EATING YOUR VEGES
Recipes & Suggestions
SWISS CHARD
My favorite way to serve chard is picked young or as thinings, then tossed in salad. Chard saute' or steams well, and is very easy to freeze.
Here's a pile of recipes from AllRecipes.
My favorite way to serve chard is picked young or as thinings, then tossed in salad. Chard saute' or steams well, and is very easy to freeze.
Here's a pile of recipes from AllRecipes.
TOMATOES
Once you have more tomatoes ripening than you can eat it's time to freeze. I use a 2 step method that begins by coring and quartering the tomatoes. I stuff them tightly into gallon zip locks, and freeze them raw. After I have six or eight bags filled, then I make some sort of sauce. You can make any sort of spaghetti sauce. Since I grew mostly yellow and orange tomatoes, my sauce came out a lovely pale orange.
Throw all the tomato quarters into a big, heavy bottomed stainless pot of at least two gallons. Add a cup or 2 of water just to get it started. Boil this until it's no longer watery, until the juice has thickened to at least 1/2 what it was. Then I run it through a food mill or a hand driven strainer. Straining will remove all the peels and some seeds. Now you are ready to make a sauce.
Once you have more tomatoes ripening than you can eat it's time to freeze. I use a 2 step method that begins by coring and quartering the tomatoes. I stuff them tightly into gallon zip locks, and freeze them raw. After I have six or eight bags filled, then I make some sort of sauce. You can make any sort of spaghetti sauce. Since I grew mostly yellow and orange tomatoes, my sauce came out a lovely pale orange.
Throw all the tomato quarters into a big, heavy bottomed stainless pot of at least two gallons. Add a cup or 2 of water just to get it started. Boil this until it's no longer watery, until the juice has thickened to at least 1/2 what it was. Then I run it through a food mill or a hand driven strainer. Straining will remove all the peels and some seeds. Now you are ready to make a sauce.
Return the liquid to your big pot and add what you wish. You can simply salt it and boil it to a tomato sauce. You can add onions, garlic, spices, herbs and boil it to a spaghetti sauce. Or you can continue to boil it down (being careful that it doesn't burn) and create pizza sauce. Once it's made you can freeze it or can it.
Here are some wonderful ways to use fresh tomatoes from Southern Living.
Here are some wonderful ways to use fresh tomatoes from Southern Living.
BUSH BEANS
Beans are easy to pick and prepare. Nip off the tips of the bean then steam, saute, or boil them. There are thousands of recipes for beans, but my preference was just steamed with salt. Here is a link from The Pioneer Woman with one basic recipe. And here is a long list of green bean recipes from Simply Recipes.
Beans are easy to pick and prepare. Nip off the tips of the bean then steam, saute, or boil them. There are thousands of recipes for beans, but my preference was just steamed with salt. Here is a link from The Pioneer Woman with one basic recipe. And here is a long list of green bean recipes from Simply Recipes.
KALE
There are two recipes on the VEGETABLE page for Kale:
Creamed Kale with Caramelized onions is a wonderful holiday dish. It blends the sweetness of the brown onions with the slightly bitter, crunchy kale.
Colcannon is an old Irish staple. In my recipe it's married the traditional use of chopped kale with a luxury of sour cream, butter, and chopped scallions, but it still retains it's rustic quality if you only partially mash the potatoes.
And here's a whole bunch of recipes from Epicurious
There are two recipes on the VEGETABLE page for Kale:
Creamed Kale with Caramelized onions is a wonderful holiday dish. It blends the sweetness of the brown onions with the slightly bitter, crunchy kale.
Colcannon is an old Irish staple. In my recipe it's married the traditional use of chopped kale with a luxury of sour cream, butter, and chopped scallions, but it still retains it's rustic quality if you only partially mash the potatoes.
And here's a whole bunch of recipes from Epicurious
BUTTERNUT SQUASH
My favorite vegetable is squash, and my favorite squash is butternut. It's the only winter squash I grow. And being singular, I mainly do one thing with it: Butternut Pudding. Now mind you, it makes a great soup, especially pureed. It's wonderful simply baked and served in hot slices with a touch of butter. But nothing compares to squash pudding. I've used it as a dessert, a side dish, baked it as a pie. Sometimes I season it heavily, sometimes I add rum. The recipe isn't precise. What you need is enough liquid to run the blender and enough eggs to thicken it.
Butternut Squash Pudding
1 large butternut squash
1 egg for each cup of liquid
Milk, cream, half & half, or even a bit of rum or brandy
Salt
Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves --- one or any, a little or a lot.
Sweetener: sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey --- a little or a lot.
Bake the squash at 350 degrees until a metal skewer will run it through easily. Cool, peel, and cut into chunks. Put ingredients into the blender in groups and puree well. Mix the slurry well and pour into a baking dish. Set the baking dish in a pan part filled with water and bake at 350 degrees until a knife comes out clean. (Time is entirely dependent on the size of the baking dish, the amount of liquid, and the number of eggs used. At least an hour, often more.)
You can also pour the slurry into a prepared pie crust. I suggest using an extra egg if you make it into a pie.
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Here are some other butternut recipes from Oh She Glows.
My favorite vegetable is squash, and my favorite squash is butternut. It's the only winter squash I grow. And being singular, I mainly do one thing with it: Butternut Pudding. Now mind you, it makes a great soup, especially pureed. It's wonderful simply baked and served in hot slices with a touch of butter. But nothing compares to squash pudding. I've used it as a dessert, a side dish, baked it as a pie. Sometimes I season it heavily, sometimes I add rum. The recipe isn't precise. What you need is enough liquid to run the blender and enough eggs to thicken it.
Butternut Squash Pudding
1 large butternut squash
1 egg for each cup of liquid
Milk, cream, half & half, or even a bit of rum or brandy
Salt
Spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cloves --- one or any, a little or a lot.
Sweetener: sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey --- a little or a lot.
Bake the squash at 350 degrees until a metal skewer will run it through easily. Cool, peel, and cut into chunks. Put ingredients into the blender in groups and puree well. Mix the slurry well and pour into a baking dish. Set the baking dish in a pan part filled with water and bake at 350 degrees until a knife comes out clean. (Time is entirely dependent on the size of the baking dish, the amount of liquid, and the number of eggs used. At least an hour, often more.)
You can also pour the slurry into a prepared pie crust. I suggest using an extra egg if you make it into a pie.
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Here are some other butternut recipes from Oh She Glows.
If you've any questions or comments you may email me here:
Barbara
Barbara