​Recently, I was in a very veggie mood. My husband and I both came across a wonderful soup recipe in “Charleston Magazine” (January 2022) for Broccoli and Arugula Soup. This vegetarian soup was so easy to make and despite the fact there was no cream in the recipe, it was a rich and creamy soup.
 
For the recipe you’ll need extra virgin olive oil, one sweet onion, fresh garlic, broccoli florets, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, vegetable stock, arugula leaves and a lemon.
 
The onions are diced and the garlic minced as they are set in a large pot with olive oil to cook until translucent. The florets are added and seasoned with salt and pepper. The broccoli is cooked until bright green and then the vegetable stock is added. The mixture is brought to a boil and then reduced to a simmer until the broccoli is tender. 

​Peak season for cauliflower is from September through November and n our CSA box for week 23 and 24 we received a head of white cauliflower and the following week, purple. The white cauliflower was transformed into a delicious and velvety cream of cauliflower soup. I was unsure what to do with a purple head, until I read the Cook’s notes for Melissa Clark’s recipe for Lemony Carrot and Cauliflower Soup. The commenter suggested using purple cauliflower. 

The challenge of purchasing a share in a CSA box (community sustained agriculture) is finding recipes for produce that you never have eaten before; this week, Swiss chard, was one of them. As I still had zucchini left from a prior box, I needed a meal that would utilize both vegetables. I found a recipe on the New York Times Cooking webpage from Martha Rose Shulman, Provençal Zucchini with Swiss Chard Tart. For those of you who may have never heard of Ms. Schulman, she writes cookbooks that focus on eating healthy with inspiration from the Mediterranean and Mexico. Her recipes focus on produce that is both fresh and seasonal. In looking through the index of my copy of her book Mediterranean Light, I noticed her recipes featured chicken, fish and vegetables. 

​The ingredients from my CSA Box, Week 3, were lettuce, escarole, spinach, Breadsmith pizza dough from Cranford, NJ and Antonio Mozzarella from Newark, NJ. My daughter and I split everything with the exception of the pizza dough as I make my own. Last week I prepared Escarole, Capers and Fontina Pizza, a recipe from the Alice Waters cook book “Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone.” The spinach will be part of a pasta dish I found on the New York Times Cooking website, Spicy Butternut Squash Pasta with Spinach, by Yasmin Fahr.
 
For the pizza recipe you’ll need pizza dough, 2 bunches of escarole, an onion 6-7 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, red pepper flakes (my contribution) and black olives. 

On Sunday afternoons, Dreyers Farms, Cranford, sends out an email with the upcoming week’s CSA box contents. Before I receive my share, I begin researching new recipes. My share of the box last week was rhubarb, lettuce, radishes, broccoli rabe and escarole. I also had some golden beets left from week 1.
 
With this week’s produce, including my golden beets, I found a recipe for Beets, Rhubarb and Orange Salad on epicurious.com. For the recipe you’ll also need extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, water, sugar, shallot, honey and feta cheese.