CSA: What Do I Do with All These... Eggplants, Zucchini, and Beets?

Not much news on the exterior. It's hot. Yuck.

On the interior, we've been continuing our adventures in vegetables.

EGGPLANTS are, to my mind, fairly easy to manipulate. I made an eggplant parmesan using the breading from Saveur and the fresh tomato sauce from Epicurious. I was pretty pleased with the result. I asked Matt, "So what did you think?"
"It's all right."
"Yeah, I thought it was pretty good."
"It was all right."

When it came time for leftovers, he favored beetloaf over eggplant parm, which I guess isn't all that surprising.

I'm running out of ideas for ZUCCHINI--I've already made them into bread and cookies--I can't really think of any more baked goods to hide them in. And we still have a loaf of (very tasty) chocolate chip zucchini bread in the freezer.

So I made my very tasty and hearty Spicy African Peanut Soup to eat for lunches (Matt won't touch that one--too vegetabley; very similar recipe here), and gave up and fried the rest. As there is a limit to the fried zucchini I can eat at a single sitting, I'm afraid many a zucchini spear went straight to the landfill. Also, it transpires that I prefer my zucchini sliced paper thin on the mandoline rather than cut into hefty, squishy, zucchini-textured spears.

On the BEETS, also, I raise the white flag of surrender: I can barely scare up a new beet recipe that I'll eat, let alone one Matt would endure. So I cooked them just for me. I roasted them and sliced them for beet-gorgonzola panini. I'll tell you: not a bad idea. A hearty, nutty bread is essential, however, to mask the beet texture and tame the flavor. I've got two left that I shall attempt to turn into carpaccio. And then attempt to eat. No promises on that one. I'm hoping the capers distract my tastebuds sufficiently so that I don't notice what I'm eating.

This week, mercifully, the beets, zucchini, squash, and chard seem to have given out. In fact, owing to the drought, I think, this week's box was a bit lighter than last. As I still have about 8 Oriental cucs from previous boxes to use up, and a bag and a half of okra, I'm really okay with that. Plus, everything in this box was stuff I like or can readily use: potatoes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic, and eggplant.

This week: chilled cucumber-dill soup, baba ghanoush, and baked cucumbers a la Julia Child.