I have never made sweet potatoes before. Never. Not for Thanksgiving – someone else brings that horrible, orange dish. Not ever.
I do not make sweet potatoes as I do not like sweet potatoes. Not even with marshmallows. OK, especially with marshmallows. Which belong in cookies and ice cream (Mallomars & Phish Food, for example) and not potatoes, in my book.
But in my weekly CSA Farm Share I kept getting sweet potatoes. Along with info about how healthy sweet potatoes are: that they have as much Vitamin A and Beta-Carotene as carrots, and other such stuff.
So there I was, feeling all virtuous about my Sunday dinner planning. My husband and son were having steak and fries but I was going lo-co and making a one-person salad using lettuce from my CSA farm share, topped with warm chicken (which I had roasted 2 days ago!) avocado and tomato.
Nevermind that this plan came together at, oh, 6:30 pm with me getting provisions on the way home from tennis. I’d had all day to plan a healthy dinner – my son’s baseball game was cancelled – but I was busy, OK? Had to upgrade our iPhones to iOS 5.
Big points to anyone who can identify this vegetable.
Here’s a hint: the Japanese translation is “Beans on Branches.”
What? You still can’t guess? Well, you are in good company. Two weeks ago, my friend Lisa and I met at the town farm to pick up our weekly CSA produce share, and this furry mess of green stalks was sticking out of the top of our boxes. Lisa, who knows more about veggies than anyone I know, was momentarily stumped. I was completely clueless.
Turns out, these are edamame (eh-dah-MAH-meh), or fresh soybeans. Lisa figured it out by plucking one of the green fuzzy pods from the stalk,
