Tag Archives: dips

Aug03
vegan / gluten free

pesto, many ways

27

We’ve been making a lot of pesto lately. It’s great just to have on hand, especially for lazy summertime cooking. Dollop it on grilled vegetables, fish, meats, tofu, pasta, salads, eggs, toasted bread, pizza, sandwiches… you get the idea. It makes anything an instant tasty meal whether you really felt like cooking or not.

I have little sticky notes all over my kitchen scribbled with the various ingredients we’ve been subbing in (yes, that’s my organization “system”). Finally it occurred to me that I’m not going to send you to the store for a specific recipe. Instead, I’ll share a basic recipe and then offer some ideas of how you can change it up.

But the first thing you need to do is go look in your kitchen and see what you already have. You probably already have some kind of nuts, herbs or greens to use as a starting point. More often than not, if I make a pistachio pesto, it’s not because I’m trying to be fancy… pistachios just happened to be the nut I had that day. If I have some arugula in the fridge that’s getting close to it’s last days, I’ll use that. I have two huge basil plants so a basil combo is a common go-to for me.

I’m sure there are a million more ideas than the ones I’ve listed here, if you have a favorite, feel free to share!

Go to the recipe “pesto, many ways”…

Jun27
summer / vegan / gluten free

peach salsa with mint

17

I’ve been binge eating peaches lately. Usually I’m pretty disciplined about buying only a few peaches at a time. I’ll even stagger my peach buying… 2 one day, 2 a few days later, so that every few days (during peach season) I have a manageable amount of peaches to consume on that one day when they’re perfectly ripe.

So when my bi-weekly Farmhouse Delivery started sending me 12 peaches at a time (for the last 3 bushels in a row) my summer “peach system” was, needless to say, wrecked. (I know, it’s rough… my life… they’re really awesome peaches too).

That is until last week they sent me about 10 jalapenos. So this time instead of eating all 12 peaches in (practically) one sitting, I chopped up the extras with some of my jalapeno bounty and made this peach salsa.

My intention was for this salsa treatment to extend the peaches – they should last a few days longer in the fridge preserved in lime juice. But Jack and I polished this off in one sitting on some tacos. So I guess the peach binge continues.

This would be great on so many summery dishes – on top of grilled fish, on a salad topped with black beans or shrimp, in tacos, or just scooped up with chips.

Go to the recipe “peach salsa with mint”…

Jun20

Roasted carrots

26

We don’t really like carrots. Ok, I take that back, we like cake made out of carrots, and we like raw carrots, but both Jack and I grew up with a disdain for cooked carrots. Of course, we only knew them as the mushy baby carrot version. Or worse yet, the mushy baby carrots in the pot roast version. We both have memories of our moms smasing the carrots and boiled potatoes together and pouring gravy on top. “But it’s so good this way”, my mom would say… each and every time… as if one day this mush would miraculously taste like ice cream.

But last Saturday at the farmers market, I couldn’t pass up this bag of colorful carrots. (It also helped that the design of the label on the bag was so darn cute). I brought them home and realized that cake was out, as it would be the ugliest looking brown carrot cake. So instead, I decided it was high time to make cooked carrots taste good – by roasting them to tender-not-mushy-caramelized goodness. I made a tangy cilantro yogurt to dip them in, and we both devoured them.

Go to the recipe “Roasted carrots”…