Vegetables

I'm getting a lot of good stuff out of my garden lately, as well as from the farmers' market and my mom's garden (they came down last weekend and left us with some produce). This has expanded my repertoire of veggie recipes, and I thought I'd record that here, even though I don't have any pics to prove I've actually made these things.

I made a modification of the Pioneer Woman's green beans (originally blogged about here) that includes roasted red peppers and a couple of tablespoons of my red pepper pesto stirred in at the end. I made this with yellow beans from my mom, onions from my garden, and my own homemade pesto (see below for "recipe").

I just made these Potato Bundles, another one from Pioneer Woman. I made some slight modifications, including the addition of garlic. This used potatoes from the farmers' market, my own onions again, and parsley from my herb garden. I also have to say that I disagree with PW when she says there isn't a difference between curly and flat-leaf parsley. I think the flavor of flat-leaf is more subtle.

We've been getting a ton of cucumbers out of our garden, so I've been making my mom's cucumber & onions. I asked her for the recipe this weekend and she said she didn't really use a recipe with measurements per se. I now know where I got this tendency from! But the components are sliced cucumbers and sliced white onions tossed in a dressing made from mayo, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. I think it'd be pretty easy to do this recipe "to taste," but I will say that the cukes have a tendency to release their own moisture after you've sliced and mixed, so you might need less dressing than you'd think. This salad keeps for a while in the fridge.

Pesto! I have to admit that a huge motivation for my having an herb garden was to have bountiful supplies of basil on hand. I planted three basil plants: two in the ground and one in a pot (with the hopes that I could bring this one inside in the fall). The potted basil is a sad shadow of its heartier garden cousins, all pale and spindly. But the basil in the ground is a total overachiever: huge, green, bushy and prolific. I have aggressively cut the basil and it just keeps growing. I love it.

My favorite thing to do with basil is make a basic pesto. I make mine in the blender because my food processor is crappy. This weekend I walked my mom through my basic pesto method. Essentially, you need these ingredients: fresh basil, olive oil, garlic, parmesan, and pine nuts. Now, you can make the pesto with a nut other than pine nuts, such as walnuts or almonds, but I recommend using pine nuts for the real pesto flavor. You don't have to use a ton--a tablespoon or so will be enough to impart the flavor of the nuts to the pesto. And if you toast them slightly to bring out the flavor, you can use even less. And I usually only use about a quarter cup of parmesan, again just to give the pesto its flavor.

With my blender pesto, I also add a tomato cut into chunks, for two reasons. One is to give the mixture enough moisture to blend. The other is to cut back on the amount of olive oil needed, to make the pesto a bit lower fat. As far as quantities of ingredients go, you just need to eyeball it as you blend to see if you need more oil (to help the pesto emulsify) or more basil (if it's just not green enough) or more parmesan (to help it thicken up).

I also make a variation that uses roasted red peppers instead of tomato. Don't skimp on the peppers--I use about a half-jar for a one-cup batch of pesto. The peppers and basil complement each other nicely.

This pesto is amazing on so many things: stirred into almost any veggie, mixed in with scrambled eggs, spread on a sandwich, mixed with sour cream for a dip. Tomorrow I plan on using it on pizza (recipe to follow).

Green Beans a la Pioneer Woman

I mentioned before how I was always on the lookout for good veggie recipes. I have a hard time being motivated enough to incorporate vegetables into our diets. We eat a lot of salads, and a good amount of fruit, but I'm terrible about getting the green (or orange, or yellow, or red) stuff on our plates.

One veg that I have particular problems with: green beans. I love green bean casserole, but who doesn't? It's not exactly a health-fest, is it? Fresh beans, on the other hand, I'm not a fan of.

I think I finally figured out what's wrong with beans and me: the cooking time. Most veggies I like barely cooked, just faintly tender. Green beans are too tough and weirdly...hairy? Furry? I don't know, but the texture of barely cooked green beans is grody to me. My mom made green beans when she was here early last fall, and she cooked the HECK out of them, and they were delicious.

So other than just cooking them until they lose their will to live, what can I do with green beans? This weekend, I tried The Pioneer Woman's green beans recipe. I adapted the recipe somewhat: I didn't have bacon grease (shame, that) so I used butter and olive oil. I'm not a huge fan of red pepper, so I omitted it. Somehow mine never carmelized the way she said it should, but it was still delicious. Even Charlotte liked it!

The next veggie to tackle: cauliflower.

Orange Broccoli

I have a hard time knowing what to do with vegetables. As in, how to prepare them. Beyond the basics (steaming, roasting) I have no idea. I've spent a lot of time over the years searching for good veggie recipes that don't involve slathering the veggies in cream or cheese or mushroom soup and thus dislodging any health benefits of said veg. And I've collected maybe two recipes. Total, that is...not two per vegetable. That's pathetic.

Last night, in despair, I made up my own recipe for broccoli. I had a bag of prewashed florets in the fridge and I wasn't about to let them go bad (that happens more often than I'd like to admit). It ended up being very easy and quick and most importantly, delicious. I could tell I was eating broccoli, but the flavors of the recipe augmented the veg nicely.

Essentially, I dumped half the bag into a bowl and microwave-steamed the broccoli for a minute. Then I melted a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, added some orange zest, dumped the broccoli in the pan, and squeezed half the orange over top. Another minute or two in the pan (not too much, nothing worse than soggy broccoli) and it was ready.

The results:
Jana: This is the easiest recipe ever and it tastes good. Hallelujah.
Jeff: He actually ATE BROCCOLI THAT WAS COOKED. This is a miracle.
Charlotte: Ate about half of what I gave her, which seems pretty good to me.

The verdict: Make it again!