Lots of fun recipes this week with creative ideas for cucumbers and zucchini. However, no specific fennel recipe but you could add it to the Fajitas or Chickpea and Chard Stew or grill it in slabs, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.
Happy Cooking!
Charred Zucchini with Zhoug and Feta
Rigatoni with Pesto and Browned Zucchini
Pesto
Green Pepper, (Torpedo) Onion and Spicy Sausage “Fajitas”
Chard and Chickpea Stew with Tomatoes and Cumin
Sweet Sour Hot Eggplant
Baked, Spiced Tofu with Rice and Cucumber Salad
Schmorgurken
Charred Zucchini with Zhoug and Feta
This dish was inspired by one at Cafe Castagna in Portland. Zhoug is an herb and green chili sauce/paste from Yemen but popular in Israel as well and other parts of the Middle East.
Serves 4+
5-7 small to medium zucchini or other kind of summer squash, washed and trimmed
2/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-2 serrano chiles, minced (use the larger quantity if you like more heat), including seeds unless the peppers are very hot in which case you can remove the seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds or 1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds or 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/3 – 1/2 cup good olive oil
Salt
2 ounces feta, crumbled
Set your oven to broil.
Put the squash on a sheet pan and set about 4-6 inches below the broiler element. Broil, rotating the squash when they turn brown or lightly char. Keep rotating until they are more or less evenly browned and are tender when pierced with the tip of knife. Remove from oven and let cool a bit.
If using whole spices, toast the spices in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes until a shade darker and fragrant and toasty smelling. Remove from heat and put in a mortar and let cool.
Mix the herbs, hot peppers, garlic salt and olive oil in a bowl. Coarsely grind the spices with a pestle and add to the herb mixture. Stir well and adjust taste with salt.
Slice the roasted squash into 1-inch rounds and put in a serving dish. Top generously with the zhoug and the feta. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Rigatoni with Pesto and Browned Zucchini
I like a high vegetable to pasta ratio so use about 3/4 lb of pasta here but by all means make the full pound and cook more squash or vary the ratio. You could also substitute rice or another grain or just toss the browned zucchini with the pesto for a rich side dish.
Serves 4-6
3/4 lb (or 1 lb) rigatoni or penne or fusilli pasta (see headnote)
4 medium zucchini or other summers squash, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half moons
Olive oil
Sea salt
1/2 cup pesto
Grated Parmesan
Saute squash in some olive oil in a heavy skillet until browned and tender.
Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/3 cup or more hot cooking water right before you drain the pasta.
Put the pesto in a serving dish and thin with about 2-3 tablespoons pasta cooking water. Toss in the pasta and sautéed squash. Mix well, taste and adjust seasoning and serve with grated Parmesan.
Pesto
1 bunch basil, leaves picked (about 3-4 cups leaves, loosely packed)
2-3 smallish cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
Generous handful of almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or pine nuts
About 2 ounces Parmesan or aged Asiago
1/2 cup of good-tasting extra virgin olive oil (or more)
Salt to taste
If you have a mortar and pestle, a strong arm and some time, by all means make the pesto by hand. I almost always now make it in a food processor and it’s very good that way too.
Put the nuts and cheese in the processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the basil, garlic and salt and process until well chopped. Then slowly add the oil. Don’t over process. Adjust for salt and oil. Then store in the fridge until ready to use.
Green Pepper, (Torpedo) Onion and Spicy Sausage “Fajitas”
I should make these more often, says my son. It really is a good template for CSA produce. These employ the classic green bell pepper and onions but strips of zucchini or carrot would be good as would corn, chard stems (why not?!) and even leafy greens in combination with plenty of onions.
Substitute whatever meat you have on hand or skip it altogether. Sausage is what I often have on hand and it works beautifully.
Serves 4
1 tablespoon oil
2 bell peppers, seeded and thinly sliced and slices cut in half crosswise
1 large onion or 2 torpedo onions, halved and thinly sliced
1 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 Serrano or Jalapeno chile minced (remove seeds if you want to reduce spice level)
Salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 4-ounce sausages, sliced or crumbled or meat of your choice (see headnote)
Chopped fresh cilantro
Grated cheese and/or sour cream (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)
Flour tortillas
Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large, heavy skillet. Add the peppers and onions and few pinches of salt, stir well and saute over a couple of minutes, still on high heat to give the vegetables a little color and soften them a bit. Add the spices, garlic and sausage and stir well and cook for another couple of minutes on high, then turn down to medium-high and continue sauteeing until cooked to your desired tenderness. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Warm tortillas in a dry skillet and fill with vegetables and meat and top/garnish as desired.
Chard and Chickpea Stew with Tomatoes and Cumin
I think this was inspired by a photo in Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Plenty but it came about in a great hurry one night when I had cooked chickpeas on hand and a few other things in the crisper and dinner needed to happen soon. Also, my son loves pretty much any dhal or Indian-inspired dish so I added cumin and brown mustard seeds to this dish and sure enough, he loved it. If you have carrots on hand by all means use a couple here if you’d like.
Serves 4
Olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, scrubbed and cut into small dice (see headnote) (optional)
1 bunch chard, well washed and chopped, stems washed and chopped fairly finely
1 teaspoon whole cumin seed (or 2 teaspoons ground)
1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 minced, seeded Serrano or jalapeño pepper
1 cup diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
2-3 cups cooked chickpeas, drained (you can use some cooking liquid if you have home-cooked ones)
1 cup water or chickpea cooking liquid
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Greek yogurt for serving
In a large skillet, heat some olive oil. Add the onions, chard stems, and carrots, if using, and sauté for about 10 minutes until softening and browning. Add the cumin and mustard seeds and red pepper flakes or hot pepper and cook for another 2 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and chard and water or cooking liquid, stirring well, and a few pinches of salt. Bring to a lively simmer, then turn down and cook gently for about 10 minutes so the chickpeas have a chance to absorb the flavors. Taste and adjust seasoning. You can add a squeeze of lemon juice at this point if you want. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and enjoy.
Sweet Sour Hot Eggplant
My favorite way to serve this quick Chinese-inspired dish is over short grain brown rice but any rice is excellent. It’s a rich-tasting dish though actually fairly light in preparation.
Serves 4
2 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil
2 medium eggplant (or several smaller ones—any kind of eggplant will work in this dish—the long slender Japanese ones, more common Italian, globe ones, . . .), skin on, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
1 sweet red pepper, thinly sliced (optional but very good)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or fresh, minced Serrano, jalapeno or other hot pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
3-4 tablespoons Thai basil, basil, cilantro or parsley, roughly chopped
Stir together soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.
In a large skillet or wok heat the oil and sauté onions and pepper (if using) over medium-high heat for about 5-7 minutes until they soften. Add red pepper flakes (or minced hot pepper) and eggplant and cook until it softens and browns a bit, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. A few minutes before the eggplant is done add the minced garlic and stir well. Then add the sauce and stir well to mix and coat veggies. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes until sauce thickens and veggies are tender. Stir in the herbs, saving out a few for garnish if you’d like. Serve hot over rice with herbs.
Baked, Spiced Tofu with Rice and Cucumber Salad
I like this Baked, Spiced Tofu recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers David Lebovitz. I created this meal around his tofu recipe.
I doubled the marinade ingredients and set aside half of the marinade in a bowl, the other half you use per the Lebovitz’s recipe. To this I added another tablespoon each of sesame oil, tamari/soy sauce, rice wine and vinegar.
Marinate and then bake the tofu according the recipe.
Chop ½ cup cilantro.
Cook a pot of rice, any kind.
Chop 3 cucumbers and toss them with about 1/3 of the reserved marinade/dressing.
To serve, top the rice with the baked tofu, cucumber salad and drizzle the whole thing with some of the remaining dressing. Enjoy!
Schmorgurken
There are many variations of this dish in Germany and I grew up with this simple, sweet and sour vegetarian one. Often ground beef or small meat balls are added to the mix and sometimes also tomato. I don’t know of any cooked cucumber dishes in the States but having grown up with this one in Germany it doesn’t seem odd to me and is well worth a try. The quantities are squishy for this recipe, confirmed by my mother. Just scale up or down to taste and depending on what you have.
Serves 4
Olive oil
3 medium cucumbers, peeled and cut in half lengthwise and seeds removed with a teaspoon
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt and lots of freshly ground pepper
3 or more tablespoons chopped fresh dill
Cooked rice for serving
Put your rice on to cook—we grew up eating this over long grain white rice but you could by all means use brown as well.
Cut the halved cucumbers into ½-inch half-rounds. In a large, heavy skillet sauté the cucumber slices in a bit of olive oil over medium to medium-high heat, stirring frequently. They will release quite a bit of liquid, which is great. It will add to the sauce. When they are translucent and softening (about 10 minutes) add the sour cream, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 5 minutes more until the cucumbers are completely tender and the sauce has thickened a little. Add the dill, taste and adjust for salt and pepper and serve hot over rice.