Wednesday, October 12, 2016

CSA Week 18 and Guest Post -Mangels

Things are winding down here, but there's still so much to be done and lots of food in the garden. Despite what appeared to be a heavy frost Monday night, most things survived, except the new beans that were coming along so well. But nothing ventured nothing gained. I was late getting them in the ground.
Tuesdays baskets contained carrots, sugar beets,  a stir fry blend (arugula, tatsoi, mustard greens, chard), sweet peppers, malabar spinach, leaf celery and likely something else I can't remember.
Last week when I send out a note asking folks if they wanted to try the mangels, I knew Monique would be a taker, bless her soul. And even more she wrote a blog post about her adventures in mangels. So if you took mangels as well, here are a few ideas for you.





Mangels, not just food for cattle!
Long known as cattle food for farmers, mangels have been around since the 1800.  Mainly used to feed farm animals as it grows well and stores well.  But it is not just good for farmers, it is deliciously sweet and remains fairly tender even when large. Stores well if kept from freezing and you can eat the greens too!
Linda asked me last week if I wanted to bring some home and try some, so I said why not.  She told me it’s like a beet but not as strong as a red beet.  I tried to find the nutrition facts on mangals during my research but there wasn’t much available online because they say they are not that popular enough to eat.  But I did find out while researching mangels, that you can cook them and freeze them in a vacuumed sealed bag for up to 2 years or in a Ziploc bag for 6-8 months.
So I thought what can I make with these mangels?  


I love using my slow cooker because you can put anything in it to cook and walk away.  So I did some research and found that lots of people cooked their beets in the slow cooker with foil but I am not a huge fan of using foil so I decided I was going to try without.  I put two cups of water in the bottom of my slow cooker with some salt, cleaned the mangels really good to remove all the dirt and cut the tops and bottom off.  I placed two mangels in the slow cooker because that’s all I could fit, set it for 4 hours on high and then left to run errands.  When I returned they were done and ready.  I let them cool a bit so I could handle them while I removed the skin, which was super easy, then I let them cool completely to room temperature.  I decided to make a mangel hummus with some of them and I froze my hummus in small containers so I can use later.  I still had a lot of mangel left so I searched on pinterest and found a chocolate beet cake recipe and substituted the beets for mangels, it was moist and super delicious.  
I hope you enjoy the mangel hummus and find other great ways to cook and eat mangels.
Enjoy!


Mangel Hummus
  • 2 cups cooked mangels
  • 1 can chick peas (drained and rinse)
  • 3 tbsp tahini
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1-2 garlic gloves
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Pepper to taste

Place mangels and chick peas in food processor and pulse to combine. Add in the rest of the ingredients and process the mixture for a full 2-3 minutes or until the hummus is super creamy, stopping to scrape down the side of the bowl.  Serve with veggies!

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