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CSA Share: Berries and Roasted Vegetables

June 20, 2015 by Molly Badger

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a truly beautiful thing and one that I adore sharing with my little family.  The last few weeks we’ve sweated in the sun and humidity picking strawberries, faced off in boys vs. girls cherry picking contests, made friends with chubby baby goats, added to our growing veranda herb garden, and enjoyed a bounty of fresh vegetables at our dinner table. 

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Sweet, pink strawberries found their way into bowls of yogurt, peanut butter canapes, and berry-coconut crumble bars using this recipe 

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Maybe it’s the Idahoan in me, but there is a supreme satisfaction to be found in getting a little dirt under your nails and carrying home a box of something you picked yourself.  And there’s a particular brand of familial bonding that happens among rows of plants, amid fruit trees and humming insects, and in this busy, plugged-in life that we lead, it’s difficult to get too much of a good thing.

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While there are many ways I enjoy transforming produce for our dinner table, this recipe (if you can even call it that), is my favorite and lends itself to a myriad of vegetable varieties.  If you ever asked your grandmother how she made this or that dish that was your favorite in the whole world, I imagine her answer was something akin to what I’m about to share. 

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For this particular variation we used spring onions, garlic and asparagus, but in the past we’ve fallen hard for butternut squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and beets.  So absolutely feel free to give your own creative combinations a go.  These veggies are the perfect leftover to toss into a lunchbox over the next few days, reheated or added cold to a salad.

Roasted Asparagus with Spring Onions

Chop your selection of produce into pieces that are roughly the same size and pile it all on a rimmed baking sheet.

Drizzle the pile with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive or avocado oil.

Add a tablespoon of good balsamic or red wine vinegar.

Use a generous hand to sprinkle some coarse salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Forget the spoon or tongs and get in there with your hands- that sense of touch is half the experience- toss the vegetables to coat and then spread them out on the pan in an even layer.

Roast at 400° F for 35 minutes.  Rotate the pan front to back, turning the vegetables as well (feel free to pick up the tongs or spatula for this one), and bake another 15-20 minutes until you get some nice caramelization.  A few charred edges are what you want here, as well as some great color—a good sign the natural sugars in those veggies have developed and collided with the vinegar to blow your taste bud mind and those of your dinner guests in very near future.

Boom.  Done and delicious. 

 

June 20, 2015 /Molly Badger
CSA, berries, asparagus, balsamic, sides, dessert, garden
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