October 6th, 2011
I got these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes in my CSA basket on Tuesday. Apparently they are called stripped cavern tomatoes and they are meant to be stuffed. They didn’t look like they were going to last long so, despite these last few days before the election being insanely busy, I ended up making a new recipe for stuffed tomatoes. I used my favorite stuffed pepper recipe (Millet Stuffed Bell Peppers from Jae Steele) for inspiration using quinoa because it cooks quickly and white beans since I already had some cooked in the fridge (left over from the Tomato Kale and White Bean Soup that I made yesterday).
These turned out way yummier than I was expecting. The filling got nice and brown and crispy and the tomatoes were juicy and tender. I’m sure you could make this with regular tomatoes or bell peppers.
Quinoa and White Bean Stuffed Tomatoes
8 large tomatoes
½ cup uncooked quinoa
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp oregano
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp tamari or soy sauce
2 tbs tahini
½ cup white beans
pepper to taste
Cook quinoa in 1 cup water or broth for approximately 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Meanwhile, saute the diced onion and minced garlic in 1 tbs olive oil or water until soft. Combine the cooked quinoa, onion and garlic with the remaining ingredients and still well combined. Cut the tops of the tomatoes and try to scoop out as much of the insides as you can. You can discard the tomato innards or add them to your quinoa mixture. Spoon as much filling as you can into the tomatoes. I used my thumb to pack it in. The mixture is sticky so you can have it heaping over the top of the tomato. Place tomatoes in a glass baking dish and bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes until the tomatoes look soft and wrinkled and the filling is golden brown on top.
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July 20th, 2011
Garlic scapes are by far my most exciting local food discovery. A few years ago we went with some friends to a shared cottage for the summer solstice. One of the families that shared the cottage paid for their share by growing organic garlic and selling it at the farmer’s market. The weekend that we were there was when they needed to pick the scapes. The scapes are the part of the plant that will become the flower if you let them grow. But because you want the plant to focus on producing a nice bulb, you get much better garlic if you pick the scape to stop the plant from flowering. Before this I had never even heard of garlic scapes much less tried them. I went home with a huge grocery bag full of them to experiment.
It turn out that scapes are amazing! The taste of a mild roasted garlic with almost an asparagus like texture, what’s not to love! After trying out many different scape recipes, my favorite is pretty boring. I wasn’t even going to post it because it’s barely a recipe. But this is one of my favorite things to eat in the summer so I figured it was worth posting.
Scape season is almost over so make sure to pick some up at the farmer’s market this weekend! They will stay good in the fridge for quite awhile (1-3 weeks) as long as you put them in a plastic or cloth bag.
Simple Scapes
garlic scapes (as many as you like)
olive oil
salt and pepper
Chop the scapes into approximately 1 inch size pieces and give them a rinse. Get out a large piece of tin foil and place the scapes in the middle of the tin foil. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, a few tsp will due. Add salt and pepper and mix it all up with your hands. Wrap up the tin foil making sure it is well sealed. Place on a BBQ and cook for 15 minutes, flip, and cook for another 10-15 minutes. We often eat this as a side to red lentil sloppy joes.
Garlic scapes before going on the BBQ
Yummy cooked scapes
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July 13th, 2011
I’m not really a turnip fan. I usually only eat them in the depths of winter when they are pretty much the only local produce available. And even then I hide them in soups with a lot of other veggies. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled when I started getting them in my csa box. But there they are, every single week. I let them stock pile for a few weeks until I figured out what to do with them.
After some googling, I read online that they were actually very pleasant raw, so I chopped off a piece and sure enough they are very tasty! A lot less turnip tasting than their winter counterparts. So I decided to slice them thinly and make a salad out of them. I coated them in my raw cashew poppy seed dressing. This is one of my all time favorite salad dressings! It’s perfect on a spinach fruit salad or a coleslaw and it worked really well over the spring turnips.
Spring Turnip Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing (2 large servings)
6 spring turnips
1 small bunch radishes
2-3 green onions
Cashew Poppy Seed Dressing
¼ cup cashews, soaked for at least 30 minutes
3-4 tbs water
2 heaping tsp honey, agave, or sugar
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
¼ tsp dried mustard
salt to taste
1 tsp poppy seeds
Thinly slice the turnips and radishes. The turnips are quite soft so it’s easy to get them nice and thin. Chop the green onion. Blend all the dressing ingredients except the poppy seeds until smooth and creamy and then stir in the poppy seeds. Add the dressing to the veggies right before serving otherwise it will get watery.
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July 6th, 2011
I’ve been eating a lot of local food for a few years now but this is my first year trying out Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). I can be somewhat of a picky eater so the thought of just getting a mystery box of produce every week terrified me. But a few months ago a neighbour approached me about sharing a CSA bin with her. I figured this was a great way to ease into it.
Even though I’m quite familiar with local produce, the CSA does pose new challenges. For example, what the heck do you do with 3 huge bunches of radishes with greens? So I’m going to start doing some regular posts on things I make with my more challenging CSA items.
Back to radishes. Sure they’re yummy in a salad but that is only going to use up a few of them. I googled some recipes and decided to try cooking them and their greens. This was my first time cooking radishes and they were surprisingly delicious! Cooking really mellows the flavors. The greens were fairly bitter as far as dark leafy greens go. They might be too strong for those who are new to eating lots of greens, but I thought they were good.
I don’t even really have a recipe for this but it was inspired from this recipe. I just melted a small amount of vegan butter (Earth Balance) in a large sauce pan over medium heat and then added the thinly sliced radishes. When they were starting to get transparent I added the greens and sauteed until they were wilted. Then I seasoned with lots of salt and pepper. (Sorry for the terrible picture, I was too hungry to take a better one!)
Sauteed Radishes
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February 1st, 2011
So I’m calling this Caramelized Shallot and Turnip Split Pea Soup but really, I’m not sure these were turnips.
I definitely believe that the way we eat has a huge impact on the environment. That is one of the main reasons why I eat a plant based diet. I also try to eat as much local and organic food as possible. Living in Ontario this is not always easy, especially in the winter. It is a further challenge for me since I really don’t like many of the few local veggies that are available in the winter. I really didn’t like many vegetables growing up. Even though I went vegetarian when I was 12, I was really more of a carbetarian than a vegetarian. But since going vegan, I’ve grown to love many of the veggies that I once hated. Certain veggies like turnip and parsnips are still on my hate list. They are some of the few veggies that I can get in the winter that are local and organic; so I decided to give them both another try.
Last week I tried turnips. At least I thought they were turnips. When I cut open the first one, it seemed very different than the one other time I tried cooking with turnips. So I took a pic and asked on twitter if anyone had ever seen a turnip like this. The unanimous reply was that it was not a turnip. But it did have a turnipy smelly so I think it was a turnip. The texture was sort of soft and spongy (think inside of a too large zucchini) not firm like a regular turnip.
Anyways, let me know if you have any idea what veggie this is! And I bet this soup will work with regular turnip! Dave swears these things tasted just like turnip.
Caramelized Shallot and Turnip Split Pea Soup
1 tsp olive oil
1 package shallots, chopped (I’m sure regular onions would work)
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 cups yellow split peas
6 cups water or veggie chicken stock
½ tsp thyme
⅛ tsp marjoram
bay leaf
1lb or 3 medium turnips, diced into ½ inch cubes
In a soup pot, heat the oil on medium heat. Add the shallots and stir them to coat with oil. The reduce the heat and them cook for about 15 minutes. Stir often. Then add the minced garlic and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients except the turnip. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer for 30 minutes. Add the turnip and cook for another 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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