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Recipes

Zucchini Pancakes with Mint & Feta Cheese

Recipe via Joy of Cooking

Ingredients
2 1/2 pounds green or golden zucchini, shredded
salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup dry unseasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 bunch scallions with 2-inch of green, slivered
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (or 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

Method
1. Shred zucchini on the large holes of a grater or in a food processor. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

2. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, feta cheese, breadcrumbs, flour, scallions, garlic, parsley, mint, salt and pepper.

3. Quickly rinse the zucchini, then using your hands or a towel, squeeze out the excess liquid. Add to the batter.

4. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

5. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Drop in the batter, using 1/4 cup for a 4-inch griddle cake. Fry over medium heat until golden brown on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Turn and brown the second side. Keep the fried pancakes warm in the oven while you fry the remaining batter, adding more oil if needed.

Yield: approx. 19 pancakes (6 to 8 servings)

Categories
Recipes

Quinoa with Basil & Poached Egg


This is a pretty effortless recipe. Perfect for summer days when you don’t feel like firing up the oven. I used red quinoa, because I love how it looks, but any quinoa would do. I’ve served this both cold and warm and always over a bed of arugula.

Ingredients
1 cup dried quinoa
lots of basil (feel free to use additional herbs, such as mint or parsley or cilantro)
3 scallions
4 eggs
1 T olive or sesame oil + 2 ts oil
1 ts vinegar (I use rice)
black pepper
coarse salt

Method
1. Cook the quinoa (Put 1.5 cups of water + 1 cup dry quinoa, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes).

2. Chop and slice the scallions and herbs.

3. Once quinoa is cooked, remove from heat and add basil, scallions, 1 T sesame or oil, some black pepper and mix well.

In the meantime, poach your eggs. Don’t be scared! It’s simple.
1.  Bring water to boil.

2. Add 1 ts vinegar

3. Reduce heat to simmer. 

4. Crack eggs into measuring cups, then slide them out of cups into simmering water. (They will look ghostly and disgusting.)

5. Kill the heat and cover the pot.

6. After 4 minutes, remove eggs with a slotted spoon.

Top the quinoa with dash of salt, a drizzle of oil and a poached egg.

Categories
Recipes

Braised Zucchini with Mint &Lemon


recipe and image via The Wednesday Chef ; (Thanks, KC, for sending it our way!)

Ingredients
2 pounds zucchini
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely diced onion
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Salt
1 tablespoon chopped mint, divided
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts

Method
1. Cut the ends from each zucchini, slice the zucchini in quarters lengthwise and then cut the quarters in half crosswise. You’ll have large pieces of zucchini about 2 to 3 inches long.

2. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, warm the olive oil and the onion over medium-low heat until the onion softens and becomes fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the zucchini, the garlic, lemon zest, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon mint and 2 tablespoons of water and stir well to combine. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini is extremely tender and almost translucent, about 25 minutes. There should be some liquid still in the bottom of the pan.

3. Remove the lid, add the lemon juice and increase heat to high. When the liquid begins to bubble, remove from heat and set aside uncovered. When the zucchini is at warm room temperature, stir in the remaining 2 teaspoons mint and the pine nuts, then taste and add more salt and lemon juice if necessary. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

Categories
Recipes

Tabouleh


Image via DieKatrin

A quick & easy, almost no cook recipe; ideal for summer.

Ingredients
1/2 cup bulgur
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups roughly chopped parsley leaves
1 cup roughly chopped mint leaves
1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped green onions
Avocado slices (optional)

Method
1. Cover bulgur in boiling water and let stand for 5-15 minutes. Fluff once water is soaked up.

2. Toss with oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

3. Add onions, parsley, tomatoes, mint and mix well.

4. Cover and chill.

5. Garnish with avocado slices before serving, if desired.

Categories
Recipes

Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw with Creamy Coleslaw Dressing

recipe and image via A Veggie Venture


Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Time to table: 25 minutes

Ingredients
1/4 cup cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon good mustard
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & pepper to taste (go easy here)
Fresh mint, chopped
1 pound fresh kohlrabi, trimmed, peeled, grated or cut into batons
2 Granny Smith (or other tart) apples, peeled, grated or cut into batons (try to keep equivalent volumes of kohlrabi:apple)

Method
1. Whisk cream into light pillows – this takes a minute or so, no need to get out a mixer.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.

Nutrition Estimate
Per Cup: 93 Cal (26% from Fat, 9% from Protein, 64% from Carb); 2 g Protein; 3 g Tot Fat; 2 g Sat Fat; 1 g Mono Fat; 17 g Carb; 5 g Fiber; NetCarb12; 10 g Sugar; 43 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 48 mg Sodium; 10 mg Cholesterol

Yield: 4 cups

Categories
Recipes

Strawberry Mint Lassi

I ordered a summery Thai mango salad from I Am Thai, my favorite Wednesday nite local Thai (or when I’m not in the mood to hoof it over to Sripraphai).
Foolishly, I ordered the salad “spicy”, forgetting that they are one of the few who mean spicy when they say spicy.
Now I can handle heat, but I couldn’t handle this. Even after literally rinsing the mango in water, I couldn’t rinse the salad from the seeming millions of little white pepper seeds and of course, the red slivers of dried pepper.
I quickly adapted this Strawberry Mint Lassi recipe that I saw on Food52 to mitigate the burn.
It was delicious, and so pretty with its pink color flecked with green bits of mint.
It’s not too sweet (the original recipe calls for sugar, but I omitted), and a perfect use for any bottom of the barrel, less than pristine looking berries.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup milk
8 strawberries, leaves removed
a big bunch of mint leaves

Directions
1. Put all ingredients in a tall cup and mix with an immersion (hand) blender. You could do the same with a traditional blender, but then you’d have a big mess to clean up.

2. Drink with a straw.