As part of my Local Roots CSA, I'll be sharing easy ways to use up your produce. From prep to leftover hacks, I hope you learn to love cooking at home as much as I do!
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Get cozy with an easy winter root vegetable soup inspired by my former roommate Grace. Whenever she was coming down with a cold or maybe, a little hungover, she’d make this very simple soup with bok choy. Instead, I've subbed in crisp strings of cabbage and added garlic chips to bump up the texture.
| Things you'll need: | |
| 2 cloves of garlic 1/2 cup of vegetable oil 1 large carrot 3 cups of broth or water 1 medium turnip or 2 small |
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce 1 star anise 1/2 cup shredded cabbage Optional: Pepper and sesame seeds |
Slice the garlic as thin as you can into chips. Fry them in the oil on high for 2-3 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown. Turn off the heat and move the pan away to another burner. Let it steep and continue cooking for 15 to 20 minutes until the garlic is golden brown. Drain from the oil and place on paper towels. The oil is now garlicky! You can use it to fry eggs or whatever you want.
Chop your carrots and turnip into chunks and cover with the broth. Add enough water to submerge all the vegetables. Bring it to a rolling boil on high heat.
Add a cinnamon, soy sauce, a thin slice of ginger, and star anise. Lower to a simmer until the vegetables are fork tender, about 7 to 10 minutes. Fish out the star anise, top the soup with a tuft of shredded cabbage and sprinkle of garlic chips. Freshly ground pepper is optional.
Easy, warm, yay!
Here are more ways to prep the carrot and cabbage from this week’s share.
Sweet, sweet carrot.
When you cook these carrots, they get sweeter! Like I mentioned above, boiling one-inch chunks until they are just fork tender is very enjoyable. If you let them go longer, they get mushy, but not mash-y like a potato.
Of course, you can eat our dear carrots raw with hummus or yogurt. To roast, split them lengthwise, toss in a little olive oil and cook at 450 degrees until the edges brown and its body wrinkles.
Do the cabbage patch.
I always enjoyed my fried Japanese tonkatsu with a side of plain shredded cabbage. Fried fatty foods and bbq go really well with slaws. All you really need per cup of shredded cabbage is a teaspoon of your favorite vinegar. Toss to coat and wait a few minutes for it to wilt.
Thick slices of whole cabbage roast up in the oven nicely, too. Their edges get crispy and brown while the inside is tender and juicy. You can boil cabbage but I find that boiling for too long releases those mustardy fumes, so beware!
Finally, you can kraut it! The best part is punching it regularly.
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Are you a member of Local Roots? Tag both @Randwiches and @LocalRootsNYC with the hashtag #MadewithLocalRoots when you use your produce. We want to see what you're making!
If you have cooking questions about anything you receive from your farm share, please ask me! I might have a few suggestions.