Enchiladas and Strawberries: Summer CSA week 3
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 12:58PM
Cucumbers and vinegarIt’s really starting to feel like summer, right? (I’m trying to think positive here.) It could be warmer...and sunnier, but at least we have great weather on tap for this weekend. The crops in our greenhouses (high tunnels technically) and the other farmers’ greenhouses are really coming along despite the mediocre sunshine and warmth. We are pretty excited to have strawberries and early tomatoes this week from Wood’s Market Garden. Early cucumbers will also be in the share from our own Screamin’ Ridge Farm.
This week we have an “enchilada share” with the last of our enchilada sauce until the new batch of tomatillos comes in. You’ll also get vegan refried-style pinto beans made with beans from Butterworks Farm and our own roasted chilies. The beans and enchilada sauce make a great dinner with some corn tortillas and a really nice “Queso Fresco”. This week we have just such a cheese from Kim and her herd at Willow Moon Farm in Plainfield.
CSA Contents
Here is what you can expect in your boxes:
*Bread from Red Hen Baking Company
*Fresh cheese from Willow Moon Farm
*Eggs from Gaylord Farm
Refried-Style Beans from Joe’s Spreads (Ingredients: Pinto Beans, Water, Onion, Garlic, Anaheim Chili, Chili Powder, Salt, Cumin, Lime)
Enchilada Sauce from Joe’s Sauces (Ingredients: Tomatillo, Onion, Garlic, Chili Pepper, Cumin, Chili Powder, Tomato, Lime, Salt, Cilantro, Olive Oil)
Strawberries from Wood’s Market Garden
Tomatoes from Wood’s Market Garden: These are an early greenhouse tomato. We are going to be putting a pound in each share. Some of the tomatoes are very large, great for slicing and tomato sandwiches.
Cucumbers from Screamin’ Ridge Farm (that’s us): early season high tunnel-grown Cucino cukes. They are a smooth skinned variety and quite tasty.
Salad Mix from Kingsbury Market Garden
Cilantro from Screamin’ Ridge Farm
Subs
Bread—Maple Vinaigrette from Joe’s Sauces or Asparagus
Eggs—Tofu from Vermont Soy or BBQ Tempeh from Rhapsody Natural Foods
Cheese—Salad from Screamin’ Ridge Farm or Black Bean Burgers from Vermont Bean Crafters
Meal Prep Suggestions
Enchiladas
Enchiladas are really quick and easy to put together, but, when you pull the pan from the oven and bring it to the table all hot, fragrant, and rich, they seem like they must have been a lot of effort.
Here is a link to some pretty detailed instructions we posted last Fall about how to assemble enchiladas. You might want to check it out if you have never made them before.
You’ll need to purchase your favorite corn tortillas to make the enchiladas. Heat them in a lightly oiled pan, just until they are hot (they’ll start to puff up a little bit). Spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce in a lightly oiled rectangular baking dish. Roll the corn tortillas around your filling and place them in the pan with the overlapped ends facing down. For filling, try refried beans and rice, or meat/tofu/tempeh cooked with chili seasoning. When the pan is full, spread generously with enchilada sauce and bake until hot. Sprinkle with cheese for the last few minutes and let the enchiladas sit for about 10 min before serving.
Serve with a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro and sour cream.
Refried-style beans
True refried beans are boiled until tender and then “refried” in lard until they fall apart completely. Our beans are NOT made this way. We started with pinto beans from Butterworks Farm, boiled them with sautéed onion and roasted chili peppers (from Blackwell Roots and Screamin’ Ridge Farms, respectively). Seasoned with salt, garlic, chili powder, and cumin, and crushed to get that refried consistency.
They are vegan, low fat, and delicious. We’ve made bean-lovers from avowed bean-avoiders with these beans. We hope you like them too. Here are a few things you can do with them (besides enchiladas):
Bean and Rice Tacos: This is a main stay at our house—the default meal that we throw together when unexpected guests turn up or everyone is hungry and we haven’t really “planned” dinner. Just heat up corn tortillas and fill with steamed rice, hot beans, some grated cheese and/or sour cream, hot sauce (i.e., from Butterfly Bakery or Cholula from the supermarket) or salsa.
Bean dip: Warm the beans to room temperature or a little warmer and serve as a dip with corn chips. You can add salsa, sour cream, avocado, chopped onion or all of the above to the beans if you want. Or you can put them out in separate bowls for double and triple chip-dipping.
Nachos: (best after school snack ever. Why? Because kids 8-9+ years old can make it themselves!) Spread corn chips on a cookie sheet (use parchment paper to make cleanup super-easy). Sprinkle liberally with grated cheese and broil until the cheese is melted. Pull the nachos from the oven and drop spoonfuls of warmed-up beans, salsa and sour cream on top.
Bean Breakfast Tacos: We lived in Austin TX for a while. Breakfast Tacos are very popular there. At the biotech company where I worked, a few different Taco trucks would come by the parking lot every morning and half the building would queue up for breakfast. I didn’t indulge very often, but when I did, I usually got a bean-containing taco or two. Here are some of the combinations the taco trucks had wrapped up and ready to go, variations on these themes encouraged:
- Scrambled eggs, beans, sautéed onion
- Beans, sautéed onion, pan-fried potato
- Bean, scrambled egg, cheese
Cucumbers and Vinegar
Our favorite way to eat cucumbers comes from Joe’s Gram Greenwood in East Randolph VT. Peel and slice cucumbers. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and cider vinegar. (that was quick, wasn’t it?)
We prefer to use rice wine vinegar. But this summer we want to explore how cucumbers taste with some of the local cider vinegars. If you have some fancy vinegar in your cabinet that you’re not sure what to do with, this is an idea.





