CSA = Creative Cooking!

This is our second summer participating in a CSA and we love it just as much as we did the first summer!  For those of you not in the know - CSA is community supported agriculture.  We pay a fee in the spring and then once a week from May to October we pick up a large basket of veggies!  We even split the cost/veggies with a friend and it's generally more than we can it - it's AWESOME!


Except for when you receive something and you either don't know what it is or don't know how to prepare it... that's where the creative cooking comes into play.  And by creative I mean googling the veggie to see what other people have done.


This past week we receive beets... yes those ugly little redish, purple roots!  I was unsure what to do with them, but ran across a Tomato and Beat Salad in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food - we liked everything else in the recipe so I thought I'd give it a try.  It was tasty and now we know we like beets!  See if you do.


Martha Stewart Tomato-Beet Salad
1 lb scrubbed small beets
2 lb sliced tomatoes (heirlooms/yellow)
1 pint halved cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup cilantro leaves*
extra-virgin olive oil
salt & pepper to taste


*I used basil, because that's what I had in my planter and it tasted great too!


Preheat oven to 400. Seal beets in foil packet and roast until tender 60 -75 minutes. When cool, rub beets with paper towel to remove skins; (This didn't work for me, I had to use a potato peeler.) slice. Slice tomatoes and halve cherry tomatoes.  Arrange beets and tomatoes on platter. Top with feta, cilantro, olive oil, salt and pepper.  


Enjoy!