Eat Good Food!

Ah, squash!  First we can’t wait to see them, and then there are too many! 

Some tasty ways to use yellow squash and zucchini:

Cornbread with Squash

Try adding grated yellow squash to your favorite cornbread recipe.  Reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe.  This recipe gives an idea of the proportions:

Cornbread (gluten-free)

Jessie’s Sauteed Squash

This can use any combination of yellow squash, zucchini, and cucumber.  Coarsely grate them and saute them in a pan with a little butter and tarragon (dried or chopped fresh) until they are soft.  Serve hot. 

Variant: Slice squash and zucchini into thin circles and cook in the same way.

Andy’s Pan-Roasted Carrots and Things

The main ingredients are carrots and walnuts — you can also add squash or zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms…  The outline of the recipe is:

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Coat a cookie sheet or brownie pan with olive oil.  Put in thinly sliced carrots and potatoes and roll them in the olive oil.  Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes, then add zucchini, crushed walnuts and ground black pepper.  Bake for another 10 minutes or so until the carrots are browning at the edges.

Mix with freshly cooked pasta.

Ingredients:

Olive oil, black pepper

Baking stage 1 — thinly sliced carrots and potatoes

Baking stage 2 — thinly sliced zucchini/squash, crushed walnuts, sliced mushrooms, frozen and thawed cubed tofu…

More Recipes from the Baltimore Sun

July 23’s Baltimore Sun has an article on zucchini: Gardeners share their zucchini recipes

The greens season is still going strong!  Here are two recipes to use swiss chard:

Swiss Chard and Beans over Pasta

Ingredients:

1-2 bunches of swiss chard (leaves chopped into strips and stems chopped into small pieces)

1 large can cannellini beans (or other white beans such as navy beans or Great Northern beans), drained

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

1 lb spaghetti or other hearty pasta (not too thin)

Approx. 2 Tbsp olive oil

Seasonings: try black pepper and about 1 Tbsp lemon juice OR black pepper, 1 tsp fennel seeds and 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg.

 Instructions:

1. Put a pot of water on the stove to boil for the pasta.  Cook pasta according to package instructions while the greens and beans are cooking.
2. In a heavy skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
3. Saute onion and garlic until edges of onion start to turn brown.
4. Add swiss chard stems and cook for a few minutes until they start to feel soft.
5. If you are using the fennel seeds as spices, add them here.
6. Add swiss chard leaves and cook for about 5 minutes.
7. Add beans and continue to cook until heated through.
8. Add spices/lemon juice and serve over pasta.

Also, a link to a delicious recipe for Garbanzos and Swiss Chard in the Style of the Tunisian Sahel (Morshan) .

Since the farmer’s market and Community Supported Agriculture season is just beginning for many people, it’s time for an annual question:

“What can I do with this vegetable I’ve brought home?”

 More often than you’d think, the answer is our favorite One Straw Farm method: Cook the vegetable in a pan with olive oil, onion and garlic.

Expanding on that, here is an outline for one of our favorite ways to use up lots of kale:

Kale and Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

Kale, chopped (one or two bunches)

Lentils (1 1/2 - 2 cups)

Onion, chopped (1-2 onions depending on size)

Garlic, minced (2-3 cloves or more if you really like garlic!)

Tomatoes, chopped (one can or 3-4 fresh tomatoes) — optional but tasty

Oil (olive or canola)

Salt and pepper or hot sauce to season

Method:

Heat up the oil in a soup pot.  Add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until soft.  Add 5-6 cups of water and lentils.  Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cook for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are starting to get soft.  Add the kale and tomatoes and continue to cook until soft.  Season with a little salt and pepper or with hot sauce.

This makes a big pot, which will keep in the fridge for a few days.  It also freezes well.