it seems to me there is an abundance of romaine lettuce with my half share CSA. I have not come up with anything interested to make with romaine lettuce besides salads. (if i get some romaine lettuce at pick up tonight, i'll be bringing it upstate so I can grill it and then make a salad lol)
I will say my salads are pretty interesting, hearty and delicious. let me take you through a few of these!
the lettuce on the bottom of the photo is the romaine, the top lettuce is called koji
so i made a super quick romaine, strawberries, pistachio, and homemade salad dressing (olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, honey, salt, pepper --> shake it all together in a jar with a secure lid) with a side of roasted chicken. i bought the whole chicken from the farmers market, the romaine and strawberries were from the CSA, and the pistachios were in my kitchen.
this other salad was made of romaine lettuce and stuffed zucchini blossoms.
stuffed zucchini blossoms recipe
ingredients
8 blossoms
1lb fava beans
ricotta cheese
toasted almonds with rosemary
directions
first, make the ricotta. Yup. thats right make it yourself. It’s SO easy and SO much more delicious. Be sure to buy quality, full fat milk and heavy cream. i got the milk at the farmers market- specifically Ronnybrook Farms- and forgot about the heavy cream- my ricotta still came out amazing, i followed Deb’s aka Smitten Kitchen recipe steps minus the cream.... I use this recipe all the time and so should you! https://smittenkitchen.com/2011/06/rich-homemade-ricotta/ (this takes at least an hour and can be done a few days in advance)
Preheat the oven to 350
Remove the pistils from the blossoms (it’s the stemy thing on the inside of the flower). If there is a zucchini attached then great it’s a female- keep it as is! It is only a stem, you can either keep or remove the stem for presentation preference- just don’t eat. o and its a male. Coat a skillet lightly in olive oil on a super low heat, add almonds and rosemary on the stem (this is more for flavor than to be eaten). Keep an eye on these things so they get toasty, about 20 min, stirring occasionally. Once these are done, remove the rosemary stems, and let them cool down. After cool down, roughly chop these guys, put to the side.
Deshell the fava beans. Heat a pot of water, once its boiling, add the fava beans, boil for 1-2min. Strain and add to an ice bath. Now of the second stage of deshelling, gently remove the skin layer off the bean. Place in medium bowl
Combine the fava beans and ricotta together, kinda smushing the fava beans with a fork with incorporating the ricotta. Then add the almonds and mix it up. Salt and pepper to taste.
Gently open up the blossoms and stuff the blossoms with the ricotta fava almond mixture. Lightly oil a baking dish, place stuffed blossoms in dish.
Lightly drizzle olive oil, salt, and pepper on top of the blossoms and any zucchinis if attached. Bake for 25 min.
Hand tear or chop up some romaine. Place in large dish, drizzle olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper on romaine lettuce. Place zucchini blossoms on top of salad and you are good to go.
Start juicing.
ima vitamix smoothie typa woman. but thanks for an easy way out of dealing with a bunch of veggies suggestion!
Juicing uses a lot of veggies. Just make sure their organic.