The CSA Cookbook

Make the most of your CSA membership—or your garden harvest—with simple yet bold, inventive yet nourishing meals from acclaimed blogger Linda Ly.Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs have connected farms to consumers and made people more in tune with where their food comes from, but still leave many stumped beyond the conventional uses for their produce. How many times has a CSA share arrived with things you've never seen before or not known what to do with?The CSA Cookbook will help you cook your way through a CSA box (or farmers' market or backyard bounty) with 105 seasonal recipes that utilize every edible part of the plant, from leaves and flowers to stems and seeds. Think of it as a nose-to-tail approach—for vegetables!With innovative ideas for preparing the lesser-known but no-less-delicious parts of plants, tips for using the odds and ends of vegetables, and easy preservation techniques, Linda Ly helps you get from farm to table without a fuss. Chapters include tomatoes and peppers, leafy greens, peas and beans, bulbs and stems, roots and tubers, melons and gourds, and flowers and herbs. You'll find globally-inspired, vegetable-focused recipes that turn a single plant into several meals—take squash, for instance. This year-round vegetable brings a variety of tastes and textures to the table: Squash Blossom and Roasted Poblano Tacos, Sicilian Squash Shoot Soup, Autumn Acorn Squash Stuffed with Kale, Cranberries, and Walnuts, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds. If you grow your own food at home, you might be surprised to learn you can eat the leaves from your pepper plants, or pickle the seed pods from your radishes.The CSA Cookbook aims to inspire curiosity in the garden and creativity in the kitchen. You'll look at vegetables in a whole new way and think twice before you discard your kitchen “scraps”!"One of my favorite sayings is, 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.' What appeals to me about this phrase is the idea that everything is useful. And that's why I like The CSA Cookbook so much. Many of Linda's dishes utilize the oft-discarded parts of vegetables such as tomato leaves, radish greens, and carrot tops. More than just being efficient, these recipes encourage us to explore the flavors and uses of every edible part of a plant. This book will completely change the way you look at vegetables.” —P. Allen Smith, author of P. Allen Smith's Seasonal Recipes from the Garden”The CSA Cookbook shows you how to use everything your vegetables offer, whether they come from your CSA or your garden. After all, why throw away what's edible when it can offer so much in the kitchen?” —Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom