Week 15 – September 17 & 19, 2026

Delivery dates: September 17 & 19, 2026

One taco night, two dinners. Week 15 brings Winter Squash, Leeks, Sweet Peppers, Beans, Kale, Blue Steel Potatoes, Lettuce Mix, and a Salsa Kit — everything you need for taco night, plus its own encore the next day.

Use These First

Your vegetables don't read this list. Check everything when you unpack your bin — anything very ripe, bruised, or showing signs of deterioration moves to the front of the line.

First 1–3 days — Salsa Kit (especially the cilantro and the ripest tomatoes) · Lettuce Mix

Next — Beans · Sweet Peppers · Kale · Leeks

No rush — Blue Steel Potatoes · Winter Squash

Our suggestion: make your salsa on Day 1 or Day 2 and build your first dinner around it.

This Week, Handled

Let us take a few decisions off your plate.

Here’s one practical way to turn this week’s bin into meals, with one grocery list. Think of it as a starting point, not an assignment — swap anything out for whatever your household actually likes.

Designed for about 4 people. Adjust quantities for your household.

Start Here: Make the Salsa

The Salsa Kit has everything you need: cherry tomatoes, a Roma tomato, cilantro, red onion, garlic, and a jalapeño. Make it on Day 1 or Day 2, while the tomatoes and cilantro are at their best. Use it for tonight’s Ultimate Taco Night below — and save some for tomorrow’s Taco Crunch Salad.

Want Anabel's Salsa Methods Right Here?

Two stovetop ways to turn the kit into salsa.

Anabel demonstrates two traditional methods — either works for the meals below:

Boiled and blended — the ingredients are simmered until soft, then blended smooth.
Pan-fried and crushed — the ingredients are charred in a hot pan, then crushed to a chunkier salsa.

Make a full batch and set some aside on purpose — that’s what makes tomorrow’s Taco Crunch Salad quick.

See the Salsa Kit Guide for the full write-up, heat adjustments, storage, and more ways to use leftovers.

35 MIN

The Ultimate Taco Night

Uses: Salsa Kit · Sweet Peppers · Lettuce Mix · protein of your choice

Make the salsa first (see Start Here, above), then build the rest of taco night around it. Cook your protein of choice — ground beef, chicken, black beans, or whatever your household prefers — with your usual taco seasoning. Slice sweet peppers and sauté them until soft and a little charred at the edges. Use the lettuce mix as a topping or a simple side salad.

Cheese, yogurt or sour cream, and avocado all work well here — treat them as optional add-ons, not requirements.

Before you sit down to eat: set aside extra taco filling, extra cooked sweet peppers, and some of the salsa. That’s the whole trick — tomorrow’s dinner is mostly already cooked.

Cook extra taco filling and extra sweet peppers on purpose, and save some salsa. Meal 2 is already handled.

10 MIN

Leftover Taco Crunch Salad

Uses: Lettuce Mix · a little finely sliced Kale · reserved taco filling, Sweet Peppers & salsa

Toss the lettuce mix with a handful of very finely sliced kale for some crunch and body. Top with the reserved taco filling, sweet peppers, and salsa, straight from the fridge or briefly warmed.

Good optional additions: cheese, avocado, crushed tortilla chips (or leftover tortillas, crisped up in a dry pan), and a quick dressing of yogurt or sour cream loosened with a squeeze of lime.

This isn't tacos again — it's a genuinely different dinner, and it's mostly assembly.

45 MIN

Maple-Dijon Sausage, Winter Squash & Blue Steel Potato Sheet Pan

Uses: Winter Squash · Blue Steel Potatoes · Leeks · Beans · Kale · sausage

Whisk together a simple maple-Dijon mix: Dijon mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, a splash of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. Toss cubed winter squash, halved Blue Steel potatoes, and sliced leeks with most of the mix, and roast at 400°F alongside your favourite sausage.

Add the beans to the pan for just the last 10 minutes or so, so they keep some texture instead of going soft. Either stir torn kale in for the final few minutes to let it crisp at the edges, or skip that and serve it as a quick sautéed side instead — whichever is easier for your night.

Want to Take Taco Night Up a Level?

Make Your Own Corn Tortillas

Completely optional

Maseca masa harina, warm water, and salt. No tortilla press required. About 20 minutes.

This is entirely optional — store-bought tortillas work just fine for either meal above. But if you’d like to try it once:

3 ingredients: masa harina (Maseca or similar), warm water, a pinch of salt.
Mix into a soft, play-dough-like dough. If it cracks at the edges, add a little more water; if it’s sticky, add a little more masa harina.
Divide into golf-ball-sized portions and flatten each one between two pieces of plastic or parchment, using a heavy pan, a plate, or the bottom of a baking dish — no press needed.
Cook in a hot, dry skillet for about 30–60 seconds per side, until lightly speckled and puffed.
Keep warm, wrapped in a clean towel, until you’re ready to serve.

Low-effort, low-intimidation, and about 20 minutes start to finish.

Save Some for Winter

Save Some for Winter — Sweet Peppers

The easy version: whole peppers, straight into the freezer. No prep required.

Easy option: start a freezer bag of whole peppers. Glen personally keeps a large freezer-safe bag dedicated just to peppers in his own freezer — whatever container you use, just make sure it’s freezer-safe. Drop whole sweet peppers straight in as you have extras; no need to seed, stem, chop, or blanch them first.

Later, roast them straight from frozen, then remove the stem, seeds, and skin once they’re cooked. This method isn’t the most convenient for a quick January stir-fry, but it’s excellent for roasted red pepper pasta sauce, soups, and sauces generally.

More convenient later: if you’d rather have prepped pieces ready to go, wash, seed, and slice or dice the peppers before freezing. It takes a few more minutes now, but skips the roast-and-peel step later.

Either way works — pick whichever matches how much time you have this week.

One Grocery List

Do This When You Unpack

About 10 minutes.

Do This When You Unpack

Ten minutes now makes the rest of the week easier.

Refrigerate the cilantro — trim the stems and stand it in a glass of water in the fridge, loosely covered; it’s the most delicate thing in the Salsa Kit.
Keep the Salsa Kit’s tomatoes on the counter, not the fridge — stem-side down, out of direct sun.
Refrigerate the lettuce mix right away, in the crisper.
Refrigerate the leeks, unwashed, in the crisper.
Sweet peppers, beans, and kale — all refrigerate well in the crisper; use within the week.
Set the Blue Steel potatoes, winter squash, garlic, and red onion in a cool, dark spot — not the fridge.

Not Feeling These Meals?

The plan above is one easy way through the week — not a requirement. If you’d rather build your own, here’s where to look:

Winter Squash guide
Leeks guide
Kale guide
Beans guide
Sweet Peppers guide
Potatoes guide
Salsa Kit Guide — for more ways to use the kit beyond this week’s meals
Full Recipe Library — everything else in the archive

What’s in Your Bin

	Crop
🎃	Winter Squash
🥬	Leeks
🫑	Sweet Peppers
🫘	Beans
🥬	Kale
🔵	Blue Steel Potatoes — see the Potatoes guide
🥬	Lettuce Mix
🌶️	Salsa Kit — Cherry Tomatoes, Roma Tomato, Cilantro, Red Onion, Garlic, Jalapeño

Crisper note

Kale, sweet peppers, beans, leeks, and lettuce mix all want the high-humidity crisper. The Salsa Kit’s tomatoes are the exception — counter only, stem-side down, never the fridge; cilantro does best standing in water like cut flowers, refrigerated. Winter squash, Blue Steel potatoes, garlic, and red onion belong in a cool, dark, dry spot instead of the fridge.

For full item-by-item storage detail, see each crop’s own guide linked above and in Not Feeling These Meals? — every vegetable page has a “How to Store It” section.

Watch This Week’s Unboxing

See what’s in this week’s bin, what to use first, and how we’re building the week around the Salsa Kit and Ultimate Taco Night.

UNBOXING Week 15 Unboxing — September 17 & 19, 2026

Trying something new this week: you’ll find the VeggieVault QR code inside your bin instead of on the outside. Outside labels are tough to remove during our bin washing and sanitizing process, so we’re testing the inside placement instead. Let us know if you noticed it and found it easy to use.

Recipe Library → Weekly Box Archive → ← Week 14