Escarole, Orange, Filbert Salad

After several attempts at cooking escarole this winter including in soup and pizza, I decided to try one more buch from our Open Oak CSA raw in a salad. I found this lovely salad recipe for blood organes, escarole (from Open Oak CSA), and filberts (from Thistledown Farm) (I left out the cheese included in the original.)

For the dressing I used juice from an orange, olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic (from Open Oak CSA), salt and pepper.

It was a very refreshing salad on a winter day, and stored well in the refrigerator for a few days.

(Not nearly as fancy as the picture from the original recipe, but delicious nonetheless.)

Slow Cooker Bean and Pasta Soup

I am finding it very challenging to find recipes where I can use all of the ingredients from the vegetable CSA and serve something that my non-adventurous-food-eating-four-year-old will eat without a fuss. I thought this minestrone-like soup that I adapted from my Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook to leave out tomatoes and onions would work; I was wrong. We did eventually convince him to eat the beans and pasta by removing them from the offending broth. Sigh. He continues to try new foods, but expanding his palate is surprisingly difficult.

The soup was ok, but it would have been better as a real minestrone with onions and tomatoes.

Slow Cooker Bean and Pasta Soup

1 t onion powder

2 cloves garlic minced (from Open Oak CSA)

2t oregano

2 T grape seed oil

3 c chicken broth

1 beet chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

3 small carrots chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

1 c rio zape beans (from Lonesome Whistle CSA)

1/4 c pasta

1 bunch escarole chopped (from Open Oak CSA)

salt and pepper

grated cheese

Microwave onion powder, garlic, grape seed oil, and oregano for 30 second in the microwave. Transfer to slow cooker. Add in dry beans, beet, carrots, and chicken broth. Cook on high for 4 hours.

Add in pasta and escarole and cook for 30 minutes.

Sweet Meat Squash and Escarole Pizza (aka Rose Bowl Pizza)

Our last CSA bag of 2011 included half of an Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat Winter Squash. It's huge! We have already had too many sweets in our family recently so I didn't want to make a pie. I've already made a couple of different types of pasta with butternut squash this fall so I rejected the pasta ideas. There are many squash soup recipes available, but I recently made butternut squash chowder. I wanted to try something different with this squash. With a quick search, I found a recipe for caramelized butternut squash pizza. Homemade pizza with whatever seasonal toppings are in our refrigerator is a favorite in our family, and we always had pizza on Saturday nights when I was little. Here's a new combination for us with sweet meat and escarole. I realized as I was cooking the ingredients that the squash and greens are yellow and green. So this turned into Rose Bowl Pizza to celebrate the Ducks win today (which we ate during the last exciting quarter of the game)!

My husband declared of the pizza, "This is good! Really, really good!" It's a winner!

Pizza Dough

2 1/4 t yeast

1 T sugar

1 c warm water

3 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

2 3/4 c wheat flour (can use white flour and only 2 T oil)

Mix yeast, sugar and water together in a bowl (I use my mixer for everything); proof yeast for 15 minutes. Add in oil, salt, and wheat flour. Mix thoroughly. Let dough rise for 1 hour. Turn out onto floured board and roll into pizza pan shape. Add toppings. Bake 400F for 18-20 minutes.

Squash-Escarole Topping

1/4 sweet meat squash (from CSA)

1 bunch escarole chopped (from CSA)

1/2 onion chopped (from CSA)

3 cloves garlic (from CSA)

Olive oil

4 T Butter

1/2 t dried sage

black pepper

salt

Parmesan cheese

Sharp Tillamook Cheese

Place sweet meat squash on a baking dish "flesh" side down. Poke holes in skin with a knife. Bake at 300F for 30 min. Remove from oven. Let squash cool and then peel. Cut squash flesh into 1 inch chunks.

Melt butter in big sauce pan. Add in squash chunks and onions. Let cook until onions are soft. Add in sage, salt, and pepper and stir. Add in escarole and garlic.

Cook just a few minutes until greens are wilted.

Cover pizza dough with olive oil. Add cooked toppings (and make 4 year old approved corner with turkey pepperoni).

Top with cheese. Bake 400F for 18 minutes.