Box contents: Beets, kale, romaine lettuce, celery, cilantro, green onions, various kinds of oranges and tangelos, fingerling potatoes, a rutabaga, and another thing that I thought was a rutabaga but turned out not to be.
Not playing this round: Beets. I made two separate things out of the beets, actually. First I steamed the greens with a little garlic and served them over rice with some shredded cheese and a poached egg. Inspiration: "what exactly am I supposed to eat for dinner when all I have in my house are rice, eggs, and these beets?" Then later I roasted the beets. But that wasn't part of the challenge.
The romaine lettuce, unsurprisingly, went into salads.
Challenge Round One: Watermelon Radish + Cilantro = Exotic Fries
Now let's talk about the thing that wasn't a rutabaga. I cut it open and it looked like this:
It also smelled...radish-y. And rutabagas (I know this because I looked it up) are related to turnips. It turns out that this is, in fact, a watermelon radish. I did not know watermelon radishes existed, but now I have eaten one. It tastes like a fairly mild ordinary radish. But it is pink on the inside. So there you go. Someone on the internet said you could cut them like potato chips and fry them like potato chips so I thought why the hell not? I hate following instructions, though, so I cut them into french fry shapes and threw them in my deep fryer. After all, it was a starchy root vegetable.
Result: Not bad. A bit soggy. In retrospect, I should have either double-fried them or perhaps blanched them first. I served them with guacamole made with the cilantro from the box:
Guacamole: One avocado, peeled and smashed with salt, garlic powder, granulated onion, and cilantro to taste. Honestly, guacamole doesn't need a recipe. Sometimes I dice a real onion, but I didn't feel like dealing with onion tears at that point.
Challenge Round Two: Fingerling Potatoes + Kale = Casserole
Okay, this isn't an unusual combination. My casserole is loosely based on the Irish dish colcannon.
Preheat oven to 350. Scrub and chop potatoes; set aside. Wash, de-vein, and shred kale into bite-sized pieces. I would recommend either sauteeing or steaming the kale, then pressing the water out--I didn't do this and it made the sauce a little watery.
Make a white sauce. First, a roux: melt 3 tbsp. butter, then stir in 3 tbsp. flour and cook until golden brownish. Slowly add about 2 cups milk, stirring frequently. Let simmer until slightly thickened (not too thick since it's going in the oven). Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Place potatoes and kale in a casserole dish and cover with white sauce. (You could probably dice an onion into this too. I didn't. But you could.) Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes, or until potatoes are done. (Check.) (If the top of the casserole starts getting too brown, cover the dish.)
Result: I'd make this again.
Challenge Round Three: Rutabaga + Celery = Soup
I thought about putting the fingerling potatoes in this, but had a few russets hanging around and, since I knew I was going to puree, the russets were a better option. Peeling fingerling potatoes would be the worst. Plus, since russets are a little softer, they puree better.
Fourteen months and another food blog ago, I made a turnip and arugula soup that came out quite well. Since rutabagas are like turnips, I thought the same soup principles would work. They did.
Peel and chop: one large rutabaga, two russet potatoes, two large carrots, and two ribs of celery (okay, don't peel the celery). Simmer in water until tender. Drain, return to pot (or place in blender--I used an immersion blender) and puree with 32 oz. low-sodium vegetable broth until, you know, pureed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Result: It was fine, but I prefer my turnip and arugula soup. Maybe if I'd had arugula in the box...
Everything was delicious!
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