Vegetable Riot: Favorite Recipes

Basic Tomato Gazpacho - Easy, Quick and Cool
4 generous servings

1 cucumber (1/2 pound)

¾ lb tomatoes

½ red bell pepper, seeded (exclude if, like me, you have a family

member who cannot tolerate raw peppers)

½ small onion

1 plump, moist garlic clove, green germ removed

1 ½ T best-quality sherry-wine vinegar

1 t fine sea salt

Hot red pepper flakes or Tabasco for serving (optional)

For a smooth gazpacho: Core and quarter the tomatoes, then puree in a blender or food processor.

Peel and roughly chop the remaining ingredients (except the hot pepper), add to the tomatoes and process to desire consistency.

For a chunky gazpacho: Prep ingredients, then process together to desired consistency.

Taste for seasoning. Refrigerate for 3 to 24 hours for the best taste. Serve in chilled bowls, with Tabasco or red pepper flakes on the side.

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Quick and Easy Everyday Pizza

Makes two 12 to 14-inch or four 6 to 7-inch pizzas

Crust Ingredients

1 envelope (2 ounces) dry yeast = 2 t instant yeast

1 cup water, at room temperature

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon salt (use fine sea salt or table salt; if using kosher salt, increase amount to 1½ teaspoons)

3 cups all-purpose flour (or even better – use 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour), plus a little extra for kneading

Pizza Toppings
Sauteed mushrooms (shitakes are my favorite), chopped artichoke hearts, black olives, tomatoes, cubed tofu, caramelized onions, garlic etc...

Directions (using instant yeast) *
*if using dry yeast dissolve in 1/4 cup warm water and set aside till foamy about ten minutes. Add to the dry ingredients with other liquid ingredients, decreasing the added water to 3/4c)

Preparing the Dough:
In a small bowl, blend together the olive oil and honey.

If mixing by hand: mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl, add liquid ingredients and blend with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together into a ragged ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.

If you have a stand mixer proceed as follows:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, place the flour, instant yeast & salt and mix.

Blend dry ingredients

Slowly add the honey/olive oil mixture and water and mix just until the flour is coated with the liquid, about 10 seconds, scraping down the sides of the bowl as required.

Mix in liquid ingredients

Continue mixing the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and slightly elastic.

Remove dough from the bowl, rub bowl with olive oil, then return dough to the bowl and cover with a thin towel. Let it rest for 1 hour. The dough will rise and puff, but it will not double in bulk.

After 1 hour rise

Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a ball. Divide the dough in half (or quarters for little pizzas).If you want to use the dough immediately, let it rest for 10 – 15 minutes, otherwise cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use, up to a few days. If refrigerated, allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 10 - 15 minutes before rolling out. I usually pop one half of the dough into a Ziploc® and freeze. It keeps for up to 3 months, but trust me, you’ll be using it before the week is out! It thaws in the refrigerator in about 6 hours. I think refrigeration and even freezing improves the flavor.

Preparing the Crust:

You can stretch, roll or press the dough into shape. It is very elastic and forgiving. I don't have a pizza stone or a very reliable oven, so I use a heavy duty aluminum pizza pan and fit the dough in place using by stretching and patting it but sometimes I begin by rolling it out part way on a bread board and then placing it in the pan and stretching it and patting to fit.

Try to keep the edges slightly thicker than the center, which should be almost translucent. Place the dough on the peel, baking sheet. or, as here, the pizza pan. Now for the really fun part:

Assemble the Pizza


Sauteed mushrooms, cubed tofu, chopped tomatoes, artichokes & black olives

Bake at 450-500 for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven.

When done, sprinkle with parsley, drizzle with olive oil and dust with sea salt.

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ROASTED BUTTERCUP SQUASH SOUP WITH THAI RED CURRY

(6 servings)

Adapted from a recipe by Joanne Chang

Garnished with crispy ginger slivers and sliced scallions

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ large onion, thinly sliced
· 1/8 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger
· 1 tablespoon Thai red curry paste
· 1 medium sized buttercup squash— roasted @ 350 till soft
· 2 ½ cups water
· 1 - 13 1/2-ounce cans unsweetened coconut milk
· 1 lime leaf
or add lime zest (about ½ teaspoon)
· 1 small or ½ large stalk of fresh lemongrass, smashed and cut into 2-inch lengths
or add lemon zest (about ½ teaspoon)
· 1 tablespoons sugar or honey,
· 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
· Salt to taste
· 2 large scallions, thinly sliced (on the diagonal) for a garnish

Optional Garnishes:

· 12-18 medium sized shitake mushrooms, sauteed for garnish
· ¼ to ½ slivered fresh ginger

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the squash: Cut in half, scrape out the seeds and strings and place cut sides down in a shallow pan with a bit of water. Bake for 30- 40 minutes or until tender.

While the squash roasts prepare all ingredients (“mise en place.”)

While the squash cools, warm the olive oil in a large thick bottomed soup pot, then add the onion and sliced ginger and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, 5-7 minutes.

Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 2 minutes.

When the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out the pulp and add to the pot along with the water and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer over low heat. 15 minutes should be long enough, because the squash is already cooked.

Add the coconut milk, lime leaves or zest and lemongrass or lemon zest, cover partially and simmer for 30 minutes longer.

If you added, lime leaves and lemongrass, discard them before proceeding.

Puree the soup using a blender, working in batches, OR use an immersion blender (if you don’t have one, buy one right now, they are great! I bought one for under $30 from Amazon.com – it saves time, the clean-up is a cinch and best of all there is no waste!)

To the pureed soup, add sugar or honey and the lime juice. Add water or vegetable broth as need to thin to the desired consistency.

Check the seasoning. Add salt & pepper to suit your taste.

If you want to garnish the soup with crispy ginger:

Sauté the slivered ginger in a heavy bottomed pan over moderate heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

Remove when golden brown and drain on a paper towel.

Adding sautéed shitake mushrooms is a nice touch. Remove the stems, quarter the caps and sauté over medium heat in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, add a pinch of salt. Use about two caps per serving.

Reheat the soup, if necessary but do not boil! Ladle into bowls and garnish.

Refrigerate for up to three days.

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Peasant Bouillabaisse

adapted from Martha Rose Shulman's Provencal Potato Bouillabaisse

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, halved and thinly sliced

2 large leeks (cleaned), white and light green parts only, cut in half lengthwise, sliced

3 large garlic cloves, minced – add more if you love garlic!

1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or

1 (14-ounce) can, with liquid

6 cups water or vegetable broth (or part water, part broth)

Salt to taste ( be careful if your broth is salted!)

A bouquet garni (using a cleaned leek green as a wrapper, enclose a bay leaf, a thin slice of orange zest and a couple of sprigs each of fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, sage, oregano and secure with kitchen twine)

1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, cleaned and cubed

A generous pinch of saffron threads

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Pinch of chipotle or cayenne

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

In a heavy soup pot, sauté onions and leeks in olive oil until tender (about 5 minutes at medium heat).

Add the garlic and stir until you smell the garlic (be careful not to brown the garlic).

Add the tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the bouquet garni and cook, stirring from time to time, for 10 minutes, until the tomatoes have cooked down and smell fragrant. The mixture will be quite thick.