A Week of Farmers Market Meals

Buy a potato at a grocery store, bake it, eat it and you will feel full but indifferent.  Stroll through your local farmers market, pick a potato from a crate, dust off the dirt and hand it to a smiling farmer for weighing and hand him your change.   Take home your potato for washing, baking, slicing, butter slathering and take a bite.  You will be filled with images of dirt, sun and that lone potato making its short journey from farm to your table.  A grocery store potato will have to be dressed up with fixings to become exciting but a farmers market potato, rich in nutrients, needs nothing more than some coarse salt to fill you with warmth.  A better vegetable needs less fuss which makes life easier for busy folks like us.

David B. Agus’s “The End of Illness” offers a few simple suggestions for optimum health, one being the consumption of the freshest, most recently picked produce possible.  The brilliantly written and inspiring “An Everlasting Meal” by Tamar Adler, offers endless suggestions on how to use every scrap and morsel of your farmers market finds for simple, rustic meals.  She suggests baking all your root vegetables as soon as you get home from the market and placing them in the fridge for easy use throughout the week.

I challenged myself to a week of meals from my purchases at the farmers market with a few supplementary items from my local grocery store.  Among the dishes were a beautifully bright roasted vegetable salad and delightful crustless vegetable quiche, both of which held up perfectly when taken to work for lunch.  Here is a description of how I prepped and some recipes for a few of the dishes I made:

Roasted Root Vegetable Salad

* From the "A Week of Farmers Market Meals" Collection:  It's the prettiest thing you will ever eat.  The beets lend their color to their neighbors.  The cleansing vinegar washes over your palate as you savor the chew of the bread and the silkiness of roasted root vegetables.  Filling, hearty and packed with vitamins, this dish is a vegetable double rainbow.

Farmers Market Crustless Quiche

* From the "A Week of Farmers Market Meals" Collection:  Quiche...what a wonderful way to use your farmers market finds.  Take a slice of this to work or on a picnic, serve it warm or at room temperature with tons of fresh parsley on top and you've got a complete meal with all the essentials!

Beet and Goat Cheese on Mini Baguette

* From the "A Week of Farmers Market Meals" Collection:  There is something about beet and goat cheese on a mini baguette that makes one feel European.  Perhaps it's the vibrant hot pink of beet seeping into stark white goat cheese, the freshness of each ingredient standing upright and at full attention or maybe it is the pettiness which allows you to start your meal with pride rather than self flagellation.  I love to feel European at least once a week! 

Beet and Goat Cheese Tower

* From the "A Week of Farmers Market Meals" Collection :  Brigher and tastier than the Tower of Pisa, this leaning structure of roasted beets and creamy goat cheese is a sight to behold.

Sauteed Beet Greens

* From the "A Week of Farmers Market Meals" Collection: I don't think I had ever tried a beet green until my recent trip to the farmers market where beets are bundled with their leafy greens attached.  That's the beauty of the farmers market; the vegetables are in their naturally picked state rather than trimmed, buffed, selected for perfection and picked before their prime.  It's not a beauty pageant...it's dinner. Actually, beet greens are quite beautiful with their magenta juices and a winner in my pageant any day.

Frozen Chocolate Dipped Bananas

I wait patiently for summer when I allow myself one occasion to dip creamy bananas into glossy chocolate, sprinkle them with crunchy nuts and salt and tuck them away in the freezer to transform into frozen decadence.  My problem in the past was too thick chocolate which broke away in large chunks whenever I bit down, but last summer a lovely frozen banana saleslady at my local market told me to add some butter or vegetable oil to the chocolate to thin it out.  That did the trick!  It never ceases to amaze me how such a simple recipe can yield such a unique treat.

Lime Mint Granita

A hot summer day calls out for fluffy iced lime and mint.   There is no sweet, cold treat easier to throw together than granita so give this one a try at home.

Yogurt Cucumber Chicken Salad

Inspired by tzatziki, this cool and crunchy version of chicken salad is healthier than the original and much more fun on the palate.  Thick Greek yogurt replaces mayo and cucumber is a juicy alternative to celery.

Guacamole Chicken Salad

Here’s a Mexican inspired spin on chicken salad.  Creamy avocado, diced tomatoes, cilantro, green onion and lime add bold flavor and zing to shredded chicken making a great sandwich filling or tortilla topping. 

Mac n’ Cheese Stuffed Tomato

This creation came about when I was deciding whether to make a healthy dish out of a lone tomato in the fruit bowl or to heat up some gooey leftover macaroni and cheese from Chip Shop.  Bingo! Stuff the mac n’ cheese inside the tomato!  The tomato adds some depth of flavor and juiciness; a great contrast to soft pasta and gooey cheese.

Fried Artichoke and Lemon

A girlfriend of mine loves these fried artichokes so much that I don’t dare speak about them if I’m not prepared to run right over and make them for her! She adores the artichoke as much as I do.  How could you not love this gorgeous thistle that makes you labor through protective leaves to reach its soft heart?   Thinly sliced, fried artichokes and lemons make one bold tapa!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast

Is chicken boring the crap out of you?  I see chicken as a blank slate, desperately in need of a pulling, a shredding, a pounding, a battering, a sear, a roast or a glaze.  Parmesan Crusted Chicken Breast is worth the time, effort and the use of two heat sources (stove top and oven).  You’ll end up with a crisp cheesy crust on the outside and juicy meat on the inside.  Serve with a fresh crunchy salad and you’re good to go.

Mint and Black Pepper Strawberries

Pow!  Super fresh minty explosion.  Zing! Spicy black pepper hits the senses.  Zowee! Sweet, tangy, juicy strawberry goodness.  It might sound weird but it’s a delicious summer thrill. 

The Perfect Egg Sandwich

My boyfriend’s step-father “Bud” was known for his Caribbean-style lemon soaked, pepper crusted bacon.  This bacon made my heart sing and added a ferocious zing to my eggy, cheesy sandwich.  If I had any business sense or any money, I’d open a weekend stand and sell only this sandwich!  I urge you to try it on a sunny Sunday morning with a perspiring glass of chilled iced tea.