Zucchini Couscous Salad

I was told to bring a salad to my friends Sunny and Peter's for dinner. Looking at the vegetables that I had left in the box it was either something with chili peppers, a pumpkin (which I didn't have time to roast), and zucchini. Zucchini it was.  I scoured Food52 for a salad recipe with zucchini and found a Squash couscous with mint, pistachios, and golden raisins. This was a wonderful recipe that I think next time I would probably double the ingredients, for more generous servings per person. There is minimal cooking, sauteing the zucchini and shallots for a couple of minutes at the most, and boiling vegetable broth for the couscous. I can see why this salad would be so appealing to make in the summer because it can be thrown together so easily. There are lots of different flavors going on a little bit of sweetness, freshness from the mint, and lemony goodness from the dressing. This salad also travels well too, which is always nice when bringing food to someones home. It was gobbled up along with the delicious pork stew and smashed potatoes.

These photos were taken with my phone because I apparently  like to leave my camera on  and let the battery drain. 

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Here is the newest box, I realized that I haven't been showing them lately. I'm so excited about the pumpkin, I'm already making a mental list of things I can make. At the bottom of everything there is a small pile of chile's more than enough to take me through the new year. And I am at a loss of what to do with them.

You know what has never disappeared from the boxes this whole year? Kale. I have become so used to it that I stopped writing about it because I felt like it's ubiquitous presence was taking away from the other vegetables in the box. Then I saw a roasted kale salad in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen which is fast becoming one of my favorite books. This salad could not be more easier. It's tasty, it's filling, makes a great leftover lunch, and it's vegan.  Who knew that toasted coconut and kale would work so well together. I put it over farrow but I'm sure any type of hearty grain would would work well.

The second time I made this salad I decided to roast these three little deseeded Santa Fe chili peppers along with the kale and coconut. The peppers were an interesting addition it was good with the toasted coconut but it was a little to much heat. Not overly spicy but just assertive enough to make it's presence known. Chili peppers and Kale maybe not the best pairing, but it was worth a try.


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One Giant Pizza Post

Since I just did a post on pizza I decided I should just continue with the theme and show the other pizzas that have been consumed as of late. My room mate and I made a pizza with eggplant, with store bought pizza crust. For some reason I don't have any pictures of it, I must have been really hungry and just forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But here's a photo of an eggplant.

Not baked

Baked

The next pizza that was made I made with my friend Billie. We put zucchini and bell peppers on top and it kind of looks like Christmas in pizza form. We sauteed the zucchini and then just threw on the raw bell peppers along with the cheese. I made the crust with a little bit of cornmeal in it which gave a nice crunch to the loaded squash pizza. And Billie has a great pizza stone which gave a nice golden color to the crust and cheese.

There have been these lovely bunches of basil arriving in the box with the flowers still attached. They kind of remind me of bouquets of flowers, maybe because I stuck this one in a vase. Basil pairs well with tomatoes and that brings me to my last pizza endeavor.

The last pizza I made was with heirloom tomatoes. My friend Anna has the most amazing garden in her backyard, I would go so far as calling it a tiny organic urban farm. She generously gave me a large amount of gorgeous heirlooms. I made pizza crust and sprinkled it with a layer of cheese and then baked it for about 15 minutes, give or take.  I then sliced up tomatoes and layered them sprinkling salt, pepper, olive oil, and pureed basil on top. I didn't want to bake the tomatoes because they are so amazing in their pure form. This was definitely eaten with a knife and fork because the tomatoes kept falling off but, it was a nice reminder of a summer gone quickly by.


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Curried Eggplant Pizza

In Long Beach one of my favorite places to get pizza is Dean's. This is not your normal red sauce pizza, they use Thai curry sauce on a wonderful doughy crust, that combined with tofu, pineapple and cheese is a wonderful treat. I know Dean's in the true Italian style of pizza is blasphemous but that is the beauty of pizza, you can put just about anything on it.

Inspired by Dean's Thai curry pizza I was inspired to make an Indian style curry pizza. Using similar ingredients from the curried eggplant with a little variation, a pizza was made.

My friend Jillana, who has a fabulous blog called Ovenhappy, and I cooked and chatted away a Friday evening  hungrily awaiting the outcome. We sauteed the eggplant, and onion together adding curry powder and red pepper flakes. At the end we threw in some spinach and let it wilt.
On the pizza dough we spread a layer of labneh, and then spread the eggplant, onion, spinach mixture on top. We were in debate if cheese would be a good addition to Indian style eggplant, so we sprinkled some only on half.

I loved this pizza. Using the labneh as a sauce/base gave a nice tangy flavor to the eggplant. I really liked the addition of the cheese, but I think I favored the one with out cheese a little more. This delightful meal once again proves that just about anything can be put on a pizza and the outcome will be delicious.

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Burnt Okra

Look how cool this okra is. I didn't even know okra could be purple, but aesthetically appealing as okra is, I am at a loss of what to do with it. I know it's used in lots of different types of cuisine and one of the most popular ways to prepare it is fried. I knew I wanted to prepare the okra but I also knew frying was not one of them.

Then in my Google reader an okra recipe appeared. Burnt okra sounded intriguing enough and is a really easy, not very involved cooking process.
 This is kind of like an okra hash, the potatoes and okra work well together with a nice garlicky presence. I really liked the texture of the okra as well, with a name like burnt okra it can be a little alarming, but mixed with the texture of the crisp potato it was good. The recipe calls for basil at the end but I opted to not use it. We put our burnt okra in tortillas and made tacos. It was really filling and I am on the watch for more okra to arrive so I can make it again.




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 Eggplant seems to be one of those foods that you either love or hate. I happen to think that it's great. I can't believe I have never blogged about this recipe. This is a cheap, easy recipe that takes little to no time to assemble, depending on how well you can chop an onion, and peel an eggplant. It's nice and filling, and makes for a  great leftover lunch.  I have made it multiple times and enjoy it with a side of naan. This is also a great way to use spinach during the winter or maybe substituting the eggplant with a squash of some sort. Hmm.. the wheels are turning, but here is the link so you can try the recipe out for yourself.

Eggplant curry with a side of  naan. Please ignore the conspicuous placement of the can opener. 

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Laborless Watermelon Treats

 This is a blog post long overdue. A summer has once again come and gone super fast, and with the passing of Labor Day and the crispness of fall around the corner, I thought a post about sweet, cold, watermelon would be appropriate. This past week has been hot, the kind of stifling hot, that makes it hard to do anything. The latest box delivery was so heavy because of the watermelon. Labor Day being a day of no work I decided an easy watermelon salad for dessert would be cooling and satisfying treat.

The watermelon while not very large was so heavy with juice, that I could already  tell it was going to be good. Upon cutting into the melon, it made a satisfying popping sound. It was so sweet and perfectly ripe, not mealy at all and not even a lot of seeds. The salad I made is a combination of various recipes but mostly adapted from Super Natural Every Day: 
Taking one half of the melon I rubbed ginger all over it. Then I cut the melon into bite size pieces periodically rubbing the ginger on the smaller slices. Once the melon was cut up I added 4 pitted and sliced Medjool dates, a handful of roasted pistachio meats, some mint, and the juice of one lime. Together this makes the easiest dessert you can make and eat. There is nothing like eating a cold piece of melon on a hot day. The ginger and the lime add a nice tang to the sweetness of the watermelon. And the crunch of the pistachios, mixed with the date slivers gave a nice variety of textures. A salad that is refreshing and easy is always a great way to end a meal.

The other half of the melon was used to make a watermelon granita. This is even easier to make you just need to be patient because you need to allow time to allow it to freeze. Pureeing the melon with a little sugar and lime, we poured it into a 9x9 pan. While making space for the granita we decided to add a package of mango puree in as well. After a few hours, we scraped the shavings into a bowl. This was so good and much needed on a sweltering hot day. The mango puree didn't really add anything except a yellow orange tint. This is the best natural snow cone you can make, and tastes fresh at the same time. I think next time some basil or mint might be added in as well.

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