Zucchini Bread!

I didn't have any bread loaf pans, so I used a cake pan instead! I will need to stock up on some bread loaf pans in my kitchen pantry next time. :) It still tasted great, just didn't come out in the shape of bread, but that's ok! Great way to use up that zucchini! I ate it with some raspberry jam. Delicious!

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Homemade Tomato Soup

I made this for dinner the other night - it was very nutritious and tasty! I would definitely recommend doubling the recipe next time for leftovers. Instead of the 3/4 cup of oil which I think was a bit excessive, I used about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, and substituted great tasting vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe

Quinoa and Zucchini Recipe

Here's another great way to use up your zucchini! Any summer squash variety will do. I used a mix of gold rush and patty pan squash. The avocado dressing, along with the eggs make this recipe very refreshing and fulfilling. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pine nuts or goat cheese (as the recipe called for) but it was still great!

Quinoa and Zucchini Recipe

Pad Kee Mao

One of my favorite thai dishes is pad kee mao. This is one of those dishes I like to make at home without having the need to go to a thai restaurant. You can buy the fresh rice noodles from asian markets. You an get them precut, but I prefer to get them uncut so I have the luxury to slice them however thick I want. Of course, it's a bit more work, but worth the effort if you want wider noodles.

Makes approx 4 servings

1 lb of fresh rice noodles, precut, or uncut (cut to your liking)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 egg

Chopped ingredients:
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped with seeded and juices squeezed
1/2 cup of basil (red basil preferred but I used sweet since I had that on hand)
2-3 cups of greens (spinach or swiss chard)
1 bell pepper, sliced (optional)
14 oz cubed firm tofu, drained

Sauce:
2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster or mushroom sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Separate the rice noodles - rinse under hot water for about a minute to help separate out the strands. If they are uncut, unfold them and cut into 1-2 inch widths. Place in a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl, combine all the sauce ingredients.
3. In a large wok or pan, add the 1 tablespoon of oil over high heat.
4. Add in the tofu and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the remaining oil. Add the egg and cook until slightly done.
6. Add in the onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, and greens adn cook for 1 minute.
7. Next, add the rice noodles and sauce mixture.
8. Add the basil. Stir fry for about 3 minutes. Serve!

CSA Box Week 10

With the latest food recall involving over 500 million eggs, I am ever more grateful for the local organically grown vegetables, fruits, and eggs! available here. All the more reason to rely on locally grown foods and to understand where your food comes from.

This week I decided to look for some ways to make use of the abundant summer squash, corn and tomatoes.



Here are the dishes I made with these veggies:

Quinoa and Zucchini	Homemade Tomato Soup
Zucchini Bread	Pad Kee Mao

Steamed Pattypan Squash

This is such an easy way to enjoy pretty much any summer squash. I used pattypan (aka flying saucer) squash! They look like lemons in the picture. :)

Steam for 5-6 minutes, or until the squash is soft to the touch.
Slice open and season with salt and butter!

Lettuce & Potato Soup

After a week of sitting in the fridge, I finally decided to make use of that head of lettuce. I wanted to try something different with lettuce, instead of using it in a salad. This is a great way to use up some extra lettuce you have on hand! Just like any soup, the base of the soup holds everything together, so be sure to use your favorite broth. I used Rapunzel Pure Organic Vegetable Soup Broth. Enjoy!

Makes about 4 servings

1 large head of lettuce, torn into pieces - I used red leaf
1 cup of onions, sliced
2 tablespoons of butter
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
2 tablespoons tarragon
2 medium potatoes, diced
3 cups of great tasting vegetable broth
1/4 cup of heavy cream or milk ( or soymilk)
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and onions and cook for just a few minutes, stirring occasionally until the onions are tender and lightly browned.
2. Add the lettuce, chives, tarragon, and broth. Increase heat to high until broth comes to a slight boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add the potatoes. simmer for an additional 10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
4. With a hand blender, or food processor, puree the soup in batches.
5. Stir in the heavy cream/milk. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

Beets and Beet Greens Risotto

I love eating beets roasted, but here is another way to enjoy beets. This recipe was taken from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It uses both the beets and beet greens, my favorite way of cooking - all parts of the vegetable are used! I love how the color of the beets and its greens bleed into the risotto. I served this with a side of roasted cauliflower and beans.

You can follow the recipe here.

I used bull's blood beets, but any beets will do.

Grated beets!

Here's the risotto cooking drenched with beets and its beet greens.

Beets and Beet Greens Risotto with Roasted Cauliflower and Beans. Maybe some meat lovers will find this delicious? :-)

Roasted Cauliflower and Mixed Beans

Roasting is such an easy way to eat cauliflower and green beans. You let the oven do the cooking for you. All you need is to chop up the veggies!

Roasted Cauliflower

1. Cut up the cauliflower into bite size "trees".
2. Drizzle some olive oil (~ 1 -2 Tablespoons) and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Roast the cauliflower on a single layer in a casserole at 450 degrees in the oven for 25 minutes. About 15 minutes into roasting, turn the cauliflower onto its other end for additional browning.
4. Remove from oven and serve!

Roasted Green Beans

1. Trim the ends and cut them into about 1 inch pieces.
2. Roast the beans on a single layer in a casserole at 450 degrees in the oven for 15minutes. About 10 minutes into roasting, turn the beans over for additional browning.
3. Remove from oven and serve!

Tofu Bim Bim Bap

I got inspiration to make this dish after eating at a Korean restaurant earlier this week. It was a hole in a wall joint in the Paldo market in the Crossroads area in Bellevue. This dish is a mix of lightly sauteed zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and tofu, topped with an egg and gochujang, a hot pepper bean paste. The hot pepper bean paste is what makes it taste great - if you can't find it at your local asian supermarket, you can easily make it yourself. Yum!

Makes 4 servings

about 4 cups of cooked rice (1.5-2 cups of uncooked rice - I used organic brown rice)
2 cups of carrots, julienned
2 cups of zucchini, julienned
8 oz of bean sprouts, washed and drained
4 oz of dried mushrooms, sliced
8 oz of firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
4 eggs
some vegetable or canola oil
gochujang sauce (or make yourself - try this one)
salt to taste

1. Soak the mushrooms for 10-15 minutes until they plump up and ready to slice.
2. Julienne the carrots, zucchini. Then slice the mushrooms once they are plump and soft.
3. In a pan, heat some oil, stir fry the zucchini for just 1-2 minutes. Add salt to taste. Place in a small bowl. Below are all of the ingredients to stir fry.
   

   

4. In the same pan, add additional oil, and stir fry the carrots for 1-2 minutes. Place in a small bowl.
5. In the same pan, add additional oil, and stir fry the sliced mushrooms for 1-2 minutes. Add 1 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of sugar.
6. In the same pan, add additional oil, and stir fry the bean sprouts for 1-2 minutes. Add salt to taste. Place in a small bowl.
7. In the same pan, add additional oil, stir fry the tofu cubes. Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Place in a small bowl.
8. In the same pan, add additional oil, cook the eggs. You can cook it sunny side up, but I like my eggs cooked almost thoroughly. Place the eggs on a small plate/bowl.
9. In a serving bowl, add a cup of cooked rice, topped with all of the vegetables, including the egg and about 1 tsp of gochujang sauce, depending on how spicy you want it!
   
   

   

   Here's the gochujang sauce I used.
   
   

   

Summer Cucumber Salad

Here's a refreshing and quick salad using the finest local ingredients (except for the California avocados).

1 medium-large cucumber, sliced
2 avocados, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1 juice of lime
1/4 of fresh lemon
handful of cut cilantro

Makes 4 servings.

In a medium bowl, dredge the avocados in lemon juice for a few minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. Add in the lime juice and salt to taste.
Finally, fold in the avocados and cilantro.

Vegetarian Enchilada

I’ve been looking for a vegan enchilada recipe that doesn’t compromise on taste and I think I’ve found one pretty close to it. Be forewarned – this dish requires some prep time so give yourself plenty of time. Your efforts will definitely be paid off with some excellent tasting enchiladas. I actually made this on a sweltering hot 95 degree Sunday evening – what was I thinking? My mind got the better of me! You can prep all the veggies the day before (zucchini, tomatoes, corn, onions). The recipe isn’t too involved, but the roasting, stuffing the enchiladas, and baking will take up most of the time.

For the recipe, click here. Makes about 6 servings. You can easily add your own meat to the filling.

Here are the ingredients I used. I actually omitted the chipotle in adobo sauce. I used some mild chili sauce instead of opening a new can. Also, I didn't use any “chik'n strips”, as the recipe calls for, and instead added the sour cream filling from the recipe review.

CSA Box Week 9 and thoughts!

It's halfway into the summer session, and I gotta say, I'm loving my CSA box. I'm pretty new to it - the first time I participated was last fall & winter for 5-6 weeks. So 9 weeks is long time for me. There was a time where I asked myself, Am I going to be able to eat up my vegetables every week? And then, there was a time where I did inevitably fall behind and my fridge was stuffed with 1 and 1/2 weeks of veggies. Yikes! Besides a couple of these lapses for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of a CSA, especially this one, where choosing the specific produce I want allows me to ultimately almost never leave any of my veggies sitting alone in my fridge and making a trip to the garbage/compost bin.

My comfort cooking is asian cuisine, so these last year or two has made me expand my cooking across several cuisines (american, indian, italian, and mexian), and has made me explore new vegetables and ways of cooking. I found myself asking these silly questions - How do I cook fava beans? Wow yellow and purple beans exist (and purple carrots)!? Ah this what rhubarb looks like!

Every week now I'm looking forward to getting my CSA box, filling up my fridge with wonderful organically and locally grown food, and satiating myself with goodness! The only routine is picking up the box - everything else is up to you to make magical, delicious, wholesome meals in the comfort of your home.

Here's my week 9 veggies and fruits -

Here are the dishes I made with these items:

Vegetarian Enchilada	Beets and Beet Greens Risotto
Tofu Bim Bim Bap	Lettuce and potato soup
Steamed pattypan squash	Roasted Cauliflower

Corn and Egg Soup

This soup is easy to make and super yummy! I've been making a lot of salads lately these past summer weeks, so my stomach's been yearning for something different :) This soup surely highlights the sweetness of the fresh corn. It's great for a not so hot day, or slurp it slightly warm on a hot day. I actually doubled the recipe below - makes for great leftovers when you're lazy to cook. Note: I would make sure to add low-sodium vegetable broth, or alternatively, add additional water to your vegetable broth. You don't want the broth to overpower the sweetness of the corn.

1 ear of sweet corn, shucked, makes about 1 Cup
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 cups of water, or light vegetable broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch, mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of water
1 egg, beaten
1/4 teaspoon of white pepper
1 green onion, chopped (optional)

Makes 2-3 servings

1. In a pot, add the water/vegetable broth and garlic to a boil. Add the corn. Reduce heat.
2. Stir in the cornstarch.
3. Slowly pour the beaten egg while stirring the soup.
4. Turn off heat, taste and adjust seasoning with salt, soy sauce, or additional cornstarch mixture to adjust thickness of the soup.

Apple Rhubarb Crumble

I don't make too many desserts - in fact, I can't remember the last time I actually made dessert! I normally eat store bought pies, cakes, or ice cream. So this was one of my few attempts at making dessert. Using 2 stalks of rhubarb and a fuji apple I bought from the Redmond farmers market, this dessert was very simple to make and tasty!

I followed this recipe. It turned out excellent! This crumble was nicely balanced with the rhubarb's tartness and the fuji apple's sweetness.

Here's the rhubarb - I used 2 of the stalks to make in my crumble (makes about 2 cups)

This actually would make for a great apple pie filling, which I will need to try out next time.

Red Cabbage Salad

Here's a simple way to enjoy red cabbage. I typically sautee it, but sometimes I like to venture out and try something I've never done before. So here goes, it's super easy to make and you can eat it warm or cold as a salad.

I followed from this recipe. I didn't have any sunflower seeds or cheese on hand, but it still tasted great without it.

Cauliflower Curry (aloo gobi)

I love curries! This recipe uses cauliflower that's in season and yellow storage potatoes I had in the fridge for a few weeks. Inspired by the below recipe. Though aloo gobi is traditionally a dry curry dish, I made some modifications to it to have a little more gravy. This makes for great leftovers for the next couple of days.

Cauliflower Curry Recipe
Serves 4-6

1 medium yellow onions, diced
2 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 small head of cauliflower, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
2 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/2 cup water or coconut milk (if you want a heavier gravy)
1 tablespoon oil

Below are all of the ingredients chopped beforehand.

1. In a food processor, blend the garlic, 1 of the chopped onions, and ginger together.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
3. Cook the remainng 1 chopped onions with a half teaspoon of salt until they are soft and translucent.
4. Add the ginger, garlic, onion mix, cumin, coriander, garam masala, and tumeric and cook for a minute to release all of the flavors.
5. Add the tomatoes until soft (about 1-2 minutes).
6. Add the cauliflower and potatoes cook until it is also browned in spots (about 15 minutes).
7. Stir in the water/coconut milk. Taste the curry and adjust with other seasonings as desired.

CSA Box Week 8

Corn and tomatoes are here! I have been waiting for this day! I think I may have gone overboard with ordering two batches of corn, but that's ok - the more the marrier! Here's in my week 8 food box:

Here are the dishes I made from these veggies:

Caulflower curry (aloo gobi)	Red cabbage salad
Egg and Corn Soup	Corn Fritters
Penne pasta with Broccoli Pesto	Apple Rhubarb Crumble

Swiss Chard Salad

I've been so fortunate to have such great vegetables available locally. Swiss chard is no exception. The swiss chard from my box is so fresh - the leaves are so large and not to mention very crisp. This is a simple way to enjoy the swiss chard in its entirety, including its stalk.

1 large bunch of swiss chard (about 1 lb)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1. Wash the swiss chard. Cut the stalks about 1 inch length, tear the leaves into bite size pieces. Separate the stalks from the leaves.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
3. Add the stalks first and cook for 1 minute. Then add the leaves and boil for another 2-3 minutes.
4. While the swiss chard is cooking, mix the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a small bowl.
5. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
6. Toss with the soy sauce mixture, serve!

Sauteed Green Beans

It's raining in the middle of the summer here in Seattle. What better way to enjoy the day than to just relax at home and make a great homemade dinner. So I picked up some green beans, one of the few vegetables left from my CSA box this week and sauteed them with some chili sauce to add some spunk. I followed this recipe:

Wild Salmon Lasagna

After experimenting making lasagna with salmon with different types of fillings (tomato sauce, tofu), I finally settled on the below version as my favorite lasagna recipe. It uses tofu and absolutely no cheese. Yep, that's right, no cheese! Though you don't get much of that creamy and gooiness from cheese, this is definitely healthier for you while not compromising on taste. It's actually quite tasty with the salmon sauce. You an probably make more of the salmon sauce if you want a bit more sauce in your lasagna. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Makes 9 servings

Salmon & salmon sauce:
1/2 lb of salmon fillet (I used wild caught Alaskan salmon)
1/4 cup of dill or fennel, freshly chopped
some lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/4 - 2 Cups of milk or soymilk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tablespoon all-purpose white or whole wheat flour

1. In a pot over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Add garlic, cook for 1 minute.
3. Stir in the milk. Stir in the flour, and mix thoroughly. Simmer until thickened.
4. Stir in the salmon fillet. Break apart the salmon into bite size pieces.
5. Add the remaining ingredients - dill/fennel, salt, and lemon juice
6. Cook for a few minutes until you're able to break apart the salmon fillet where the outside is just cooked, so it is half cooked. Baking it will further cook the salmon.

Filling
1 box (14-16 oz) of firm tofu
about 1 lb of spinach, swiss chard, or any greens, cooked and drained
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Be sure to lightly cook the greens.
2. Rinse the tofu, crumble it into a bowl.
3. Add the greens, and remaining seasoning.

• Next, cook the 9 pieces of lasagna in a pot according to the box instructions. Drain and let it cool for a few minutes.
• In a 9x12" casserole pan, place a layer of 3 lasagna noodles. Next, add 1/3 of the tofu mixture, along with 1/2 of the salmon and salmon sauce.
• Repeat and place a second layer of lasagna noodles. Add 1/3 of the tofu mixure and the remaining salmon and salmon sauce.
• Place the final 3rd layer of lasagna noodles, then top with the remaining tofu mixture.
• Place in oven at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

CSA Box Week 7

Here are the items from my veggie box earlier this week -
Veggies - swiss chard, fennel, spinach, fava beans, green beans, red cabbage, zucchini
Fruits - pluots, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines YUM! The raspberries and blueberries were gone within 1-2 days!

So what did I do with these vegetables this week?
Fava beans - I just ate them as a snack after deshelling and blanching them. They were great as a simple snack.

Potato Fennel Soup

Wild Salmon Lasagne


Swiss Chard Sesame Salad


Sauteed Green Beans


Miso Glazed Bok Choy