For the love of Produce...

lemurcat2

acpgee wrote: »

Hubby brought home a kohlrabi for the first time, as he enjoyed having it in a restaurant. I peeled and spiralized it in a slow made with ranch. Nice crunchy texture, slightly sweet. It struck me as an excellent substitute for green papaya in SE Asian salads.

I'm fond of it raw, with a bit of salt, or else cooked where I would use turnip.

acpgee

Spriralized, dehydrated sweet potato. I am planning to use this as a crunchy topping for ice cream. I had this once at a yakitori restaurant (with other toppings of roasted sesame seeds, shavings of candied ginger and miso caramel sauce), but the restaurant version used deep fried sweet potato shards.

acpgee

Griddled romaine half dressed with ranch. If you grill outdoors this is a great thing to put on early as they take maybe 3-5 minutes so people have something to munch while the wait for meat. This was done inside on a cast iron grill pan.

acpgee

Summer might be almost over but grapes are still cheap. I will roast some, freeze some, maybe use some in ajo blanco.

acpgee

Ajo blanco. Do almonds count as produce? I added an applie blitzed into the body of the soup with the almonds and garnished with grapes that mostly sank to the bottom. You can use less olive oil than most recipes call for.

mtaratoot

@acpgee

I had never heard of this dish. I looked it up. Now I want to make some. Seems like the grapes were just an excuse to make it though. I'd say almonds are produce. They grow on trees ya know.

Growing up, my mom made something she called gazpacho that was white in color. It wasn't based on almonds - it was mayonnaise if I recall. This sounds much better. We used to have pounds and pounds of hard tack bread in the freezer. We would bust them up and let them soak in the soup. Now I'm thinking the whole thing was a modification of this dish.

Do you think it could be made with almond butter instead of using whole almonds and grinding them in the blender? Seems like it would eliminate one step.

acpgee

@mtaratoot

I typically make ajo blanco with flaked almonds or ground almonds, but have skinned them myself which is less trouble than it sounds as once boiled they slip easily out of the skins with a gentle pinch. I have never tried with almond butter but I don't see why not with with some bread soaked in dairy or almond milk, and maybe blitzing with a peeled apple or some peeled and de-seeded cucumber to make it lighter. You probably need to slowly whisk water into the almond butter to get a smooth emulsion instead of almond pellet soup. This dish is nicest served very cold so make in advance and chill well.

Last night's version was per person

1 clove of garlic
25g of crustless bread soaked in whole milk
55g of almond flakes
30ml olive oil
half a peeled and cored apple
enough water to thin down to the texture of a light cream soup
sherry vinegar and salt and pepper to taste
garnished of halved grapes, toasted almonds, a drizzle of olive oil.

We liked it, but found it too rich for a starter and will try with half the amount of almonds next time. This is the first time I did it with apple which I saw in one of the recipes I googled and liked the addition of something fibrous but light blitzed into the body of the soup. When I first started making ajo blanco 15 years ago my first recipe called for peeled grapes as garnish. My husband would beg me to make it, and even offered to peel the kilo of grapes needed for a dinner party. But have since discovered that halved seedless grapes has the same mouth feel as peeled grapes.

acpgee

I sprouted some mung beans this week and will use them in Cantonese Hor Fun tonight. Maybe a more experienced sprouter can explain what I have learned by trial and error. I get plumper sprouts when I crowd the container a little. Also rinsing is not something I need to do religiously. Two times a day seems to be sufficient. Lining the strainer with paper towel also seems to help.

BarbaraHelen2013

Excited to find the first decent Figs of the year today. Can’t beat them roasted with a soft Goat Cheese, Thyme and a drizzle of Honey and a huge salad. I could eat them every day while they last in the shops here.

mtaratoot

I am rich with tomatoes. Some of them are looking like they only have a few days left. That rich! They are so tasty.

Yesterday I bought some rockfish fillets. I have many ways I cook them. It's simple and easy to do the flour, egg, panko and pan-fry then top with a pan sauce made with butter and capers.... Mmmm.

But all those tomatoes!

And the weather is finally cool enough I'm not afraid to turn on the oven. So I "invented" a recipe based on a few I saw online.

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Slice the fillets into smaller pieces - about serving size
• Finely chop and onion
• coarsely chop a bunch of garlic cloves
• Slice three medium sized ripe garden tomatoes. Slice a bunch of cherry tomatoes in half.
• Mix up some spices. In my case it was Hatch green chile powder, ancho chile powder, and some dried basil. I meant to add cumin but forgot. I also had some really good salsa left from a taco the other day.
• Heat a Dutch Oven on medium-ish, then fry the onions until they are soft and just starting to brown.
• Add the spices, garlic, and tomatoes. Continue to cook one minute.
• Push the fillets into the now delicious looking sauce. Put on the lid and stick it in the oven until done.

It will be out of the oven in a few minutes and served on sprouted brown rice.

ACSL3

Loving reading through this thread! I used to be fully plant based but my wife lured me back to (some) meat products

We recently moved to Japan and are having fun trying out all the produce here - lots of the same stuff but some is cheaper. Most of our “normal American” produce is more pricey so it just pushes us more to try new things.

One thing we’ve gotten into are leeks - they have these huge ones for pretty cheap





Also having fun with mushrooms




*having some trouble with the pictures, so unsure if they will show. Will try again later if not*

acpgee

@BarbaraHelen2013
Hubby came home with figs today! Roasted in the air fryer with a drizzle of honey, served on a salad with feta and candied (burnt actually) macadamians and a honey vinaigrette.

BarbaraHelen2013

First time I’ve ever seen Kohlrabi in real life, so obviously had to buy one…

Don’t really want to make it into some kind of slaw but I’m struggling to come up with a different plan for it. Research tells me it most closely resembles broccoli stalks, so I may end up cutting it into small dice and adding to a lemon, mint and ricotta orzo dish.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

acpgee

@BarbaraHelen2013

I normally roast kohlrabi (ie treat it as any other root vegetable), but seeing as you were thinking about orzo you might like this
https://stefangourmet.com/2022/07/04/turnip-or-kohlrabi-risotto-risotto-alle-rape/

If you don't mind a salad treatment, spiralized, grated, or finely julienned it makes a great substitute for green papaya in SE Asian salads some as Som Tam.

acpgee

I've been doing Cantonese stuffed eggplant and peppers. I use a combination of these two recipes.
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-stuffed-peppers-2/
https://soupeduprecipes.com/hakka-stuffed-eggplant/

jkohler0377

@purplefizzy where do you find all your ideas for making veggies more fun?? I am horrible at eating more vegetables and have a spouse who doesn't like change.

AnnPT77

BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »

First time I’ve ever seen Kohlrabi in real life, so obviously had to buy one…

Don’t really want to make it into some kind of slaw but I’m struggling to come up with a different plan for it. Research tells me it most closely resembles broccoli stalks, so I may end up cutting it into small dice and adding to a lemon, mint and ricotta orzo dish.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

This is boring conceptually, but I love them raw, thin sliced. (That's how I eat broccoli stalks and cauliflower/cabbage cores often, too.)

BarbaraHelen2013

So in the end I made a Kohlrabi & Leek Gratin. It was cold here and I fancied something warming and comforting!

Used a recipe as a jumping off point but used every trick in the book to lighten it up, calorie wise. Baked it with a last minute heritage tomato and onion stew, for freshness. Whole plate was about 340 calories and contained all 10 of my veg portions for the day.

Found the Kohlrabi pleasant but not mind blowing. I definitely see the broccoli stalks comparison but felt it had some other nuance that I can’t place. Will buy again, should I come across it.

acpgee

We were just on vacation in Bologna and veg was great there. Stuff like tomatoes and zucchini are bred for taste instead of looks and uniformity. Some new veggie sides that blew me away were a local version of roast carrots and roast onions. The carrots had been slow roasted at low temperature so were very sweet and dehydrated despite not having any sweetener added. The small onions were sweet and caramelized, also without any hint of additional sweetener.
I tried replicating the onions, especially as I read one recipe online that claimed this is a side that freezes well. I tossed peeled shallots with trimmed ends in olive oil and salt and added a few sprigs of rosemary, although rosemary did not feature in the dish I tasted in Italy. I air fried for 40 minutes at 160C giving an occasional shake. it did taste of vacation memories. Hoping this does indeed freeze well.

BartBVanBockstaele

I love vegetables, but I also live alone and have little time, so I simplify the process. I used to make soup in a Japanese rice cooker, but now, I simply use the microwave. So, most of what I eat, with the exception of lupini beans, soybeans, sardines, lemon juice, psyllium husks and spices is here:

I also occasionally eat other vegetables, such as asparagus, jicama, daikon, cabbage, red beets ... but not all that often because it is too much work and annoying to prepare in the tiny kitchen of a bachelor suite.