One morning; four meals

When the days are short, cooking dinner can sometimes seem like an impossible feat. Day seems to morph into night without warning. The gentle buffer zone of twilight where we shed the day and slow ourselves down seems to be over before it’s really even begun. It is in the hush of this dark season where I find myself waking early on Saturdays to cook in batches, whole meals that will require no more than some gentle warming in the evening to nourish and comfort. Days and weeks where dinner is made before we’ve finished breakfast feel like gifts, and make a Saturday morning in the kitchen well worth it. Some music, comfy shoes, and a warm cup of tea, and I’m ready to go. This method not only makes the evenings more indulgent, but it helps me make sure I’m using up all my CSA produce, especially the stuff that takes a little longer to prepare and might be neglected on a weeknight. Here’s what I made ahead this week:

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup with Naan

Shepard’s Pie

Roasted Vegetables with Orzo

Kale, Swiss Chard, and White Bean Soup with Beet Salad and Sourdough

My trick for batch cooking is to prep all of one kind of ingredient only once. Here’s the how I did it:

You will need:

1 lb of white beans

6 white potatoes

5 sweet potatoes

14 cloves of garlic

6 beets

6 onions

14 carrots

2 cups of chopped tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or canned)

6 cups of bell peppers

20 ounces of frozen (or fresh) peas and corn

½ lb swiss chard

½ lb kale

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1 tsp of dried thyme

1 lb butter

7 cups of bone broth

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp worcestershire sauce

½ cup of sherry

1 tsp fennel seeds

Salt and black pepper

1 cup of milk or cream

vinegar of your choosing

olive oil

1 bay leaf

1 tsp of herbs de provence

2 tsp coconut oil

3 tbsp of red curry paste

2 cans of organic, full fat coconut milk

lime juice

Add 1 lb of white beans to a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. When the water boils, turn off the heat, and allow the beans to sit, uncovered, for an hour. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is heating, peel and cut into large chunks 6 white potatoes and 5 sweet potatoes. Peel 14 cloves of garlic. When the water boils, add the white potatoes and two cloves of garlic to the boiling water. Trim the root and stem ends from 6 beets and rinse well under water. Add the beets to a steamer filled with a few inches of water, cover, and turn on high.

Trim, peel, and chop 6 onions. Move 1/6 of the onions off to the side, and split the remaining onions into three equal groups. Finely chop the remaining 12 cloves of garlic. Trim, wash, and chop 14 carrots. Check the beets and white potatoes, and when they can be easily pierced through with a knife, remove from the heat and set aside. Empty the water from the potato pot, and set the pot aside.

In a large dutch oven, heat 2T butter until melted and sizzling. Add one of the three larger piles of onions to the pan, and saute for five minutes. Add 2 cups of the sliced carrots to the pan, and stir and cook for five minutes more. Add 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb ground pork to the pan, and stir and cook until browned. To this pan, add 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp of dried thyme, 2 cups of bone broth, 1 cup of canned tomatoes, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp worcestershire sauce,  and ½ cup of sherry. Simmer this mixture for 20 minutes.

While the shepard’s pie is simmering, trim and chop six cups of bell peppers. Add the bell peppers to a large bowl, and stir in one of the larger piles of onions, and add 1 cup of chopped tomatoes (fresh, frozen, or canned). In a small bowl, mix together ¼ cup of olive oil, ⅓ of the chopped garlic, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 2 tsps of salt, and 1 tsp black pepper. Pour the oil mixture over the vegetables, and toss to mix well. Move the oil and vegetable mixture into a freezer-safe container, and put it in the freezer. (These are the vegetables for your roasted vegetables with orzo).

Transfer the potatoes back into the pot they were cooked in, add ½ cup butter, 1 cup of milk or cream, and 2 tsp salt. Mash well.

Slip the skins off the beets and set the skins aside for compost. Slice the beets into bite sized pieces, and add them to the bowl where you mixed the vegetables and oil. Drizzle the beets with vinegar, olive oil, and salt to taste. Toss well, then cover and refrigerate. (These are for the beet salad)

Stir 20 ounces of frozen (or fresh) peas and corn into the meat mixture on the stove. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the meat mixture, dot the potatoes with several pats of fresh butter, cover, and refrigerate. (This is your shepard’s pie)

Rinse and dry the pot used for the mashed potatoes, then add 2 tbsp butter and melt it over medium heat. Add the last large pile of onions to the pot, and cook, stirring often, until softened. Add half of the remaining chopped garlic to the pan, and stir for one minute. Add five cups of bone broth, 1 quart of water, 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon of herbs de provence, and 2 tsps salt. Drain and rinse the beans, and add them to the pot as well. Simmer for one hour or until beans are cooked through.

While the bean soup is simmering, use another of the now empty pots to melt 2 tsp coconut oil. Add the final and smallest pile of onions to the pan and cook gently over low heat for ten minutes, then add the last of the garlic and stir for one minute. Add ½ salt and ¼ tsp pepper along with 3 tbsp of red curry paste. Add the chopped sweet potatoes to the pan, stir well, and then stir in 2 cans of organic, full fat coconut milk. Bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring now and again, for 25 minutes.

While the sweet potato soup is cooking, wash and finely chop ½ lb swiss chard and ½ lb kale. Add the greens to a container with a cover along with the remaining carrots, and move this into the refrigerator. (These veggies will be added to the white bean soup before serving) When the white beans are cooked through, remove the soup from the stove and allow to cool.

When the sweet potatoes are soft, use an immersion blender to puree the soup until it is smooth and silky. Add lime juice and salt to taste. Transfer both soups into fridge/freezer safe containers, and either freeze or refrigerate.

Now you find someone else to wash the dishes!

Ingredients You’ll Need for Serving:

All pre-prepped items

Fresh chopped parsley

Fresh torn basil

1 lb orzo

Feta cheese

Two loaves of crusty bread or 1 loaf bread and 1 batch of naan

Shepard’s Pie - preheat the oven to 425. Add the covered dutch oven to the warmed oven, and warm for 20 minutes. Remove the cover, sprinkle the potatoes with chopped parsley, and cook for 15-20 minutes longer until the mixture is bubbling and slightly golden. Serve and enjoy!

Kale, Swiss Chard, and White Bean Soup with Beet Salad- transfer the soup to a pot and bring to a simmer. Add the chopped carrots and greens that you’ve stored in your fridge. Simmer until the carrots are soft. Remove the beets from the fridge, toss them with some fresh chopped parsley and feta cheese. Serve the soup along with the beet salad and some crusty bread!

Roasted Vegetables and Orzo - the night before serving this, move the container of oil coated vegetables from the freezer and put it in the refrigerator. To serve, heat the oven to 400, spread the vegetables on a roasting pan, and cook for 25-35 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. While the vegetables are roasting, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the orzo. In the last ten minutes of cooking, stir in some fresh torn basil into the roasted vegetables. When the pasta is done, drain it and return it to the pot. Add the roasted vegetables to the cooked pasta, toss well, and top with some crumbled feta. Serve and enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup - warm gently in a large soup pot until heated through. Serve with crusty bread or naan and butter.

November

Well hello, November. Here you are. This weekend, we’ll set the clocks back and settle into days that get sleepy before we do. The fading daylight will be our cue to cozy up with a good book, a cup of tea, and a worn blanket. Where in summer I’d start thinking about what we should have for dinner in the pre-twilight hour of 8pm, these days I find myself prepping ingredients at 3pm, or if I’m running behind, maybe 4pm. I’m a nester, and these days beckon my nesting instinct in an almost spiritual way. This is what I love about seasonal eating in the fall. Having fully absorbed all of summer’s carefree ease and languid evenings, I feel ready to hunker down, sheltered from the increasing chill, and immerse myself in this new season of sunshine and sweet decay. We take lots of hikes to smell the earthy air and feel the bite of wind on our cheeks. We stretch our limbs in the out of doors knowing that we’ll soon be in more often than out. The brisk weather finds us back home in the evenings, ready for something warm and soothing.

This is where seasonal eating is about so much more than food. Seasonal eating is the bridge to a seasonal life. It’s what helps us to embrace each new season in a mindful celebration. It’s what slows us down, brings us back to the moment at hand, and what helps us to honor the world around us. I’m ready for fall because I loved every minute of summer. And when fall fades into the starkness of winter, I hope to embrace it knowing that we saturated our beings with every morsel of fresh air and savory indulgence that we could muster.

A few years ago, I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time. In a large family, hosting is an honor that one must fight for, and I wanted to do something special. It was our first year hosting a CSA site at our home, and I was inspired. I decided to make an “all local/all seasonal” dinner, sourcing our dairy and vegetables from the farm and buying a hand raised organic turkey from a friend. On top of the items we received in our share, I made a special order of vegetables from the farm. Squash, celeriac, potatoes, brussels sprouts, onions, garlic, carrots, turnips, beets...everything I wanted and would have bought from the store, I was able to buy directly from farmers I knew and trusted. I used Brookford cream to make homemade butter, and served a platter of Brookford cheeses. Using all local ingredients provided a beautiful opportunity to truly appreciate the goodness and bounty all around us. I was worried that my local Thanksgiving would cost a fortune, but given the environmental damage it would prevent, and the opportunity to support a local farm going into the challenging winter months, I was willing. My check to Brookford farm for that Thanksgiving was $70. Less than it would cost me to walk my cart through two aisles at Whole Foods.

As we quickly approach this day of gratitude, I encourage you to consider sourcing your food thoughtfully. Whether you choose to spring for an entirely local meal, or simply prepare the best local mashed potatoes you can, sourcing from the season and land around us is a gesture of gratitude and appreciation that enriches the local economy and offers nourishment in myriad ways.

To put in a special order of produce, meat, or dairy, contact Jodie at brookfordfarm.csa@gmail.com.

Prepping and Storing Fall and Winter Vegetables

The fall and winter CSA session is upon us! For those new to the CSA, welcome! This weekly blog is full of information to help you make the most of your CSA experience. It includes recipes, information about the food -- how to cook it, what to do with it, why you’ll love it -- and inspiration for developing a deep love for local and seasonal eating. For those new to the CSA, and as a reminder to those who have been with us a while, I thought I’d start this season with some helpful tips and tricks for making the most of those beautiful veggie boxes.

Unpacking

When you bring your vegetables home, try to put them away when you can carve out thirty minutes or so to do a little bit of prep. This will help you to have faster access to your ingredients as you cook throughout the week. When deciding how much advance prep to do, it’s helpful to consider the amount of time you’ll have available during the week for cooking. The more limited your weekly cooking time, the more advance prep will pay off. Prep can include washing and trimming as well as pre-chopping vegetables for snacks or meals. Save time and money by saving trimmings such as celery leaves and carrot ends for stock. I keep a “stock bag” in my freezer and add trimmings as they accumulate.

Meal planning

I find it’s easiest to plan how I’ll use each vegetable by taking notes as I unpack my veggie box. Some people plan using the vegetable list in the weekly newsletter, but I like to see, feel, and touch the vegetables to find my inspiration. Writing my ideas down on paper goes a long way in making sure nothing gets wasted. For me, mental lists often end up buried or forgotten until I find that the daikons I had planned to ferment are now molding at the bottom of my crisper. Keep your veggie list close to the refrigerator, and make notes/cross things off as you change plans or use items. In time, this habit will help make it much easier to plan and cook meals based on what’s available. For many people, meal planning in our society means first listing the dishes one plans to cook in a week, and then listing and procuring the ingredients. Eating seasonally and locally works best when using a system that first lists the available ingredients, and then considers what meals could take shape from those items. It’s a significantly helpful shift to make, and one that gets easier with practice.

Storing

Because CSA food doesn’t have to travel far distances or wait around on store shelves, it tends to last much longer than food bought in the grocery store. Knowing the proper way to store food will help ensure that it lasts even longer. Although each vegetable is unique, there are some general guidelines that are helpful to know.

Leafy greens - If your crisper space is limited, you’ll want to give a priority spot to lettuces, kale, chard, spinach, etc. These are the items that will wilt most easily in the regular refrigerator environment. If you wash and chop these items when you unpack your CSA box, you’ll want to plan to use them within a few days, as leafy greens will spoil more quickly once they’re no longer fully intact.

Onions and Potatoes - Onions and potatoes need to be stored in a cool, dry place moderately far away from each other. Air circulation is important to avoid early rotting, so never store these vegetables in plastic or a tightly enclosed space. Do not wash potatoes before storing, as the introduction of moisture will lead them to mold and rot more quickly.   

Root vegetables - Store items like carrots, beets, radishes, and turnips in the refrigerator, in the crisper drawer if space allows. If you have no crisper space available, enclose them in an airtight container lined with a paper towel until you free up some crisper space. The danger of storing root vegetables outside of the crisper is that they may become soft; if this happens, try cutting off one end and soaking them for several hours in a bowl of ice water placed in the refrigerator.

Squash - Store squash in a cool, dry place. The refrigerator environment is too moist for squash and will cause it to lose shelf-life.

On Seasonal Eating

It’s hard to believe the summer session is over. The beginning of each session feels like infinity and excitement - twenty whole weeks to savor and celebrate the season. In the past five months, we’ve weathered a severe drought, contentious politics, the start and end of summer, and most recently, that annual burst of colorful vibrancy on the trees,  never ceasing to awe and humble.

I find it soothing to think about the coming session, twenty weeks that will carry us through the last of autumn, into the holidays, through the bitter cold of winter, and into March, where hope and life begin to stir deep within the earth. I’m already planning the soups, stews, gratins, and roasts that will keep us warm as we cozy into the season.

Winter is the time when seasonal eating becomes more challenging for lots of New Englanders. We’ve become so accustomed to continuous supply of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and watermelon at the grocery store, it’s hard to believe that one hundred years ago, seasonal eating was what kept people alive. Embracing seasonal eating during the cold months can take practice and a certain level of unlearning, but it’s a journey that is so well worth it. Waiting to enjoy seasonal treasures while they’re naturally available means that your taste buds get to reawaken each time the season changes, welcoming back familiar tastes while discovering nuances that can get missed with repetitive exposure.

Whatever it is that draws one to eat seasonally, I always find it rewarding to explore the benefits that extend into our larger world. I recently happened upon this list, compiled by Vern Grubinger of The University of Vermont Extension, and thought it was worth sharing.

Ten Reasons to Buy Local Food

by Vern Grubinger

Vegetable and Berry Specialist

University of Vermont Extension

Adapted from 'Growing For Market' newsletter article.

Vermont has a wide variety of farms. While known for our dairy production, there also many farms that raise fruits and vegetables, flowers and herbs, and animal products of all kinds. Our farmers are dedicated to stewardship and committed to quality. And while they love what they do, they aren't doing it for entertainment. They need to make a living. Consumers that value fresh food and a working landscape should support local farmers by buying their products. Here are ten reasons why.

1)  Locally grown food tastes and looks better. The crops are picked at their peak, and farmstead products like cheeses and are hand-crafted for best flavor. Livestock products are processed in nearby facilities and typically the farmer has direct relationship with processors, overseeing quality - unlike animals processed in large industrial facilities.

2) Local food is better for you. The shorter the time between the farm and your table, the less likely it is that nutrients will be lost from fresh food. Food imported from far away is older and has traveled on trucks or planes, and sat in warehouses before it gets to you.

3) Local food preserves genetic diversity. In the modern agricultural system, plant varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen uniformly, withstand harvesting, survive packing and last a long time on the shelf, so there is limited genetic diversity in large-scale production. Smaller local farms, in contrast, often grow many different varieties of crops to provide a long harvest season, an array of colors, and the best flavors. Livestock diversity is also higher where there are many small farms rather than few large farms.

4) Local food is safe. There's a unique kind of assurance that comes from looking a farmer in the eye at farmers' market or driving by the fields where your food comes from. Local farmers aren't anonymous and they take their responsibility to the consumer seriously.

5) Local food supports local families. The wholesale prices that farmers get for their products are low, often near the cost of production. Local farmers who sell direct to consumers cut out the middleman and get full retail price for their food - which helps farm families stay on the land.

6) Local food builds community. When you buy direct from a farmer, you're engaging in a time-honored connection between eater and grower. Knowing farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the land, and your food. In many cases, it gives you access to a place where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture.

7) Local food preserves open space. When farmers get paid more for their products by marketing locally, they're less likely to sell farmland for development. When you buy locally grown food, you're doing something proactive to preserve our working landscape. That landscape is an essential ingredient to other economic activity in the state, such as tourism and recreation.

8)  Local food keeps taxes down. According to several studies by the American Farmland Trust, farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas most development contributes less in taxes than the cost of required services. Cows don’t go to school, tomatoes don’t dial 911.

9) Local food benefits the environment and wildlife. Well-managed farms provide ecosystem services: they conserve fertile soil, protect water sources, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The farm environment is a patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings that provide habitat for wildlife in our communities.

10) Local food is an investment in the future. By supporting local farmers today, you are helping to ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow. That is a matter of importance for food security, especially in light of an uncertain energy future and our current reliance on fossil fuels to produce, package, distribute and store food.

Salad Turnips

As Autumn’s chill settles in all around us, I find myself excited about all of the cruciferous vegetables coming our way. I adore the pungent sweetness of these cool weather varieties; cabbage, turnips, radishes, kale, bok choy, kohlrabi...I love them all. I love them because of their flavor, their high nutritional content, the crisp crunchiness they offer, and their incredible versatility in the kitchen.

Studies have shown that when eaten regularly, cruciferous vegetables help lower our risk of cancer by introducing anti-cancer phytochemicals into the body, and by helping rid the body of free radicals. Additionally, they help protect against heart disease, reduce inflammation within the body, and are abundant in a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

It’s almost impossible for me to choose one particular favorite, but if I had to, salad turnips would be a top contender. Their arrival in our CSA box reliably initiates a heated debate over who gets first dibs, typically resulting in their being gobbled before we’ve even unpacked the rest of the box. My kids discovered a deep love for these sweet and crunchy turnips several years ago on a visit to the farm. One of the women working in the greenhouse offered one to each of them. They brushed off the dirt and ate them whole, like apples. To this day, we call them “apple turnips” in my house, and this is how they are most often devoured. If we can exercise enough restraint to actually add them to a dish, another favorite is to slice them thinly and add the crunchy pieces to salad. Our middle ground, between eating them like apples and adding them to salads, is to slice them into rounds, sprinkle with salt, and eat them after they’ve had a few minutes to sit and the salt has started to draw out the water. It’s a delectable, simple, indulgently delicious way to savor them. But that’s it. We don’t get fussy over our salad turnips around here, because they’re so GOOD we can’t bear to meddle.

However, not everyone is a crazed, raw-turnip loving enthusiast. Whether you’re an avid fan or feeling a bit tentative about these somewhat uncommon vegetables, rest assured that there are many wonderful things you can do with them.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Cook the greens - use them the same way you’d use chard or kale, they’re delicious!

Gently saute them in butter (this link will show that my house isn’t the only place likening these gems to apples, either!)

Make them into zesty quick pickles (no canning required!)

Ferment them….they are SO good this way!

Roast them into golden perfection

Use them in place of regular turnips in this delicate soup

Add them to stir fries, noodle/rice bowls, or fried rice (either diced and raw for a fantastic crunch, or cooked with the rest of the ingredients for a softer touch)

What will you be doing with yours?

Daikon and New Favorites

Are you familiar with daikon radishes? They’re the lovely, robust, carrot shaped white radishes that made their way into kitchens around the state a week or so back in Brookford CSA boxes. Is it just me, or are we New Englanders a bit skittish about our vegetables? I think we’re really comfortable with the staples we grew up eating. Squash, spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, onions...you get the idea. But what about the lesser known beauties gracing farmers markets and CSA boxes? Fennel, daikon, celeriac, kohlrabi. Delicata, black radishes, watermelon radishes. These things that many have never before seen, let alone cooked with or eaten, tend to intimidate.

I think most CSA customers enjoy trying new vegetables and stepping outside of our culinary comfort zones, but I often think about how that translates back into our habits. If you make a supplemental run to the store, would you seek out those rare treasures you discovered through the CSA? When you’re thinking about what you’d like to cook, do you include newer-to-you vegetables in the running? I think that there’s a process to transitioning newly discovered vegetables from something we enjoy dabbling with to something we consider a serious and desireable option.

For me, this process is best completed when I work to learn lots of ways to use a vegetable. I have to think outside the box, challenge myself to try a different approach, and get creative. The payoff is a richer appreciation of those box contents, the ability to welcome back seasonal favorites like old friends, and to greet new arrivals as friends in the making. Over the next month or so, I’ll be highlighting some of the lesser known vegetables that arrive in the CSA boxes, with the hope of transitioning those sometimes intimidating, sometimes celebrated varieties into the realm of habit and tradition. New favorites await!

A few reasons to love daikon radishes:

A rich source of vitamins A, C, E, and B-6 as well as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and iron, daikons help detoxify the body by aiding kidney function and supporting healthy digestion. They have anti-viral, anti-cancer, and anti-bacterial properties.

Step out of your comfort zone! You can do a lot with daikon. Try:

Adding to fried rice and stir fries

Making daikon mochi cakes

Serving raw, with dip or peanut butter

Making radish chips

Using them in place of carrots in recipes

Making this soup

Using them in place of other radishes in recipes

Making them into noodles - super yummy!

Fermenting them for a healthy and delicious treat

Adding a quarter cup of sliced daikon to a fruit smoothie for a well-hidden vitamin C boost

Using them in a salad, (try this fresh and zesty recipe)

Roasting them

Shredding and using in place of cabbage in a cole slaw

Making them into these spicy fries

Autumn

It’s weird to think that just a few weeks ago, our daily temperatures called for shorts and short sleeves. Some years it feels as though fall creeps in so quietly; a clear day in the seventies calmly slipping in between the humid mid-eighties, a handful of sixty degree days peppered through weeks of the seventies. Before we know it, we’ve seamlessly slid into autumn. This year has felt different. Summer’s heat and humidity burned long and hard, well into this month of September, before finally shrugging its shoulders and turning to go home. One day the northeast awoke to temperatures that call for sweaters, soft kisses of frost on the ground, and September’s velvety green fading into soft oranges, reds, and yellows. Driving through the back roads of our sleepy little state, I see wood smoke curling out of chimneys, unfolding into the morning air.

As our earth gently pivots us further away from the sun, my senses drink it in greedily. The smell of leaves, a richly beautiful decomposition of the season, the unusual yet expected transition of leaves, jumping around the color wheel as though there’s no rhyme or reason, the rustling of trees against the wind, visually showing evidence of an invisible force. Crackling fires, the hum of groggy furnaces, kitchens that smell of cozy comfort foods, hot mugs of warmth cupped in cold hands, blankets and sleeping weather and the return of a favorite knitted hat. Suddenly we find ourselves sprinkling cinnamon on this and that, no need to excuse or explain ourselves.

It is in these increasingly shorter days where I find myself most longingly drawn into the kitchen. Pumpkin pancakes seem to appear out of thin air. Dishes of all things cheesy, gooey, savory and warming suddenly show up on our dinner table. With that same baited anticipation that has me craving green things in March and tomatoes in July, I find myself opening my CSA boxes with excited hopes of leeks, potatoes, turnips, and squash. Basil and cilantro are increasingly forgotten as my hands wrap themselves around little glass bottles of sage and rosemary.

As a mindful seasonal eater, I am grateful for the abundance of summer that has nourished us through the season. Salted tomatoes, crisp peppers, refreshing cucumbers. I’ll dutifully use the last of summer’s offerings, sprinkling in touches of fall, saying goodbye to one season as we welcome another. In this way, that seamless transition of seasons will take shape in my own kitchen, knitting us closer to the natural world around us, nourishing our bodies with the rhythm of space and time.

With just a handful of weeks left in summer session CSA, I invite you to join me in hungrily planning your fall and winter fare. There are still shares left - how will you embrace the nourishment this season offers?

Grilled Kale

The calendar, and some days, the weather, tell me that summer is fading. My kitchen reflects the teeter totter of seasons, with some days bringing soup and some days bringing salad, as I work to balance the lingering warmth with oncoming coolness. This time of year I always find it most difficult to part with our grilled meals, and really, I’m not sure we should. The crispy, smoky qualities of grilled food nestle quite cozily under autumn’s wing. Grilling fall vegetables helps keep things harmonious with the season; one worth trying right away is grilled kale. Similar to kale chips, but with a smoky edge, grilled kale makes a delicious side dish or salad base. Try topping it with a drizzle of apple cider vinegar, crumbled bacon, caramelized onions, sliced apples, niblets of feta, or dried cranberries.

Grilled Kale

1 bunch kale, washed and dried, tough stems removed

Maldon or other coarse salt

Pepper

1 clove minced garlic

¼ cup olive oil

Spices, as desired (try crushed red pepper flakes, cumin, or curry powder)

Optional add-ins (crumbled bacon, feta, dried cranberries or raisins, sliced apples, or caramelized onions)

Heat a grill to medium high heat. While the grill is heating, mix together olive oil, any optional spices, and garlic. Brush each kale leaf generously, flipping to coat both sides. Sprinkle the kale with salt and pepper, to taste. Using tongs, place each kale leaf on the grill, cover, and cook until crispy, about two minutes. Open the grill, flip kale leaves carefully, cover the grill once more, and cook for another minute. Use tongs to remove from heat. Serve as is, top with garnishes, or tear into large strips to use for salad.