A Greek Salad & The Produce Box

This post was sponsored by The Produce Box, but the opinions are 100% my own and I only work with companies who reflect my values and with whom I would do business with.

So, a very happy thing happened a few weeks back.

It was one of those weeks when the calendar said it was spring, but winter was clinging on with her very last (very cold) breath.

The very happy, very welcome thing was that this box landed on my front porch. ‘This box’ being a box of fresh from the farm goodness delivered by The Produce Box, a North Carolina company that delivers fresh, local produce and specialty products like meats, cheese, bread, and a lot more to homes and offices all over the state. My Produce Box included most of the ingredients I needed to make this easy, healthy and delicious Greek salad.

Each week The Produce Box puts out their ‘menu’ which details what is available in a variety of different boxes.

 You can also swap out one item in a box for something else that strikes your fancy or build your own box from scratch.

This time, my box was the O’Natural box, though I did a one item swap. In my box there were radishes, a head of Bibb lettuces, 2 English cucumbers, Rebelski Tomatoes, Sweet Potato and Kale (which I substituted for the Braising Mix).  Let me just pause and talk about the tomatoes; these tomatoes were everything you pine away for during the winter months when all you can find are the mealy, pink on the inside ones. These bright red tomatoes really did taste of summer, although the calendar had just switched over to April

English cucumbers = Tzatziki in my world, so when I got my box and the two English cucumbers popped out, I knew I’d be making something with tzatziki.  In fact, most of the box pretty much said…”Fantastic Greek Salad Dinner” to me.  I had heard about roasted radishes before but hadn’t made them myself. I decided this was a good time to give them a try. My radishes were long and thin, so I merely roasted them at 400º for about 10-15 minutes, along with some eggplant that I already had in my fridge. I think fatter radishes would need more roasting time.

I used my all-time favorite Tzatziki recipe which is Ina Garten’s recipe. It’s easy to put together but does require a little advance preparation to strain the yogurt and the cucumbers.

Once the Tzatziki was made and sitting in my fridge so that the flavors meld, I marinated some chicken breasts using my Za’atar Chicken recipe, adding a tablespoon of oregano to the recipe.

Our Dinner that night of Greek Salad was very easy to put together as the tzatziki was in the fridge and the chicken just needed to be grilled. While the chicken was grilling, I made the salad and roasted the radishes and eggplant. I sliced the grilled chicken, put it over a bed of the Bibb lettuce with the sliced Rebelski tomatoes and topped it with feta cheese and Greek dressing, a recipe also by Ina Garten.

I used the sweet potatoes for another meal (recipe coming soon) and the kale for smoothies, so my Produce Box was consumed rather quickly.

I can’t wait for my next Produce Box delivery, which I will schedule for when Kate is home.  One of the great features about The Produce Box is that it is very easy to chose the weeks you would like to receive a delivery and those weeks that you’d like to skip delivery. Given all of our travel of late, that has been very handy.

Truthfully, The Produce Box offers many great features:

• Their produce is locally sourced
• It arrives on your front porch! I mean, how great is that?!
• A sheet is included which tells you where each vegetable is grown and how quickly you should plan to eat the vegetable, as well as some suggestions for enjoying the vegetable.  Additionally, the opposite side of the sheet of paper includes recipes that would incorporate the items in your Produce Box.
• My first-hand experience is that the vegetables are truly ‘farm fresh’.
• It’s easy to schedule weeks to receive or skip delivery
• Great customer service.  I received a call after my box was delivered confirming that everything was satisfactory.

If you’re in North Carolina and you’d like to give The Produce Box a whirl, they were kind enough to give my readers a $5 discount off of the annual fee of $18. Just use the code NOURISH at checkout.

If this recipe sounds delicious to you, you might also be interested in this pressed Mediterranean vegetable sandwich.

As always, I am so thankful that you decided to spend a few minutes of your precious time with me today. I appreciate your company and your comments more than you can know. If you want to make sure you don’t miss future content, pop your email in the beige box up on the right.  I usually send out 2-3 emails a week, so I won’t inundate your inbox. 

Right now, subscribers to Nourish and Nestle will receive a free, downloadable Measuring Equivalents Chart overlaid on a watercolor lemon.  You can see it here. Sign up to our email list (on my right sidebar) and we’ll send it to your inbox within 24 hours!  If you are already a subscriber and would like a lemon measuring equivalents chart, send us an email with ‘lemon chart’ in the subject line and we’ll send you one too!

Hugs,

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!