CSA Week 14, Double Lettuce

Chris French sends us his harvest list for the CSA every Monday from his farm when he drives down to Homestead and asses how crops are coming along.  This week, with a bit of apprehension he asked if we could do "double lettuce".  I immediately said YES!  It is peak lettuce season after all and his lettuce is so fresh and beautiful I imagine you guys will gladly make extra salads this week.  Am I wrong?

Our Coconut Grove CSA pick-up host Cindy Del Marmol is kind of a salad wizard.  She's one of those people that can whip up a salad to compete with the steak at a bbq, for real.  Last Saturday she invited me to a bbq at her house and I kid you not, the salad was my favorite part of the spread (which included cheeses, sausage, chicken, steak, guacamole, etc).  I'm still dreaming about that salad and when Chris asked if we could do "double lettuce" this week I could almost taste it.  So here's the recipe!

For the dressing Cindy puts a pint of raspberries in a magic bullet (blender) with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little water, salt, pepper and herbs de provence.  She tosses that with toasted pecan halves, baked and peeled beets cut into pieces (she wraps them in foil whole and the skin rubs right off after baking), crumbled goat cheese and Chris' lettuce salad mix. 

IN THE SHARE THIS WEEK:

Speaking of salads, the grapefruits in the share this week are pretty great candidates for a fun change of salad scenery.  They generally pair well with thinly sliced red onions, avocado and cheese.  Bon Appetit published this winning recipe for a radicchio and citrus salad with burrata.  If salad isn't triggering your taste buds right now, consider this amazing recipe for broiled grapefruit halves with honey yogurt and granola.

In previous seasons Hakurei salad turnips have been a more prominent CSA share inclusion, but we backed off a bit this year.  At this moment I can't imagine why we would do that because they are so good and SO EASY to make use of.  Alas, turnips are not a huge hit at the farmers market so we didn't want to bog you down with them.  The name says it all; this particular variety of turnips are Japanese and they are great for salads.  Theses are much smaller than typical turnips, their consistency is more buttery and their flavor is more mild and sweeter.  I like to describe them as being similar to apples, but less juicy.  My fav way to eat them is cut into small wedges and tossed with any greens (anything from lettuce to shredded cabbage to watercress, or combination of them) and a vinegary dressing (my go to lately is apple cider vinegar, olive oil, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper).  Enjoy these little white cuties!