Tasty Bytes

Ever wonder what to do with lots of zucchini? Check out Planet Veggie Garden for some zucchini recipes:

• Zucchini Crisp…say what?

• Zucchini in Filo

• Zucchini Florentine and

• Zucchini Lasagna

Enjoy!

My dear client loves her soup. She is quite fond of carrot and ginger but is always game for variations on a theme. In this case the theme is orange :)! Well, really it’s the beta carotene we are after. I spied some little organic butternut squashes at Berkeley Bowl the other day. That along with a recent visit to the Berkeley Thai Temple for some cheap eats inspired this soup:

Thai Squash and Coconut Soup

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 1/4 – 1/2 pound butternut squash
1 tablespoon coconut oil — or vegetable oil
1 small carrot — thinly sliced (no need to peel – lots of vitamins in that skin)
1/2 medium onion — thinly sliced
1/2 stalk celery — thinly sliced
1 medium jalapeno chile pepper — thinly sliced
2 inch lemon grass — smashed
2 slices ginger — minced very fine
1 clove garlic — smashed
1 teaspoon sea salt (Try Redmond)
1/2 cup coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen Organic)
2 cups water or vegetable stock — more if needed
1 tablespoon lime juice

Cut butternut squash in half, put in baking dish cut side down with about a 1/2 c water. Bake at 350F until soft – about 30 – 40 minutes. Cool and scoop out squash from shell.

Heat oil in a 6 quart pot. Over medium heat, saute carrot, onion, celery, jalapeno, lemon grass, ginger and garlic with sea salt until soft – about 15 minutes. Add coconut milk, water, lime juice and squash. Simmer another 20-30 minutes, stir every so often to make sure the squash doesn’t stick to bottom of the pot.

Blend soup until smooth and creamy. Strain through a fine mesh strainer or if you can’t do this be sure to remove the lemon grass before blending, otherwise you will be picking the fibers out of your teeth. Season to taste with salt and more lime juice as needed. This soup can be served hot or cold. A nice garnish would be pumpkin seeds toasted in a little coconut oil with chopped garlic and parsley or a simple sprig of cilantro will do as well.

Bonus: A little gardening tip today. To grow your own lemon grass, take a few stalks (choose ones that have not had their bottoms trimmed too far up) and cut off the tops so you have about 6-8″. Put this in a jar of water and in a about 1-2 weeks you will see roots. Plant in a large pot (these guys will spread and spread so I like the control of a pot) and water often. Soon the stalks will start multiplying. Set out in a sunny spot. In a few months you will have a nice supply. Be aware that the leaves are sharp as razors and will give you paper cut like slices – ouch! So wear some gloves.

The next garden related post will be an update on the…yes…no…yes…oh, no…the gooseberries …they’re back…

a leek, that is…

it’s been a cold and wet one…I keep trying to figure out if I should get the garden ready for planting or build an ark. Well, we’ve been working on the garden between rain storms – weeds took over through the winter so the spring ritual is to pull them all out. Things are taking shape – our backs and knees can atest to the progress. We’re about half way there so I’m contemplating what we want to be nibbling on this summer. Here’s the list so far: green beans, sugar snap peas, pak choy, chard, kale, tomatoes, zucchini, basil, cilantro, lemon cucumbers, beets, strawberries and a few peppers. Looks like I’ll need to replant the herbs too so in will go some tarragon, oregano and thyme. And, we can’t forget Mochi (she’s nudging me now to tell you with her chin resting on my lap), she loves carrots freshly yanked out of the ground (which she has learned to do herself.) I know this sounds like a lot of vegetables but believe me the snails will get their fair share 😉

In the meantime, we got our first Terra Firma CSA box last wednesday. What a lovely assortment of carrots, potatoes, leeks, green garlic, asparagus, mineola tangerines, ruby red grapefruit, lemons, beets, kale and spinach. Whew, that was a lot of veggies to eat up! We still have a few potatoes, carrots and citrus left – here’s what I did with the veggies this week…

I roasted the beets (325F for 30 minutes or til tender) in a covered casserole with a splash of water. Cooled then peeled them and tossed with grapefruit segments, olive oil, feta and salt and pepper. This would be equally yummy with the mineola’s.

Lightly sauteed the beet tops with the kale in olive oil and a clove of garlic.

Made a ‘hash’ with sauteed leek and a couple of the potatoes.

Most of the veggies went to the once a month (more or less) lentil soup. Every few weeks I make a big batch of lentil soup and freeze in portions for those busy week days when I don’t have much time to cook. This week’s soup: 2 cups of lentils soaked overnight with 2 T of lemon juice. Chopped up a bunch of veggies (include if you can onion, carrot and celery – the remaining veg can be whatever is in your crisper and in season. I used green garlic, leek & not in season peppers) to make about 6 cups. Sauteed these veggies with a few teaspoons of salt in olive oil with a couple of bay leaves. Tossed in a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained lentils, 1/2 cup of quinoa and 8 cups of water (you can use vegetable broth or chicken stock.) Simmered for 30-40 minutes. At this point you can add a few diced potatoes or winter squash. Simmer til just tender. Then I add some chopped greens (I used the spinach). Stir until just wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can season this soup any way you like. This time I added some lemon zest and lemon juice. I just wanted something simple this time around. I then portioned out the soup into 1/2 quart portions to freeze.

Some times I make it Indian style, or maybe French with some herbs de provence or South of the Border with some chili powder – any of these flavorings you would add during the vegetable saute step if you want the whole batch flavored in that way -Or – you can just flavor each portion as you heat to serve. Oh, and fresh herbs are also great. Add the herbs towards the end of the big batch to keep those flavors fresh or add to the smaller portions when heating to serve.

Now we just pray for sunshine…