The massive egg recall has made many of us stop and think about how many eggs we use and, for some, questioning our use of them at all. According to the New York Times, “A Hen’s Space to Roost” Sunday August 15; 97 per cent of all eggs consumed in the USA are from hens raised in battery cages, six birds to a cage allowing 67 square inches for each hen for her entire life.

This for an animal who enjoys seeking out a nesting place, hunting for food of various sizes, shapes, taste and textures, walking proudly with her chicks and engaging in a social life. Here, she cannot sit on her eggs or even stretch her wings. The Humane Society of the United States has stated, “Confining birds in cages means increased salmonella infection in the birds, their eggs and the consumers of caged eggs,”.

Many people think that if they buy hens from “cage-free hens”, these inhumane and dangerous conditions do not exist. Two per cent of hens live crowded together in large indoor spaces with 120 square inches per bird. The same hideous ammonia smell of a caged facility exists.Only one per cent are free range and they only need to have “access to the outside air”. This may mean a door leading to a cement yard with a large dog chained to the fence. The hens do not care for that. Only a very tiny amount of producers raise hens who truly live out of doors and have anything resembling a natural life. Even if these eggs are used at home, people consume eggs from caged hens in baked goods, processed foods and restaurant dishes. If you eat eggs you are not observing the commandment called “Bal Tashlit” which means we are not to destroy needlessly.

Here is a recipe for a vegan banana cake, it is not only delicious, but you can lick the bowl without fear of salmonella. Puts the fun back into baking with children. I have recipes for scones, cookies, biscuits and other cakes. All egg-free and all delicious.

Banana Cake

I cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon non-aluminum baking powder

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

I teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ginger and ¼ teaspoon each nutmeg and cloves

½ cup organic sugar

¼ cup grapeseed oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 small bananas

¼ cup soy or ricemilk with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar added

½ half cup raisins or walnuts (or both) – optional

First add the vinegar to the soy or rice milk (makes it like buttermilk, for a tender crumb)

Mix the baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt into the flour stir well, add nuts and/or raisins, if using, stir to coat.

Add the oil and sugar to the soymilk mixture, add the sugar and vanilla and stir well

Mash the bananas (overripe bananas can be frozen and used for baking)

Add the wet ingredients and the bananas to the flour mixture, mix well with a fork but do not over mix as this makes cakes dry.

Lightly oil a 9×9 or 9 inch round pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Use convection setting if you have it. This recipe can be easily doubled.

To frost, mix some Earth Balance margarine with powdered sugar and some sherry or lemon juice and a bit of vanilla, should be soft enough to spread but not runny. Spread it on in bits, leaving some of the cake showing.

This entry is also posted on Dr. Sukol’s blog, Your Health is on Your Plate.

About a year ago, a friend of mine got interested in the raw food movement.  Raw foodists prefer their food, as advertised, raw.  Uncooked.  She said it changed her life.  OK, lots of people say stuff like that.  But I have to admit that I see the difference – she is more relaxed, and brimming with beauty and energy.  Four kids?  No problem!

So she had been wanting to introduce me to her new style of cooking, and we decided to get our families together for dinner.  No deal.  We couldn’t make it fit all our crazy schedules.  We resigned ourselves to the fact that we had to put the idea on hold until things settled down a bit.  My daughter was a little disappointed, having been introduced to the raw food movement as a college student in Toronto, but the boys were secretly relieved, skeptical as they were about the idea of eating “raw food.”  I decided to withhold judgment for the meanwhile. 

Then last night I had the good fortune to attend a picnic in the woods complete with tiny electric lights, an enormous bonfire, spectacular grilled salmon, great company, children of all ages, and a talented guitar player.  Something for everyone.  And a raw peach pie, courtesy of my friend, who was also in attendance.  It was fantastic.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it afterward.

This morning I called her for the recipe.  She measured one cup each of raw almonds and brazil nuts, and placed them in a water-filled jar to soak overnight.  The next day she drained the water, and placed the nuts in a food processor with 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and a scant 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  She processed the contents until the consistency of meal, and then added 6-8 dates (Medjoul variety, the finest and sweetest) to make a dough.  She pressed the dough into a pan to form a crust, and then placed it in the freezer to firm up while she finished the recipe.

Next she cut 6-8 peaches into chunks, and mixed them with 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional), and 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg.  I was surprised to learn that the less sweet the peaches, the more important it was to include the lemon juice.  Then she slid the peach mixture into the crust, and refrigerated it until it was time for dessert.

Now, here’s what I want to know, and I’m going to need your help, dear readers.  First, you have to make this recipe, or take it to the family cook in your kitchen, and help them make it.  Then, you’re going to take out your glucometer or borrow one from a friend or relative.  Now you’re going to check and record your sugar, eat a slice of raw peach pie, and recheck your sugar 1 hour later. 

How much did your blood sugar rise?  Send a comment and let me know.  If I’m right, this pie will not spike your blood sugar like a traditional one made with a flour crust.  So, depending on how insulin-resistant you are, you may be able to eat a slice of this pie without hesitation, without worry, and without spiking your blood sugar.  And even if you are diabetic, you may be able to eat a slice, knowing that the blood sugar spike will be modest instead of astronomical.   

And did I mention how good that pie was?  I went back for a second piece before I’d finished the first.  OK, yes, I’m hooked.

I hope that all of you enjoy Fall Vegetables as much as I do. What’s fun about the change of seasons is that we are forced into creative ways to cook with the new bounty of the season. In this way, your food is never boring and you don’t get stuck eating the same foods day in and day out.

Here are 3 recipes and buying tips featuring some fall vegetables:  beets, parsnips and pumpkin.

Roasted Beet salad in Orange Dressing

A zero waste salad where every bit of an ingredient is used. Not only do I love the beets deep red hue, and their sweetness, but I really get a kick out of using the whole vegetable, root and the greens. In this salad the beets along with the greens are used and for the dressing, the orange zest along with the oranges are used as well.

You can forgo boiling beets by roasting them in foil and avoid the mess that comes with the red staining on the pots.

Buy beets that are firm with smooth skins and tops attached. They should have a deep, rich purple-red color. Choose small to medium beets as they are usually sweeter and more tender. Beet tops should be fresh looking and dark green, not wilted or slimy.

Adapted from Bon Appétit, January 2004

Ingredients

6 medium beets with beet greens attached
2 medium oranges
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper

1      Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the greens from beets. Remove and discard stems. Chop the leaves coarsely and set them aside. Wrap each beet in foil. Place beets directly on oven rack and roast for about 1 hour, until tender when pierced with fork.

2      Let beets cool. Peel beets and then cut each into 8 wedges. Place beets in medium bowl.

3      Cook beet greens in large saucepan of boiling water just until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain and cool. When greens are at room temperature, squeeze them to remove excess moisture. Add greens to bowl with beets.

4      Zest the orange, then cut peel and white pith from oranges. Working over another bowl and using a paring knife, cut between membranes to release segments (this is called supreming).

5      Add orange segments and onion to bowl with beet mixture.

6      Whisk oil, garlic, orange zest in small bowl to blend; add to beet mixture and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Serve.

Maple Roasted Parsnips

The parsnip is a root vegetable that is a relative to the carrot, although much paler they do resemble each other. Typically parsnips are part of the main ingredient in a soup base or roasted for a richer flavor. For this dish the parsnips are roasted into a caramelized deliciously sticky texture, which makes them so moreish. You will not be able to resist them.

Choose parsnips that are firm, unblemished and small or medium in size (about 8 inches long). Large parsnips may have woody centers but, unlike carrots, broad tops are not an indication of woody cores. Parsnips range in color from pale yellow to creamy white. Avoid limp, shriveled or blemished parsnips with moist spots or a lot of tiny hairlike roots.

Ingredients

2 pounds parsnips, peeled and sliced

5 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

Salt to taste

Serves 4

1       Preheat oven to Roast at 375F

2      Parboil parsnips in a stockpot under a medium high flame for 4 minutes.

3      Drain, then put in an ovenproof dish, and toss with olive oil and salt. Roast 45 minutes.

4      In a bowl, mix maple syrup and mustard together, and pour over parsnips when done. Roast for another 5 minutes more to set the taste.

Pumpkin Soup

The original recipe for this soup was made famous by the Jerusalem Ramada Renaissance Hotel, however I added more depth to this by adding some warming ingredients like cinnamon so that it would be more suitable for the Northeast climate.

Choose pumpkins that are heavy for their size and free of blemishes.

Ingredients

2 large yellow onions, diced

1 inch fresh ginger, grated

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

7 cups water

1 ½ pounds pumpkin, cubed or 1 ½ 15- ounce cans of pumpkins

1 medium white potato, peeled and cubed

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

½ cup apple sauce

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon vegetable soup mix (Gluten Free)

1 tablespoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

½ cup half &half creamer

pine nuts for garnish, optional

Serves 10

1. In a stainless steel pot under medium high flame, sauté onions in oil until golden.   Then stir in ginger.

2. Add the water, pumpkin, potato, applesauce and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and simmer for about 35 minutes. Let it cool.

3. With a hand blender, puree vegetables until smooth.

4. Add soup mix, salt, cinnamon, pepper and maple syrup and continue simmering for an additional ten minutes.

5. Stir in creamer and remove from heat. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts.

“I know it’s your day, but it’s not all about you…Why have a wedding if you’re going to be like that [serve only vegetarian options]?  Just print a bumper sticker.”

Did this article that concluded with this choice comment in today’s NY Times Sunday Styles section annoy others as much as it annoyed me?  Of course weddings should reflect one’s values, so if you’re kosher, or vegan, or vegetarian, why wouldn’t you serve kosher, vegan, or vegetarian food?  As the vegan Kathleen Mink quoted in the article said, it was  a “no brainer” to have a vegan menu at her and her husband’s wedding.  But another vegan pastry chef served meat at her wedding because she was afraid celebrity chefs like Eric Ripert and Daniel Boulud would think she and her husband “were crazy” if they didn’t serve meat.  Yes, it’s important that the couple be good hosts and make their guests feel welcome, and it’s hard for a guest to feel that way if there’s nothing they can eat at the wedding banquet. Vegetarian guests or those with others with dietary restrictions certainly appreciate their hosts’ thoughtfulness in offering them options they can eat. But since when is it a hardship for omnivores not to have everything they can and will eat on the wedding menu!?

There’s an underlying assumption here that somehow vegetarian, vegan, and I would extend this also to kosher food cannot be prepared deliciously for discriminating palates.  If vegan, vegetarian, or kosher food is not appealing to non-vegans, non-vegetarians, or non-kosher folks, it’s the failure of imagination and skill of the chefs, not that these foods can’t be tasty.  These cuisines have come a long way from the bad old days of “rabbit food,”  as the readers and contributors of the Jew and the Carrot know well.  In Jewish tradition, the wedding banquet is a se’udat mitzvah, a meal celebrating the performance of a mitzvah, which has a moral connotation. As does veganism and vegetarianism for many of their practitioners. But there doesn’t need to be a divide between morality and aesthetics.  In Judaism, we have the concept of hiddur mitzvah – the “beautification of a mitzvah”.  Good food at a wedding can, indeed should reflect both our moral and aesthetic values.

But that point is made only to the extent that indeed our guests enjoy themselves. That’s the proof of the pudding (as it were)!  Indeed, I know from my own experience that weddings are a chance to prove to our family and friends that keeping kosher can be no less fulfilling than eating lobster and pork belly, even as vegetarians “see their weddings as a chance to prove that they are eating more than tree bark and lettuce.”

For my first recipe post on The Jew and the Carrot, I thought I’d start off with something versatile. I sampled a version of this quinoa recipe while browsing at my local Whole Foods and then came home and made my own version. It’s great served as a cold salad or as a warm side dish and it is ideal for all of those summer picnics and pot lucks you have on your calendar. Quinoa packs up really easily and this one is so full of veggies, colors, and flavors that it’s sure to be a hit!

Summer Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Whole Foods Team member recipe; Serves 4-6

2 cups quinoa
3 ears fresh corn or 2-3 cups frozen corn
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup scallions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pinch salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
2/3 cup pine nuts or toasted almonds

Roast corn on a cookie sheet with a little bit of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the kernels are light brown. Mix around a few times during roasting process.

Roast small cubes of butternut squash in a separate pan (they cook at different speeds so it’s easier to keep them separate) with olive oil and salt. About 30-40 minutes or until the squash is soft and brown on the edges.

Rise quinoa. Add 3 3/4 cups to 4 cups water to the quinoa, bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until water has been completely absorbed.

Chop remaining ingredients and juice limes. Toast nuts or almonds.

Transfer cooked quinoa to a large bowl and let it cool for five minutes. Then add olive oil, salt, and fresh garlic.

Add corn, jalapeño, squash, scallions, and lime juice. Toss and adjust seasoning as needed.

Garnish with pine nuts or almonds.

I hosted a St. Patrick’s Day dinner party last week. We drank a lot of beer, but I still have plenty left that I’d like to use up before Passover (Michelle, I accept your cupboard cleaning challenge). There are many wonderful uses for beer (like Guinness Braised London Broil), but my current favorite is beer bread. Not only is it the easiest bread you will ever make, it’s so delicious no one will believe you didn’t spend more than 2 minutes dumping the ingredients together and throwing it in the oven.

Beer Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp sugar (1 Tbsp extra if you like it sweeter)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp + pinch salt
12 ounces of beer (Sierra Nevada is great)

Directions:

1. Sift (or whisk) together dry ingredients. Add beer and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined (dough will be a bit sticky).
2. Transfer dough into greased 8-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until the bread is hollow when you tap the bottom and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Check out my food blog for more recipes.

As Passover rapidly approaches, cleaning and preparing for the holiday is a topic that comes up more and more. It seems like a huge undertaking and most people dread Passover cleaning– me included. But this year, I’m a little excited. I’ve divided my cleaning into two parts, my kitchen and the rest of my apartment.

I’ve decided to make my Passover cleaning into a more traditional spring cleaning. And what better way to welcome springtime than with a fresh and clean apartment?

As for the kitchen, it’s always quite a project. I started last night with a play from my college roommate’s playbook. I took a box and placed it on the center of my kitchen floor and started throwing all of my chametz into it. I filled the box pretty quickly, now I know why she put the box out about a month before Passover. There were a lot of staples (beans, pasta and rice) in the box, but there were also some hidden treasures in the back of my cabinets that I had completely forgotten about.

I’ve decided to turn this box of chametz into a challenge. Before Passover starts, I’m going to try and use as much of this food as possible. Additionally, I am not going to buy anymore chametz, which adds to the difficulty because I finished my last slice of bread today. The good news is that there is a lot of food in the box for me to work with.

To complete this challenge I am going to get creative with my recipes. This is the perfect opportunity for me to try new things. Some of the items I know how to prepare in different ways, for example, I am making sesame noodles for dinner tonight. It is going to be harder to use up some of the other items. For instance, the only way I know how to cook rice is to boil it. I usually serve rice with a main dishes but the rice itself is nothing special.

10 days and counting; let the cooking begin!

Sesame Noodles:
1 lbs of thin spaghetti
4 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Cayenne pepper (to taste)
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 scallions, chopped

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta.

Put the peanut butter, soy sauce, vegetable oil, sesame oil and cayenne pepper in a small bowl and whisk together, until peanut better is mixed in.

In a large bowl mix the sauce mixture with the cooked pasta.  Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions.

It is apropos that the Whole Grains Council has declared quinoa as the March Grain of the Month, as we begin Passover on the night of March 29th. Quinoa, a rockstar of a grain in its own right with tons of nutritional value, made its debut as a Passover friendly grain just a few years ago, forever changing the way many people cook for the holiday.

According to the laws of Passover, chometz (barley, rye, oats, wheat, and spelt [BROWS to many who attended Jewish day school]) and their derivatives are forbidden. An Ashekanazic rabbinic tradition developed where kitniyot, legumes, rice and other similar products that are processed similar to chometz, look like chometz when ground into flour, or may have even just a bit of chometz in them, were also outlawed for Passover (many Sephardic Jews eat kitniyot).

As luck would have it, the law of kitniyot applies only to items that the rabbis were aware of at the time this tradition developed. This means that, you guessed it, quinoa is allowed on Passover! No longer were the Jewish people restricted to endless variations of potato dishes.

Enter, quinoa.

You still can’t make macaroni and cheese (although if you are a fan of potato starch/egg noodles, have at it!), but here is a wonderfully filling and delicious quinoa recipe.

For more information about the laws of Passover, check out this link.

Quiona Pilaf w/ Baby Bella Mushrooms & Crispy Shallots

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
3 shallots, thinly sliced, divided
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup of quinoa, picked over
2 cups water
1 Tbsp chopped chives
2 Tbsp chopped roasted almonds

Directions:

1. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a sauce pan and cook 2 shallots and garlic over medium flame until soft, 4-5 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook 6-8 minutes more until they have released their liquid.
2. Add spices, quinoa, and water, stirring to combine. Raise heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 12-15 minutes until quinoa is tender and liquid has been absorbed. Allow to rest an additional 2-3 minutes covered, then fluff with a fork.
3. Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tsp of olive oil in a small pan. Fry remaining 1 shallot until it is crispy and very browned.
4. Garnish quinoa with crispy shallots, chives and almonds.

Take a gander at my food blog for more recipes.

My boyfriend is Brazilian.  To look at him you’d probably think he was Middle Eastern, with his dark complexion.  He speaks with an American accent that is very South Florida, but none-the-less he was born in Brazil.

Last week for no particular reason I wanted to surprise him with a Brazilian inspired meal. However, most Brazilian cuisine involves meat or fish – two things my boyfriend is loath to eat.  (We do occasionally eat humanly raised grass-fed local sustainable meat, but he finds seafood appalling.)   Feijoada, considered the national dish of Brazil consists of black beans slow cooked with various parts of the pig.  Since my boyfriend loves meatless rice and beans, so I decided to get creative.

On the Internet I researched various feijoada recipes, which mostly relied on lots of salt and pork and very little other flavoring unless you count the beef bits.  But how could I keep things kosher and compete with recipes that look like a butcher shop in a pot?  There were a lot of vegetarian black bean recipes online, but this needed to be more than just rice and beans, I needed to make this complex and interesting to call it feijoada.  So I explored the Internet for some more tastes of Brazil.

The caipirinha, also known as the national drink of Brazil, is made from muddled limes, sugar and fermented distilled sugar cane juice called cachaça.  I had my first taste of this delicious, but deceptively strong drink in my early twenties when I was working in politics.  A bunch of fat middle-aged politicians and I would occasionally lunch at a little restaurant called Chale Ipanema listening to recordings of Stan Getz and sip on caipirinhas.  Years later the New York Times ran an article explaining that Americans don’t know how good cachaça can be, but I was able to procure a decent enough bottle for our Brazilian evening.

I also happened to have a couple of ripe avocados with bright green flesh that was not too mushy.  Since I couldn’t make a ceviche with seafood, I chopped up some tomatoes, hearts of palm, thin slivers of onion, cubes of avocado and cilantro with a couple of squeezes of  lime juice.   I served in stemless wine glasses and garnished with a big wedge of avocado.

In Brazil the avocado is (correctly) considered fruit and is often sweetened and eaten as dessert.  I found several recipes for Avocado Cream and tried out a recipe similar to this one although I only used heavy cream and more lime juice.  I put the Cream into wine glasses before I started the beans and chilled it in the fridge for dessert.

But what about the main affair?  I obsessively read more and more recipes, and took from what I thought would be the best.  Some recipes called for sweet potatoes or other heavy starchy vegetables to be added to “Vegetarian Feijoada,” but I felt that those recipes were lacking the depth that the traditional dish takes on.  After all, most of the recipes called for salted, cured and otherwise preserved meats.  So I decided to add marinade mushrooms, and dress up some seitan with a seasoning rub.  The idea was that I would enhance the flavors before adding them to the stewing pot – in the hopes of adding depth and complexity.

Was I successful?  You’ll have to have the patience to try this recipe out yourself and see.  But I can say that my boyfriend was very surprised and delighted to come home to this delicious home-cooked meal.

Ingredients:

For the beans
1 pound dried black beans
2 poblano (or green bell) peppers, seeded
8 cups water
1 low sodium vegetable bullion cube
2 bay leaves
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp dried oregano
large sprig of fresh thyme
rind from one orange

Marinaded Seitan
2 cups sliced or roughly chopped seitan
Latin Spice (freshly ground roasted cumin seeds, black peppercorns and coriander seeds)
Vegetarian Worcestershire Sauce
olive oil

Sofrito
2 leeks
1 jalapeno
1 medium sweet or Vidalia onion
4 large cloves of garlic
bunch of cilantro
2 cups citrus marinated mushrooms
salt to taste
can of stewed tomatoes
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp molasses
juice of one orange

The Night Before:

1. Wash the beans well and in a large glass bowl leave them to soak in the eight cups of water with chunks from one of the peppers overnight.  Add more water if necessary to ensure beans are covered.
2. In a small glass bowl, liberally rub the seitan with Latin Spice, olive oil and Worcestershire Sauce.  Cover and let rest in fridge overnight, stirring occasionally.

Three Hours Before Meal:

1. Put the beans, the water they soaked in and the pepper pieces into a large cooking pot.  Add the orange rind, bullion and bay leaves to the water.   Place the celery seed, oregano and thyme in a tea ball or sachet bouquet and place it in the pot.
2. Bring the water to a boil, then immediately turn the heat to a simmer and cook, covered for 1 1/2 hours, or until the beans are almost tender.
3. Remove the orange rind and pepper pieces.
4. Prepare the sofrito by blending the other pepper, the leeks, onion, garlic, mushrooms, jalapeño and about half of the cilantro in a blender until the mixture is smooth.
5. Add the sofrito, the seitan and the rest of the fresh thyme to the beans. Bring to a boil again, then immediately reduce the heat to a simmer.
6. Add salt the tomatoes, sherry, vinegar, and molasses. Continue to simmer, uncovered, until the bean mixture becomes thick, about 2 more hours.  Taste after an hour or so, after the raw vegetables have the chance to cook.  Add additional Latin Spice to taste.
7. Add the juice if the orange.  Serve over steamed or coconut rice.   Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with orange slices

Like many other people, this summer has been full of summer squash!  It almost seems to be falling from the sky.  I have made zucchini bread (and muffins), I also made these zucchini fritters (really just a summer latke).  I just got some more zucchini and yellow squash in my CSA box and I really have no idea what to do with it.  To be honest, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the box yesterday and saw more summer squash!  Our CSA gives us the ability to check online a few days prior to delivery to see what we’re going to get.  So usually by the time we get our box I feel inspired to cook with the ingredients.  I was out of town earlier this week so I didn’t have a chance to look at what was coming.  My boyfriend pulled the unwelcome squashes out of the box and asked what my plans were for them.  I told him I didn’t know and to put them away for now.  We then gave each other a look of “more summer squash?  You can’t be serious.”  As a side note, while out of town for business I had dinner with my family who was vacationing at the beach in Southern California.  My dad made zucchini stuffed with his amazing mushroom risotto (you’ve heard my talk about my dad and his risotto).  He got the zucchinis from a friend who grows them in her garden and was desperate to get rid of them.  These were literally the largest zucchinis I’d ever seen

When a similar situation occurred a few weeks ago I decided I had to use the squash that night – no procrastinating!  I looked in my pantry and decided to throw some things together and hope for the best.  My boyfriend and I are both big fans of Israeli cous cous so that made the cut.  I then reached for some organic canned tomatoes and some yellow onions that had also arrived with the CSA goodies.  This is all by way of saying that I have a very easy summer recipe for you that can really be adapted to many vegetables (and many different sizes) if you aren’t experiencing the same deluge of summer squash that I am!

And now for the recipe…

1 box Israeli cous cous

2 Tbsp olive oil for cous cous and 2 Tbsp olive oil for ragout

Chicken stock – or vegetable stock (amount according to directions for liquid on cous cous package)

2 small yellow onions (or one large), chopped

1 large can of tomatoes (organic if possible)

A few medium summer squash of any variety, sliced

Salt, pepper, dried oregano, red pepper flakes to taste

Coat sautee pan with the first 2 Tbsp olive oil and turn heat to medium.  Pour in cous cous and toast in olive oil for a few minutes and until slightly brown.  Add chicken stock according to directions on package.  Make sure to stir frequently so that the cous cous doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.  In another sautee pan cook onion in a bit of olive oil until soft.  Pour in can of tomatoes with liquid.  Simmer.  Add spices, simmer.  Add summer squash, stir, simmer.  Cook until squash is tender.  Plate cous cous and ladel sauce on top.  Enjoy!