Recipe: Honey Roasted Carrots with Thyme…plus roasted beets and couscous

Carrots and Beets and Couscous, Oh My!

We’ve been getting lots of beautiful young carrots in our CSA lately, so I roasted up a bunch.  There’s no real recipe here.  Just trim and clean the carrots (no peeling necessary), toss with some olive oil, S&P and leaves from a few thyme branches and roast at 425 for about 45 minutes, stirring often.  When they’re done, toss with about a T of honey (we have this great stuff that is produced on a rooftop in downtown LA – doesn’t get more local than that!).  Meanwhile I tossed in the young beets, wrapped in foil and cooked them at the same time.  We made some couscous to accompany the veg – tossed with some Meyer lemon juice and topped with some parmesan.

Recipe: Beet Pizza

Obviously, I love pizza.  And I love beets, so why not combine the two?

Ingredients

• 2 beets (one golden, one red) cooked and diced (you can bake the beets a few days before, like I did)
• chiffonade of beet greens
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• crumbled feta cheese
• 1 t fresh rosemary, chopped
• local honey (from my mother-in-law’s neighbor in the Valley)
• 1 shallot, thinly sliced
• whole wheat pizza dough

Preheat your oven and stretch out your dough.  Top with the shredded mozzarella, then the beet greens, then the beets, then the feta, rosemary and shallots.  Drizzle a bit of honey over the whole thing (not too much) and pop into the oven.  So delicious!  Sweet, savory, salty, yum!

Recipe: Fried Tofu with Greens, Shitakes and Honey Citrus Sauce

Stir fries are always an easy way to use up a lot of greens, but they can get boring pretty quickly, so it’s nice to vary the seasoning and prep techniques to make the dish seem new.

Ingredients

• 1 package tofu, cut into logs
• some flour for dredging
• vegetable oil
• 1 package shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch tat soi
• 1 bunch turnip greens

Dry tofu off on some paper towels.  Meanwhile, put a little flour in a dish and heat up a good amount of oil in a large frying pan.  Lightly coat the tofu in the flour, shake off any excess and carefully place in hot oil.  Cook on all sides until tofu is golden and crispy.  Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with S&P.  Pour the oil out of the pan into a safe receptacle (never down the sink!  put in a heat-proof container until cool, then pour in the trash, or use to power your veggie-oil fueled car).  Throw the mushrooms and onions into the pan.  Once softened, add the greens and cook until wilted.  Toss with the sauce and mound veggies on plate, top with fried tofu logs.   Garnish with some sweet chili sauce, if desired.

For the sauce

• juice of 1 lemon
• juice of 2 cutie tangerines
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 t honey
• 1/2 t salt
• pepper
• 1/8 cup broth
• 1 t cornstarch

Mix all ingredients together.