This week's share--A Little Color Finally

I can imagine that you all are getting a little sick of greens. Good news, the sunshine has ushered in the next wave of vegetables--beets, carrots, summer squash, and green beans will now grace your shares.

This week's share includes:
Lots of legumes--peas (snow and snap), green beans, fava beans (more on favas in a later post)
Lettuce Mix
Carrots
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Beets--dark red and chioggia (a.k.a candy striped)
Butterhead Lettuce
Bok Choy
Herbs

The recipe below was of interest both because of the recipe itself and its inspiration--the pairing of beets and sheep/goat cheese is a wonderful combination. I suggest Highland Farm Feta or Brebis. The Chioggia beets cook to a pale yellow-orange color and will not bleed color onto the cheese if that suits you better.

Salad of Pea Shoots, Satsumas, and Beets with Ginger-Mint Dressing
from Sara Deseran's Asian Vegetables
serves 4

At Dine, one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants, chef Julia McClaskey serves a fantastic salad of pea sprouts with jewels of beets and bites of creamy goat cheese that inspired the idea for this recipe. I've added Satsumas (although sectioned navel oranges would work fine), a typed of mandrian orange introduced to the States from Japan over a century ago. Sweet and almost seedless, this special citrus is the one I look forward to every fall. To grate the ginger for the dressing, use a ginger grater or even a small-holed cheese grater, reserving the juice. Double the dressing and keep some on hang for the week.

GINGER DRESSING:
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger, plus juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup canola oil
7 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Kosher salt and white pepper to taste

4 beets
1/2 cup water
6 ounces pea shoots
2 Satsuma mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned

To make the dressing, in a jar with a lid, combine all the ingredients. Shake well and set aside until needed.

To roast the beet, preheat the oven to 400F. Trim the stems, leaving about 1/2 inch intact, but do not peel. Place the beets in a small roasting pan, add the water, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the beets are tender when pierced with a knife. Remove from the oven, let cool, and then slip off the skins and cut the beets into small wedges.

In a large bowl, gently toss together the beets, pea shoots, and Satsuma sections. Shake the dressing again to reincorporate. Toss the salad with dressing and serve.