Recipe: Lentil Spinach Soup and What’s in My CSA Box Week 5
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This week brought a whole lot of goodness from my CSA share!
As mentioned before, I am part of a CSA program through Sandhill Organics. Each week, I receive a box of vegetables (and fruit in the summer). Every two weeks, I receive eggs. And every month I receive some dairy products and cuts of meat.
This week was the whole haul!
My veggie share:
- Baby Fennel
- Lettuce Heads
- Asparagus
- Red-Stemmed Spinach
- Traditional Spinach
- Green Garlic Bunch
- Jar of Tomato Puree
- a dozen eggs
My dairy share:
- Mascarpone from Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese in Waterloo, WI
- Dill Havarti from Decatur Dairy in Brodhead, WI
- Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt from Sugar River Dairy in Albany, WI
My meat share:
- Thick-Cut Porkchops & Breakfast Sausage from Byers Family Farm in Brodhead, WI
- Ground Beef & either Stew Meat or Fajita Meat from Riemer Family Farm in Brodhead, WI
- Chorizo-Spiced or Gyro-Spiced Lamb Sausage from Sandhill Family Farms in Brodhead, WI
My husband picked up the share this week because I was out for the evening. He did not take a picture of the haul but did put it all away. So there is no picture this week of my goodies, but it was a glorious spread!
What did I do with all of this deliciousness?
- I made a saute of fennel, spinach and green garlic. I was hoping that would be the recipe I would share but it wasn't very good. I was overloaded in spinach so wasn't upset about that but the baby fennel and green garlic is so tasty, I was bummed to have wasted such yummy ingredients!
- I used the spinach in salads, sandwiches, eggs and lentil soup (recipe to follow)
- I grilled the asparagus.
- The tomato puree went into my pantry. I used it later in the week to make homemade spaghetti sauce.
- Eggs were mainly used for scrambled eggs.
- The yogurt was eaten as is or topped with berries and granola. I wish the yogurt was not low fat. 🙁
- I used some of the rhubarb from last week and the marsapone cheese and made a delicious dessert (or breakfast!). I stewed rhubarb and blueberries and served them over honey vanilla marscapone. OMG, this was so good!
- I am waiting on the dill havarti….not sure what to do with it. Any suggestions?
- We cooked the breakfast sausage for dinner and the rest of the meat went into the freezer!
Now for the soup recipe. I was staring at a whole bunch of spinach, so was looking for a way to use it. I flipped through one of my favorite vegetable cookbooks, From Asparagus to Zucchini, and saw a recipe for lentil spinach soup. Given that it has been pretty cool still in Chicago, a nice lentil soup sounded good. I decided to make my own version of it.
Lentil Spinach Soup
adapted from Asparagus to Zucchini
Ingredients
- 2 cups lentils
- 3 quarts liquid (I used 2 quarts bone broth, 1 quart water)
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 4 cups chopped spinach
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- pepper
- Parmesan cheese, grated
- additional salt
Method
- Rinse lentils. Soak overnight, if possible.
- Drain and rinse.
- Saute onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pot.
- Add lentils and 3 quarts of liquid, salt and celery in a large pot.
- Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 30-45 minutes.
- Add spinach. Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with grated parmesan and crusty bread. Also delicious over pasta.
This soup looks delicious! I can’t wait to give it a try! We have been getting lots of goodness in our CSA box. So much fun to create with:)