Dip Dinner!

Having an assortment of dips for dinner is a nice way to change up the dinner hour. Dips are easy to assemble in advance--no last minute work involved!
After spending time outdoors enjoying the return of warm sunshine I'm not necessarily ready for a heavy meal--but I'm happy to turn on the oven.
A dip dinner like this makes a good compromise meal. I like to offer choices, knowing that my spouse will clean up whatever is left another night as a pre-dinner snack. [Sometimes it can drive me batty that dinner will be ready in 7 minutes and he has to eat something NOW, but if I've got a bit of this or that to use up I'm all over it.]

It is hard to show a black dog against a dark background.

For this Dip Dinner I had this Greek-seasoned salmon, artichoke and feta dip, a vegetarian spinach feta artichoke dip (to be coming soon) and a mash up of this dip and the vegetarian one. That mash up won't be written up for the blog--it was too wishy-washy of a dip.

This recipe came from my friend Sarah while we were both living in Hawaii over a dozen years ago. She served it at a rubber stamping party and I immediately requested the recipe. I've played with the recipe over the years, sharing a slow cooker & swiss chard variation early on the blog, Slow Cooker Salmon Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip, as well as an arugula & artichoke version, Baked Artichoke & Arugula Dip.  I like my apps, and you can find many more ideas on my Pinterest board, Awesome Veggie Apps and Snacks.

I opted to try a Greek version using this new spice blend I picked up at a shop downtown (see Note below) along with feta cheese covered in a magical markdown sticker. This is a very good combo which we'll have again. For more recipes using Salmon, you're out of luck until I add protein to the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. I have worked my way through the whole salmon I bought at the grocery store down the street (wild caught, overnighted from Alaska, and cut & wrapped to order). For more recipes using marinated artichokes, please see my Recipes Using Veggies In Jars Collection, which is really quite a mouthful but a tasty one at that.