Tomato Salsa and Watermelon Gazpacho

When tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro are all ready at once, it's time for salsa!

Here's my basic tomato salsa recipe. You can use hot peppers if you like, but I prefer the sweet ones, since the ground pepper still provides a lot of zip. Flavors will intensify over the first few hours, so it tastes best if you can assemble it a little bit ahead and chill for a few hours before serving.

4 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 Cubanelle peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
2 cloves raw garlic, minced finely
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 shakes of Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground white pepper
12 oz can tomato juice or V8



Later this week, when the tomatoes in this salsa start to fall apart from the heat of the peppers, I'll reinvent this as gazpacho. Traditional gazpacho would be made by adding cucumbers, puree-ing the whole thing, and serving it cold.

My version is a little different. A few years ago, I had a watermelon gazpacho in a restaurant and had to try to recreate it. I used my basic salsa recipe, combining roughly equal amounts of salsa and watermelon in a blender and smashed them together. The result was pretty good. I think it's tasty plain, but you can also dress it up with a little crumbled feta cheese on top.

City Fresh Ratatouille

Here's an idea of what to do with all the wonderful veggies you got at the stop this week. I searched the internet for ideas for Ratatouille to use the eggplant, zucs, onions, garlic, and peppers. I didn't find anything that I really fell in love with, so I created my own from a number of sources. I figured that Ratatouille is a peasant dish, so I could do what I wanted with it in the spirit of cooking from what you have on hand. The only veggie that I bought was Roma tomatoes. I didn't think that the one slicing tomato would be enough. I used the yellow hot pepper instead of the more traditional green and red pepper for 2 reasons; I don't like bell peppers (weird I know) and I am a single share holder and didn't have any, anyway! The herbs I chose based on the recipes that I read on line and what I had growing fresh in the garden. Here is what I did;

Olive oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 green zucchini, cubed
1 yellow squash, cubed
2 Japanese eggplant, cubed
2 yellow medium hot peppers, chopped
4 Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large slicing tomato, peeled and chopped
thyme
basil
oregano
lavender (just a bit for the taste of Provence)
pepper
salt
2 TBSP butter (optional)
breadcrumbs (optional)
grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Put in the onions and the garlic. Saute until the onions become clear. Add in the zucs (both colors) and the eggplant, cook until the veggies become soft and start to caramelize on the bottom. Don't stir too much. Add in the tomatoes and the spices of your choice. I listed the ones I used. Turn off the heat. Dump the whole thing in an over safe dish. Melt the butter in a small saute pan. Add enough breadcrumbs to absorb the butter. Toast the bread crumbs until golden brown. Sprinkle over the veggies in the dish. Sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese. Bake for about 20 to 30 minutes until the cheese is browned and toasty and the juice is bubbling on the sides. I served it in bowls with crusty French bread.


Here is the dish ready for the oven.

A Soup with Kale and Garlic

To use the kale, garlic, and onions I collected in this week's share, I decided to make a big pot of soup. Not the most seasonally appropriate meal, perhaps, but nutritious and filling all the same.

Kale, White Bean, and Garlic Soup

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 1 cup of chopped onion

- 1 tablespoon of dried Italian Seasoning (optional)

- Salt and Pepper

- 1 bunch of kale, tough stem removed and rough chopped

- 6 garlic cloves, minced

- 12 cups of broth or water (any combination bean, chicken, and/or vegetable broth will do)

- 5 cups of cooked dried white beans (see below) OR 2 cans of white beans, undrained

- 4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped OR 1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes, chopped

In a large pot, heat the olive oil on medium heat, and cook the onion with the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper until translucent, for about 5 minutes. Add the kale, and continue cooking, stirring often, for another 5 minutes until the kale is wilted and soft. Add the garlic, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Next, add 11 cups of broth, 3 cups of beans, and all the tomatoes to the pot, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, skimming any foam that rises to the surface. Meanwhile, in a blender or food processor, combine the remaining cup of broth and the remaining beans, pulsing until thick and smooth. Add mixture to the pot, and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve warm with crusty bread.

Additional Notes:

I cut the green tops off the garlic and onions, and am reserving them for a vegetarian stock.

For a heartier soup, add some cooked sausage during the final five minutes of simmering. Crumbled spicy Italian sausage complements the kale-white bean combination quite nicely, and makes it easier for me to convince my husband to eat his daily allotment of green vegetables!

If you have any garlic scape pesto on hand, add a dollop to your bowl of soup for an additional garlicky punch.

On the side, serve crostini topped with goat cheese and your City Fresh hot pepper butter.

Cooking Dried Beans:

I use Mark Bittman’s “Quick-Soak” Method for cooking dried beans from his massive compendium How to Cook Everything. It works for almost every kind of bean imaginable except the following varieties: lentils, split peas, peeled and split beans. Although I adore using canned beans when I need to throw together a quick meal, buying beans from the bulk bins is an economical, eco-friendly practice. And I've found that cooking beans is a satisfying culinary exercise, in which a little labor yields stunning results.

Here's the recipe I used to cook the dried beans for my kale and garlic soup:

1 pound of dried Great Northern Beans

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

¼ tsp black peppercorns

s

alt and freshly ground pepper.

Rinse the beans, discarding shriveled, discolored bits and any pebbles or stray matter.

Put the beans, bay leaf, rosemary, and peppercorns in a large pot and cover with cold water by about 2 to 3 inches. Bring the pot to a boil, and let it boil, uncovered, for about 2 minutes. Then, cover the pot with a tightly fitting lid, turn off the heat, and let the beans soak for 2 hours. Don’t peek!

After two hours, taste a bean. If tender, make sure that the beans are covered by about an inch of water, and add salt and pepper to taste. If not tender, cover the beans with 2 inches of water, and hold off on the s&p.

Next, b

ring the pot to a boil, and adjust the heat so that the beans bubble gently. Cover partially and cook, stirring occasionally, checking the beans for doneness every 10 or 15 minutes, and adding more water if necessary. Once the beans are tender, add the salt and pepper. Stop cooking when the beans taste the way you like them. Use your cooked beans in any recipe that calls for canned beans, and save the cooking liquid to add flavor to soups and stocks.