CSA Week 2: Simple Creme Fraiche Dressing, Turnip Burgers,and Bok Choy — Help?
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
CSA Week 2: arugula, mixed greens, head lettuce, radishes, turnips, scallions, peas, bok choy, broccoli rabe, basil, cilantro, cucumber, garlic scapes, and summer squash.
What I am most excited about this week: this crème fraîche salad dressing: Whisk together 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar with 1/4 cup crème fraîche and a pinch of salt, then slowly whisk in 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil. The crème fraîche not only helps the dressing quickly emulsify but also makes the dressing taste slightly creamy without tasting heavy — it has been so good on all of the greens.
My basil tired much more quickly this week, so I stuck the stems in a couple glasses of water. I ended up using half of the bunch immediately but was pleased to see that the remaining basil…
revived! This photo was taken yesterday, three days after I received the basil, and it’s still looking strong. If you are looking for more guidance re storing herbs, read this Serious Eats post (thank you, Ileana, for passing it along!) — I learned so much (like how to store cilantro in your fridge for 51 days).
Because I was worried about the basil, I ended up puréeing it with all of the garlic scapes and all of the cilantro, along with a few scallions, olive oil (started with 2/3 cup), and vinegar (started with 3 tablespoons). I seasoned it with salt and thinned it out with more olive oil and vinegar. The taste of this green sauce is very similar to the harissa without the heat. I dressed both a pasta and grain salad with it this week — very nice to have on hand.
Garlic scapes will keep for months in your fridge. You can chop them up finely and use them as you would garlic cloves. They are particularly good in scrambled eggs.
Turnip Burgers: Inspired by these beet and farro burgers, I gave my turnips the same treatment: here, both the turnips and their greens go into the food processor with herbs and rice, which allows the patties to come together in a snap. Fresh breadcrumbs hold the patties together, and a mix of seeds gives the burgers a crunchy texture. They brown and crisp so nicely stovetop and are particularly good with hummus (though tahini sauce would be delicious) and these zucchini pickles.
What I love about these turnip burgers is that you can form them ahead of time, store them in the fridge and fry them up as you wish — there are no eggs, so there’s nothing to worry about regarding storage or handling (short-term anyway).
Here are a few more ideas for using those turnips (thank you for sending them along!):
Roasted Turnips with Cilantro Peanut Sauce
Miso-Glazed Turnips
Glazed Hakurei Turnips
A few more ideas on Food52
What’s left? We ate the peas — so good! — and the cucumber sliced up immediately just raw as a snack. I still haven’t used the summer squash, broccoli rabe or the bok choy. I will likely make some sort of raw, julienned squash salad with Pecorino with the summer squash. And I am planning on making this Batsaria (Phyllo-less Spanakopita) with the broccoli rabe and radish greens. (Thank you for the idea, Charlene!)
This orecchiette with broccoli rabe pesto and sausage also sounds delicious.
Now for the bok choy. I imagine I will slice it up, sauté it, and dress it in some sort of sesame-soy sauce. Thoughts? What would you do with an enormous head of bok choy?
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
16 Comments on “CSA Week 2: Simple Creme Fraiche Dressing, Turnip Burgers,and Bok Choy — Help?”
Love these CSA posts! You cannot go wrong using soy/sesame on bok choy. When I have a bunch of smaller ones, I often halve or quarter them. I saute some thinly sliced shallots, add the cut bok choy, and let them cook together for a bit. Add liquid–water or chicken stock is nice–then cover to let them steam until tender. Melissa Clark posted a recipe a while back (https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016023-spicy-ginger-pork-noodles-with-bok-choy) with a brilliant method: cut at the base of the leaves and thinly slice the bottoms. The parts do cook differently, so I think the method is pretty genius. Her pork dish is very tasty; we often have a version of it with rice, rather than noodles. Happy Father’s Day weekend!
Thanks so much, Wendy! This recipe looks awesome and like the other one you sent, not too complicated — it’s reminding me that I wish I planted some hot chilies this summer. It would be so nice to have them on hand! Love the Melissa Clark chopping method you describe. I will definitely have to do that with this head of bok choy. I have never seen one so big. It is massive.
I adore creme fraiche ever since I had it last Thanksgiving on a maple syrup pie (Cook’s Illustrated) Life changing, haha! I’m so making this dressing. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe.
Oh fun — I am definitely going to have to try that maple syrup pie this fall! Yay! And yes, definitely make this dressing — it’s so nice to have on hand.
I like to put bok choy in parchment paper with fish and lemon and butter or wine. Fish en papiotte with veggies. Easy and quick.
Wow, so interesting! Sounds so good. Thanks for the idea.
How long will the creme fraiche dressing last in the fridge? Thanks–looks delish!
I am very lenient with these sorts of expiration dates, but I would say at least a couple of weeks — all of that vinegar will preserve it. It thickens up considerably as it sits, so I would suggest leaving it at room temperature about 20 minutes before using and giving it a couple of good stirs here and there. Hope you make it! I have been loving it — so easy, so good.
I love throwing bok choy on the grill with a drizzle of olive oil and lots of salt and pepper. It’s good alongside just about everything, and with those large leaves, you won’t have to worry about anything slipping through the grates 🙂
This is such an inspiring and practical post! I pinned your turnip burger from Food52, you know how I love my veggie burgers! (I tried an eggplant, barley, parmesan version over the weekend with shallot jam that was great!) Everything looks so good and the seasonality is perfect… I don’t get a csa but I wander both farmer’s markets each week wondering what I would do if I really bought those gigantic bunches of veggies 🙂 You’re so good at life.
Oh Sophie, thank you, you are kind. I LOVE this idea of throwing the bok choy on the grill. I will be doing that if we get another head. You and Alice Waters are on the same page…Chez Panisse Vegetables recommends grilling bok choy, too. xoxo
After years of wanting to do it, I finally signed up for a CSA yesterday! It’s a shorter winter one, which I think will be perfect for a CSA newbie like me. Anyway, I came straight here because I knew you had a series of CSA posts and because they gave me so many turnips!! Your posts were one of the reasons I finally went ahead and joined one–thank you so much for the inspiration :).
Yesterday I roasted a bunch of chopped veggies under a chicken (one of the turnips, two small sweet potatoes, and butterkin squash from the CSA plus red potatoes I already had). I was worried the turnips would be bitter but they were delicious–almost indistinguishable from the potatoes and squash by the time they were done! Then I came upon this post, and since I THINK my turnips are hakurei, I might try them raw in salad: https://nesfp.org/world-peas-food-hub/world-peas-csa/produce-recipes/hakurei-turnips Your turnip apple puree from a while back sounds great, too!
Becky, this makes me so happy!! Thanks so much for writing in. I am so excited to hear how you like your CSA. Winter CSAs can be challenging, but honestly, I love them just as much as the summer ones — the potatoes are so good. And I am currently being overloaded by turnips as well. I made a quick sauté with the greens tonight, but still have those bulbs. Thanks for sending the link. I think mine are hakurei turnips as well.
I too started a winter CSA in October. My CSA grows purple top turnips instead of those lovely sweet white Hakurei turnips. Don’t make the mistake of using purple turnips in recipes for Hakurei. They are not the same at all!
The CSA delivers on Tuesday, which means I do my shopping over the weekend without knowing what is coming and use new things on the fly for weeknight dinners. I’ve always been a weekly planner, so this is tough. I’m tempted to discontinue, but I want to sample produce from every season first.
Victoria, CSAs definitely pose challenges and one of the issues I haven’t addressed is the Tuesday delivery. I never thought about that before but I imagine that makes planning tough for many people. You are good to give every season a sampling. I love the winter CSA but it is not for everyone.
Me encantaron todas tus recetas!!!!
Thank you!!