Yet another tomato and zucchini recipe. This one piqued my interest because it was such a wonderfully simple dish that used fresh tomatoes and zucchini from the garden, fresh basil, and some dill that I’d grown indoors over the winter and dehydrated.
I’ve never made sauce from scratch before, so I thought I’d try with a pasta recipe before I whip up a whole batch to can. This one turned out rather funky colored because I used water rather than the called for wine, but the taste was wonderful. My other changes were to use all fresh tomatoes with some extra water and leave out the olives….gross.
One of my chat friends threw out this idea for a way to use tomatoes and zucchini, which I have in serious abundance right now. It’s just a raw salad of thinly sliced zucchini, tomatoes, and onions. The dressing was oil and balsamic vinegar. While it wasn’t a 5 star recipe, it was a nice change of pace and hit the spot on a hot day.
The tomatoes have been rolling in so I’m ready to try new recipes. Surprisingly enough, I have never made my own tomato soup before. I used this recipe from Frugal Homesteads.
Mine just looks a little funny because I thought I’d make it with water instead of milk, but it just didn’t taste quite right. So I added powdered milk at the end.
3 cups tomatoes
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 tsp salt
1 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
3 TBSP flour
2 TBSP butter
1 quart milk
Blanch tomatoes for one minute. Remove from water and peel skins. Add tomatoes, onion, and garlic to blender and blend until smooth.
In soup pot, melt butter and mix in flour. Stir in one cup milk. Add remaining ingredients and tomato mixture. Heat through and serve. I added cooked rice to mine.
I tried another new zucchini recipes. This one is like that potato soup where the zucchini is “hidden”. I’ve never actually had real crab cakes, but I’m assuming it’s one of those dishes where it’s all in the spices. These were a bit more heavily seasoned than I’d normally like, but with a strong dish like spaghetti they stood out nicely from the sauce without being overpowering.
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon butter, meted
2 teaspoons minced onions
3 tablespoons bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon old bay seasoning
2 1/2 teaspoons flour
Combine first 6 ingredients and shape into patties. Dredge patties in flour and fry in oil on medium heat until golden brown.
Here’s the original recipe if you’d like to convert to a larger serving size.
This is a very simple and quick soup one of my forum friends shared. The potato base makes it thick and hearty. I really liked this one and plan to make it again soon.
2 lbs potatoes, roughly chopped
1 onion, diced
6 cups broth (made mine from veggie scraps or could use half strength bullion)
2 cups zucchini, grated
1 cup powdered milk (or one can condensed milk)
Add first 3 ingredients to pot and simmer until potatoes tender. Blend with steam safe blender (could use immersion blender or just mash with potato masher as well). Add zucchini and powdered milk and simmer 2-5 minutes until zucchini tender. Season with salt and pepper, can be served with sour cream and parmesan cheese.
I picked up a bunch of cookbooks lately focusing on pantry cooking. Now that I’m dehydrating and canning produce, I need to learn how to cook with them! I’ve also always been a fan of shelf stable substitutes for fresh foods like powdered milk and cheese. When buying for one person, fresh items too often end up going to waste before I can use them all.
This recipe from Cookin’ with Home Storage
I liked it more than I thought I would, as I’ve never been a fan of carrot side dishes. It had an interesting honey-glazed taste to it considering none was used, which gives it the benefit of added protein rather than all that sugar.
I don’t have problems with sharing the occasional recipe, but I have a feeling I’m going to be trying a lot from these books and don’t want to republish the whole darn things on my blog. But if you are interested go ahead and leave a comment, I’ll be happy to email you a copy. I’ve also added all of the books I have to my amazon store if they sound worth buying to you.
Although all of my cabbages fizzled with the strangely hot spring we had, I still wanted to share this Cabbage Soup Recipe. It’s the 0 Point Weight Watchers one and is surprisingly tasty for how simple it is. Pepper really makes this one pop, so don’t skimp!
3 cups vegetable broth
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups chopped cabbage
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup green beans
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt & pepper
Spray a pot with cooking spray and saute onions, carrots, and garlic for 5 minutes.
Add broth, tomato paste, cabbage, green beans, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until vegetables are tender.
Add zucchini and simmer for 5 more minutes. (I cook a lot longer because I like all my veggies squishy)
Another one of my favorite simple and inexpensive meals are these Turbo Burritos. I was worried about them at first because I don’t like anything spicy, but the enchilada sauce isn’t bad and really jazzes up the burritos. They have just 4 ingredients and are tasty enough to be eaten as is, but I like to top them with sour cream and cheddar. I’ve been making a small batch in an 8×8 pan every other week or so since the recipe was posted.
Tortillas
Refried beans
Diced onion
Enchilada sauce
Spread refried beans on tortillas (I used about 1/4 can per burrito) and roll. Place in casserole dish and bake 15 minutes. Cover with enchilada sauce and bake for 7 more minutes. Serve with your favorite toppings.
I mentioned quickly that the third batch I had canned last week was pinto beans. One of the jars didn’t seal correctly, so I had the opportunity to try out the magical fruits of my labor. After much searching around I settled on this recipe for Three Sisters Stew. It sounded like a great combination and with just a little garlic salt and pepper it tasted wonderful. It’s very hearty and just a cup at a time was enough to satisfy me.
1 TBSP oil
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 onion, diced
28 ounces broth
1 zucchini, diced
2 cups corn
15 ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
Saute rice onion and garlic in oil until onion is tender. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until rice is tender and broth is thickened.
2010 Harvest: 169.34 pounds
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