Avocado Sliced Completely in Half

I have never had this happen before so had to share. The pit was soft enough the knife just went right through it. Weird!

Bean, Broccoli, and Red Pepper Soup

We need to harvest some yard long beans at least once a week now to keep up with them. I have been using them in various dishes – mostly grilled vegetables on the BBQ and raw in salads.

Yard long bean plant

Yesterday, I used about 8 of the bean pods and made a vegan soup of yard long beans and broccoli.

Yard long beans

Ingredients included:

Yard long beans
Broccoli
2 small red bell peppers (also from the garden)
2 cups (?) vegetable broth
1-2 tbs olive oil
1/3 red onion

First, I sauteed the onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes until nice & soft. I then added some chopped yard long beans, broccoli, and bell peppers and sauteed a few minutes more.

Sauteing beans, broccoli and peppers

I added enough vegetable broth to just reach the tops of the vegetables, seasoned with a little salt & pepper, and covered and simmered about 20 minutes until everything was really soft.

Well-cooked beans, broccoli, and peppers

I put it all in a blender and pureed. It was pretty thick at first, so I had to add more vegetable broth until I got the right creamy consistency. Also added salt and pepper to taste.

Bean and broccoli soup with side of paratha

I served with a side of malabari paratha from Trader Joe’s – great for tearing and dipping in soup.

The soup was really nice, and so simple. You really don’t need the butter and cream to make a creamy, hearty soup.

 

First Pumpkin

As I’ve mentioned previously, the pumpkin plants have been growing like crazy, and the first fruit was growing a few weeks back. The actual growth has calmed down, and the leaves aren’t looking as healthy now, but it has been producing fruit.

Yesterday, we were pretty confident that one of them was ready to harvest.

I’ve never cooked with pumpkin before so wasn’t really sure what to expect. When I cut it open, it seemed more yellow than orange, and had much less in the way of seeds & membrane than what I know from scraping out pumpkins to make jack-o’-lanterns on Halloween. It was much less messy!

I smelled it and even tasted a little and it tasted just fine – not bitter. So I gave it a shot. I removed the skin and seeds and any green areas, then chopped it into bite-sized pieces.

Since I hadn’t cooked pumpkin before, I decided to try two different ways in hopes that one would turn out ok.

The first half (a bit more than half), I roasted. Just put in a baking pan with a bit of olive oil and some salt and pepper, and cooked for about 20 minutes until it was soft.

The pumpkin didn’t really have that much flavor (probably a sign it wasn’t quite ripe). I added a few sliced peppers for the last 10 minutes, then combined with basil & spicy oregano (also from the garden).

I served it on the side of a vegetarian Italian sausage topped with marinara sauce & basil.

It worked out pretty well – my only thing next time would be to use less oil because it did turn out a little oily. But for a first attempt at cooking pumpkin, I think I did pretty well.

While I was roasting that half of the pumpkin, I boiled the rest on medium. This only took about 12 minutes until it was very soft (too soft to enjoy, actually – it pretty much melted in my mouth). Fortunately, I was planning to make a soup with it, so soft was good.

I put in a blender along with a handful of the roasted peppers I’d prepared as well as a dash of salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. This made a nice color and brought out some nice fall flavors that made me think of Thanksgiving.

roasted pepper and pumpkin soup

I think of the two, the soup was more successful, and it was really easy! We’re going to be harvesting more pumpkins in the coming weeks so if anyone has other pumpkin dishes they’d recommend, let me know.

September Peppers

We hadn’t been over to the community garden in a couple of weeks, so we went a little bit crazy harvesting peppers. But boy, are they good, and they needed to be thinned out anyway to allow for more growth. Check it out.

Grasshopper’s Lunch

We assumed it was the hornworms and the birds getting to our cherry tomatoes, but just yesterday we found another culprit: the grasshopper. Perhaps a locust?

We sprayed the whole garden with bt spray this evening which should take care of any hornworms, although I’m not sure if this will keep the grasshoppers away…

Watermelon Mint Cooler

Today we made a refreshing drink with watermelon and mint fresh from the garden. The watermelon was beautiful – perfectly ripe. I think I’m getting the hang of knowing when a watermelon is ready. It needs to have the yellow spot where it’s sitting on the ground, but also needs to feel heavy. Also, if it has “sugar spots” that’s another indicator (thanks to my friend Susan for sharing that useful bit of info!).

For two generous servings we used…

1/4 watermelon
1/3 can pineapple and juice
1 all natural mango fruit bar
Squeeze of lime
Handful of peppermint

We blended all the ingredients really well, then used a coffee filter to strain out all the pulp and minty bits.

Great, refreshing drink. The mint and lime were nice complements to the watermelon and tropical fruit flavors.

First Edamame

The edamame plants are doing well despite the leaves being chewed on by hornworms (I assume).

Edamame plants

They have begun producing fruit. They need to get just a little bit bigger, but hopefully this week we can try some.

First edamame

 

Mixed Bean & Vegetable Salad

This salad was packed with goodness. No dressing – just seasoned with mint, parsley, a  squeeze of lemon, and salt & pepper.

From the garden:

Yard long beans
Cucumber
Mexi bell pepper
Banana pepper
Jalapenos
Cherry tomatoes
Peppermint

And also:

Pinto, black, and kidney beans
Olives
Avocado
Corn off the cob
Celery
Shredded carrots
Shredded cheddar & mozzarella cheese
Green leaf lettuce
Italian parsley
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Drying Basil

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we have a surplus of basil – both classic basil and Thai basil. So yesterday we dusted off the dehydrator to do some drying.

I left them mostly on the stem, removed the flowers, rinsed and patted dry, then placed in even layers on the drying plates.

Basil prepared for drying

Thai basil prepared for drying

It took about 3 hours for the herbs to completely dry out (to the point of being crumbly in your hands).

Dried basil

We removed the leaves from the stems, put in jars and labelled. Now we have fresh dried herbs! It was very easy so I’m planning to do some more of the Thai basil in the coming week. The leaves are much smaller than regular basil so I can fit quite a few more stems in a batch.

Jarred dried basil

 

Strawberry Banana Coconut Smoothie

I found that substituting a frozen fruit bar for ice is a good way to keep a smoothie flavorful with good texture.

1 banana
7 strawberries
1 frozen coconut fruit bar (I used a 365 fruit bar from Whole Foods)
A dollop of Greek yogurt

Blend until smooth.