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Post by Liz n Dick on May 23, 2016 12:10:05 GMT -5
In the gardening thread a while back Superb Owl ๐ฆ mentioned wanting recipe suggestions for garden/farmers market bounties. So here's a place to go with your vegetable ideas as the seasons start to flood us with too much of a good thing.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 23, 2016 12:14:28 GMT -5
I like it. Posting so I can get notifications and I'll chime in later.
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Ben Grimm
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 23, 2016 12:16:41 GMT -5
Not a farmer's market thing, but Trader Joe's has started carrying frozen riced cauliflower and we've started working it into dishes. Having it ready made is pretty nice.
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Post by Liz n Dick on May 23, 2016 12:25:10 GMT -5
My CSA season opened last Friday, and this was what I got: Kale, arugula, boc choy, and some mildly ripe strawberries. I'll be making super-basic arugula pesto for the freezer, doing the exact same thing as for basil pesto, but subbing in arugula. I also like to toss a few handfuls of rough-chopped arugula leaves into red sauce shortly before serving with pasta, and let the leaves wilt while being tossed with all the hot components of the dish. So that will probably be on my agenda this week as well. For the kale, I'd recommend this incredible Lemony Barley Salad with Kale Pesto from Food & Wine. With currants, fresh lemon, and optional preserved lemon (even better!), this is a really fresh take on a fairly overdone and often tired leafy green. For the boc choy, I'll be stir-frying, with chicken and rough-chopped scallions or green garlic, and a bit of fresh ginger. The sauce will be equal parts sake and light soy sauce, with brown sugar/honey added to taste, boiled until it reduces to a thicker, slightly syrupy consistency. The berries will be shoveled into my face while I stand at the kitchen counter hulling them.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 23, 2016 12:48:41 GMT -5
So I discovered, as an adult, that I actually really like zucchini. It's a great addition to tortilla soup or minestrone. I make a saute of zucchini, peppers and spinach and top it with an egg or two for breakfast. Good with potatoes, too.
An easy make-ahead breakfast is egg muffins - dice up whatever veggies you have - spinach, zucchini, tomato, pepper, other greens - add one egg per muffin tin, add salt & pepper and mix well and divide equally in WELL-GREASED muffin tins (or use papers). Top with a bit of cheese if you want. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until no longer jiggly. You can make a quick sandwich out of them, or just eat as-is.
I can't emphasize the well-greased enough because they stuck like hell to my muffin tins. Use butter or coconut oil or similar.
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Post by pairesta on May 23, 2016 13:40:27 GMT -5
Since it's getting to be summer, this is the time of year when i can most get by eating vegetarian, so I'm hoping to do that alot more this summer. This week I want to try to be vegetable heavy because it's gonna be a meat orgy barbecue weekend with the holiday coming up.
One thing I'll be making this week is a tagine of grilled eggplant and lentils served over cauliflower "couscous" that I'm really excited about.
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Post by pairesta on May 23, 2016 13:42:20 GMT -5
So I discovered, as an adult, that I actually really like zucchini. Same here. I used to hate zucchini as a kid. I dunno if it's just that's what was available back then or people didn't know better or what, but I remember it being all watery and full of seeds and just cooked into a slimy consistency. Now with the much smaller kind, they're so sweet and crisp I can't get enough of them in season. I brown them in a pan with a bit of garlic and serve over rigatoni with lots of mint.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 23, 2016 13:55:37 GMT -5
So I discovered, as an adult, that I actually really like zucchini. Same here. I used to hate zucchini as a kid. I dunno if it's just that's what was available back then or people didn't know better or what, but I remember it being all watery and full of seeds and just cooked into a slimy consistency. Now with the much smaller kind, they're so sweet and crisp I can't get enough of them in season. I brown them in a pan with a bit of garlic and serve over rigatoni with lots of mint. I actually have realized that a lot of veggies I thought I hated as a kid, it was because they were overcooked and underseasoned. Turns out lightly sauteing or roasting most veggies makes them taste way better than over-boiled mushy nonsense.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on May 23, 2016 14:11:30 GMT -5
I love slicing zucchini and yellow squash into rounds, seasoning them with lemon pepper and olive oil, and sticking them in the grill basket for a good char. Delicious!
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Post by songstarliner on May 23, 2016 14:46:46 GMT -5
Ooooh, recently I've been slicing zucchini and yellow squash into thin ribbons with a mandoline, then marinating in garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper for a bit in the fridge, then using that as a sandwich filling: something so good about the cool, crispness of it. In a pita with lettuce and feta and parsley, or on toast with pesto or romesco sauce. Can't wait for real summer produce ...
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on May 23, 2016 15:08:21 GMT -5
I like thyme on my zucchini, try it- the flavors work really well. PSA: Eat your beet greens! They are the most delicious greens around. Saturday night I decided to boil, rather than shred my beets just cause I didn't feel like all the hard work. So I chopped them and threw them in boiling water, then washed, chopped and tossed the greens in as well. Cooked it all up together, then added some olive oil and garlic salt and devoured. Ate the leftovers cold today with some vinegar. I moved my produce delivery to weekly instead of bi-weekly so I'm excited to be eating my veggies on a daily basis now!
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 23, 2016 15:26:10 GMT -5
Any discussion about using excess vegetables always turns into a discussion about using excess zucchini, because no-one with zucchini in their garden ever ends up with too little zucchini.
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Ben Grimm
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Post by Ben Grimm on May 23, 2016 15:27:13 GMT -5
My wife fixes zucchini noodles sometimes, which I quite like, provided they're paired with a decently complementary sauce.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 23, 2016 15:28:38 GMT -5
Any discussion about using excess vegetables always turns into a discussion about using excess zucchini, because no-one with zucchini in their garden ever ends up with too little zucchini. Zucchini is such a quintessential summer vegetable, and people know how to use tomatoes and so forth. So yeah. Corn on the cob is one of summer's great delights, but again, most folks don't have trouble using it up, I don't think.
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Post by Murray the Demonic Skull on May 23, 2016 15:52:10 GMT -5
But I don't want to eat my vegetables. You can send them to those starving children in Africa I don't mind.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on May 23, 2016 15:57:59 GMT -5
Any discussion about using excess vegetables always turns into a discussion about using excess zucchini, because no-one with zucchini in their garden ever ends up with too little zucchini. I heard a story about some local who had a friend from the city visiting. The rural person had always talked about how safe the area was, and that burglaries were very rare. They went into town on some errand, and the local locked the car doors when they got out. The friend said "What's that about? I thought you didn't have to lock your doors around here?" and the local replied "Yeah, well this time of year, if you don't lock your car, somebody's gonna fill it with zucchini." Note: returning to your unlocked car and finding it occupied by several orphan zucchini is a thing that really happens around here in the summer.
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 23, 2016 16:54:31 GMT -5
Any discussion about using excess vegetables always turns into a discussion about using excess zucchini, because no-one with zucchini in their garden ever ends up with too little zucchini. I heard a story about some local who had a friend from the city visiting. The rural person had always talked about how safe the area was, and that burglaries were very rare. They went into town on some errand, and the local locked the car doors when they got out. The friend said "What's that about? I thought you didn't have to lock your doors around here?" and the local replied "Yeah, well this time of year, if you don't lock your car, somebody's gonna fill it with zucchini." Note: returning to your unlocked car and finding it occupied by several orphan zucchini is a thing that really happens around here in the summer.We had so many damned zucchini last year that I started dumping them on the island in the kitchen at work by the half dozen and letting my coworkers take them. And that was just from two plants!
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Post by Liz n Dick on May 24, 2016 11:42:58 GMT -5
My thing was to buy end-of-season veggies like zuke, eggplant, squash, peppers, tomatoes, whatever's going, then slice it, oil it and grill it. Then I take the grilled veggies and throw them in the food processor and puree them, bag the puree in sandwich bags and throw the bags in the freezer. Then over the winter you just throw a bag into any soup you're making - adds thickness and summery grilled veggie flavours. You need to keep posting this, because I know you've mentioned it in the past, and I know I was like, "GENIUS! I need to do this, too!" and then I didn't do it. Remind me to do this! And Powerthirteen, it's really true that no one needs a second zucchini plant. My first year gardening I decided to plant one, because that's what vegetable gardeners are supposed to to, but didn't factor in that I have a prolific farmshare and already have way more zucchini than I can keep up with. That was... a waste of garden space. Although when you don't pick them they stop producing new fruit and work instead on turning the existing fruit into enormous zucchini logs. So we had some fun seeing how big they'd get. (For the zucchini record, I'm only moderately enthusiastic about it. I mean, it's good, and my farm grows truly excellent summer squash, but... it's not my first choice of summer veg. I like to saute it with garlic and basil, or make zucchini-potato frittatas. ::shrugs:: )
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Post by Liz n Dick on May 24, 2016 11:45:21 GMT -5
I like thyme on my zucchini, try it- the flavors work really well. PSA: Eat your beet greens! They are the most delicious greens around. Saturday night I decided to boil, rather than shred my beets just cause I didn't feel like all the hard work. So I chopped them and threw them in boiling water, then washed, chopped and tossed the greens in as well. Cooked it all up together, then added some olive oil and garlic salt and devoured. Ate the leftovers cold today with some vinegar. I moved my produce delivery to weekly instead of bi-weekly so I'm excited to be eating my veggies on a daily basis now! Beet greens really are the best greens!! I treat them just the way I do kale, sauteing them with garlic in a lot of olive oil, and they're so meltingly tender. I also like to treat them the same way I do arugula -- rough chop, then stir into red pasta sauce just as I'm tossing it with the noodles. I keep threatening to make beet green pesto of some kind, and maybe this is the year I do that!
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Post by songstarliner on May 24, 2016 15:55:13 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2016 16:38:37 GMT -5
FUCK BEET GREENS
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Post by pairesta on May 24, 2016 18:08:59 GMT -5
So the tagine turned out pretty great. Quite weight-watchers friendly too. Even the kids were curious enough want to try some and they loved it.
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Post by ๐ช silly buns on May 24, 2016 18:50:44 GMT -5
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Post by PA Noire on May 25, 2016 9:22:15 GMT -5
Brussels sprouts in infused olive oil are literally the best.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jun 11, 2016 14:29:15 GMT -5
I wasted two weeks of my farmshare being sick and disinterested in digesting leafy things. Those two weeks also happened to coincide with the nutmeats of the strawberry season, so I didn't manage to do much of anything with our berries (which were, admittedly, not nearly as abundant as in the last few years and not nearly as delicious; they were really only so-so) other than hull, lightly sugar, and freeze. This week? Is ALL GREEN: -- 1 1/2 pounds of lettuce mix -- 3/4 pounds of baby spinach -- 3/4 pounds of arugula -- 3/4 pounds of spicy greens mix -- Four heads of lettuce -- Three heads of broccoli -- Two heads of radicchio -- Two bunches of kale -- One head of napa cabbage I've got scapes coming out of the garden, so the arugula will get turned into pesto with those, and frozen. The lettuce, radicchio, and spinach will go into salads. The broccoli and kale will be eaten simply, steamed/sauteed (respectively) and consumed with lots of butter (the kale this year has been ridiculously good). The spicy greens mix will be stir-fried, probably. The only problematic item in here is the napa cabbage, which I hate to waste but can't often think of ways to eat fresh that will sneak past my resident non-cabbage-eating housemate. The solution? Kimchi! There is no easier way to prepare vegetables than fermenting, short of just eating raw. I resisted learning to ferment stuff for a while, because I was like, "No, I'm lazy, and fermentation sounds involved." What a fool I was! The laziest thing of all is to dump your vegetables into a jar with some salt and then just walk away for a week! I love fermenting!! I don't claim my kimchi's a world-beater, but here's the recipe I like to use. I also don't claim to be the world's hugest kimchi enthusiast, but it keeps in the fridge forever, and makes zero-effort soup or fried rice happen. It seems a waste not to make some.
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 14, 2016 13:41:02 GMT -5
I've never gotten around to freezing pesto but I really should. Do you do containers or baggies Liz?
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jun 14, 2016 14:08:48 GMT -5
I've never gotten around to freezing pesto but I really should. Do you do containers or baggies Liz? I use baggies, just because they take up less space.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Jun 14, 2016 14:30:15 GMT -5
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jun 14, 2016 15:06:45 GMT -5
I cannot stand the smell of pickled beets, but I had beets in a salad on our cruise and ... well, I didn't totally hate them?
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Post by Liz n Dick on Jun 14, 2016 15:12:45 GMT -5
I cannot stand the smell of pickled beets, but I had beets in a salad on our cruise and ... well, I didn't totally hate them? Baby steps! Perhaps you prefer fresh beets to pickled ones? Further experimentation may be required! And if you need me to keep you company, I can totally eat tons of beets. You know... for science.
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