At our last Friday Fresh Farmers’ Market we launched the new “Best of the Market” program which provided a bag of fresh organic fruits and vegetables as well as a bouquet of flowers to hospital staff people too busy to shop. As you can imagine, there are many who work morning to night taking care of our patients and who may not be able to get to our hospital farmers’ market. We started the program in a few departments only to see how it would work operationally. Department shoppers picked up fruits and veggies for their co-workers instead of going out for lattes. No offense to Starbuck’s intended, but the bags offered more nutritional benefits for the dollar. We limited it to 50 customers on day one and hope to serve about 80 this week. This program brings good food to the people. It also has the potential to significantly benefit the farmers’ bottom line.
In the bag’s assortment of fruits and veggies was a bunch of carrots with the green tops still attached. A recipe for carrot tapenade caught my eye. It turns out to be very easy and tasty. There’s an optional balsamic vinegar glaze but I ended up with kind of a purple scum on the bottom of a skillet so decided to just serve the tapenade.
Carrot Tapenade
About 16 one Tablespoon servings
1 bunch carrots, sliced. I wash mine but don’t peel them.
23 pitted black olives or however many you need for ½ cup.
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Cook the carrots in boiling water until very tender. Drain them. Add the carrots and the other ingredients to a food processor. Pulse until blended. (I tried this in a blender first, but the carrots and olives stuck to the side and the blade just whizzed around in the middle and didn’t really do anything) Serve on pieces of pita bread, whole wheat of course, or crackers.
Calories: 34
Fat: 2 gm
Saturated fat: 0 gm
Trans fat: 0 gm
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Carbohydrate: 3 gm
Fiber: 1 gm
Sodium: 75 mg
Protein: 0 gm
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Your "Best of the Market" program sounds really great, not only for the hospital staff, but also for the local farmers. I wish we had a program like that where I work! :-)
you can change the flavor a bit by using various types of olives, like garlic olives, spicy olives, etc. Note: Good idea. It is always interesting to use what's in the refrigerator. Dr. M
I made this last week, and it was a hit at my dinner party. Such a healthy recipe, too!
For those of us who would like to try the balsamic glaze, would you be good enough to print the recipe for that, too? Thanks!
Note: Bring about a half cup of balsamic vinegar to a boil then simmer it until it is reduced by half or slightly thickened. I understand you can add a pinch of sugar or a dollop of molasses to thicken it faster. Hope it works for you. Dr. M