I got a great dinner idea from a friend and his wholesome-food-loving, young chef kids, Brendan (3 years old) and RJ (6 years old) in Washington D.C. They went to Larriland Farm in Woodbine, MD, to pick produce. And afterward they were excited to head back to the kitchen to prep everything, and invent a wonderful new recipe.
First, they picked their own potatoes, peaches, blackberries, and tomatoes and also got fresh corn, squash, and delicious green apples from the farm store. Back home they lightly sautéed chunks of potatoes for the main part of the dish, then the squash, some left over carrots, and the corn in some butter and a little sea salt. [They make their own butter so I’ll have to try that someday too!] While the vegetables were hot, they melted in some goat cheese with honey and mixed everything together and put it in bowls.
Then they topped the bowl with diced tomatoes, apples, peaches, and blackberries and added a little Mexican blend cheese. The heat from the sautéed veggies and melted goat cheese mixes well with the crunchy texture of the fresh, chilled apples, sweet peaches and tart blackberries. It was so flavorful the kids gobbled it up with a small piece of freshly pan-toasted rustic bread.
Above you can see my assortment of vegetables that I used today. The beautiful purple potatoes are from Full Cellar Farm in Jefferson, MD. This is my first time cooking with or eating a purple potato and they were excellent.
Keep the fruit separate until adding to the bowl so the blackberries don’t bleed color over the other ingredients. A couple of other suggestions are to top each bowl with a few tablespoons of any leftover diced grilled chicken breast, and rolling up Farm Bowl leftovers in collard green leaves the next day to make wraps. The best part of this dinner is that the kids helped pick – literally, from the ground, plants, bushes, and trees – most of the ingredients for their meal.
Be creative with your farm bowl, depending on what you can get at the time; the receipt for my version from today is below. I’ll call this the autumn bowl, because it will be different throughout the year. The ingredients you use do not have to sound like they go together. I cooked the potatoes in batches first. The lettuce on my porch planters is doing well in the cool weather we’ve been having, so I lined the bowls with it.
Autumn Farm Bowls
Lettuce leaves
Chopped vegetables: purple potatoes, carrots, squash, corn
1 C shredded Gruyere cheese
1 T honey
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped fruit: tomatoes, apples, peaches, blackberries
Lightly sauté vegetables until they’re tender – together or separately – tougher vegetables first. Mix all of the warm ingredients together and combine with the gruyere and honey. Put the mixture in bowls and add the shredded cheese topped with a bit of each fruit. Serve with warm bread.
