How to Use Up a CSA Box (From Someone Who Wrote the Book On It)

What to do with…

Tough greens: braise them

Collards, kale, turnip greens, and even the occasional broccoli greens, squash shoots, or winter radish greens can be tough, which is exactly what makes them stand up to braising. This technique cooks food slowly in liquid to tenderize it, and while it’s often associated with big hunks of meat, you can also braise sturdy greens instead of—or alongside—your choice of protein to bring out their sweetness.

To braise tough greens:

• Trim any thick, fibrous stems or veins, then coarsely chop the leaves.
• Add oil, onion, and garlic to a deep pan or dutch oven and cook for a few minutes until fragrant.
• Stir in the chopped greens, then deglaze the pan with broth, white wine, or water. (I typically start with around 1/2 cup liquid for each bunch of greens.)
• Cover and simmer until the greens become tender, then season to your liking.

Tender greens: serve them raw

Baby kale, baby chard, dandelion greens, radish tops, young beet greens, and young Asian mustards like mizuna and tatsoi can be served raw. If you find mystery greens in your box that look young and feel tender, throw them in a salad with your favorite vinaigrette.

Wilted greens: revive them

Sometimes, lettuce, arugula, radicchio, and other salad greens or soft herbs arrive looking a bit… tired. Or maybe they sat in your car (or the fridge) a bit too long.

If your leafy greens have wilted but you don’t really want to cook them, you can easily bring some vivacity back to those greens with a simple soak.

To revive wilted greens:

• Fill a large bowl with water and dump in all the leaves.
• Swish them around and let them rehydrate while you go do something else. They’ll crisp up like new in 15 to 30 minutes!

This method works for any type of green that’s gone more limp than you’d like.

Root vegetables: roast them

Root vegetables range from the common (carrots, radishes, beets, turnips) to the obscure (parsnips, rutabaga, celeriac, burdock roots). If you’re stumped on how to cook one of the more unusual roots, remember this: they may look tough and intimidating, but root vegetables are naturally sweet and it just takes some heat to bring that out.

(And before you ask, yes, you can cook radishes! If you’ve never had a roasted radish, you’ll be surprised at how much the flavor mellows out in the oven.)

To roast root vegetables:

• Peel off any tough skins and chop the vegetables into thick slices or 1-inch pieces.
• Toss with oil and seasonings until the vegetables are evenly coated.
• Roast at 400°F to 425°F for 20 to 40 minutes until fork-tender and lightly browned.
• Stir them up once or twice (or rotate the baking sheet) so the vegetables cook more evenly.

Any vegetables: make a gratin

Potatoes au gratin is probably the best-known gratin recipe, but you can actually turn anything into a gratin. A gratin is essentially a dish of layered vegetables, topped with cheese and bread crumbs, and baked until the top forms a crisp golden crust.

Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

To make a gratin:

• Thinly slicing your hard vegetables, or chop your soft leafy vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
• Layer them in a baking dish with garlic, seasonings, and grated cheese between each layer.
• Pour your choice of liquid over the top so that it reaches just below the top layer of vegetables.
• Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes until the main ingredient is almost tender.
• Remove the foil, sprinkle bread crumbs over the gratin and more cheese if you’d like, then bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

While classic potatoes au gratin uses heavy cream or milk as its liquid, you can go lighter with chicken or vegetable broth instead. (If you do this, I recommend adding pats of butter for richness.)

Extra vegetables: make a soup

My go-to meal—for any occasion, in any place, year-round—is soup. Souptember is my favorite month. I grew up eating all kinds of Asian soups for breakfast, and now as a busy mom, nothing is more satisfying than a huge pot of soup on the stove that I can simmer and eat all day long.

My foolproof “soup formula” goes something like this:

• Protein, browned in oil (chicken, crumbled Italian sausage, pork ribs, or meatballs are my usuals)
• Onion and garlic (or sometimes leeks and shallots, if I have those around)
• Vegetables, chopped and seasoned with salt
• Chicken broth
• Herbs and spices (such as bay leaves, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper, or ginger)
• Optional: egg noodles, elbow macaroni, orzo, acini di pepe, or another itty-bitty pasta
• Secret ingredient: a splash of soy sauce or Worcestershire for a boost of umami (or a dash of lemon juice or vinegar to brighten a flat-tasting broth)

If you need more ideas for using up your CSA box (or all the vegetables you grow), my vegetable-focused cookbook can help you incorporate all that beautiful food into your cooking. I have all kinds of ideas (and easy recipes) for your basic everyday produce, as well as:

• More unusual vegetables (like kohlrabi and fennel)
• Unusual parts of vegetables (like squash shoots and pepper leaves)
• Unusual preparations (like cooked cucumber and roasted radishes)
• And unusual ways to eat the “scraps” (like chard stalk hummus and watermelon rind kimchi)

You’ll also find my popular “produce matrix” that helps you create any combination of pesto or vegetable stock using what you have on hand.

The CSA Cookbook (2015) was revised and republished as The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook (2020), and you can order it online or wherever books are sold.

Want to support your local bookseller? Ask them to order The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook by Linda Ly or buy it through Bookshop.org, a marketplace for local independent bookstores.