vegetables – Kate's Garden Kitchen

Spunk up vegetables with spices

January 11, 2022katejerome2020gmail.com1 Comment

Why would we eat bland food, except in the case of stomach troubles, imprisonment or mom punishment?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

As a child, I was made to force down boiled brussels sprouts and steamed broccoli. For some reason, it didn’t occur to my mother to season with anything but salt and pepper. It took me a while to get back to eating both of those vegetables.

I will probably catch flak from readers who really do love the flavor of steamed broccoli for dissing it. But why not give it a squirt of lemon or a dash of sriracha?

So many of my friends (and my husband) are working toward the life change to a plant-based diet. Not just a new year’s resolution, but a permanent life change. A change like this is hard, but there are ways to make the transition easier and so much more likely to stick.

It’s true that vegetables don’t have the natural umami flavors of meat, but there are countless ways to make steamed broccoli and boiled carrots delicious and satisfying. Sauces are one tool, and they don’t have to be high fat, high calorie. Herb mixes are other tools.

You can buy many herb mixes ready-made off the store shelves although you may need to visit higher-end groceries to find some of the more exotic ones. Or you can mix your own. I grow herbs and chile peppers and dry them all summer. Then I mix my own mixes. It’s so easy to simply toss a tablespoon of homemade Italian seasoning into a marinara sauce.

Try to avoid ready-made packets, like spaghetti and chili mixes because they often contain ingredients that you may not want. For example, Lawry’s spaghetti sauce mix has these ingredients: “Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Salt, Onion, Mushrooms, Garlic Powder, Spices (Including Paprika And Parsley), Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Whey (Milk), Natural Flavors (Beef And Pork), Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Torula Yeast, Citric Acid, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate.”
While these are not inherently bad ingredients, why not make a cleaner simple Italian mix of oregano, basil, marjoram, paprika and garlic?

The ethnic aisle in the grocery is my favorite place to browse. Mose ethnic cuisines have intriguing spice combinations and sauces. My latest love is Za’atar seasoning which is made of thyme, sesame, sumac and sometimes cumin and coriander. I love this sprinkled on roasted potatoes and chicken, and used to season minestrone for a change from traditional Italian seasoning. I was able to buy a big package at my local grocery.

Here are some sauces and herb mixes to bring your cooking up to the highest standards of flavor and healthy eating. Most are readily available in the grocery. Have fun shopping!

Sauces:
Moroccan harissa
Japanese miso (white and dark)
Korean Go-chu-Jang
Indian garlic curry paste
Thai red or green curry paste
Thai sriracha sauce (try mixing this with coconut milk for an astounding sauce for roasted broccoli)
Mexican salsas (way too many choices here)

Spice mixes:
Indian garam masala
Spanish sazon
Creole blackening
Italian
Mediterranean
Mexican adobo
Jamaican jerk
French herbes de provence

Roasted Potatoes with Za’atar – Warm, comforting and full of umami flavor

For two:
Preheat the oven to 425. Peel (or leave the skin on) and cube 1 pound of potatoes (Yukons or golds work well). You can also quarter small red potatoes. Rinse in a colander and roll dry on a dishtowel. Drying them off makes the oil and seasonings stick.

Toss with 2 tablespoons of high-quality olive oil, salt and pepper, and a tablespoon of Za’atar or any other seasoning mix. For spicy potatoes, toss with chile oil in place of the olive oil.

Prepare a baking dish large enough to hold the potatoes in one layer with a film of olive oil or cooking spray. Place in a cold oven in the bottom third of the oven. Roast for about 20 minutes, stirring and turning them once at the halfway mark.

Cream soups

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

Broccoli soup drizzled with basil-infused oil

A creamy soup can make even the harshest winter seem not so bad. It soothes a raw throat, clears the sinuses with fragrant heat and nourishes the belly with warmth.

Don’t be put off by the word “cream” if you’ve made a resolution to count calories, because there are many ways to make a creamy soup without cream. Of course, the richness of cream is sometimes worth the indulgence.

Add a fresh salad of spring mix and a homemade vinaigrette and a slice of crusty Italian toast and you have a winning, quick meal.

Here’s a secret – make a creamy base from rice:

1/3 c. medium or long-grained white rice
3 c. broth, chicken or vegetable

Film a deep saucepan with olive oil, add the rice and cook for two minutes, stirring. Add the broth, reduce the heat and simmer until the rice is soft with most of the liquid, about 25 minutes.

Transfer to a blender or use a stick blender and process until the sauce is smooth. Use as a substitute for cream or milk in any cream-based recipe.

And, now for the soup!

Once you make the easy base, the choice is yours as to what vegetables to add. The key is to cook the vegetables until done and then puree with liquid of choice as needed. Many don’t need further seasoning than salt and pepper but use your creative hand to make the soup Italian flavored with oregano and basil, curry-flavored by adding a tablespoon of red curry paste, or Tex-Mex with chipotle and cumin.

1 T. butter
¼ cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 c. broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 cups vegetables of choice (see note below)
½ c. half-and-half, rice cream, coconut milk or pureed cannellini beans
Salt and pepper to taste, other seasonings as desired

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions and garlic and saute until tender. Add vegetables and saute until tender. Alternatively, toss vegetables with olive oil and roast at 375 until tender. Add broth and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and puree with a hand blender. You can puree until smooth or leave it somewhat chunky. Stir in half-and-half and season to taste. Pour into bowls and garnish with garlic croutons, scallions, feta or goat cheese, parmesan.

Note: suggestions for vegetables are endless. Raid the crisper drawers or freezer and come up with your own combinations. Frozen vegetables can make a really quick soup. Add mushrooms, spinach, carrots and skip the puree step for a delicious chunky soup.

Fresh or frozen peas and chopped carrots
Tomatoes and basil
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Corn
Edamame
Peppers and carrots
Eggplant
Zucchini
Beets
Pumpkin or winter squash

Grilling

July 2, 2020July 2, 2020katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

The summer is heating up and with the holiday weekend upon us, barbecuing is on everyone’s mind. This is a prime time to heat up the grill instead of the kitchen.

I used to think of the grill as the place where you cooked ribs, chops and chicken breasts. However, I now use it for all types of vegetables, mushrooms and bread and I’m hooked.

Gas or charcoal

You can use a gas or charcoal grill but it just takes a little more planning to get the coals ready. I’ve managed to pick up a few grilling baskets and trays at second-hand stores although you also buy new ones from garden and hardware stores. Whatever utensils or cookware you use, make sure it’s not your best because it will show wear from the grill. I have set aside a couple of older cast iron pans for use on the grill and I love how they cook outside almost as much as inside.

Grill almost any vegetable

A visit to the farmers market or my garden brings in tomatoes, summer squash, spring onions, early carrots, fresh garlic, maybe some late asparagus, bok choi, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and a myriad of other good eats.

All of which can be simply grilled. The essence of grilling is to use high-quality oil to help the vegetables caramelize. My go-to is fruity olive oil, but you can use grapeseed, walnut or even toasted sesame oil for a slightly Asian taste.

Garnish with herbs after grilling

Fresh herbs lose their flavor quickly when grilled, so if using them, chop and add them after the vegetables come off the grill. I also wait to salt vegetables until they come off the grill, while they are still warm so the salt dissolves, but not while on the grill which tends to make it necessary to use more salt.

Marinate or not

You can marinate the vegetables before cooking if you choose, but since vegetables don’t soak up oil and vinegar as meats do, it really isn’t necessary. You can toss them with whatever you like after they come off the grill for delicious flavors.

Vegetables don’t take long to cook, so cook any meats or other main courses first.

How to grill

Heat the grill to high and then turn it back to medium. Oil your pan (cooking spray works fine), and then add the vegetables. Some that are tougher, like carrots or beets, should be steamed or blanched briefly in boiling water to start the cooking process. Don’t cook until they are soft, though or they won’t hold up on the grill. Toss the vegetables frequently while they cook so all sides get equally caramelized.

Asparagus

Trim off tough ends, roll in olive oil and grill on a flat grill pan for around ten minutes, shaking the pan part-way through or using tongs to roll them around. Serve with a yogurt or mustard sauce.

Carrots

Steam or blanch about 2 minutes and then dress with olive oil. Grill in a basket about ten minutes until easily pierced with a fork. Toss with fresh mint and maple syrup if desired or simply dressed with salt.

Cabbage and cauliflower

Cut into “steaks”, drizzle with oil and cook on a grill tray until it is just crisp-tender. Sprinkle with garlic powder and drizzle with balsamic vinegar to serve.

Broccoli

Cut into small florets, toss with oil and toss in a grill basket about ten minutes. Toss with fresh parmesan, a fresh squeeze of lemon and lots of fresh ground pepper to serve.

Summer squash, zucchini, pattypans

Cut into ½” thick coins and toss with garlic powder and oil. Toss in a grill basket about 10-15 minutes until crisp-tender. A sauce made with Dijon mustard and yogurt is delicious drizzled over the top.

Potatoes

Blanch new potatoes (red or gold) until slightly tender. Slice in half, toss with a bit of olive oil and grill for about 10 minutes. Toss with a warm vinaigrette for grilled potato salad.

Grilling mixes, rubs and marinades

Use these as a dry rub on meat, fish or vegetables: brush with olive oil and sprinkle with grilling mix.

Or, add a tablespoon to ¼ cup olive oil and ¼ cup vinegar of choice for a marinade. Brush vegetables or meats with leftover marinade as you grill. If you marinate meat, be sure to discard any extra marinade that you don’t use in cooking. It can harbor bacteria.

Basic Grilling Mix

1 T. oregano

1 T. basil

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. thyme

For specialty mixes – start with the basic grilling mix and add the ingredients listed:

Mint Herb Mix – use on potatoes, lamb or fish

1 T. mint

1 T. marjoram

1 T. tarragon

1 t. lemon balm

Italian Herb Mix – Use for pizza on the grill, on grilled potatoes for potato salad, on chicken breasts

1 t. rosemary

1 t. chili flakes

Herbed Ranch Mix – Use on salmon or white fish, grilled potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash

1 T. dill

1 T. ground black pepper

Traditional barbecue – delicious on vegetables and potatoes

1 t. sage

½ t. ground chili (or to taste)

1 T. paprika

1 t. rosemary

1 t. black pepper

Potager or Kitchen Gardens

June 24, 2020June 24, 2020katejerome2020gmail.com4 Comments

Red and green lettuces planted with violets and swiss chard

What exactly is a kitchen or potager garden? In essence, these trendy terms basically describe a garden filled with vegetables, herbs and fruits. All food gardens are technically kitchen gardens, but this term is often used for a garden planned for beauty as well as function.

Potager garden

Kitchen gardens have been around for hundreds of years. The French call it a potager garden, coming from the word potage for soup. Faced with usually small garden spaces, they have learned to grow enough vegetables to feed their families. And flowers to cut for the table.

Cottage garden

British cottage gardens include ornamental plants combined with all manner of vegetables, fruits and herbs. They’re filled with lettuce, chard, sweet peas supported on twig trellises, and plump cabbages that are beautiful in their own right. Add the herbs such as purple leaf basil, lemon thyme and garden sage for cooking delectable dinners.

A kitchen garden can be precise and orderly, blowsy and tangled, or even a garden made up only of containers. But the effect is the same – vegetables and fruits grown with flowers and herbs, limited only by your imagination.

Lettuces and mesclun in rows for a potager garden

This type of garden is not used so much for large-scale production, canning and putting away for the winter, but more for immediate use in the kitchen. It can range from a small hanging basket of oregano and lettuce outside the back door to a full garden with roses, shrubs and perennials coupled with vegetables and herbs. Fruits and edible flowers certainly have a place here as well.

Why plant a kitchen garden?

We are usually inspired to start a kitchen garden because we want to taste fresh food that’s not available at the market. There is nothing quite like picking and tasting your own ripe, perfumed melon or warm raspberries right off the shrub. Greens such as arugula, radiccio and mesclun are rarely available from the grocery or farmers market, but are amazingly simple to grow. Heirloom squash and beans are easily be grown in the home garden.

The freshest food

We all love having beauty around us – that’s generally why we garden in the first place. Edible plants can be artistically combined with ornamental plants to create a beautiful garden that pleases eye and palate.

Some vegetables that lend themselves to a smaller space garden:

The vegetables

Green beans – Come in green, purple and yellow types, in bush or pole types which produce later in the season. Plant scarlet runners, purple and yellow wax beans together on a trellis for all spectacular accent.

Eggplant – These delicious fruits come in every color and shape imaginable, from white to yellow to striped lilac to red to black, and in oblong, round and cherry-tomato sized. The compact plants make beautiful accents with striking purple flowers, dusky green-purple leaves and jewel-like fruits.

Kale – This nutritious vegetable comes in a myriad of sizes, colors and leaf textures. Unlike the familiar flowering kale, the new varieties are sweet and tender, and come in all shades of blue, purple, pink and red. Best of all, they produce all summer.

Lettuce – there is no end to the colors and textures, not to mention the countless types of greens mixes. These make beautiful bed edging and thrive in baskets.

Pepper – Peppers come in all colors, shapes and sizes, jewel-like fruits hung on ornamental plants. Choose orange, red, white, purple or brown bell peppers, scarlet cayennes or jalapenos, tiny upright mirasols, rich golden bananas and cubanelles or even tiny but potent maroon scotch bonnets.

Tomatoes – Grow cherries on trellises or patio tomatoes in the ground or in containers. There are methods to prune and pinch and train them onto a single stake, taking up much less room than in a tomato cage.

Classic Salad Niçoise

This salad is a classic French dish and can be adapted to any seasonal vegetables and your favorite vinaigrette. Add edible flowers like calendula petals, nasturtiums or violets to make it pop.

Your choice of vegetables:

sliced steamed baby potatoes

green beans

artichoke hearts

small cooking onions or scallions

hard boiled eggs

tomato wedges

sliced sweet peppers

grated carrots

cooked edamame

shredded beets

olives

capers

Set in rows on a bed of bibb; drizzle with vinaigrette of choice.

You can also add seared tuna or grilled flank steak.

Bean soup

May 26, 2020katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

I always keep canned beans in my pantry. And, now that I have an instant pot, I’m gaining confidence in cooking them from scratch as well. Before the instant pot, my favorite thing to do was put on a pot of beans and promptly burn them since they have to cook so long. Lost a lot of good pots that way.

Another dirty little secret is that I have dribs and drabs of leftover vegetables, meats and grains in bags in the freezer. I cannot stand to waste food, so if there’s a little bit left, I’ll freeze it for use in soup later. Labeled of course.

Anything goes

The great thing about soup is that you can add simply anything to it and have unique flavors. Leftover bits of chicken or turkey with white beans and noodles make a great soup. Add some swiss chard or spinach, a can of chopped tomatoes and it turns into something different. As vegetables start coming in from the markets and our gardens, change up your soup accordingly. If hot soup isn’t appealing in the summer, remember that adding chiles will make you sweat, cooling you off. And, try bean soups cold!

Start with broth

The basic recipe for a soup is to start with good vegetable, chicken or beef broth. You can make an even richer soup with bone broth. Use store- bought if you don’t have time to make your own – you’ll still get a wonderful pot of soup (no guilt!). Saute some onion and garlic in a bit of broth or olive oil to get your flavor started.

Add protein and grain

Then add a protein like black beans, garbanzos, canellini or kidney beans. Use leftovers from a roasted chicken (again, store bought roasted chicken is good), leftover Thanksgiving turkey (you know you have some, somewhere in the freezer), tempeh or tofu. If you want to use cheese, add it at the very end.

Next, add a cooked grain like brown or white rice, farro, quinoa, or a pasta such as egg noodles, farfalle, linguini or orzo. Whole wheat pastas which may not be as palatable for spaghetti are hearty and delicious in soup.

The best part – vegetables

Then comes the best part – the vegetables. Add whatever you have in the fridge or freezer – cabbage, corn, peppers, spinach, broccoli, carrots, kale, Swiss chard, cauliflower or zucchini. The vegetable combinations can vary depending on the flavor you want.

Season according to the flavor you desire. For Mediterranean, use thyme, oregano, a pinch of sage and basil. For Mexican, cumin and chili powder give it a kick. For Italian, use oregano, basil and smoked paprika.

Although you really don’t need a recipe to make a great bean soup, here’s a start on a Mexican bean soup:

Recipe for Bean soup

2 cups broth

1 large clove garlic, minced

½ spanish onion, chopped

1-2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained if using canned

½ bag frozen corn

½ cup chopped sweet peppers

¼ chopped chili peppers

½ c. diced carrots

½ t. smoked or regular cumin

½ t. chili powder

Saute garlic and onion in two tablespoons of broth for about a minute. Add peppers, carrots and corn and saute for another minute. Add beans and seasonings and simmer for about 45 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt and a splash of sriracha if you like more heat.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

January 14, 2020katejerome2020gmail.com2 Comments

Almost every recipe you see needs broth or stock of one sort or another. And, before you decide to just add water, think first – stock adds a nuance of flavor that you might not even know you’ll miss.

Vegetable stock makes a big difference in flavor

Of course, when making hearty soups, stews and chili with vegetables, beans and other ingredients that give their own rich flavor, it may not be necessary to use stock for extra flavor. But when cooking rice or grains, the addition of flavored liquid can make the difference between bland and dynamite.

There are all sorts of broth and stock available commercially these days, from standard chicken to organic vegetable to the richest bone broths (many are even flavored with garlic, peppers, onions and paprika).

Make your own stock

Although they certainly do in a pinch and I always try to have some in my pantry, homemade stocks are far and away better. Not only because you know what’s in them, but because the flavor is superior and you can control the salt.

Keep a bag of vegetable trimmings in the freezer

It may seem a bit miserly but I’ve gotten in the habit of saving all my vegetable trimmings. I keep a bag in the freezer and toss in, after washing well, the leftovers from onions, shallots, celery, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, etc. It’s important that you wash the peelings before freezing them so you can simply put them in the pot when the time comes.

Add cheese rind and mushrooms for more flavor

When I have a full bag and a day when I’ll be home for at least half a day, I toss them in a large stock pot and add garlic, bay leaf and other herbs I happen to have. The pièce d ‘resistance is to toss in a Parmesan rind to boost the umami flavor. Mushrooms also provide this flavor. You can adjust the flavors however you like with herbs and the vegetables you choose.

Fill the pot, covering the vegetables and turn on low. There’s no need to salt the stock – you can get a better feel for salt levels when you actually use it in a dish. Let the pot simmer and fill your kitchen with a delightful aroma for the day. After four or five hours, strain the stock and refrigerate or freeze. I find it easiest to freeze it in one cup measures since I don’t always need more than that.

Dilled rice with homemade vegetable stock

Dilled Rice

1 c. brown rice

2 c. vegetable stock

1 large clove garlic

1 t. dill seeds or 1 T. dried dill or 3 T. finely chopped fresh dill

1 t. salt

Crush the garlic clove along with the dill and salt until you have a paste. A mortar and pestle is great for this but you can also just use the flat side of a knife. Add the paste to the stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the rice, reduce the heat to very low and cover. Cook about 45-55 minutes. When the liquid is all absorbed, fluff the rice and serve by itself as a side dish or under stir-fried vegetables.

Heirlooms and Saving Seeds

October 10, 2019katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

Heirloom vegetables give us a sweet connection to the past, and many people believe that these vegetables have the closest flavor to our childhood memories of true vegetable taste. Heirlooms come from seed that has been handed down for generations. They get their start when a gardener hand-selects for a special trait.

Open Pollinated, Self Pollinated

Heirloom vegetables are open-pollinated, which means they’re pollinated by insects or wind without human intervention. As long as pollen is not shared between different varieties within the same species, then the seed will produce a plant that resembles the plant from which it came and remain true-to-type year after year.

If you decide that you want to save seed from heirloom plants, you need to understand whether the variety is self-pollinated or will cross-pollinate. Cross-pollination may mean that you end up with plants that don’t resemble the plant from which you saved seed and may not even be edible. This is particularly true with cucumbers, squash and melons.

Hybrid Seeds

The “opposite” of an open-pollinated plant is a hybrid which is created by human intervention. Designated as an F1 hybrid, seeds are produced by seed companies by carefully controlling cross-pollination of two varieties with specific traits. It’s important to note that they often don’t “come true” from saved seed. In other words, the seeds you collect from a hybrid may produce plants that are like either parent that was used in the cross or some combination of traits. Some hybrids produce sterile seeds.

Save Seeds Now

Start making plans to save seeds now while the garden is still in full production. Peas, green beans, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers are all self-pollinating and fairly easy to save.

Tomatoes

For soft fruits, such as tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers (yes, they are botanically fruits), let the fruit ripen to almost overripe but not to the point of being rotten.

For tomatoes, scrape out the seedy pulp and discard the rest of the fruit (make bruschetta!). Put seeds and pulp in a covered jar with some water and let it sit a few days to ferment. Fermentation lets bacteria kill any seed borne diseases. Shake the jar a couple of times a day.

After a couple of days, the good seeds will have sunk to the bottom and the bad seeds and pulp will be floating. Pour off the water and pulp carefully, trying not to disturb the seeds on the bottom. Then dump the seeds into a fine strainer and rinse them well. Spread the damp seeds on a tray or screen to dry. If you dry on paper towels or newspaper, they will be hard to remove without damage.

Peppers and Eggplants

For peppers and eggplant, simply remove the seeds from the pulp and wash the seeds thoroughly. Spread the seeds to dry.

Beans and Peas

Beans and peas are most easily left on the vine to dry. When dry, break or split the pods to release the seeds. Spread them on a screen or tray to dry completely.

Storage

Once your seeds are dry, store in an airtight container to prevent reabsorbing moisture from the air. Label immediately. Keep seeds dry and cool and between 32° and 41°F. Canning jars or plastic containers make great storage containers, and you can add a silica-gel desiccant to keep them completely dry.