Thai Sweet Potato Salad

The last Fair Shares newsletter suggested looking at a blog from Overlook Farms for some new apple recipes. I did a little searching on the blog and found some other recipes that caught my interest. The one for Sweet Potato salad (scroll down the page) was perfect for my family. My daughters won't touch sweet potatoes, but love Pad Thai so I thought I'd give it a try. (we will be trying the Pho Bo soup, too. Vietnamese Soup is big in this house.) My youngest daughter, who won't try anything new, was asking for seconds. She said it tasted like Pad Thai.

I made a few adjustments to the salad dressing. The biggest changes were that I cut back on the mayonnaise because I knew my husband would like a less creamy dressing. I also used olive oil rather than sesame oil because I didn't have any on hand. To make up for it I added some toasted sesame seeds.

This is how I made the dressing:

Sweet Potato Salad

Cut three sweet potatoes into bit size pieces and boil until tender.

Combine these ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the dressing over the potatoes.

1/2 c soy sauce

1/3 c mayonnaise

1 1/2 T ginger

1 1/2 T olive oil

6 cloves minced garlic

3 T creamy peanut butter (I used Sappington market's honey roasted)

1 T Chinese chili sauce

3 T brown sugar

I wanted to toss in some chopped green onions and crushed unsalted, roasted peanuts, but I didn't have either one. I think they would have added, but it was great as it.

As I said yesterday I caught my family dipping their tunrips in the sauce. I also saw some being put on the trout we served with it.

I hope you give it a try. Sweet potatoes are a great food and this is a refreshing way to eat them.

Italian Pak Choi

We recieved some greens in our share last week from Fair Shares, which I think they were pak choi. I did some searching to look for ways to cook it, keeping in mind I would be serving it with a garlic trout, found a couple of Italian bok choy recipes and used them as a guide.

Since joining Fair Shares I've found I enjoy some greens, but this has got to be my favorite so far. In the last minutes you throw in some fresh basil and thyme which gives it a super fresh feel.

I served it with a garlic trout, as well as the turnips and sweet potato salad I wrote about earlier this week. Here is a picture of the whole meal, including the last tomatoes from my garden and some bread.

Italian Pak Choi

One bunch pak choi -- remove leaves from stems and clean. Chop the stems into 1/4" pieces. Slice the leaves into 1/2' strips.

Sauté 2 cloves of garlic and half an onion in olive oil. When it the onions have started to caramelize add the chopped stems, sauté until soft. Add the leaves and sauté until just wilted. Throw in the about 10 fresh basil leaves and approximately 4 tablespoons of fresh thyme (removed from the stems). Remove from heat. Sprinkle on some ground black pepper and a little sea salt to taste.

This is one green I went back to have seconds on. (My daughter's didn't care for it, though.)

Turnip Greens

Tonight we had roasted turnips and turnip greens. I got the "recipe" from the Fair Shares newsletter from last week. It was really easy to make and a fun way to eat turnips. I left the leaves and stems on the turnips, washed and dried them thoroughly. Spread them on a baking sheet. Drizzled on olive oil and sprinkled on sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The newsletter suggested serving with a fruit relish but I opted to serve as it. I found my family was dipping the turnips in the sauce from a Thai sweet potato salad that I also made tonight. I'll post about it tomorrow.

I liked the toasted turnip greens. And the turnips were fine. My older daughter thought they tasted like carrots. I didn't think they had much flavor, which was fine with me.