Picture this: it’s a busy weeknight, you’re getting hangry and your partner is exhausted. You look at each other and ask that age old question- “what should we eat for dinner?!” You open the fridge for inspiration and there lies your City Fresh veggies – and instead of being hit with a wave of overwhelm, you know you can rely on a City Fresh Classic to get a tasty and nutritious dinner on the table, fast.
City Fresh Classics aren’t necessarily recipes; actually, they’re quite the opposite. Lovingly referred to as “No-Recipe Recipes”, our list of City Fresh Classics are our favorite go-to meal ideas that can be tried, tweaked, and redone with truly any produce combinations.
- Breakfast – think local fruit with yogurt and granola, wilted greens with an egg, or a frittata. Works for any meal of the day – not just mornings!
- Salad – make those freshly harvested raw greens super tasty with a tangy dressing and your favorite mix-ins.
- Smoothie – add fruit, yogurt, milk of choice, and maybe even some greens like spinach or kale for an easy way to drink your veggies.
- Pizza – give Friday Pizza Night a facelift with a crispy kalechip pizza, or a pizza sauce loaded with sneaky veggies.
- Grain Bowl – This is like the Chipotle of City Fresh Classics – but even more customizable! Mix raw and roasted veggies and pair with a grain of choice and (probably) a protein, too. Drizzle with your favorite sauce to pull it all together.
- Tacos – you can make almost any veggie taste good if it’s wrapped in a warm tortilla along with a creamy sauce and your favorite protein.
- Stir Fry – a go-to way to make your way through your share. Just chop up some veggies and throw them in a pan with some spices. Amazing for meal prep!
- Chili – usually tomato-based with beans and/or meat, but otherwise totally customizable. Summer and winter squash go particularly well in chili.
- Soup – there’s nothing like a big pot of comforting soup, and like the other Classics, you can basically make any veggie work – even the ones you (think) you don’t like. Blend up roasted veggies with some broth or embrace the various textures with a big pot of bubbling, chunky soup.
Think of City Fresh Classics as Ad-libs fill-in-the-blank recipes. Take soup or chili. You may have veggie or chicken stock, some City Fresh garlic, onions from the grocery store, and whatever else came in your farm box that week. You can riff off the basic structure of “chili” with whatever produce and items you have on hand. Whether that be a can of black beans, tomatoes, green peppers, and frozen corn plucked from the depths of your freezer. Or red onions, fresh kale, scallions, kidney beans, tomatoes, and feta cheese. Your City Fresh Classic meals can go in whichever direction you need them to.
My partner and my go-to CFC is the Grain Bowl. It is mostly just a vehicle for me to eat excessive amounts of honey mustard (my FAVORITE sauce). This No-Recipe Recipe can be as simple as whatever grain you have on hand (maybe quinoa), 2-3 veggies chopped and roasted, beans or lentils if you’d like, a sauce of your choice, or cheese if dairy is in your diet. For example, on the docket this week will probably be our rendition of the City Fresh Classic Grain Bowl of quinoa, fresh radishes thinly sliced, chopped red onion, kale and summer squash tossed in olive oil and herbs roasted on a baking sheet, roasted chickpeas, topped with honey mustard (DUH!), and sprinkled with feta cheese.
So when you’re exhausted and need a go-to meal that can be as flexible as you are, look to our list of City Fresh Classics to get inspired. While you’re at it, snap a picture for the Seed to Supper Challenge – you could be featured on our pages and win prizes just for cooking your veggies!
Written by Julia Dolores