Adventures with food

We got another CSA box this week. This week's box included salad greens, red oakleaf lettuce, asparagus, spinach, green garlic, dill, rhubarb, garlic scapes, strawberries and kohlrabi. Some interesting stuff, huh?

Kohlrabi is certainly something I'd never seen before. Kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip. Apparently it tastes like broccoli stems. It's used a lot in Indian food. Here's a pic.

Thank goodness for the Internet, so I can figure out what the unfamiliar vegetables are....and so I can find recipes! I've yet to get a vegetable in my CSA that I don't like, so I'm excited to try another new one.

With all the green leafy vegetables we have, I've been trying to figure out new ways to prepare them. I discovered a great way to prepare spinach. A smoothie! Yep, it probably sounds really weird, but you honestly can't taste it.

Spinach Smoothie
Blend:
1 1/2 cups fresh spinach
1 banana
1 apple
1/2 cup canned pineapple
1 cup vanilla yogurt
And some ice cubes

The smoothie is green, but it's delicious. Dave even told me he wanted one of my smoothies today. Dave generally likes the food I make him, but it's not too often that he asks for certain items.

Tonight I made an asparagus casserole. I'm not going to say "hot dish"...sounds too Minnesotan. But the dish was creamy, the asparagus crisp and overall delicious...just like a hot dish should be. Haha. I modified a recipe I found online with what was in my kitchen.

Asparagus Casserole
1 lb fresh asparagus, chopped
6 strips of bacon
2 T butter
1 1/2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (plus 1 can milk)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add cream of mushroom soup and water. Stir. Add cheese. Cook until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally. Separately cook the bacon and chop into pieces.

In casserole dish, add layer of asparagus, followed by bacon, crackers and soup mix. Repeat layers. Top with crackers. Cook at 350 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

J.B.