CSA Inspirations

This week's CSA share included two of my favorites from last year: white salad turnips and rainbow chard.

I spent the last few days trying to come up with a unique way to use them both together, and I finally settled on soup. This soup has a lot of things in it, but it comes together pretty quickly so it's good for a weeknight.

This soup is miso-based, which is one of my favorite types of soup. If you haven't used miso paste before, here are a few notes: The miso is added at the very end of cooking, which means you can't really taste and adjust the seasonings during the cooking process. Don't worry, it all comes together at the end. Some miso pastes are mellower or more flavorful than others, so add the miso one or two tablespoons at a time, making sure the paste is fully dissolved and then and then add more as needed.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of oil
2 cups of turnips (about 6) diced small
2 carrots, sliced
3 scallions, minced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
A thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced
1/4 package (about 3 ounces) tofu, cut into tiny cubes
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons miso paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
8 cups of water
1 bunch of rainbow chard (about 10 stalks) -

• coarsely chop the leaves,
  
• finely mince 5 stems
  
• (reserve the remaining stems for stock, or discard.)

The Recipe

1. Heat the oil in a large pot.
2. Saute the turnips and carrots until just tender, about 8 minutes.
   
3. Add the scallions, chard stems, and cubed tofu. Saute until the scallions and stems are tender.
   
4. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant.
5. Add 8 cups of water and the chard leaves.
6. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5-7 minutes, until the chard leaves have wilted.
   
7. Turn off the heat and stir in the miso and soy sauce, making sure the miso is fully dissolved.

I served this with toasted onion naan on the side for dipping. Yum.