Vegetable Medley (or Ratatouille on speed)

Even if you are not a fully committed vegetarian, it feels good to go meat free now and then.

This recipe starts off a bit like ratatouille with eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, peppers and basil. But it takes a veggie blast way past ratatouille! You can sub most any veg you like, the possibilities are endless!

Ingredients:

3 tbsps vegetable oil
1/2 medium eggplant, peeled and diced
2 onions, sliced or diced
4 garlic cloves, minced (divided)
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 carrots, sliced thinly
1 sweet pepper, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 Italian tomatoes
1 cup frozen green peas
1 or 2 kale leaves, cut very thinly
1 tbsp tomato paste and 1-2 tbsp water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1/4 cup fresh basil 
a few fresh mint leaves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsps lemon juice

Herbs and kale came from my garden. I just love the purple basil !

Start by sautéeing the onions in vegetable oil until soft, then add the carrots and cook about 3 minutes. 

Add the rest of the vegetables, except the tomatoes. Stir in 1/2 the minced garlic. Cook for 3-4 minutes.

Chop the fresh herbs and add to the mix along with the seasonings, tomato paste/water and lemon juice. Cover and cook over medium heat 3-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook just a couple more minutes.

When the veggies are cooked the way you like them stir in the rest of the garlic and serve with rice, bulgar or couscous like this...

Serves 4 and the aroma is amazing!

Adapted from Nevine's Cuisine Vegetable Medley

Baba Ganoush

For my first ever Baba Ganoush I used half a medium eggplant because I didn't even know if I liked the stuff. Should have made the whole thing!

Here's my small batch recipe which can easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium-sized eggplant
3 garlic cloves
2 tsps olive oil
1 tbsp tahini paste
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup chickpeas

Cut the eggplant in half and brush the cut side with olive oil. Place cut side down on a baking sheet. Wrap unpeeled garlic cloves in foil and place alongside the eggplant. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Peel the eggplant and squeeze out the roasted garlic from their skins.

Mix everything together and process in a food processor. 

Taste to adjust for more salt, paprika or lemon juice to your liking.

Serve at room temperature with cut veggies, pita chips or fresh homemade pitas if you're lucky!

Best Homemade Tomato Sauce

This is an easy roasted tomato sauce recipe that is so flavourful. You can't beat homemade! One batch takes just about 1 hour to make, but if you're making alot like I did, I'm not going to lie, it will be time consuming. You have to get yourself into a rhythm, assembly line style. 

Ingredients:

2 dozen Italian plum tomatoes (about 3 lbs)
2 onions
2 large sweet peppers (red, yellow, green or orange)
6-8 cloves garlic
1-2 tbsps. olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup fresh basil
salt and pepper
1 tbsp tomato paste (optional)

Yield: about 4 cups

I cook up enough sauce to take us through until next tomato season, so I bought about 60 lbs of tomatoes, a bushel of mixed sweet peppers, 15 lbs of onions and 9 or 10 heads of garlic. And these prices were insanely good!  I also harvested 3 large bunches of basil from my garden.

Here's the assembly line. Always have a bowl with the washed veggies you need for the next recipe and another with a recipe's worth cut and ready to go. So when you take the pans out of the oven you can fill them again and start roasting!  (Note: wash the pans after every 2nd batch or the juices will start to crust and blacken too much)

Start by coring the tomatoes and cutting them in half lengthwise. Cut the onions and peppers into chunks. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet along with whole, peeled garlic.

Drizzle lightly with oil. I placed 2 baking sheets in the oven and rotated them (top shelf, bottom shelf) halfway through cooking time.

Roast uncovered at 400F for 45-60 minutes or until vegetables are soft and lightly browned like this...

Toss in the fresh basil, scrape any brown bits and juice from the pan and whirl in the food processor along with salt and pepper to taste.

At this point you could add a little tomato paste if you like your sauce clingy.

Process as little or as much as you like.  Depends on if you like your sauce chunky or smooth.

Ready to eat or pour into ziplock bags to freeze. You're done! (at least the first batch!)

I ended up with 15 recipes worth of sauce or about 80-90 servings! (It may be a bit more, I think I lost count) This is only one stack of sauce in the freezer that will keep us going all year with spaghetti, pizza, stuffed peppers...any recipe that calls for tomato sauce!

Loaded Garlic Bread Pasta Torte

Pasta baked in it's very own garlic bread crust!
You'll think you died and went to carb heaven ...

Ingredients:

4 cups elbow macaroni
2 hot Italian sausages, remove casing
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped fennel
2  1/2 cups pasta sauce
1 tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp fennel seed
3 cups shredded cheese (mozzarella, cheddar)
6 tbsps butter
6 garlic cloves, minced
10 slices white bread, crusts removed

Cook the sausage meat in a large skillet breaking it up as it cooks for about 5 minutes. Drain off excess fat and add the green pepper, onion, celery and fennel. Cook an additional 3-5 minutes. At the end of the cooking just add  1 tbsp of water to the pan and stir up the browned bits. Add the pasta sauce, basil, oregano and fennel seed.

Next stir 2 cups of the shredded cheese into the mac mix.

For the crust:

Soften the butter and mix in the garlic. Cut the crusts off each slice and butter one side. Line a greased 10" springform pan (bottom and sides) with the bread, buttered side to the pan. Butter the top edge of the slices too. Spoon in the pasta and firmly press down. 

Top with remaining shredded cheese (and maybe a sprinkle of parmesan too!)

Bake at 400F for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes. Run a knife along the side to loosen, the remove ring.

And can we just take a moment to admire this crust!

Serves 10-12

Adapted from: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/garlic-bread-pasta-torte/

Blueberry Mojito

Mint in the "mojito garden" is starting to go to seed! Last chance to make this refreshing cocktail with fresh mint from my yard!

Ingredients:

8 fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup blueberries
1 tbsp lime juice
3 tsps sugar
3 tbsps white rum
1/2 cup club soda or tonic water

With a mortar and pestle crush the mint, blueberries, lime juice and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved.

Place mixture in a large glass, fill 3/4 with ice cubes then add the rum and soda or tonic water. 

Garnish with mint and more blueberries then get out and enjoy the rest of the summer while it's still here!

Eton Mess with Yogurt

And if your Lemon and Blueberry Pavlova doesn't work out the way you'd hoped there's always Eton Mess, an English dessert traditionally made with whipped cream.

All you need is some crumbled meringue, berries (with a little sugar) and a dollop or two of yogurt.

I took some of the berries and mashed them for a quick sauce to top it off with.

Link to the Lemon and Blueberry Pavlova
http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2018/08/lemon-and-blueberry-pavlova.html?m=1

Lemon and Blueberry Pavlova

An impressive dessert that'll WOW with little effort! It can even be (mostly) made ahead of time.

Ingredients:

6 egg whites (or 3/4 cup liquid egg whites from carton)
1 tsp cream of tartar
1  1/3 cup sugar
3 tsps cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vinegar

Topping:

about 1 cup lemon curd (store bought or homemade)
some blueberries and mint leaves

Trace an 8" circle on a piece of parchment paper and place it ink side down on a baking sheet. Spray the corners underneath just to hold the paper down.

Preheat oven to 400F 
NOTE: You will be turning the temperature down!

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar on high until soft peaks form. Add sugar 1 tbsp at a time while on the run.  Add 3 tsps of cornstarch to the last tbsp of sugar. 

Whip until sugar is dissolved and meringue is stiff, about 10-15 minutes. Fold in the vanilla and vinegar.

Gently place meringue on parchment using the circle as a guide. Form a bit of an indentation in the center where the lemon curd will go later.

Once the meringue is placed in the oven IMMEDIATELY turn the temperature down to 210F !!

Bake for 1  1/2 - 2 hours at 210F
To test for doneness/crispness check the middle with a spoon. It should be crisp. Don't worry about a little hole, the curd will cover it. I checked at 1  1/2 hours and just added an extra 5 or 10 minutes.

When done, turn the oven off but leave the pavlova in to cool completely. It can be made and kept on the counter covered with a tea towel for several days before serving.

Only when ready to serve fill with curd and top with berries and mint leaves to garnish.

Don't worry about cracks in the meringue, that's part of it's charm.

And this lemon curd is so simple to make, just a few minutes in the microwave! Make this ahead of time too.

Here's the link to the recipe:
http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.com/2016/05/microwave-lemon-curd.html

Pavlova serves 8-10