CSA Bounty Cooker: Roasted Tomato Soup and Sunchoke Gratin

Yay, it's veggie Tuesday! Or, maybe the day after, but I was busy cooking up a veggie storm last night and therefore, had no more energy for posting.

This is our CSA bounty:

Beets
Chard
Cherry tomatoes
Cilantro

Kale (my arch nemesis)
Oregano

Rutabaga
Strawberries (lasts about 1/2 hour once in the house)

Sunchokes (umm, google please)
Tatsoi

Winter squash

Yellow tomatoes

The first vegetables under fire (pun intended) were the yellow tomatoes. I recently made a Roasted Tomato Soup from 101 Cookbooks when I received several pounds of red tomatoes and it was so delish and flavorful I couldn't resist trying it out with yellow tomatoes.

Making tomato soup was actually quite a feat for me because I have always despised tomato soup since eating it as a child while having the flu. There is something about upchucking food that you just ate that makes you abhor it for almost ever. But I digress...back to trying to make you also love the roasted tomato soup too! :) I mean think, this must be good stuff then.

Roasted Yellow Tomato Soup
Adapted from Roasted Tomato Soup recipe, by Heidi Swanson
My changes in bold

Ingredients:

8 medium yellow tomatoes, quartered
6 cloves of garlic, left in skin
1 red bell pepper, quartered
3 onions, quartered
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 cup Feta cheese

To make:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Place parchment paper on 2 baking sheets. Lay tomatoes on 1 sheet and the onions, bell pepper and garlic on the other. Generously cover onions, bell pepper, and garlic with olive oil. Sprinkle each sheet with sea salt. Place in oven and cook for 50-55 minutes. Turning onions a couple times so they don't burn on one side.

Take out veggies from oven when tomatoes have flattened and onions are caramelized. Place all veggies on onion sheet in food processor, squishing out roasted garlic from the skin. Blend together. Add tomatoes, blend. Add vegetable broth, several turns of pepper grinder and smoked paprika. Blend until at desired consistency.

When serving, add some crumbles of feta cheese and dip with baked sourdough baguette. Yum!

And we cook on. Mystery vegetable this week was the sunchokes. I had never seen or cooked with them before yesterday. I decided to google it. I discovered sunchokes, AKA Jerusalem Artichokes, are a type of sunflower that is grown in the eastern United States and the root, or tuber, is what I received in the veggie box this week.

Sunchoke before being dressed in cheesy goodness

Sunchoke Gratin

Ingredients:

1 pound of sunchokes
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, plus sprigs for garnish
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

To make:

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Cut or break sunchokes into about 1" pieces. Place into pot of boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain sunchokes in strainer and add vegetable broth, milk, oregano, salt, pepper and cornstarch to warm pot. Heat until bubbling and thick. Cut cooled sunchokes into 1/4" slices and place half in small baking dish. Pour half of milk mixture on top and add half of cheese. Repeat by adding rest of sunchokes, milk mixture and cheese. Cook for 30 minutes. Add fresh oregano after baking. Enjoy!

Now do you have any suggestions for my most favorite veggie of all: kale? Any help would be appreciated. :)

P.S. I am looking to make these tomorrow...I love the fall.

Happy cooking,

Marci