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Seasonal Thanksgiving Recipes for a Farm-to-Table Feast



Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? We certainly are on the farm! If you saw last week’s blog, you already got a sneak peek at the scrumptious selection that will fill this week’s box (Nov. 23-25). We wanted to give y’all enough time to plan for the big day and send some inspiration your way. Please enjoy these Thanksgiving recipes, from our kitchen to yours (and curated from our online discoveries).  


Sweet Potatoes

We can’t talk about sweet potatoes without highlighting Becky’s favorite–Sweet Potato Pie. You won’t  go back to pumpkin after this. 



Texas Sweet Potato Pie

Recipe from Johnson’s Backyard Garden


Ingredients:

• 1 pie crust

• Roasted sweet potatoes (you’ll want about 2 cups of puree; you can roast these days before!)

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon of each: cinnamon, allspice, freshly grated nutmeg

• 1 stick butter, room temp

• 2 eggs, room temp

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. “Blind bake” your empty crust for about 15-20 minutes until slightly browned. Use pie weights, dried beans, or sugar to weigh down.

3. Meanwhile Remove skins from roasted sweet potatoes. You should end up with about 2 cups of potato.

4. Combine the remaining ingredients using a blender or a bowl/hand mixer, or even just a potato masher. You may add a bit more cream if needed to help your blender work, but it should be a very thick mixture (not a smoothie!). Alternately, if you do this in a mixer, start with the sweet potatoes, then remove the strings from your attachment, then continue mixing on medium speed, adding butter, sugar, then eggs, and then all the other ingredients.

5. Remove crust from oven, and reduce temp to 350 degrees. Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 35-45 minutes. When you shake the dish, it should jiggle slightly but be mostly set. *Cover edges with tinfoil halfway into baking if they begin to brown too much.

Protip: Bake pie on a sheet pan to catch any overflow.

Serving: Serve at room temp, perhaps dotted with some salted maple or bourbon whip cream. (For the first, fold maple syrup and a big pinch of salt into whip cream. For the second, mix in a spoonful of bourbon).


Other Sweet Potato Recipes:


Carrots (first of the season!)

Carrot Soufflé (if you’re feeling fancy)



Collards 

Stewed Bastrop, TX Collard Greens


Ingredients:

• Collards, stems removed and chopped

• 2 Onions, chopped

• 2-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped or minced

• 3-4 cups of liquid (water, veggie stock, chicken stock

• Salt

• Red pepper flakes (if you want!)

• Ham hock or strips of bacon (if you want!)

• A splash of Apple cider vinegar or a squeeze of Lemon Juice


Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat up enough oil to coat the bottom of pan. Add onions and sauté for about 10 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another 2 or so minutes. (If using bacon, fry that up first. Once fat is rendered, remove bacon, and sauté your veggies in the bacon fat. Snack on bacon.)

2. Once vegetables are tender, add stock, chopped collards, ham hocks (if using), and salt, to pot. When pressed down with a fork, collards should be just submerged in stock (adding water to cover if needed).

3. Simmer until collards are tender, anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 or 2 hours depending on your preference.

4. Once done, taste for salt, adding more if need be. Add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to taste.

Tip: Collards can be made 1 or 2 days ahead of time and gently reheated on Thanksgiving day.

Optional: Remove hocks from pot, separate meat from bones, and add meat back to pot of collards. Serve with a bit of liquid spooned over the top of your collards.


Other Collards Recipes:

Classic Southern Collards (plus a bit of history) 


Bok Choy

Jalapeño-Lime Quinoa and Bok Choy (you have to try this one!)


Salad: Arugula or Baby Kale



Huge Harvest Salad


Ingredients:

• Washed and dried Lettuce or salad green of choice (can be done ahead!)

• Washed and dried bagged greens–arugula or baby kale (can be done ahead!)

• Watermelon & Purple Radishes (find them at this Sunday’s market), peeled and sliced or matchsticked (can be done ahead! Store cut radishes submerged in water w/ a squeeze of lemon)

• Parsley, roughly chopped (can be done ahead!)

• Green onions or scallions, chopped in 1/2- to 1-inch little tubers (can be done ahead!)

• Peas, raw or blanched for 30 seconds (can be done ahead!)

• Feta cheese (or “creamy” substitute)

• Toasted Pecans (or “crunchy” substitute)

• Dressing (can be made ahead!)


Instructions:

1. Just before meal-time, taste your dressing and adjust if need be. Add more olive oil if it’s too acidic, more lemon juice or vinegar if it needs some more tang, and a bit of salt if it’s too flat.

2. In a bowl other than the one you’re serving salad from, season sliced radishes and peas with a bit of your dressing (or even just some olive oil, lemon, and salt).

3. Tear your bagged greens and lettuce into bite-size pieces if you haven't already.

4. In your serving bowl, toss well-dried greens and the majority of your chopped herbs (reserve some for garnish) with dressing, another sprinkle of salt, and maybe some fresh cracked pepper. Use clean hands to gingerly toss the greens with the dressing and make sure each leaf is coated. Remember you can always add more dressing, but can’t take it away. Taste a leaf or two as you go, and stop when it tastes good to you.

5. Sprinkle the dressed greens with the rest of the reserved herbs (parsley, onions, cilantro, etc.).

6. Assemble: Arrange nuts, cheese, reserved chopped parsley and onions, radishes and peas on top of your dressed greens. I like to make long lines of each individual toppings (versus a sprinkle- scatter) on top of the greens. When folks serve themselves, they’ll scoop greens from the bottom and get an even dispersing of toppings.


Other Salad Recipes:


Dill

Use fresh dill to season any (or all) of your Thanksgiving meal, or try out some of our suggestions below:


Cabbage - Napa or Storage 

(from last week’s share, because who can figure out what to do with all that Napa?!)


Butternut Squash 

(most of you received one in last week’s share, or you can pick some up from this Sunday’s market)


photo by Julia Keim

If you enjoyed the written-out recipes in this post, you can find more like them in the Club Home Made Thanksgiving recipe booklet created by Becky & Ada. Happy Thanksgiving!

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