Tag Archives: vegetables

Rhubarb and Green Bean Dijon Potato Salad

Posted in Appetizer, Dinner, Side Dishes by

Potato Salad (2)

 

I have to admit, this post is kind of a cheat on my part. I do not think it’s ACTUALLY rhubarb season anymore, although to be fair I did see some at the grocery store…

But I didn’t want to go the whole summer without posting this recipe, which I made awhile back, DURING rhubarb season, from farmer’s market rhubarb with the intention of making it part of my Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals. But since I failed to do that, I figure now is better than never right? Like most things.

And what’s summer without potato salad? It’s traditional anyways, but this summer was an even bigger hit because of this amazing Kickstarter campaign that gave potato salad the attention and fame it has always deserved.

Potato Salad (1)What You Need:

 

  • 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
  • 1/2 pound green beans, sliced in half
  • 2 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 1 pound red potatoes, chopped into 1 1/2” cubes
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 6-8 tbsp dijon mustard (I like the pub style with the mustard seeds)

 

What You Do:

Simultaneously boil a large pot of salted water and heat a nonstick skillet over medium.

Once the water is boiling, add the potato cubes and lower the heat so they simmer. Cook until a fork easily goes through them.

Drain and pour potatoes into a large bowl.

In the skillet,heat the rhubarb, stirring frequently, until JUST cooked. Do not leave it in the pan for too long or else the rhubarb will become very soft. You want it to remain firm.

Add onion, green beans, rhubarb, garlic, green pepper and celery to the potatoes and stir to mix well.

Add the mustard to taste and stir well. You may find you need more mustard (or less) so add gradually and see how you feel. Taste tests are the best part of cooking!

Pro Tip: Add other vegetables, or something crazy like bacon! Everyone loves bacon, right?

Potato Salad (3)

 

 

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Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps

Posted in Dinner, Sandwiches to Love by

Yogurt Chicken (14)

I love guilt-free dinners more than probably anything. It justifies me eating more of it than is likely acceptable, and topping off that meal with a hefty portion of Ben & Jerry’s Late Night Snack. If you haven’t tried that kind, but have a potential affinity for chocolate-covered potato chips enveloped in vanilla ice cream and creamy caramel, then go pick a pint up right now. I’m not kidding.

Anyways, back to the food.

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This is super good. And if you don’t want to eat your sandwich fillings between crispy lettuce leaves, just use bread and put the lettuce on as a topping. BUT IT’S NOT AS FUN! 🙂

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What You Need:

  • 6-8 large, full Romaine lettuce leaves
  • 6-8 thin boneless chicken breasts
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup chopped scallions
  • 1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
  • 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

What You Do:

Cook the chicken in a medium pan with a tbsp of olive oil, covered, flipping after 5 minutes. Remove when cooked through and while it’s still moist – we don’t want dry chicken!

Slice and chop the chicken into tiny pieces. Put in a large bowl. Yogurt Chicken (7)

In a small saucepan on low heat, slowly toast the pecans, stirring in the pan frequently to keep them moving and keep them from burning. They’ll start to smell pretty pungent when they’re almost done. Be careful not to burn them.

Add the pecans, chopped cranberries, celery, scallions, salt and pepper to the chicken and mix thoroughly.

Add Greek yogurt and mix well.

Add the tarragon and mix well.

Place on lettuce leaves and wrap, and enjoy!

 

Pro Tip: Add a dab of honey mustard before wrapping these babies up for a little zing.

 

Garden-Destroying August Hail Storms

Posted in My Garden, Random Thoughts by

New England weather is notoriously unpredictable (If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute, as they say) because of days like last Thursday, August 7, when giant hail fell from the sky around 4pm over a 10-mile (ish) area of the Seacoast that included my garden.

When I pulled into my driveway after work, I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn’t gone through a time warp.

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My dog Madison, a Husky, was psyched. Winter had arrived 4 months early and it was glorious. I, however, immediately ran to the backyard, remembering only one thing – years ago when a freak summer hail storm hit and ruined cars in sale lots all over the Seacoast. If hail could dent the hood of a car, what would it do to my garden?!?

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 THIS IS WHAT IT DOES.

It not only dents your tomatoes, zucchini, spaghetti squash and kale (which, let’s face it, is pretty indestructible) but it makes all those fresh green tomatoes drop to the ground in peril just days before they would realize their red, ripened potential.

Sad.

Yogurt Chicken (2)

 

So I’ve got a bunch of these green tomatoes now, which I’ve bagged and frozen. This post is basically to lament the loss of my tomato plant and get sympathy, as well as warn you that there are some green tomato recipes on the horizon! Fried green tomatoes anyone?!

Thai Peanut Tofu Stirfry with Kale

Posted in Dinner by

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For the FIFTH (but let’s face it, certainly not final) day of Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals, I give you a ridiculously easy but totally delish vegetable explosion in a pan.

For the fact that I have this crazy amount of kale in my backyard, I realize I haven’t made nearly enough kale-involved recipes this week. So I’m making up for it right now.

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I have a not-so-secret addiction to Thai food – particularly Tofu Pad Thai. But a long time ago I decided it was silly to keep buying it when the ingredients are really so super simple. However, I’ve never been able to give my tofu that golden crispiness, probably because I cook them in oil and not in a fry-o-lator 🙂

This dish is a farmer’s market-friendly spin on Pad Thai, with homemade everything. Sometimes I make these meals to ensure I will have a lunch in the fridge at work the next day that I truly look forward to eating. No shame in that!

The Farmer’s Market ingredients used in this recipe are:

  • Kale (from my garden)
  • Garlic scapes
  • Red and green peppers
  • Bean sprouts
  • Scallions

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What You Need for the Stir Fry

  • 1 bunch kale (about 15 leaves) hand shredded
  • 1 package firm tofu, cut into small squares
  • 2 garlic scapes, chopped into small rounds
  • 1 scallion, sliced
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 bunch bean sprouts, cut into 1-inch strands

What You Need for the Peanut Sauce

  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger root, grated
  • red pepper flakes, to taste (about 1-2 tsp)

 

What You Do:

To make the peanut sauce, simply combine all ingredients. Easy!

Set aside.

In a medium skillet, heat a tbsp of olive or coconut oil and cook the tofu, covered, stirring often. It will be done when the tofu begins to brown and stick slightly to the pan.

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In a large wok or skillet, heat the olive or coconut oil and add the scallions. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until soft.

Add garlic scapes, cook for about 2 minutes. Add peppers, stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the tofu and kale. Stir and cook for about 5-8 minutes or until the kale is soft.

Pour the peanut sauce over the tofu stir fry, mix well, and serve topped with bean sprouts, or add the bean sprouts into the mix just before serving.

Pro Tip: Substitute the tofu for chicken, beef or shrimp if desired. Also, you can spice up this dish quite a bit by adding some chopped jalapeno or serrano pepper.

Zucchini, Tomato and Corn Gratin

Posted in Dinner by

Zukes (20)

Ah zucchini.

I like squash a lot. I really do. But I’m at that point in the summer when, to be honest, the level of squash present in my life is getting to be slightly overwhelming. Not only am I harvesting a small bumper crop in my backyard, but I for some reason keep thinking that purchasing additional summer squash at the farmer’s market is a good idea.

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One of my zucchini plants, going strong.

So the chain of events is as follows: Buy fresh squash at the FM –> feel compelled to use said fresh squash before it goes bad  –> neglect picking the actively-growing squash in my garden –> end up with giant backyard squash.

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This isn’t even the biggest one. My latest monster creation is at LEAST 3 Hershey’s bars long, and probably half of one in width.

So Mike has been subjected to an onslaught of zucchini recipes lately, which have included zucchini bread, zucchini pizza boats, and zucchini-topped pizza, and this is basically fine as he doesn’t mind squash. (But he might after this summer!) I’m still fine with it too, but the ongoing challenge is cooking it in different ways so we don’t get sick of it.

You don’t have to love squash to like this dish, though. It is really very good. This recipe post reflects a few changes that I would most certainly employ if I cook this again, which I will, so don’t lose faith in me if you feel the photos don’t quite do it justice.

The farmer’s market/my garden ingredients used in this meal are:

  • Zucchini and Summer Squash
  • Corn on the cob
  • Onion
  • Tomatoes
  • Garlic

What You Need:

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  • About a pound of zucchini and summer squash sliced into thin rounds (I used a mandolin for this)
  • 1 1/2 cups panko or your favorite bread ground up to make breadcrumbs
  • 1 small yellow onion, sliced
  • 2 corn on the cob, with corn sliced off the cob
  • 1 cup Parmesan or Romano cheese, grated
  • 2 large tomatoes, sliced thin (I also used a mandolin for this)
  • Salt
  • Olive or coconut oil
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tbsp butter, melted
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced

 

What You Do:

The Squash

Preheat oven to 350F

Here’s an important step you should never, ever ignore when cooking squash, but I always do anyways. Salt your squash to help remove moisture. This will help it cook better and faster, and overall just taste better.

So, toss your squash rounds with 1-2 tsp salt and set aside in a colander to let it drain (about 10 minutes).

After, lay the slices out on a VERY LIGHTLY oiled baking sheet, and place in the oven for about 5-7 minutes, or until the slices look slightly translucent and soft.

Leave the oven on since the whole dish needs about 10 minutes in there at the end.

The Filling

Warm a tbsp of olive or coconut oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. When hot, place onion slices in and cover, letting the onions caramelize. Remove them when they smell sweet and look translucent with just a touch of brown.

Gently toss your corn with a tiny bit of salt, black pepper and olive or coconut oil, and mix with the caramelized onions.

The Topping

Melt the 2 tbsp of butter over low heat.

In a small bowl, mix your grated cheese and panko, adding a sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

Pour the melted butter into the panko mixture, add the minced garlic and stir it up.

The Finale

Line a baking dish with the cooked squash and raw tomato slices, alternating as you go. After you have one layer down, sprinkle some of your onion and corn mixture over it.

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Add more squash and tomato slices, covering them with onions and corn each time you have a new layer, until both toppings are gone.

Top the entire dish with the panko mix.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the topping starts to brown and the tomato juices are bubbling. Then – enjoy!

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Pro-Tip: I would recommend making this a wild rice gratin to replace the panko and make it a gluten-free meal. Cook up some wild rice, mix it with an egg and the onions and corn and cheese. Put it on the bottom of the pan and line the tomato and squash on top. Sprinkle with some additional cheese. There ya go!

Sesame-Ginger Vegetable Quinoa Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts, Lemon-crusted Haddock and a Side Salad

Posted in Dinner by

Egretti (7)

For my third day of Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals, I made a smorgasbord (kinda) in order to get a better handle on my overflowing crisper drawer.

But I succeeded in using a lot of vegetables, and everything went together pretty nicely in the end! This recipe makes for a delightful little summery meal, and it’s got a couple completely different ingredients in it that really give it a unique flavor.

You likely won’t be able to find the same exact stuff at your market, but I address that in the ingredients list.

The farmer’s market ingredients used in this meal are:

  • Agretti
  • Culinary celery
  • Carrots
  • Spinach
  • Cucumber
  • Scallions
  • Wild-caught local haddock from the fish guy

I’d like you to meet two of my new favorite veggies: Agretti and Culinary Celery

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What is Agretti? Agretti is a Mediterranean water-retaining plant that looks like it should taste like grass but is actually DELICIOUS and can be used in basically anything, including raw in salads, omelets, or sprinkled over pasta (which is how I would have used it had I not just made pasta. Poor planning!)

Culinary Celery will blow your mind if you don’t like celery, but will especially blow your mind if you don’t like parsley. This awesome vegetable creation is a divine marriage of the two that tastes just perfect and doesn’t have that often overwhelming flavor you get with celery and/or parsley.

Agretti can be tough to find unless you know a farmer or market that grows Mediterranean-type veggies, but if you want to try and use something similar, people claim dandelion greens come close-ish.

As for culinary celery, I’ve never seen this before but you might ask around for it. Otherwise, adding a tiny bit of both celery and parsley together would be fine just to get that flavor.

ALSO – NEVER FEAR! This dish is perfect without either of these things! It’s the sesame-ginger sauce that really brings it all together 🙂

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What You Need for the Quinoa Salad

  • 1 cup quinoa cooked according to package directions
  • 1 cup shredded carrot
  • 1 cup finely chopped culinary celery
  • 1-2 cups roughly chopped agretti
  • 1 cup dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup finely chopped cucumber

What You Need for the Sesame-Ginger Dressing

  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (or substitute with honey)
  • 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • pinch red pepper or chili flakes to taste

 

What You Need for the Lemon-Crusted Haddock

  • 2 meyer lemons, cut into slices
  • 1/4 cup shredded parm
  • 1/4 cup panko (or your favorite bread ground up in a food processor)
  • Haddock

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What You Do

Add the shredded veggies and chopped walnuts and whole cranberries to the quinoa in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add sesame dressing, mix well, and set aside in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour, if you can wait. This dish is good both hot and cold.

While the quinoa salad is chilling, sprinkle the haddock with fresh lemon.

Mix together the shredded parm and panko, and gently dip the lemon-doused haddock in to lightly cover the fish, or sprinkle the mixture over the fish if picking it up isn’t really an option.

Bake, grill or pan-fry the haddock until cooked. Serve alongside the quinoa salad with a mixed-green salad on the side if desired! I made a quick salad with leftover agretti, spinach leaves and chopped scallions.

Egretti (6)

 

 

Buttery Farro-Stuffed Patty Pan Squash

Posted in Dinner by

For day 2 of my Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals, I’m bringing in the squash. You just don’t have summer without squash! A couple of summers ago, I bought my first patty pan squash at – per usual – the advice of the farmer who sold it to me.

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I couldn’t get over how cute these squashes are. I just envisioned Mike and myself sitting down with our individual squashes for a nice little personalized squash dinner.

Anyways, I can’t resist buying them as soon as they’re available and serving up personal patty pan squashes. They’re perfect.

The farmer’s market ingredients used in this dish are:

  • Patty pan squashes
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Yellow onion
  • Green bell peppers
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Garlic

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Preheat oven to 350F

What You Need:

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil (or cooking oil of your choice)
  • 1 cup farro seeds
  • 2 large or 4 small patty pan squashes
  • 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small yellow onion, diced
  • 1 bell pepper, chopped (green, yellow, red–doesn’t matter)
  • 1 tbsp cayenne pepper, finely chopped (or hot pepper or your choice) – Optional
  • 2 tbsp chopped walnuts or pecans
  • 1/4 cup shredded fresh parm
  • 2 cups canned diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 or 1 tbsp butter for each squash you’re making (amount depends on the size of the squashes) – Optional but highly recommended!

What You Do:

Rinse the cup of farro seeds and drain cloudy water. In a medium saucepan, bring the farro and 3 cups of water to a boil. Keep covered and lower heat. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the seeds have fully expanded and taste slightly chewy (but not hard!)

At the same time, boil about an inch of water in a large pot. Add whole patty pan squashes and cover. The squashes will steam cook this way, and are ready when you can easily pierce them with a fork.

While the farro and squashes are cooking, heat coconut oil in a large skillet and add the minced garlic.

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After about 1 minute, add onion and gently stir until translucent. Then add green pepper and cayenne pepper and cook for about 5 minutes.

Once farro is done, combine with the onion mixture and stir thoroughly. Add cherry tomatoes and stir. Then add the walnuts or pecans and stir.

When the squashes are done, gently slice off just the tops. Then, use a spoon, melon baller or – like me – an ice cream scoop, to gently carve out the insides, being careful to remove all the seeds but not too much of the squash. It’ll be pretty watery, so feel free to just hold them upside down over the sink to drain them out.

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Now comes the fun part. Place the squashes in a baking dish and fill each squash with the farro mix, packing each spoonful down to fit as much as you can. I just let them overflow over the sides.

Next, top each squash with a butter patty, and then cover each squash with the diced tomatoes, and sprinkle the shredded parm on top.

Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven to get it hot and melt the cheese.

Then, just scoop out the squashes for everyone’s individual serving! It’ll be a hit!

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Pro Tip: Make this with quinoa! Coucous! Risotto! Other rices! Add meat! You can make it any way you want.

Five Days of Farmer’s Market Meals

Posted in Dinner, Random Thoughts by

The summer farmer’s market is like a once-a-week holiday to me.

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It’s one of my top favorite days along with Halloween and my birthday. I start preparing days ahead of time – mentally mapping out my weekend schedule to make sure I can get there in time to get eggs before they’re sold out, and secretly planning to “forget” to eat breakfast so I can order the made-on-the-spot egg, sausage and cheese croissant sandwich from one of the local farms.

The first time I ever went to our farmer’s market, about 6 or 7 years ago, I was drastically underprepared. I had ridden my bike there, and ended up riding home clutching to my handlebars a plastic bag containing my sole purchase – a carton of fresh eggs. I tried so hard to avoid all the bumps in the road.

Now I have a large and in charge straw bag that fits an almost embarrassing amount of veggies and other market goodies. Sometimes I accidentally hit people with it because my turning radius is so much wider than normal.

Straw Bag

It’s quite the adventure.

However, the real adventure begins at home in my kitchen, surrounded by mostly green, leafy foods that have more uses than I can wrap my brain around.

So, I decided I would turn it into a fun blog topic! For the next five days, I’m going to be posting recipes I’ve made from items purchased at our local farmer’s market! Other ingredients will be involved, but main ingredients and inspiration for the meal comes from the market.

Hope you enjoy the short journey and I hope this inspires some new ideas too! And let me know of any unique summer farmer’s market veggies you’ve discovered and used!

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Credit: Seacoast Grower’s Association

 

Black Bean, Chickpea and Zucchini Veggie Burgers with Curried-Honey Glazed Tri-Color Carrots

Posted in Dinner by

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There’s nothing better than a summer meal. Like really nothing at all. There’s just something about that wonderful smell wafting from the grill from flame-kissed summer veggies that makes every slow sunset better than the last.

I’m not going to lie, it’s super hard right now for me to do anything after work besides come home, throw on my apron, turn up my Spotify playlist, crack a bottle of wine and get to cooking. It doesn’t always work out that way, but tonight it did (sans the wine – trying to be responsible!)

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My longtime desire to create a veggie burger recipe that actually works on the grill without falling horribly apart has finally been realized, along with my longtime desire to cook tri-color carrots.

I know, small victories.

Anyways, on to the perfect summertime recipe.

IMG_4046What You Need:

For the burgers:

  • 2 cups panko
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
  • 1 cup cooked quinoa
  • 1 medium zucchini, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

For the carrots:

  • 1 bunch tri-colored carrots (I found mine at Trader Joes, but I KNOW they’ll have them at the farmer’s market eventually)
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 3 tbsp honey

What You Do:

Cook the quinoa according to package directions. Set aside 1 cup of the cooked quinoa for this recipe and use the rest for whatever!

Mix the honey and the curry powder and brush over the carrots. Lay the carrots out on a large piece of lightly oiled tin foil. Wrap tightly and place on the top shelf of the grill. They’ll need about 45 minutes to an hour to cook fully, and they will be ready to eat when they’re very soft.

IMG_4050Drain and rinse the black beans and chickpeas.

In a food processor, load in the two cans of beans and the rest of the ingredients.

Pulse gently until the mixture is coarsely ground. If it seems too loose and won’t make burgers that feel fairly solid, add additional panko until the mixture is thicker and forms burgers without trouble and without globbing all over your hands (I have no better way to describe this).

Lay burgers out of a piece of lightly oiled foil and place on the grill. Let the burgers cook about 5 minutes on each side and flip them four times.

Toast your burger rolls of choice or just eat the burgers bun free! I topped them with ketchup and mescalin mix.

Pro Tip: Make these gluten-free by substituting the panko for a gluten-free bread of your choice (just chop it in the food processor ahead of time).

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Vegetarian Polenta Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Posted in Dinner by

It’s that time of the month where I have to do a serious assessment of what’s in the fridge. I hate nothing more than reaching into the crisper drawer to grab the tomatoes I bought to make sauce and finding that some – or, GASP!, all – of them have gone bad.

My only consolation is being able to feed my rotten food to the worms in my vermicompost bin, but it’s still food I needed for dinner and no longer have!

My stray vegetable roundup this week resulted in this comfort food dish that was fairly quick to make and perfect after a long day at work.

Preheat Oven to 300F

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What You Need:

  • 5-6 poblano peppers
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Half a small onion
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 cups kale
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 2 cups water
  • 3-4 cups tomato sauce

What You Do To Make the Polenta:

Boil 2 cups of water. When it boils, add 1 cup cornmeal and immediately remove from heat as the cornmeal will thicken super quick in the bioling water. Don’t be alarmed, this literally takes a matter of seconds.

Stir until thickened and add additional water if necessary (I usually have to) to make it creamier. Your polenta should be creamy and easy to stir when complete.

What You Do To Make the Filling:

Slice the tops off the poblano peppers leaving as much pepper on as you can. Cut the pepper in half lengthwise and clean out the seeds and veins.

013Lay the peppers out on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. Flip them about halfway through and take out when the skin starts to pinch.

While the peppers bake, warm olive oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and simmer, stirring frequently, until translucent and soft.

Add any other veggies you want. I added 2 chopped serrano peppers for a little kick and the kale, stirring it until it was steamed and reduced.

Add the onion mixture to your polenta, stirring until well mixed.

Place each pepper in a baking dish with sides, and spoon the polenta mixture into each poblano pepper. Top with tomato sauce and goat cheese, and bake until cheese is melted.

Pro Tip: Consider adding cooked sausage or your favorite kind of bean to the polenta mixture for some protein!

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