What do I do with all these chives? A CSA lament.

[Thursday's_Child]

+1 on chive pancakes &/or freezing them for later.

I've never used the bulbs, although I assume you can treat them like teeny boiling onions.  Your CSA must have a HUGE supply if they're pulling the plants instead of just cutting the leaves.

Lettuce possibilities include wraps and, oddly enough, soup.  You either shred or puree the lettuce and add it to a nicely flavored broth/soup/stew in the last few minutes of cooking - it should stay quite green.

Beet greens can be used any way you would use chard.

[Morden]

Beet rolls are fantastic (like cabbage rolls only tastier). Use whatever type of filling you would put in cabbage rolls.

[scamp]

Beet rolls are fantastic (like cabbage rolls only tastier). Use whatever type of filling you would put in cabbage rolls.

I was thinking of some kind of wrap with the beet greens!

I ended up making some chive pancakes, but my ratio of chive to batter was off so they were too thick. Next time I will have it nailed though!

On to the next herb challenge - dill!

[Puget]

My go-to for dealing with CSA plenitude in the summer is to make a big batch of some sort of grain (bulgar, quinoa, couscous, etc) and then make a serious of grain bowls through the week with various combos of raw, cooked and quick-pickled CSA veggies and proteins (I'm vegetarian so this is some combo of cheese, tofu, beans, nuts). Fresh herbs are great in these too. Today's lunch bowl was bulgar with snap peas, spicy radish and carrot refrigerator pickles from last week's share, scallions, basil, feta and walnuts with lemon tahini dressing. That was a particularly successful combo.

I try to process down/pre-cook as much of the produce as possible when I get it so it doesn't go bad and I actually eat it when busy. e.g., last night I roasted and skinned all the beets and washed and cut the beet greens ready to cook.

[eigen]

That sounds great. Would you mind sharing your spicy refrigerator pickles recipe?

[Puget]

That sounds great. Would you mind sharing your spicy refrigerator pickles recipe?

Happily-- I was delighted to realize how easy these were a few years back.

I very loosely use Mark Bittman's 3-day pickle recipe, just for the right ratio of vinegar, salt and water, but everything else is up for grabs.

Use any mix veggies you like/have--I've found carrots, radishes, cauliflower, green beans, and of course pickling (Kirby) cucumbers all to be good. This makes a total of 4 cups brine (he says enough for 2lbs of veggies, but I think it depends on the veggies and packing density), so I often halve it if I just want to make a couple pint jars of pickles.

Bittman says to pre-salt the veggies and let them sit for 2 hours then rinse, but I generally skip this step unless I'm doing cucumbers where you want to get rid of some of the water.

Bring to a boil then cool for 5 min:
3 T salt
2 C water
2 C vinegar (he says white or white wine, but I just used apple cider and it was quite nice)
1/4 cup sugar (can leave out if you want a true sour instead of sweet-and sour)
1/4 cut spices: Whatever you like-- he calls for traditional pickling spice mix, but I often don't have all the components or want a different flavor. This batch I just put in peppercorns and hot pepper flakes. You can also put in crushed garlic or whole hot chiles and/or fresh dil (a use for that CSA dill!)l.

Put the cut veggies into jars or other airtight containers and poor the brine over them. Let them pickle in the fridge for at least 3 days. They will keep for several weeks and get more pickled (and spicier!) as they sit.

[scamp]

My go-to for dealing with CSA plenitude in the summer is to make a big batch of some sort of grain (bulgar, quinoa, couscous, etc) and then make a serious of grain bowls through the week with various combos of raw, cooked and quick-pickled CSA veggies and proteins (I'm vegetarian so this is some combo of cheese, tofu, beans, nuts). Fresh herbs are great in these too. Today's lunch bowl was bulgar with snap peas, spicy radish and carrot refrigerator pickles from last week's share, scallions, basil, feta and walnuts with lemon tahini dressing. That was a particularly successful combo.

This is a great idea!