Simple Summer Salad

What could be simpler than chopping up some fresh garden vegetables with basil and a little vinegar and agave marinade for a refreshing meal on a sunny summer evening?  If you still have basil, here is a quick and delicious way to use it up.  This is a very flexible "use what you have" recipe.  Every vegetable in here is replaceable with whatever you have or like - tomatoes, red onion, zucchini you name it.







Simple Summer Salad

1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans), drained and rinsed

3 scallions, chopped

2 sweet banana peppers, seeded and chopped

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

3 large garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbs agave nectar

salt and pepper to taste

Place all vegetables in a medium to large bowl.  Drizzle vinegar and agave over the vegetables and add a little salt and pepper.  Stir to combine everything.  This salad is even better after it has marinated for a few hours.

Tomato Time!

Tomato Salad

The other night we went to the monthly vegetarian dinner at Kaya in the Strip District.  They offer a prix fixe four course vegetarian/vegan menu on the third Wednesday of each month.  From the dishes they served this month, it is clear that this is corn and tomato season!

Penne with Tomato Vodka Sauce

So no surprise this week when I received 7 or 8 nice, plump roma tomatoes in the
CRO delivery along with a bright box of grape tomatoes.  I don't love overripe tomatoes so I try to use these sooner rather than later.  I have a very quick and easy tomato vodka sauce for penne that I love.  You can make this recipe with a 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes in winter, but in summer, when the tomatoes are freshly picked, I like to go the extra mile and prepare the tomatoes for sauce. This means removing the skins and seeds.  The procedure is in the recipe below.  While it might seem like a little bit of trouble, the results are worth it.

Remove stems, skin, and seeds from the tomatoes by blanching.

Penne with Tomato Vodka Sauce

1 lb penne pasta
6-8 ripe CRO roma tomatoes (use all you received plus any left from last week)
1 small onion, diced (or use some of the CRO candy onion - a few slices should do it)
1/4 cup vodka
1 Tbs chopped fresh marjoram or 1 tsp dried
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used rice milk)

Roughly chop the tomatoes before adding them to the pot.

1/2 cup white beans (any white bean), cooked or canned and drained/rinsed

Removing the tomato skins and seeds


Here's a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes in a large pot of boiling water for 1 minute then remove them with a slotted spoon to a bowl of cold water (the fancy name for this is blanching).  When they have cooled, remove the stem with the tip of a knife.  Now you can just peel off the skins with your fingers.  The skins should practically slide off the tomatoes.  Then cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze or scrape out the seeds.  You don't need to be militant about this - just get most of the seeds.  Finally, chop the tomatoes roughly.

Preparing the Sauce
Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion, cover, and sauté 5-7 minutes until the onions are translucent.  Add the vodka to the pot and let cook 1 minute to burn off the alcohol.  Add the tomatoes and marjoram and simmer about 10-15 minutes.  Use the back of a spoon to crush the tomatoes as they cook.  

While the tomatoes are cooking, place the non-dairy milk and white beans in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.  When the tomatoes have sort of fallen apart and are cooked, add 1 cup of the sauce to the blender and process again until smooth.  Add the puree back to the pot with the sauce.  Add the cooked pasta and stir.  Serve immediately
Serves 4.


I served the pasta with a side of this simple tomato salad.  You can make this while the sauce is cooking.

Tomato Salad

1/2 box CRO multi-colored grape tomatoes, quartered

2 slices CRO Candy Onion, chopped

1 handful fresh basil leaves, torn or snipped into small pieces

1 tsp olive oil

1 Tbs balsamic vinegar

Combine tomatoes, onion, and basil in a medium bowl.  Sprinkle with olive oil and toss.  Sprinkle with the balsamic vinegar and toss again.  Serve immediately or refrigerate to marinate which really brings out the flavors.

Serves 3-4.

Doesn't get easier...Roasted Tomato and Basil Pasta

If you still have the saladette tomatoes, here is a very quick, easy pasta dish to try.  The only other ingredients are pasta, basil and olive oil.  This also works well with any other tomatoes you have, just cut them up into smaller pieces if they are large.

Roasted Tomato and Basil Pasta

1 pint saladette tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 Tbs olive oil, plus a little extra to sprinkle on tomatoes
6-8 ounces pasta of choice
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
salt, peper

Place tomatoes (cut side up) on a baking

sheet lined with parchment paper.  Drizzle with a little olive oil (or spray with olive oil).  Sprinkle on salt and pepper, if desired.  Roast in oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until tomatoes begin to brown and shrivel slightly.  While tomatoes roast, heat water and cook 1/2 package pasta of choice according to package directions.  When tomatoes and pasta are done, drain pasta and toss with tomatoes, basil and 1 tbs olive oil.  Serves 2.

Kale and Tomato Pizza with Basil "Ricotta Cheese"

This pizza is a little bit of work, but when you taste it you will say it was worth it.  If you have a lot of basil to use up (more than what we received from CRO this past week) then this is the pizza for you.  It is topped with both basil pesto and basil "ricotta cheese".  Add some of the kale and tomatoes you received and you have one great pizza!  I make my own pizza dough from scratch,  but it is easier to just buy pre-made crust or dough that you can roll out.  




Kale and Tomato Pizza with Basil "Ricotta cheese" 
(adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance "Isa Pizza")

12 to 14 inch pizza crust
1/2 cup jarred pizza sauce
2 large CRO kale leaves, center rib removed and chopped
1 CRO heirloom tomato, sliced into rounds and then the slices cut into quarters

For Basil Pesto:
3 cups packed basil leaves
1/2 cup walnuts
3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)

For Basil "Ricotta Cheese"
1 block tofu (14 oz)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
10 basil leaves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 nutritional yeast

Prepare Pesto:  Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until it has a grainy consistency.  Set aside

Prepare Basil "Ricotta Cheese":  Place tofu in the bowl of an electric mixer and break apart with a fork.  Now turn on your mixer and blend until crumbly. (I use an electric mixer.  If you don't have one, just mix by hand, but it will take longer to get the right consistency).  Add lemon juice, garlic, basil, salt and pepper.  Blend until the consistency of cottage cheese.  Add the olive oil and mix again until it has the consistency of ricotta cheese.  Add the nutritional yeast and blend until just combined.  Set aside.

To assemble pizza:  Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Spread pizza sauce over crust leaving a rim around the edge.  Place dollops, about 2 tablespoons each, of pesto all around the crust.  Repeat this with the "ricotta".  Top with slices of tomato and the kale.  Bake for 8-12 minutes.  It is done when crust edges are light brown. 

Red Quinoa Zucchini Burgers

Vegetarian Times Red Quinoa Zucchini Burgers

The great thing about veggie burgers is that there are so many varieties.  No two are alike.  I have made many and I have my favorites, but am always looking for something new and different.  Vegetarian Times magazine had an article on the ultimate veggie burgers in their most recent issue (July/August 2014).  I took note of this particular veggie burger when I saw that it had zucchini in it.  Perfect timing for this week's box!  If you still have your zucchini use it here.  You only need about half of the zucchini to make 1 cup grated.  If not, you can substitute the yellow squash if you still have that.  I still had both so I used the zucchini and then roasted the yellow squash (with olive oil, salt, and pepper at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes).  I rounded out the meal with some CRO potatoes, cut up, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, roasted at 425 for 25 minutes and then, when cool, I mixed them with a couple of tablespoons each of chopped dill, yellow onion, celery and vegan mayonnaise.    Here is a link to the recipe Vegetarian Times Red Quinoa Zucchini Burgers. 

Notes on making these burgers:
-prep all of your other ingredients while the quinoa and potatoes are cooking.
-use a standing mixer if you have it to mash the chick peas first (at very low speed  - this may take several minutes).  Then add all the other burger ingredients. 
-the burgers will hold together more easily if you chill the mixture for at least an hour first.

Week 9 - Swiss Chard, Armenian Cucumber, Tomatoes, Green Pepper, Basil

Not sure you want to tackle the Roasted Cauliflower Hummus Pizza of my other week 9 post?  Then here is a very simple, very quick salad you can make that tastes refreshingly great and uses five of this week's items.   I actually had used up ALL of my CRO swiss chard on the Roasted Cauliflower Hummus Pizza  so I had to grab a red swiss chard leaf and a red kale leaf from my own little front porch garden which is why the salad "greens" in the photo look a little "red".  You can add 1/2 cup of black beans per person (or any cooked beans for that matter) to make this a one-dish meal.


Garden Fresh Chopped Salad

 2 Clarion River Organics Swiss Chard leaves, stripped from their stems and chopped
1-2 Clarion River Organics Basil leaves, snipped
1 Clarion River Organics Tomato, chopped
4 slices Clarion River Organics Green Pepper, chopped 
4-inch piece Clarion River Organics Armenian Cucumber, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 tbs balsamic vinegar (raspberry balsamic is very nice in this!)
1/2 tsp grape seed oil
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled

Place all veggies in a bowl.  Add the balsamic vinegar, grape seed oil, mustard and thyme and toss well.  This will serve one person generously.  Just increase all the quantities accordingly for more people.

Week 9 - Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, Green Pepper, Tomato, Basil

Okay.  I'll admit it.  Only a whole foods plant based eater (i.e. vegan) would look at cauliflower, swiss chard, and tomatoes and say "PIZZA"!!  But that's exactly what happened this week when I looked through my green bag.  The "cheese" on this pizza is played by roasted cauliflower hummus and the other ingredients are the toppings.  Roasting the cauliflower will give the hummus a more "cheesy" flavor and a "ricotta" look.  To make this simpler and save a little time, I use store-bought tortillas as the crust, but really anything you want to use as crust will work just as well.  If you have the time, make your own.  A cornmeal crust is excellent.  Anything goes with this pizza as far as toppings, but greens and tomatoes are two of my favorites.  Enjoy this updated, healthy take on the traditional pie! 

Roasted Cauliflower Hummus Pizza 

1 head Clarion River Organics Cauliflower, cut into florets with stems included

1 bunch Clarion River Organics Swiss Chard, stems removed and leaves chopped (save stems for another use or discard)

2 Clarion River Organics Tomatoes, sliced and the slices cut into quarters

The Clarion River Organics Ingredients

1 Clarion River Organics Green Pepper, diced

2 Scallions, sliced

1/4 - 1/2 cup Kalamata Olives, sliced

6-8 Clarion River Organics Basil leaves, snipped or chopped

Cooking spray

1/2 tbsp Tahini

1/2 tbsp Olive Oil

Juice of half a Lemon

1 Garlic Clove

2 1/2 tbsp water

2 10-inch Tortillas or 4 6-inch Tortillas

Make the cauliflower hummus: Place the cauliflower on a cookie sheet, spray with cooking spray, and roast at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.  Place roasted cauliflower in a blender or food processor with the tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and water.  Blend/process until smooth.

Roasted Cauliflower Hummus

The Prepped Toppings

While the cauliflower is roasting, prepare the other vegetables and set aside.  

When the cauliflower is done, reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees.  Place the tortillas on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes until light brown and beginning to crisp.  Remove from oven.  

Spread the hummus on each tortilla and top with the vegetables: tomato slices first, followed by chard, green pepper, scallions, and olives.  Bake pizzas for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven to plates and sprinkle the snipped basil on top of each pizza.  Serve immediately.  Serves 2-4.