Our CSA Haul, Week 2; and Polyglot Soup!

This is our second week schlepping down to the farm in Tacoma to get our weekly CSA share of organic goodies. In addition to this, we bought three containers of raspberries (she has eaten a whole one on the drive home both times we've gone before, so I added a second to have some for later, and apparently you get $1 off if you buy three, so what the heck!) Also a bunch of red grapes.

Week 2 Haul

From our organic CSA this week we got:
1 lb carrots (in baggie in back)
0.75 lb green beans (also in baggie)
1 lb potato (I found a BIG one! Rear left)
2 pears
0.8 lb Summer squash (I chose zucchini, because I recognized it!)
1 sweet pepper (I chose a purple bell, but they had a variety of others)
1 bunch radishes or turnips (We still had last week's turnips, so I chose radishes which hopefully Seesee will eat. Plus they were out of turnips.)
1 eggplant (I let Z pick. They had white ones and purple ones. Short ones and traditional-shaped ones. She chose a half-purple/half-white short one.)
1 lb green tomatoes (just picked a large one close to my quota)
1 jalapeno pepper (or maybe some other kind. One with a common name.)
1 bunch cauliflower (they had one purple bunch, but we still had plenty left from our purchase the previous week, so I chose a white one, since it was smaller.)
1 shallot
1 bunch lettuce (mystery lettuce. Not iceburg or romaine.) - not shown
1 bunch 'greens' (another mystery. Some kind of separate stalks with big leaves) - also not shown

Normally we pick up our CSA on Fri/Sat. But we're going to Great Wolf Lodge this weekend to reward Z for going down the water slide at swim class by herself (took her almost 3 months to be willing to do it without making me schlep over or the teacher hold her hand on the way down.) Plus she's been doing so well at swim class, I want her to see that swimming can be fun too.
But this also meant that I'd have a bunch of fresh veggies going bad for three days, not being eaten. Plus everything left from last week. Ugh.
A friend of mine had mentioned you could make soup with turnips, carrots and potatoes as the root veggies, plus whatever else. Hmm...

Polyglot Soup, aka: Random Veggie Soup, aka: Make-it-up-as-you-go Soup

Ingredients:
1 small shallot (finely diced)

1 bunch of turnips (diced, approx. 2 largish, 3-4 smallish ones)

2ish carrots (diced or coined)

3 mediumish potatoes (diced)

2ish sticks celery (chopped)

1/2 zucchini (diced)

1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp chicken bouillon

Directions:
Step 1: Put shallot, carrots, potatoes, turnips and seasoning into pot with 3 cups water. Bring to a boil
Step 2: Stir on and off for 3 minutes while boiling. Taste broth and fiddle with seasonings here.

Step 3: Add celery and zucchini (plus any other more delicate veggies you desire. Broccoli, cauliflower,  bell peppers, etc.) Turn heat to Medium (or 4-6) for 10 minutes.
Step 4: Turn heat to low and cover until ready to eat!

 

I just emptied out my veggie drawer and decided what all to put in. I used the organic potatoes from our September farm field trip, plus one from my husband's "bought a new fryer, need three 10-lb bags of potatoes for no reason" stash.
Used an organic carrot (the twisty one) from our CSA share last week, plus two top-halves from grocery-store ones saved for making larger carrot coins that the veggie flower-shaped cutters fit on. But the new ones we got from the CSA are WAY huger, so I figured we should use these old ones up!
The organic shallot came from today's CSA, so I was jazzed to get it out of the way.
And the organic turnips were of course left over from last week's CSA. Hooray! Outta here!
I bought the celery ages ago for something, and it had started going bad, so i cut off the rotty bits and salvaged the rest. I used some in a lunch I cleverly forgot to photograph last week, and the rest is surprisingly still good in the fridge, so I grabbed some.
The zucchini parts were from a home-grown zucchini I just rescued from our dried-and-gone-to-seed garden the other day. It had one blemish in the middle, so I cut around it and have been adding zucchini coins to my lunches the past few days to use the rest up. This was all that was left. But now I have a new one from today's CSA. Joy.

I apparently hadn't scrubbed the potato skins well enough, as some bites tasted dirty, but the broth at the bottom of the bowl tasted fine, so that's good. I had thought about adding some Italian seasoning, but I liked the broth while I was fiddling with it (originally added only 1 tsp celery salt, but added another 1/2 tsp.)
I also used celery salt instead of regular salt, but my husband said it packed quite a celery kick, so my new and improved recipe (ie: the one I gave you) lists regular salt. The bouillon has salt in it too, so if you want to reduce salt, just add seasonings you like. One of my friends suggested oregano, another suggested thyme. I didn't have any chicken (or veggie) stock or broth, which is why I added bouillon.
I also kept the peels on everything for added nutrients, but tossed all the greens. I know you can do stuff with turnip greens, but come on people! I have an eggplant and purple pepper to deal with now! Plus FOUR bunches of lettuce/greens (minus the little that Z ate. She's been asking for "leaves" for dinner several times now!)

I'm thinking fried-green-tomatoes and eggplant-parmesan-fries will be on the menu soon... any other ideas or freakishly-easy-yet-also-delish recipes?