Week 4: Easter Egg (Radishes) & more!

Beets
variety: Red Ace

This week, I’m sharing recipes to try pickling a few of your veggies! Pickled beets, radishes, and onions make delicious additions to salads as you eat up your fresh mixed greens.

Radish
variety: Easter Egg

You can probably tell why these radishes are named Easter Eggs! It was fun to have my own egg hunt under this beautiful double rainbow that came over my harvest Saturday morning.

Here’s a simple recipe for pickled radishes.

Spring Onions
variety: Purplette

You can slice the bulb portion and add them to your radish pickle recipe! Use in salads, tacos, or sandwiches.

Salad Mix
variety: Premium Mix (Brassicas)

If making a salad with pickled veggies, I’d complete it with a cheese — like goat or feta — and pumpkin seeds, walnuts, pine nuts, or other crunchy addition of your choice. If you didn’t pickle your onions, freshly sliced bulbs can add a nice zest. You can keep the dressing to a light balsamic vinaigrette because the pickled roots are so flavorful.

If you want to use the greens on their own for a quick and easy dish, I’ve been loving to whip up a homemade dressing using olive oil, lemon juice, honey, minced garlic, and hot pepper relish for spice. You can sub out the hot peppers for dijon mustard if you want a different kind of heat. I still throw some pumpkin seeds on top to add texture, and shaved parmesan if it’s in the fridge. Don’t forget sea salt and black pepper!

These greens also make a nice bed for a fish or meat entree if you feature either in the main dish.

Parsley
variety: Giant of Italy

Pair your delicious salad with pasta of any kind and top with fresh parsley for a pop of color and flavor! Or, if you decide to roast any veggies this week, freshly chopped parsley always makes a nice addition once they’re out of the oven.

Kale / Broccoli greens
variety: curly kale / Piracicaba broccoli greens

This week, I offered both curly kale and greens from a broccoli variety I’m growing. (Did you know that leaves from broccoli plants are edible and tasty?) Here’s how to tell the difference between the two: If the leaves are very curly and ruffled on the edges, and are a true green color, it’s kale. If they are a muted, bluer tone and have smoother edges, they are broccoli greens.

If you’re wanting to make kale leaves into a salad, massaging kale with olive oil, salt, and lemon juice is key to cut bitterness. Here’s a simple recipe for massaged kale with tahini and a bit of sweetness.

For broccoli greens, try this simple, Caesar-inspired salad.

Or, my personal favorite way to use these greens is by making a green smoothie. I love combining almond butter, plenty of oat milk, banana, and a few dates to get veggies in at the start of my day. You can add chia seeds to make it extra filling if you have a long break between breakfast and lunch.

+ a little treat!
Rosemary Guava Shortbread Cookie

Once again, mahalo for support my small farm and for helping to build a stronger local food system here in Hawaiʻi! It means so much to me to hear how you’re using the veggies, and to be able to interact with the people who eat the food I grow.

There are two more weeks of produce to come, with the final day of this CSA being May 4. Stay tuned for details on the next round in July!