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?

Zucchini Salad

I’m not always the best vegetarian. I could blissfully live on cheese and carbs alone. (Um, and some wine too, for sure.) So, over the last few years, I’ve been working on getting myself to like vegetables I haven’t liked in the past. One vegetable at the top of that list has been squash. Any color, any season, any preparation. It just didn’t do it for me. Blech! To make it even more annoying, many restaurants serve squash as their token vegetarian entrée. But, beyond the fact that squash is everywhere, I know it is good for me. I believe in eating colorfully so how can I not eat a vegetable that comes in orange, yellow and green?  So, I’ve been making myself try it when we eat out and I’ve been cooking it more at home. At this point, zucchini has definitely passed the test. I’ve been sautéing it in olive oil for a while but I hadn’t yet tried it raw. I saw a photo of a salad with raw zucchini and yellow squash and thought: take out the nasty yellow squash and that might be good. 

So, here’s my attempt at a raw zucchini salad. I think it turned out really well. And, as a bonus, Eliana liked it too!

What are you looking at? How the heck am I supposed to avoid it hanging out of my mouth! 

Zucchini Salad

- 1-1½ zucchini per person

-  ¼ can chick peas per person, rinsed and drained

-  Fresh herbs, finely chopped

- Lime dressing (recipe below)

- A block of Grana Padano or other parmesan cheese

Make salad dressing and set it aside. Using a vegetable peeler, peel strips of zucchini into a bowl. Add chickpeas and stir. Using the vegetable peeler, peel strips of cheese over the top. Add herbs to the dressing and stir. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss.

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.

In my defense, when I made this salad again, I was really and truly going to add yellow squash too. I’m sure I can make myself like it. Besides, I’m convinced that something about the yellow color makes it good for me in a different way than the green zucchini. But, the grocery store I was in only had yellow squash packaged in a group of three. I just can’t commit to using three of them! So, I played it safe and bought only zucchini. There’s always a next time, right?

Happy Cooking!