See the post below for Recipes, and scroll down to the next post for the Share Photo, Share List and news from the farm.
If you don’t use your leeks in the parsley soup or the veggie bouillon below, or have some leftover, I would sauté them in a little butter with some diced carrot until soft, then add corn kernels cut off the ears and cook just a bit more. Season well with salt and pepper and some chopped parsley and serve as a side to anything or stir in some eggs for a lovely scramble with a bit of cheese.
I included a few recipes that call for celery in case you have some leftover from last week like I do.
Happy cooking!
Salad with Creamy Miso Dressing
Lentils, Eggplant, and Roasted Tomatoes with Feta
Watermelon, Cucumber, Feta and Black olive Salad
Grated Carrot Salad with Parsley and Jalapenos
Parsley Soup (with Leeks and Potato)
Homemade Veggie Bouillon
Simple Pumpkin Seed Sauce (with Fish or Chicken)
Salad with Creamy Miso Dressing
This dressing is delicious and mellow and appropriate for great variety of salads. I used it on a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, sweet onions, celery (from last week), cilantro and toasted sunflower seeds. This week I would use some fresh (raw) sweet corn, cucumbers, lettuce, parsley and tomatoes.
Serves 4
6 cups lettuce, washed, dried and torn or chopped
1 medium tomato, diced
2 tablespoons thinly sliced or diced onion
½ cup thinly sliced celery (if you have some leftover)
1 cup diced cucumber
Kernels from one ear of corn (raw or briefly cooked if you’d like)
½ cup roughly chopped parsley leaves
1/3 cup toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds
Dressing:
1 tablespoon yellow or red miso
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1 tablespoon Mirin (rice cooking wine)
3 tablespoons Greek or regular, plain yogurt (full fat preferably)
1 tablespoon heavy cream or olive oil
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
Sea Salt
Put all salad ingredients in a large salad bowl. Mix the dressing in a small bowl and pour about 2/3 of the dressing over the salad. Toss, taste and adjust seasoning or add more dressing. Serve immediately.
Lentils, Eggplant, and Roasted Tomatoes with Feta
–inspired by an old recipe of Ottolenghi’s in the Guardian
I made this on the fly last night with what I had–I didn’t yet have the eggplant from pick up so I skipped that part. I sautéed the vegetables instead of roasting them to save time and I mixed the feta with some Greek yogurt and lots of chopped cilantro and some lemon juice. It was a tasty, simply supper.
2 medium or 1 large eggplant (use whatever you get this week—you might as well roast them all if you have several)
Sea salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/3 cups small green or brown lentils
3 small carrots, scrubbed
2 sticks of celery
1 bay leaf
1 small onion
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Large handful chopped parsley
Feta
Put the eggplants on an sheet pan and place about 6-8 inches under the broiler (or on hot grill) for 35-45 minutes, turning them a few times, until the skin cracks and the flesh is cooked through – they will likely burst open.
Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle scoop the flesh into a colander, removing the blackened skin. Leave to drain for at least 15 minutes, then season with salt and stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons of the vinegar.
Meanwhile, put the lentils in a medium saucepan with one carrot and half a celery stick chopped into rough chunks. Add the bay and onion, cover with plenty of water, bring to a boil and simmer for 20to 25 minutes or until lentils are tender but still keep their shape. Drain, discard the carrot, celery, bay and onion, and transfer to a bowl. Add the rest of the vinegar and two tablespoons of oil and salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir and set aside.
Set your oven to 350. Cut the remaining carrot and celery into ½ inch dice and mix with the tomatoes, a tablespoon of oil, some salt and the sugar. Spread in an ovenproof dish and roast for 20 minutes.
Add the cooked vegetables to the lentils, then the chopped parsley, stir. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Spoon on to serving plates. Top with the eggplant and crumbled feta and finish with a drizzle of good olive oil.
Watermelon, Cucumber, Feta and Black olive Salad
–inspired by Racheleats.com
Serves 4 as a starter. If serving as a starter you might serve it alongside a plate of prosciutto.
1/3 cup thinly sliced Walla Walla Sweet (if you have some leftover from last week) or sliced, mild red onion
A handful of parsley, tough stems removed and leaves just chopped a little (you want nice leafy pieces)
A sprig of mint, roughly torn
A few black olives, pitted
1 lb juicy watermelon, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite-sized cubes
1 small cucumber, peeled if skin is tough/chewy, and diced
4 ounces feta, cut in medium cubes or crumbled
3 tablespoons good olive oil
Lemon or lime juice to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Pull the parsley leaves from the stalks, wash and dry them.
Put the watermelon, cucumber, feta, parsley, mint, onion and black olives into a shallow bowl or on a platter. Then spoon over the olive oil, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and a twist of black pepper. Then using your hands toss the salad very gently so that the feta and melon don’t lose their shape. Taste, and add more lemon or lime juice, olive oil or pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Grated Carrot Salad with Jalapenos and Parsley
I make a variety of carrot salads. They add bright and fresh flavors year-round. Carrot salads are the perfect foil for the cook-with-what-you-have approach. Cumin, coriander, chili flakes, jalapenos, lemon, lime (juice and zest), rice vinegar, parsley, mint, cilantro, tarragon, and basil are all wonderful complements to the carrots. Toasted nuts and seeds of many kinds are good too.
You can add cooked white beans to this salad for a more robust version. Make a little extra dressing and you have a great lunch or light supper.
With a simple frittata and a piece of good bread, this makes a lovely dinner.
Serves 4
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (or pumpkin seeds)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 generous pinches of sea salt
4-5 medium carrots, grated
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
½ jalapeno, seeded and minced (or more or less to taste)
feta, crumbled (optional)
Dressing:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, a generous amount, to taste
3 tablespoons good olive oil
Preheat oven to 350.
Toss the sunflower seeds with a teaspoon or two of oil and several pinches of salt and roast on a baking sheet for about 15 minutes, turning frequently, until they are crisp and golden. Set aside to cool.
Place the grated carrots, jalapeno and parsley in a serving bowl. To make the dressing whisk together the lemon juice, salt, pepper and oil. Pour the dressing over the carrots and mix well. Sprinkle with the seeds, mix again, and adjust seasoning and serve.
Parsley Soup
–slightly adapted from Racheleats.com
I loved discovering this idea and it’s a great soup for hot weather as it’s best at room temperature or cold.
Serves 2-4
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2-3 good-sized leeks, white and light green part, well washed and sliced
2-3 small-medium potatoes scrubbed well and chopped
1 large bunch parsley – leaves separated from stems and stems coarsely chopped.
½ cup dry white wine (optional)
4 cups water, vegetable broth (homemade veggie bouillon, see below) or chicken stock
Salt
Warm the oil and butter in a soup pot and then sweat the leeks and parsley stalks gently, uncovered for 20 minutes. Add the potato, stir and then the wine. Allow the wine to evaporate away and the add the water or stock, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
Simmer for another 20 minutes.
Coarsely chop the parsley leaves and add them to the pan and simmer for two minutes.
Blend the soup with an immersion blender or in a food processor but don’t overprocess—some texture is good, and taste, adjust seasoning. Serve at room temperature or chilled with a dollop or Greek yogurt or some good olive oil and bread.
Homemade Veggie Bouillon
You have some of the ingredients this week you need for making this workhorse, fresh veggie stock I always keep on hand (you can skip the celery root this time of year and use a bit more stalk celery, carrot etc. and you can also skip the dried tomato).
5 ounces leek, sliced and well-washed
(about 1 medium)
7 ounces carrots, well scrubbed and chopped
(about 3-4 medium)
3.5 ounces celery (about 2 big stalks)
3.5 ounces celery root (celeriac), peeled and chopped (about a 3” x 3″ chunk)
1 ounce sun-dried tomatoes
(about 6 dried tomatoes)
3.5 ounces onion or shallots, peeled (2 small shallots or 1/2 a small-medium onion_
1 medium garlic clove
6 ounces sea salt or kosher salt (scant 1 cup)
1.5 ounces parsley, loosely chopped
(about 1/3 of a bunch)
2 ounces cilantro, loosely chopped (about ½ bunch)
This recipe requires a food processor. As Heidi notes you can also just make this with what you have. Onions, celery, carrots and parsley are enough. Use the proportions that work for you. Use 1/3 cup salt for each 2 cups of finely processed veggies/herbs.
Place the first four ingredients in your food processor and process until well broken down. Add the next three ingredients, and process again. Add the salt, process some more. Then add the parsley and cilantro. You may need to stir up the vegetables and herbs, so they all get processed evenly.
You should end up with a moist, loose paste of sorts. Pack the paste into a quart jar or container and freeze it for the next 2-3 months. Because of all the salt the bouillon stays scoop-able when frozen for easy use.
Start by using 2 teaspoons of bouillon per 1 cup (250 ml), and adjust from there based on your personal preference.
Simple Pumpkin Seed Jalapeno Sauce (with Fish or Chicken)
–from Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez
This is delicious and rich from the pumpkin seeds. It’s wonderful with fish, poached chicken or shrimp. Or use it to make enchiladas or toss it with boiled potatoes or roasted vegetables or over eggs. If using white fish fillets or shrimp you will add them to the sauce raw, if using chicken, have it poached or pre-cooked in some way and then add—see below.
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup chopped onion
2-3 jalapenos, chopped (de-seed if you want it less spicy)
1 small garlic clove
½ teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 tsp fresh)
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon or more, sea salt
4-5 cups chicken or vegetable stock, divided (could use veggie bouillon if you make it—recipe above)
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chopped cilantro
Lime wedges if you’re serving with fish
Heat a skillet over medium heat and toast the pumpkin seeds, stirring and tossing often until they are puffed and slightly browned, about 6-8 minutes.
Put he pumpkin seeds in a blender along with the onion, chiles, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt and 2 cups of stock and blend until the mixture is very smooth.
Heat the oil in a large pan (if you’re going to add meat/fish later) or a smaller pan, if not, over medium heat and carefully pour in the sauce. It will splatter and use a splatter screen if you have one to avoid a mess. Cook the sauce until thickened a bit, about 5 minutes. Add just enough stock to thin the sauce to a velvety consistency that thickly coats a wooden spoon. Simmer, partially covered, adding more stock to maintain the consistency for about 20 more minutes.
Return about 1 cup of the sauce (or all of it if the sauce has broken and looks curdled) to the blender, then add the cilantro and blend until smooth. Be very careful when blending hot liquids and do it in batches to avoid a hot mess. Now return the sauce to the pot and simmer for a few more minutes. Swish a little water around in the blender to get all the sauce loosened up and add it to the pan. Taste and adjust seasoning. If you’re using cooked chicken add it to the sauce and cook on low until heated through. If you’re using fish or shrimp season it well with salt and add to the pan and cook gently until the fish is cooked through and serve with lime wedges and more cilantro.