a box of crudités = endless inspiration

“Crudité” is just a fancy way of saying “raw veggies.”

A box of crudités in the fridge provides endless inspiration, especially during busy weekdays when finding time to tinker in the kitchen is challenging. Crudités are a quick and healthy snack when you come home starving, or simply need a fresh, crunchy pick-me-up in the afternoon. A few raw, chopped veggies add color and crunch to a salad, and are nice additions to lunch boxes for old and young alike! And if the week gets away from you, or the box gets pushed to the back of the fridge and is forgotten, you can still pull it out and add to a dish, such as refrigerator soup, stir-fry, or toss with olive oil and roast for a quick veggie side dish.

Clean, prepped, and ready to eat veggies are one of the most valuable and useful items I (always try to keep but don’t always succeed at having) in my fridge.

When you go to the farmers market or grocery store, list in hand, grab a few extra veggies. When you’re prepping a dish that calls for a fresh veggie, cut a few extra and throw them into the crudité box. It takes very little extra time but will pay off later on! And once you get in the habit, you’ll find that always having a few clean, prepped veggies around is a really inspiring (and useful!) treat!

The example above is a simple box with globe carrots, green beans and yellow wax beans…minimal but delish! Here are some additional ideas, although this is certainly not an exhaustive list: the standard carrots & celery combo, green & yellow beans, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas & snow peas, sweet peppers of all colors (red + yellow + orange but also green + purple work too!), fennel, jicama, romaine leaves (the lighter, inner crunchy leaves), radishes, cherry tomatoes, and even super skinny asparagus.

Now that summer has officially arrived, I’ll be keeping my fresh farmers market veggies prepped and ready to go in the crudité box on a weekly basis. Check back in for updates, and please feel free to share your great ideas as well!