This beast came out of my dad’s veggie garden, I added my Chef Knife to the photograph for scale.

Chilled Zucchini and Basil Soup with Paprika Toasts
Serves 5

1 Monster Zucchini
2 Cloves Garlic
1 medium-large White Onion
2 Cups Water
1 Cup Veggie Broth
Cooking Sherry or White Wine
2 Bay leaves
20 large Basil Leaves
1 Lemon
Red Chili Flakes
Bunch of Fresh Thyme
1/2 Day old Baguette
Olive Oil
Smoked Paprika

Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and cube the zucchini.  Heat some olive oil in a large pot and add the onions, cook until soft.  Add in the garlic and bay leaf and cook a minute or two.  Add the zucchini and sherry or white wine and cook until tender, stirring every now and then, use a lid to hasten up the cooking.  Add water, broth, lemon and thyme, bring to a boil and then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Remove lid, add shredded basil, red chilli flakes, and lemon zest, season to taste.  Blend the soup with an immersion blender until smooth.  Chill in the fridge until cold, or eat hot (it’s good either way).

Slice the baguette into 1 cm thick slices. Brush each with olive oil and rub smoked paprika, salt and pepper into each toast.  Bake in oven until golden about 5 minutes at 400. Remove from oven and sprinkle with lemon juice, arrange in soup.

I’ve been wanting to try fresh garbanzos (or chickpeas) for a very long time.  They were on a long list of weird vegetables that I have been aching to get my hands on, along with fiddleheads, kumatoes (still looking for those), and all edible blossoms (I’ve only managed to try chive flowers and zucchini blossoms… both yum).  I can’t explain why it is that I LOVE weird vegetables, but I just do.  Even if it’s only a color variation with no effect on the taste whatsoever,  I will buy it.  Black radishes, golden beets, green tomatoes, brown tomatoes (kumatoes), purple carrots, purple potatoes, purple broccoli!! Thrilling!!!!

Anyway, I found them in Whole Foods the other day on my way home form work.  It was Friday and I had finally found fresh garbanzo beans- I was in such a good mood.

It’s my understanding that Fresh Garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, are generally treated like edamame.  They can be shelled and then stir fried, steamed, boiled etc.  They can also be cooked while still in their pods,  the beans sucked out edamame style so to get the flavour off the shell if sauted.

Fresh garbanzo beans are sooooo good! Why don’t we always eat them fresh?  I’ll tell you why: shelling them is a pain in the butt.  It’s not awful, but that and their shelf life must be the deciding factors.

So this accompanied my “taste the rainbow tart” (renamed thanks to Dom).  I didn’t want to put too much effort in, so I opted for a simple approach.

Sauted Fresh Garbanzo beans with Lemon, Chili, and Garlic
Serves 4 in a Salad

30 Pods
1 clove Garlic
1/2 Lemon
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Shell the pods- find a friend, or a mum. Heat the olive oil and cook the garlic for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add in the beans and stir well. Pour in lemon juice and toss well until evapourated. Season with salt and chili pepper. Serve over a salad with arugula, cherry tomato, red onion, cucumber, and avocado.

When I was little, I had a vendetta against peas.  I hated peas with every ounce of my body, and I will never forget one fateful Sunday dinner when I actually ate some peas.  We had the usual- roast meat with roast potatoes, and a few plates of veg, one of which was PEAS.  I refused to  eat them until my dad informed me that if I didn’t, they would put peas on my ice cream.  I ate the peas.

Now I love peas- but not because of that scarring childhood memory.

Zucchini and Pea Salad with Parmesan Reggiano and Fresh Basil
Serves 2-3 as a side, one as a main

Handful of peas
1 Zucchini
4 large Basil Leaves
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parmesan Reggiano
Salt and Pepper

Shave the zucchini into ribbons using a Y-peeler.  Shell the peas and steam for about a minute or two, rinse with cold water.  Mix peas and zucchini with lemon and olive oil, season well and mix in chopped basil.  Shave parmesan reggiano on top.

Light Baked Pasta
Serves 1

Left over pasta- any kind
1 Clove of Garlic
Spinach
Mushrooms
Fresh Basil
Fresh Mozzarella
2 tbsp White Wine
Squirt of lemon
Salt and Pepper
1 tbsp Olive Oil
Pecorino

Chop up the mushrooms and mince the garlic. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients and half of the mozzarella together. Throw in an oven proof dish and top with the remaining mozarrella. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese is melted and the spaghetti is crisp. Garnish with fresh basil.

…Is tomorrow.  I’m going to try and not be grumpy. It’s a work week so posting is limited, but here is dinner from the other day with precooked quinoa that I brought with me.

Lemony Quinoa with Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Frying Cheese, Broccoli, Avocado, Pine Nuts, and Roasted Root Vegetables.
Serves 1

Quinoa
1/2 Lemon
Mixed root vegetables roasted with olive oil: butternut squash, sweet potato, red skinned potato, turnip
Broccoli
Frying Cheese, or better yet, Halloumi
Pine Nuts
1/2 Avocado
Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Prepare the slow roasted tomatoes (I did this ahead of time). Roast root veggies (also done ahead of time). Cook quinoa. Mix all the veggies in. Steam the broccoli.  Pan fry the diced cheese, or stick it in the microwave for a bit. Combine in a bowl and squeeze lemon juice on top.

Hotel Meal # 2, all microwavable! I never understood the concept of stuffing artichokes- it seemed fruitless to me. What’s the point of going through the trouble of such a fiddley process if you are only going to eat the ends of the leaves. After tonight, I understood. The cheese melts, sticking the stuffing to the leaves that you scrape off along with the flesh of each leaf. Then there is the heart, which obviously manages to contain all of the goodies. It is only a little fiddly, but you can do it all in 15 minutes.  I ate it with a sweet potato and some spinach.

Globe Artichokes Steamed with Lemon Butter and Stuffed with Feta, Diced Tomato, Scallion, and Bread Crumbs.
Serves 1

1 Artichoke
1/2 Lemon
1 Spring Onion
Handful of Feta
1/2 Plum Tomato
1/2 Slice of bread
1 Tbsp Butter

Prepare the artichoke- you know, take all the hairy bits out. Place in a microwavable bowl, fill with 1 1/2 of Water, Stick the butter and juice most of the lemon inside of it. Cover and cook for about 13 minutes.

Meanwhile, dice the tomato and chop up the Spring Onion. Toast the bread and crumble. If you have more than just a microwave at your disposal, toast the bread crumbs under a broiler. Remove the artichoke from the microwave and open all the leaves. Mix the tomato, feta, and spring onions together and press between the leaves, with a good portion of it going in the center. Sprinkle with remaining lemon juice and top with bread crumbs. Stick it back in the microwave for another 3-5 minutes.

Potatoes Boulangeres is a fancy way of saying Scalloped Potatoes, the difference being that scalloped potatoes typically involves a cream sauce, whereas Potatoes Boulangeres only bothers with milk and broth.  I used Delia Smith’s recipe, which you can find here. It is very simple and very delicious.  Add some greek yogurt and caperberries if you want a bit more flavour.

For the Chick’n: we used Quorn again, rattagon.  It cooked well, and did alright with the sauce, but Quorn fake chicken has a sweet taste to it.  Use Smart Cutlets, if you can.  And on a side note: the Quorn Chicken in England is so good, I don’t know what happened on this side of the pond.

Chick’n Francaise
Serves 4

4 Fake Chick’n Cutlets
1/4 Cup Flour
1 Egg
Fresh Parsley
1/2 Cup White Wine
1/2 Cup Veggie Stock
2 Tbsp Butter
1 1/2 lemons, juiced
Salt and Pepper
4 tsp Veg Oil
1 Tomato
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Mixed Greens
Optional: Pecorino and Pine nuts

Arrange greens and diced tomatoes, and dress with olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper.  Keep cutlets frozen.  Mix flour with some fresh parsley, salt, and pepper.  Dredge chick’n in mixture and brush with egg wash.  Fry in Pan (4 tsp hot Veg Oil) for a few minutes on each side until golden.  Remove from pan and keep warm.  Wipe pan dry of excess veg oil, and throw in broth and white wine.  Cook until reduced by half.  Add lemon juice, butter, fresh parsley, salt and pepper.  When mixed pour over cutlets that hsould be placed over greens.  Garnish with pecorino and pine nuts.

This weekend we retreated to the Chesapeake Bay, because our lives are so stressful. But in all honesty, job hunting gets depressing so we went away, bought lots of yummy food, and watched Harry Potter. There are no weekend egg pots this week as I got breakfast in bed.

For dinner on Saturday we put in quite a bit of effort.  For starters we had lemon-butter Artichokes:

Followed by Fake Chicken Marsala:

With a side of spaghetti topped with slow roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic:

Artichokes:

Cut off stems and about a quarter off the top (so no spiky leaves remain).  Remove any scraggly leaves on the base that escaped the cutting and are still very pointy.  Open up and remove the hairy bits inside, scrape them out with a spoon.  Stick  a knob of butter inside the artichoke, squeeze half a lemon in each, and season with salt, pepper, and thyme.  Place in a microwavable bowl, fill half way with water and cover, heat in the microwave for about 15 mins.  Remove from bowl, squeeze some fresh lemon juice over and eat.

Chicken Marsala:

This is secret, and we will give you one very valuable tip- don’t use Quorn chicken, it just doesn’t work well.  Look for this recipe in a couple of weeks once it is perfected.

Pasta:

Slow roast some tomatoes and garlic, see this recipe.  Once done, combine with spaghetti, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan reggiano.  Add fresh basil if on hand.

This is a simple pasta dish, make it with something like Orecchiette or Wagon Wheels (I can’t remember their fancy Italian name).   Use whatever greens you want- Rappini, Kale, Spinach or Dandelion.  Fresh parsley works will, but could be substituted by fresh oregano if you have that on hand instead.

Lemony Wagon Wheels with Goat Cheese, Spinach and Sun dried Tomato
Serves 4 Hungry Beasts

Pasta for 4
Juice of 1 Lemon
1-2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
Handful of fresh Parsley, chopped
Fresh Spinach
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10 Sun dried tomatoes, chopped up
2 ounces of goat cheese
Red Chili Pepper flakes

Cook pasta. Place spinach or greens in a strainer, rinse, and then pour over boiling water from a kettle to wilt. Once pasta is cooked, add in Spinach, sundried tomato, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and fresh parsley. Mix well, season with cracked pepper and crushed sea salt, pour into a serving bowl and top with red chili pepper flakes and goat cheese blobs.

Lima Bean Paste
1 Serving

Handful of Lima Beans
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 Small clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp Red Chili Pepper flakes
Fresh Basil, chopped small.
Salt and Pepper

Steam Lima Beans. Mush up and add all ingredients above. Season to taste.  Perhaps assemble a sandwich, like so:

Sandwich with Lima Bean Paste, Fake Ham, Pecorino Cheese, and Fresh Basil.