Although watercress may not make you witty, as the Greeks once thought, this superfood will provide you with vitamins and minerals enough to keep your wits about you! Watercress gives a simple salad a peppery punch and brightens salmon dishes with an earthy tang. Spring and autumn harvest is when you’ll discover the best watercress. Choose bunches with brilliant green leaves and little or no wilting. Store the cress roots-down in a glass of water, covered with a plastic bag, in the refrigerator. Then give your meals a chef’s flourish by garnishing your dishes with fresh sprigs of watercress.

What to Make: Lettuce Wrap with Watercress Aioli

You can pick up recipe cards in our produce department. Or, check out the March 21 Co+op Deals flyer or Stronger Together website for recipes.

Looking for a coupon? Save on some of the ingredients for this recipe with online coupons! Coupons good through April 3, 2012.

If there’s such a thing as a refined vegetable, it might just be the leek. Leeks are alliums (members of the onion family), and gently but distinctly flavor a dish without overpowering other ingredients. Leeks are also lovely plants, with white, crisp stalks (the part of the plant used in cooking) topped by green leaves. They grow tidily and fairly easily, though they do require a good washing after harvest because they can trap dirt between the sheaves. Sauté sliced leeks and add to salads, stir-frys and frittatas, serve them as a side dish or as the focus of a cold (or hot) soup. Bigger isn’t better when it comes to leeks; smaller leeks are more tender and sweet than the larger ones.

What to Make: French Leek Pie with Gruyere Cheese

You can find this recipe located in our produce department, in the November 2  Co+op Deals flyer and Stronger Together website.

Looking for a coupon? Save on ingredient items for the French Leek Pie with online coupons! Coupons good through November 15, 2011.

Grapes are refreshing, sweet, and low in calories. What more could you ask for in a snack? They provide fiber, vitamins, and those highly-touted antioxidants. No preparation (beyond a good rinsing) is required, and they’re already perfectly bite-sized!

As ideal as they are as snack food, grapes also enliven many other dishes. Try them in a chicken curry or a rice salad, for example. A range of colors — red, purple, and frosty green — makes a pretty plate for easy entertaining or an after-school treat.

What to Make: Waldorf Salad

You can find this recipe located in our produce department, in the August 31  Co+op Deals flyer and Stronger Together website.

Crunchy and moist at the same time (they’re largely water after all), cucumbers are a very refreshing vegetable. Did you know that the inside of a cucumber is sometimes as much as 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature? “Cool as a cucumber” is quite literal. Cucumbers’ coolness serves as a counterbalance to hot foods: a cucumber raita with a spicy curry, for example, or a few slices of fresh cucumber on a spicy chicken sandwich. And don’t forget pickled cukes; some of us won’t serve a summer meal without them.

What to Make: Classic Chopped Salad

You can find this recipe located in our produce department, in the August 3rd Co+op Deals flyer and Stronger Together website.

Looking for coupons? Save $.75 on a 1 lb. minimum purchase of local cucumbers and $.75 on one 12 oz. package of Earthbound Farm Organic Romain Hearts with PRODUCE online coupons, good through August 9, 2011.

Is there any savory dish that isn’t improved by onions? Make them sweet onions and you’ve, well, sweetened the deal! Sweet onions are mild and easy on the palate, so they’re a great choice for adding raw onions to salads, side dishes, burgers and sandwiches. Cooking them (try them roasted) brings out their sweetness even more.

Sweet onions are easy on the eyes, too, causing little to no tearing like their storage onion relatives. Varieties to look for include Vidalia, Walla Walla, Maui, Sweet imperial, and Supersweets; sweet onions tend to be most abundant in spring and summer.

What to make: Carmelized Onion Pizza

You can find this recipe located in our produce department, in the May 11 Co+op Deals flyer and on our website.

The simpler the meal, the better. This is believed to be more true during the middle of winter than any other time. This meal is one that can be made in about an hour or less. The first dish is a delicious stir fry that is easily made while using ingredients that are great for the health conscious. This recipe includes refreshing and healthy ingredients like ginger, baby bok choy, carrots, and green onions. Ginger alone is known to benefit hundreds of illnesses or deficiencies in the body. The second recipe is a salad that refreshes our bodies and mind for this winter. One of the ingredients, Burdock Root, is said to be a good scalp treatment that improves hair strength, and shine and is also believed to help battle hair loss. Watercress is one of the oldest leaf vegetables to be consumed by humans and carries significant amounts of iron, calcium, and folic acid. The blood orange is known to be a great antioxidant. Delicious to the last bite, these recipes are healthy for everyone.

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Holidays might include families, friends, fun and food. Of course, an occasional overindulgence may also tag along in the festivities. Long walks, fresh air, and herbal teas will all help you recover and maintain your energy throughout the holidays. Try adding a sprig of fresh mint, rosemary, oregano, and/or sage to warm water as a soothing drink. Lighter foods may also be in order, so the recipes this week feature cleansing herbs, grounding root vegetables, and plenty of color to nourish your body and mind. 

Golden Ginger-Parsnip Soup is a simple and comforting way to appease your sweet tooth and get your feet back on the ground. Ginger is a classic digestive herb that also warms you from within. Parsnips and carrots deliver a helpful dose of antioxidants. The light soup could be a side dish, or light lunch with a chunk of bread. Adding red lentils will offer protein and make the soup a heartier meal. 

Red cabbage is one of a handful of items in the produce department that still comes from a local farm. The recipe this week mixes red cabbage, red onion, and red cranberries that will give any meal a colorful punch. The recipe also features daikon radish, a long slender white root often used in Asian dishes.  Daikon is thought to have fat-dissolving properties and is valued as a cleansing food after over-eating. “Braised Red-Cabbage Relish” can be served over rice, or as a relish for meat or vegetables.

Having this relish on hand could be a perfect accompaniment for finishing off those turkey leftovers!

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This week’s Produce Possibilities is in support of super-busy households that still value a nutritious home-cooked meal.

Trail no. 6 offers a variety of virtually instant soups and noodle dishes that can easily be fortified with additional fresh vegetables.  

The Twin Cities very own Lotus Restaurant is now selling their award winning stir-fry and dipping sauces retail, and we carry four flavors: Sweet and Sour Sauce, Sweet Ginger Sauce, Spicy Sweet and Sour Sauce, and Spicy Stir Fry Sauce. A bottle of sauce and a couple packages of pre-prepped stir fry vegetables make a delicious and super-easy supper.

Take advantage of the pre-washed and prepped vegetables and fruits in the produce ice display, which now include pot-roast vegetables as well as stir-fry ingredients!

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 Join us anytime between 3:00-5:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 2nd for a demo and tasting experience at the Valley Natural Foods demo kiosk.

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Produce Possibilities this week is all about fruit! Apples, pears, and figs are featured in our recipes, with a delicious accent splash of flavor from Meyer lemons.

The apples in the Apple-Pear Salsa recipe are local and may come from one of three orchards we purchase from. The first, which we have had our longest relationship with, is Cedar Hills. They are located in Hutchinson and provide our HoneyCrisp and Haralson apples. The next is Whitewater Valley Orchard. They are located near St. Charles and they provide many different varieties throughout the season including; Regent, Fortune, Freedom, Northern Lights, Red Baron, Enterprise, McIntosh, and Sweet Sixteen.  Applewood Orchard, located in Lakeville is our newest supplier for Zestar, Cortland and Sweet Sixteen apple varieties.

The rest of the fruit in our recipes may not be local, but definitely a part of the fall flavor. Figs are available for such a short time, and you don’t want to miss these exciting fruits! Pears are now in full swing for the season and are at their peak in quality as well. Meyer lemons have just shown up and are the heralds of the upcoming citrus season. Explore these and many more exciting combos with Produce Possibilities!

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Fall is a time of bounty. A phrase repeated over and over but still, it really does apply, especially in Minnesota. Apples are now coming in left and right. onions, potatoes, and other root veggies are now all harvested and waiting for us to use throughout the fall and winter. Squash of so many sizes and shapes to even know what to do with are stacked high. Crucifers, like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are now getting to their sweetest and most delicious time for harvesting. Yes indeed, bounty is abound. This is what we celebrate for this week’s produce possibilities.

Our recipes this week deliver a delightful combo of sweet and salty. Mixed with fresh herbs and some wonderful accents, we can accomplish a symphonic dining experience where all the flavors harmonize to create pure enjoyment. The Maple-Pecan Glazed Root Veggies combine earthy flavors of roots and tubers with sage and garlic as well as Cippollini onions. Topped off with pecans and drizzled with pure maple syrup, this recipe can’t help but remind one of fall traditions. The second recipe, Bacon Wrapped Brussels Sprouts, delivers a salty punch of fun flavor. With Parmesan-thyme butter on the inside to bring out the Brussels better side and the bacon wrap on the outside to get that smokey satisfaction, these sprouts are nothing to scoff at.