We, the mates of our home (Joe, Rachael, and yours truly), have decided to schedule a weekly fresh organic produce delivery from Newleaf Natural Grocery. The first delivery arrived on August 5, 2009.  In celebration of the weekly event we plan to have a house collaborative dinner made with items from our box and whatever else we have in the kitchen. Because we will never choose what we get in our delivery it will often provoke a new cooking situation and I’m looking forward to it every week to come. I’m hoping to share each week what’s included in the box as well as our weekly meal inspired from the box.

This week we received : local garlic, local kale, rutabaga, celery, local green beans, pluots, raspberries, orange honeydew, bananas, and- drum roll please….. red sweet onions! “no thank you”

In our first organic produce meal we used all local offerings; local kale, local garlic, and local green beans. and from our reserves we made #1 best tofu. The meal was simple to make and relatively quick.

Ingredients used in the entire meal : local green beans, local garlic, local kale, olive oil, cumin seeds, black mustard seeds, cayenne pepper, vegan mayonnaise, whole grain mustard, lemon juice, orange juice, kosher salt, black pepper, tofu, nutritional yeast, soy sauce.

Here is how we prepared this meal…

Kale salad : the local kale in our basket was different than what we normally get; the raw kale salad that we made the other day was so delicious that we thought we would try it again using our new type of kale, and as expected it was most enjoyable. We followed the same instructions to prepare the dressing and added tomatoes to the mix.  We prepared this dish first because with this salad it’s nice to let it sit with the dressing for a bit. Kale, unlike most leafy greens, won’t wilt quickly.  Instead the dressing helps soften it up a bit.

Tofu : refer to my favorite way to make tofu at home, #1 best tofu. I always like to get this going early on in the dinner prep because it’s very easy to control its cooking time.  You want to allow all of the pieces to get golden brown on all sides.  It can take a while on low heat but you don’t need to watch it as closely as you would on a higher heat setting.  If while you’re preparing a meal your tofu should be nearly ready before it’s time to eat, remove it from the heat before adding soy sauce and nutritional yeast.  Return to heat when ready and complete the last few simple steps just before eating.

Green beans : wash and cut the green beans, blanch for a couple of minutes until almost cooked, don’t allow them to become soft. In a large frying pan or wok, heat a splash of olive oil.  Add crushed or chopped garlic; the local organic garlic we received was really beautiful with a purple shell and it was super juicy as well. Cook for a just a moment and toss in some black mustard seeds, a few seconds later add some cumin seeds and cayenne pepper. We used roughly a table spoon of black mustard seeds and cumin, cayenne pepper to taste. Within moments your black mustard seeds will begin to ‘pop’, the cumin seeds will brown and with the garlic all flavors will meld.  Lower the heat and fold in the green beans. Toss and coat the green beans with flavor, salt to taste.

This is a typical meal in our home- quick, simple, & healthy! Delicious. Plus, when you’re done eating… you just feel good!