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10 Things To Do With Garlic Scapes

By Margo on April 29, 2013 in 10 Cool Things to Do With..., Greenling DFW, Recipes, Spring

garlic scapes

“Garlic WHAT?” Get excited for one of spring’s most anticipated farm-fresh delights– garlic scapes! Scapes are the wild shoots that spring from the tops of garlic plants. Their color is springtime green, and the shoots can be thick or thin, curved or corkscrewed, and vary in height. They also come with leaves, which are more similar to leeks or green onion, and are also edible! Garlic scapes have a mild garlic fragrance and a mellow garlic flavor. The scapes are meant to be cut from growing garlic in order to help the garlic grow. So it’s a win-win for the farmer and us, the cooks!

Here at Greenling DFW, our garlic scapes come to us from Paul of Mexas Farm. Paul helps Greenling stay green and sustainable by taking some of our compost! We’re happy to keep the circle going by serving up Paul’s delicious garlic scapes this season. Stumped for how to cook these beauties?

10 Things To Do With Garlic Scapes

pickled

1. Pickle ‘em
Because who doesn’t love pickles? These pretty pickled Garlic Scapes are so simple, even pickling/canning novices can enjoy.

2. Make Pesto
Pesto is a delicious spread to keep handy- wonderful for any number of pastas, as a spread on sandwiches, a base for salad dressings and sauces, or simply eaten with a nice chunk of bread. You can throw in other herbs or green leafy things too.

baconwrapped

3. Wrap ‘em in Bacon
For meat eaters, there’s really nothing better than something wrapped in bacon. Show off the flavor of spring while keeping your carnivorous friends happy.

4. Roast
Like with garlic itself, roasting the scapes brings out their sweetness, making for a lovely side dish. Simply toss the washed scapes with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast at 450 for 5-7 minutes, until browned nicely. If you’d like to use the leaves too, roast them for 5 minutes first.

5. Use Raw
Like the spring onion greens we’ve also seen this season, they’re terrific raw! Thinly chop the shoots and add to a tuna or chicken salad, stir into hot rice or scatter over a salad, the way you might scatter sliced scallions or an herb.

6. Stir-Fry
Garlic scapes are excellent for stir-fry dishes as they don’t compete with stronger flavored ingredients, but rather complement them with a sweet succulent character. Try this recipe for vegetarian Stir-Fry with Garlic Scapes, Carrots, and Shiitake Mushrooms. You can also use those leaves, just stir-fry longer.

garlicscapevinegar

7. Gift Infused Vinegar
For fresh vegetable salads, only the best dressing will do- and what’s better than a salad dressing you made yourself? Make your own Garlic Scape Vinegar and gift to friends and family throughout the summer. Simply add olive oil + a squeeze of lemon for a beautiful salad dressing!

8. Make Spring Soup
Take advantage of everything green to make a beautiful spring soup: Garlic Scape, Spinach, and Pea Soup. ! Serve it hot if you wish, or cold as a starter on a hot summer day.

9. Make Mayonnaise
After you make your own mayonnaise, you’ll never want to buy store-bought again. Fresh garlic scapes give this mayo a delicious boost for potato salads, sandwiches, and more!

flowers

10. Wait for the bulbs to bloom!
Paul of Mexas Farm says if you aren’t a huge fan of garlic, simply use as a springtime bouquet! The little bulbs will bloom in about a week, turning into pretty purple fuzzballs. Perfect for outdoor barbeques or garden parties

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10 Cool Things To Do With Dates

By Angela on August 1, 2012 in 10 Cool Things to Do With...

Fresh dates aren’t easy to come by ’round these parts- their season is quick and their harvests are usually small. But our amazing and talented buyer in DFW was able to score some for this week’s Local Box! Now that you have a pint of delicious, fresh dates you may be wondering what to do with them. Don’t worry, we’ve got it under control.

1. Everyone loves candy and candied dates are no exception! This recipe may take awhile, but the results are well worth it.

2. Want a faster, but equally sweet recipe? Take a tip from the Italians and serve those fresh dates with coffee cream.

3. Create a fresh fruit medley with this recipe for a fig, apple and date salad.

4. For the meat lovers out there, try wrapping and stuffing the dates before grilling them. Perhaps with bacon?

5. Not a fan of bacon? Stuff them with pistachios instead!

6. Food Network’s Alex Guarnaschelli knows what she’s talking about. Date compote with fresh pears would make even the most icy hearts melt with first ‘date’ love.

7. Fresh dates have a similar texture to apples- by combing them both in a crumble you may just be overwhelmed by deliciousness.

8. Even the kiddos will love this one- fresh date and pears muffins.

9. Pomegranates are even harder to find locally, but if you happen to score this delicious fruit at your local organic store, mix them up with a fresh date and pomegranate salad.

10. And if you don’t feel like cooking them right now, you can always dry the dates yourself and save them for another day.

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10 Cool Things To Do With Dill

By Angela on April 30, 2012 in 10 Cool Things to Do With...

So you’ve opened up your Local Box and you’re left in awestruck wonderment at the glory you see before you. Scrumptious squash, tempting turnips, delicious dill! Wait. Dill? What in the world am I going to cook my family with dill, you wonder. Well, besides containing the magical ability to turn cucumbers into pickles, dill is actually a fairly versatile herb. Here are some delicious ways to feed your family dill!

1. Try Hungarian style summer squash and dill to quell hungry tummies and expand your culinary palette!

2. Go Greek for a night and make your own tzatziki sauce! Dill is a main ingredient in this delicious sauce that goes great on a pita sandwich.

3. Dill is an easy, but delicious way to spice up chicken. Lemon dill chicken skewers!? Who could resist?

4. Tyler Florence understands the wonderful potential of dill and seafood! Try out his pan seared salmon with sour cream and dill and you’ll understand too!

5. Potatoes are a staple of American cooking, cook up some roasted dill potatoes if your family seems reluctant to try dill! Potatoes will surely change their minds.

6. Even with summer approaching, we all crave soup sometimes! A chilled cucumber and dill soup is perfect for lunch in any season.

7. If you don’t feel like using fresh dill, hang it upside down by the stem in a warm, dry area of your house and let it dry out. The dill will be ready to store after a couple days when the leaves crumble in your hand. Make sure to store it in an airtight container!

8. Are you looking for a side dish to complete a meal? Rice is a great place to start, add some dill and make garlic dill rice to spice up any meal!

9. Dill is a fantastic way to add some adventure to bread! Dill and cheddar beer bread is an excellent compliment to a hearty soup.

10. And finally, no list of dill would be complete without pickles. I can’t share with you my grandma’s secret recipe, but here’s a great guide complete with photos for the pickle novice!

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10 Things to Do With Avocados

By Kathryn on February 2, 2012 in 10 Cool Things to Do With...

No matter how you slice it, life without avocados would be the pits! Each year, the brief Texas avocado season is the highlight of my winter. While the rest of the country endures snow and sleet, I enjoy copious amounts of guacamole and bask in the Texas sun. These months– and local avocados– are what I think of when people ask me why I love living in Central Texas.

We’re coming into our third straight week of avocados in the Local Box. If you’ve tired of guacamole, here are 10 ideas for using up the bounty! Thanks to our customers on Facebook who suggested these recipes and ideas!

1. Annie H. suggests making chipotle avocado mayo.Combine 1 avocado, 1 tbs mayo, and 1/4-1/2 tsp of chipotle chili powder. “Smash it up together, and it’s delicious on BLT’s or turkey sandwiches,” she writes.

2. “I love avocado smoothies,” wrote Apryl D. She recommends blending together 1 avocado, milk, local honey and cocoa powder for a rich morning treat.

3. Another avocado smoothie recipe: combine 1 avocado, 1 pear, a handful of spinach, a banana, and some almond milk in a blender. Process it until the mixture is smooth, and enjoy ahealthy green smoothie. Che Angela S. called this recipe the Breakfast of Champions!

4. For dinner, try Giada De Laurentis’ recipe for Linguine with Avocado and Arugula , suggests Yvette B. I think this recipe would be outstanding prepared with cilantro instead of basil and served over cilantro corn pappardelle, Greenling’s fresh pasta selection for next week!

5. How about using avocado in a dessert? A few folks suggested this sweet treatment of the fruit, and a quick search online revealed this recipe for Nutella avocado brownies. Be still, my heart.

6. Alisa V. S. offers another avocado dessert– the Avocado Pie.The idea of using avocado in a key-lime-style pie is new to me, but G&S Groves limes can make anything taste good, so I am going to give this one a try!

7. Of course, no discussion of avocados would be complete without at least one guacomole idea. “Cumin and orange do magical things to guac,” writes Elizabeth W.

8. Grapefruit, oranges, jalapenos and avocado come together beautifully in this recipe for Grapefruit & Avocado Salsa , suggested by Sam S. I think that looks especially nice with fish or chicken and a glass of white wine.

9. Speaking of chicken, Laurie H. had a great idea for cooking avocados: “Peel one and stuff it in a Cornish game hen,” she offers. “Cook and devour!”

10. Finally, the most popular suggestion for eating lots of avocados was to simply slice them and served them plain, or dressed with a little salt.

However you decide to enjoy your local avocados, do it quick– we’ve only got a few weeks left in this year’s local avocado season!

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10 Things To Do with Summer Squash

By Kathryn on August 25, 2011 in 10 Cool Things to Do With...

Summer squash are the stuff of legend. Farmers love them because they survive even the hottest Texas summers, and they’re one of the most prolific plants around. Home cooks love them because they’re inexpensive and tasty. The only downside to summer squash season is figuring out what to do with all of it!

We’ve got you covered. Check out these cool ideas for how to use the army of zucchini and yellow squash that arrived this week in the Local Box.

1. Grate the squash and use it to cook low-carb hashbrowns. This is so simple: to each cup of grated squash, 1/4 cup grated onion and an egg white. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet and cook the hashbrowns over medium heat just as you would potatoes.

2. While the grater’s out, grab another squash and some gin to make a Zucchini-Tini.

3. Oven baked zucchini chips are kid-friendly and would make a terrific addition to a school lunch box. To make them, slice a zucchini as thin as possible with a mandolin or sharp knife. Toss the slices in a few tablespoons of olive oil and season to taste with salt, pepper, chili powder and paprika. Bake the slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. It will take about two hours on your oven’s lowest setting for the chips to become crispy.

4. You don’t really need to cook squash at all to enjoy them. Slice a few squash into 1/4 inch rounds and dip them like chips in Zucchini Hummus.

5. Most people have a favorite zucchini quick bread in their recipe box. This recipe for zucchini bread is unusual because it combines shredded zucchini with a traditional yeast dough, resulting in a perfectly tender cinnamon raisin bread that can be made by hand or in a bread machine.

6. Grilled zucchini is a cheap way to feed a crowd at a Labor Day cookout. Just slice a few summer squash lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices and toss in a bowl with Italian dressing. (About 1/4 cup dressing per squash.) Grill the zucchini slices until they’re tender, about 4 minutes per side.

7. Another recipe for the grill: Grilled Sausage and Apple Stuffed Zucchini. This one would work with yellow squash or zucchini, but I think that acorn squash would be killer with the sweetness of apples. The Asian pears in this week’s Local Box would substituted well for the apples, too.

8. These zucchini dessert squares are like a traditional jam bar, but with a sweetened zucchini filling. You won’t believe it’s zucchini when you eat them– the filling tastes just like apples!

9. While we wait for pumpkins to come into season, try this zucchini pie recipe. I actually love this dish for breakfast. It really does taste like pumpkin pie, and I make it a little healthier by skipping the crust and baking the filling directly in a buttered pie pan or 8-inch square casserole dish.

10. Not a fan of zucchini pie? Elise Bauer’s popular zucchini chocolate cake should do the trick.