As promised, I’m reporting back on my experiment with the Community Supported Agriculture organic fruit and vegetables that I got last week. The box arrived on Wednesday; it was Saturday before I had time to go into the kitchen. Thus, the beets that you see before you are not as spritely as when I first received them.
Will that matter? I don’t know. That’s what this whole experiment is about. The Farm Fresh To You promote their goods as having been picked the day before delivery. How much of the nutrients and flavor are lost after several days or more of sitting in my refrigerator? It was the picture of those limpening (and yes, I made up that word) beet greens every time I went into the refrigerator that prompted me to use them first.
I looked a bit for recipes online, but really, I’m just not much of a recipe girl. I’d far rather concoct on my own, a bit of this, a little of that. Throw caution to the winds, so to speak, and reap the rewards–or dump the results–after. This time, though, I took careful notes–and here’s what I came up with:
Ingredients
2 Cups Beet Greens Mine were red, but I don’t know why yellow wouldn’t work as well
1 Medium Shallot, Chopped
1 Clove Garlic, Minced
1/8 C Chopped Dates
1/8 C Pine Nuts
1 T lemon juice
Salt & Pepper to taste. I used Himalayan Salt and Rainbow Peppercorns, both fresh-ground
1. Clean beet greens well and chop. I’m really careful about the cleaning part as I’m not interested in unknown protein getting into my food. Also, although these greens came from an local organic farm, who knows how careful the picker is about his or her bathroom habits! I’m not very careful about how I chop them, though.
2. Saute shallots and garlic in oil till softened.
3. Add pine nuts and dates to saute pan and cook for another minute or two.
4. Add the chopped greens to the saute pan and mix with other ingredients. 
5. Cook greens, shallots, & garlic for 5 minutes
6. Add lemon juice, salt & pepper and cook another 5 minutes.
This is the point where you need to make some decisions: are the greens well cooked enough for you? Or do you want to cover the pot and cook them down some more?
6. As they say on the Food Channel, now plate. This will serve three for a main course and four as a side course.
I served them to my neighbor Deb, who not only named the dish, but had this to say: “The juxtaposition of the greens and the dates set off the flavors perfectly. The pine nuts added another note and texture to the dish.”
Yeah, I agree. What do you think?
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