adapted from From Asparagus to Zucchini
Heat oven to 350°. Generously butter a 9-inch cake pan (round or square). Combine 1½ cups streamed, pureed carrots with 6 egg yolks (keep the whites separate) and 2 cups honey or sugar. Mix in 2 tablespoons ground almonds (or 2 tablespoons flour), 1 teaspoon grated orange zest, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon cardamom. Beat 6 egg whites in clean, separate bowl until stiff and fold into carrot mixture. Spread in pan. Bake until springy, about 45 minutes. Cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting, if desired, or sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Do you ever just have veggies that you can’t possible think of how you’ll eat this week? One of our long-time CSA members, Lesley Woodruff, suggests making some veggie stock! Vegetable stock can be used for a soup base, to braise greens in, etc. It’s also highly flexible and can be made with whatever veggies you have on hand. As a starter, here is a simple stock recipe Lesley suggested (based on Deborah Madison’s recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone):
1 Tbl olive oil
1 large onion
2 large carrots
2 celery ribs (or celeriac)
1 Tbl nutritional yeast
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
8 parsley branches
2 bay leaves
salt to taste (about 2 tsp)
Scrub the vegetables and chop them into approx. 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a soup pot, add all ingredients except salt and cook over medium heat 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently. The more color they get, the richer the stock. Add salt and 2 quarts of water, bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Let sit a few minutes, then strain immediately. Yield: 6 cups.
Stock isn’t a catchall for spoiled veggies, but it’s fine to use trimmings from last week’s carrots, mushrooms, etc. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it in the stock. Vegetable stocks only take half an hour to reach their full flavor, unlike meat stocks. Ingredients to avoid: turnips, rutabagas, brassicas, beets, powdered herbs, onion skins, artichoke trimmings, excessive amounts of greens (+4 cups). Always-good-to-use vegetables: chard stems and leaves, beet greens, fresh mushrooms or soaking water from dried mushrooms, scallions, potato peelings, scrubbed celery root skin, parsley root, Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce, eggplant
