The first produce bin of the year!!

So, at 2 am last night...when we had been travelling since the wee hours and passed through all time zones on our return from a cross-country trip with 2 little ones, I was not as excited as usual about picking up our produce bin. Even less excited was my husband who was counting the minutes it was adding to our late night to “swing by the porch” and pick up the first CSA bin of the season! In my zombie-like jet-lagged state this morning it was even worse trying to sort and prep all the produce, but I know that we are in need a serious diet detox from travelling and this is perfect timing to have an abundance of fresh fruits and veggies in the house!

For dinner I made a carrot top soup. This is something that I have wanted to do since we first starting getting the CSA bins years ago...it always pains me to throw away all those leafy wisps at the top of the carrot bunch! I started sautéing radish and turnip greens last year, but have yet to attempt to use the carrot tops in anything other than making veggie broth. Well, today that is a-changin’! I am doing a slight variation of this recipe:
http://www.chef2chef.net/recipes/recipe-archive/13/078137.SHTML.

I added a few minced garlic cloves, some dried thyme, red pepper flakes, lots more chopped carrots and doubled the amount of rice (also, using brown rice). I’m making a loaf of freshly baked homemade honey whole wheat bread so even if the soup is a bomb we’ll have some yummy bread! Oh, and serving it with a salad of course (gotta use up some of that lettuce, cucumber, radishes and carrots!)



UPDATE: The soup was delicious! Got a thumbs up from both adults in the house!