Recipes for Cold Cukes Soup, Chickpea & Tomato Salad and Garlic Bread

A couple of months ago, I bought a new cookbook. It’s called Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley and Melissa Clark. I've tried a number of recipes from here and loved them all. There are several that I have made a bunch of times. After I've made a recipe a couple of times, I tend to make little changes here and there. Sometimes I do this to experiment with a new taste. Sometimes it is because I’m missing an essential ingredient to the recipe and have to scramble for a suitable replacement.

Below is my “unintentional” variation on Peter Berley's Chilled Cucumber Soup with Mint.  I served it with a chickpea salad and some tomatoes I picked up during our weekly trip to the farmer’s market, as well as some garlic bread.

So why am I telling you all of this? The other evening for dinner, I gave Eliana some of the soup and salad. She went CRAZY for the soup. She actually started “crying” when I so rudely took the spoon away to try to snap a photo of her eating it. The nerve of me, right? I hope you and your little foodie enjoy these recipes as much as Eliana did!

Cold Cucumber Soup

·     3-4 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

·     1½ cups low-fat plain yogurt

·     1 scallion, white parts only

·     1 handful of fresh basil leaves

·     Fresh garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder to taste

Put all items in a blender and puree. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Put soup in the refrigerator for an hour or more before serving.

Chickpea and Tomato Salad

·    1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

·    1 handful of parsley, finely chopped

·    1-2 red tomatoes, chopped

·    1 yellow tomato, chopped

·    2 scallions, white parts only, chopped

·    Fresh herbs, chopped (I used rosemary)

·    Garlic powder and chili powder to taste

·    Lime dressing

Make the dressing and set it aside. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Adjust seasoning as needed.

  

Jory’s Garlic Bread

·     1 whole wheat baguette, fresh or day-old

·     1 small handful of parsley, chopped

·     Around 3 tablespoons of butter-like spread or softened unsalted butter (I like Brummel & Brown yogurt spread)

·     Shredded Parmesan, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 350°. In a small bowl, mix the butter garlic powder, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings. Mix in the parsley and ⅓ of the Parmesan. Slice open the baguette lengthwise. Spread the butter mixture over both sides of the bread. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the bread. Lay the bread, face up, on a large piece of tin foil. Wrap the tin foil, over the bread making a loose tent. You don’t want the top of the bread to be touching the tin foil or it will all stick to the foil. Bake around 25-30 minutes until golden. Slice and serve.

Happy Cooking!

How could you do that to meeeee???

The soup! I want the soup back!!

That's good stuff.

I'm going to bite down on the spoon so you can't take it.

You took it away.
Meanie.

Listen, I think I can get in on this creating recipes thing. I've got an idea.

Give me the soup, Mommy.

Really! I have an idea.

Trust me. Let me just grab some chickpeas.

What are you doing? Get. Me. The. Soup!

Come on, come on, come on, COME ON!!

Chickpeas dipped in the cucumber soup. It's gonna be yummy!

Squashed

Well, I’ve done it! I’ve literally eaten my words. I figured out how to make yellow squash taste good! Yes, I know, you’re shocked, right? Especially since I spent the better part of a post a few weeks ago complaining about how gross squash is and how it is everywhere blah, blah, blah. So, here is how it all happened…

At the farmer’s market a few Sundays ago I was scouting out the vegetables when a gorgeous yellow caught my eye. I looked at it for a moment, dumbstruck.

Nooo! Waaaay!

It was freakin’ yellow squash! And it looked beautiful. (Yeah, you read that correctly. I said yellow squash looked beautiful). After I picked my jaw back up off the floor, I knew I had to have it. I mean, how could I not buy a vegetable that looked so tempting? I only bought one because I wasn’t ready to commit to liking it. After all, I have been burned by yellow squash my whole life. But, we all have to start somewhere, right? So I added a medium-sized yellow squash to my bag.

Amazing, right? The one from Migliorelli Farms (left) just looks so much more appetizing than the pale one from the supermarket (right). 

So, now, what the heck was I going to do with it? I started with something simple and quick. I love the texture and shape of the zucchini strips when peeled, so I figured I should go with what has worked in the past and do the same for the yellow squash. I ended up with a salad of yellow squash and carrots.

Pretty, right?

Then, serendipitously, a few days later a reader named Susie commented on my post about how much I hate yellow squash. She wrote a recipe for making the squash with pasta and it looked really tasty. (Thank you, Susie! What a great idea to post a recipe in the comments section!) It was like the universe was telling me that I needed to be eating yellow squash. The following Sunday at the farmer's market, I bought a few yellow squash.

I took Susie's recipe and played around with it a little bit. Here’s a photo of the end result.

Such pretty colors too, right?

So I guess the moral of this story is: Never say “never” because one day it could come back to squash you.

Here are the recipes:

Yellow Squash and Carrot Salad

·    1 yellow squash, peeled into strips

·    3-4 carrots, peeled into strips

Add vegetables to a bowl and toss with lime dressing.

Lime Dressing

·    Juice of 2 limes

·    Olive oil or avocado oil

·    Salt and pepper

Add ingredients to a bowl and whisk. Taste and adjust levels as needed.

Fettuccine with Yellow and Green Squash

·    1 medium yellow onion, sliced

·    3-4 squash, peeled into strips (I used a mix of yellow squash and zucchini)

·    1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

·    1 box of wheat fettuccine (I ended up using around ¾ of the cooked pasta)

·    A mugful of reserved cooking liquid from the pasta

·    Fresh herbs, chopped (I used parsley and basil)

·    Parmesan cheese to taste, peeled into strips

·    Salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and olive oil to taste

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add some oil, the onion and a bit of salt. Stir and let it cook for around 3 minutes until onions begin to soften. Add garlic, stir and cook for around 2 more minutes. Add the mixed squash to the pan and stir. Add salt, pepper and red pepper flakes, stir and cook for around 2-3 more minutes. The squash should be cooked but still firm on the edges. Add some of the reserved cooking liquid from the pasta, stir and adjust seasoning as needed. Add about ¾ of the chopped herbs and stir. Add the cooked pasta to the pan and stir. Add more liquid and/or seasoning as needed. Transfer pasta to individual bowls, top with herbs, shaved Parmesan and serve. I also added some cubes of ricotta salata cheese that I had in the fridge.

Happy Cooking!

Here's Eliana enjoying the pasta dish.

Hmm, stringy things! This looks fun.

Tasty.

Oh. My hands are still full of yogurt.
This is a perfect time to show Mommy my new  favorite trick...

"Oh, no!"

What, Mommy? You don't like it when I do "Oh, no!" with food on my hands?

Oops.

I don't know what to say.

Sorry Helicopter Mommy.

Recipes for White Bean Salad & Lemon Garlic Dressing

Here’s the white bean salad I made for lunch the other day. As you will see from the photos, Eliana loved the tomatoes and corn. She wasn’t really into the cannellini beans. Next time I think I'll use northern beans or chickpeas. She has had both before and liked them. Also, I will finely chop the kale. She had a hard time swallowing the kale in this salad. Live and learn, right?

White Bean Salad

·    1 can white beans, drained and rinsed (northern beans, cannellini beans or chickpeas)

·    1 handful of baby kale, finely chopped

·    1 tomato, chopped

·    1 ear of corn, kernels scraped off

·    2 scallions, white parts only, chopped

·    Fresh herbs, chopped (I used rosemary)

·    Shredded Parmesan

·    Lemon and Garlic Dressing (recipe below)

Make the dressing and set it aside. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Adjust seasoning as needed.

Lemon and Garlic Dressing

·    1 clove of garlic, crushed

·    Salt

·    Pepper

·    Juice of 2 lemons

·    Olive oil

·    In a small glass bowl combine garlic, pinch of salt, and a smaller pinch of pepper. Combine and mash with a spoon. Then add the juice of 2 lemons and whisk. While whisking, pour in a light stream of extra virgin olive oil. Taste and adjust ingredients accordingly.

Variations:

·    Follow above recipe and add 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

·    Follow above recipe except combine ingredients in a blender or small mixer. After adding lemon juice, add fresh parsley to taste and blend or mix. Then while blender or mixer is going add a stream of oil.

Happy Cooking!

White bean salad

What's she trying to get me to eat now?

Hmm, not bad.

I wonder if she will notice if I just eat the tomatoes and corn?