Summer Vegetable Soup

It's Soup Day today at my house.  Or, more accurately, it's Clean Out the Fridge Day.

I woke up early enough to make it to the Farmer's Market shortly after it opened, so I had the greatest pick of some fantastic produce.  Even though I frequent the farmers markets for as long as they run (where I live it is until mid October), this 'early to the market' thing is such a rarity for me, I ended up making three trips back to my car today because I couldn't carry it all; baby romain and salad leaves, eggplant, corn on the cob, carrots, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, green and yellow beans, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, green and purple peppers (I have never seen a purple bell pepper before, and they were so pretty, so I bought some), kohlrabi, chard, and blueberries.  I think I bought something from every vendor there and spent just under $40 for everything.  Gosh, I love that place.

Anyway, when I came home, I realized I needed to clean out the refrigerator so I had a place to stash my haul.  A lot of the things I found in there were still good, but nearing the end of days, so I just set all the old contents on the counter and considered what kind of soup we'd be having for dinner.  Two giant tomatoes were very ripe, so I decided to make a quick tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic, onions, and basil, which would be the base of the soup.  To that I added about a cup of chopped carrots, a zucchini, about a cup of green beans, a couple stalks of celery, and some water (and of course, salt and pepper).  In simple, thin brothy vegetable soups like this one, I like to stir in some beans (in this case, Cannellini) and some greens (today I used the chard I just bought).  And, to off set the tomatoes, a little red wine vinegar.

My family always likes to eat soup with bread (who doesn't?), so I made focaccia dough in the breadmaker, topped it with garlic, olive oil, oregano, olives and parmesan, and baked it in the oven.  We had slices of cantelope for dessert.

Nice.  Simple.  Quick.  Delicious.

Before I give the recipe, would you like to see my purple bell pepper?  Seriously, the only time I've ever seen a purple pepper, the poor thing was about an hour from turning black and biting the dust.  But this one is not the same at all; it's crisp and tastes bright and fresh, like a green bell pepper, but a little more bland flavor, almost watery.  I was surprised to see it was green on the inside and the wall is firm and thicker than I had expected.  I think we'll use them in fresh salads, although I might saute some just to see what happens with the purple color.

Here is the Summer Vegetable Soup recipe.  All portions are approximate, so if you like carrots, add more, if you don't like green beans, add a cup of something you do like (peas are good), etc.  Serves 6-8.

Summer Vegetable Soup

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2-3 large tomatoes, diced, with all their juice (or a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes would suffice)
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 med white or yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped basil (not necessarily minced, but not a large chop, either)
• 2 1/2 tsp salt, divided
• 1 c sliced carrots
• 1 c zucchini, chopped
• 1 c green beans, cut into 1" pieces (or use frozen if you don't have any fresh)
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 6 c water
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 c cooked white beans such as Cannellini, Great Northern or Navy (or 1 15oz can, drained and rinsed)
• 4 cups chopped chard or spinach leaves
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar
• Freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

Heat olive oil over medium/high heat in a dutch oven or soup kettle.  Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil and 1 tsp salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, about 6-8 min until the tomatoes start to break down and onion is translucent.  Add carrots, zucchini, green beans, celery, water, remaining 1 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper.  Bring to boil, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes, or until green beans are tender.  Stir in white beans and chard or spinach.  Simmer another 10 minutes, or until greens are wilted.  Remove from the heat and stir in red wine vinegar.  Serve topped with parmesan cheese.

Asiago Pasta Salad

A couple of years ago, the deli at one the grocery stores I frequent had a colorful pasta salad displayed in the case that caught my eye.  It consisted of penne pasta, grape tomatoes, kalamata olives, peppers, large chunks of asiago cheese and some sort of vinaigrette.  I tried a sample and was sold.  I immediately purchased 1/2 lb and rushed home to figure out what was in it.  It turned out to be pretty straight forward, with a basic red wine vinaigrette, and the simplicity of the whole thing  made it taste even better to me.

We are heading to a family reunion tomorrow, so I made a batch of this to bring along.  The first time I brought this salad to a family function, several people made me promise to bring it every year.  So I will.

A few suggestions for this salad: if you don't have any yellow peppers lying around, don't let it stop you from making it - just use whichever ones  you do have.  The same goes for the tomatoes - chunk some other tomato you already have on hand (the juices will just add more flavor to the salad).  It'll taste mildly different, but it's a pretty fool proof salad.  The only things I wouldn't mess with are the olives and the Asiago (because then it wouldn't be Asiago Pasta Salad, now would it?).  Use olives from an olive bar (many grocery store delis have these) or find a good quality jar of olives and brine.  Please do not substitute those flavorless black things in a can.  For the cheese, try to find an Asiago that has been aged 3-8 months (Asiago Mezzano); the cheese is semi-hard at this age so it's easy to cut and it holds its shape well in a dressing sort of setting, and it still tastes a little sweet which is nice because it's such a spunky cheese.

Asiago Pasta Salad

• 1 13-14 oz box whole wheat penne pasta
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 pint grape tomatoes (halved, if you like)
• 8 oz pitted kalamata olives  (halved, if you like)
• 6 oz  Asiago cheese, cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1/3 c red wine vinegar
• 2/3 c extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Boil the pasta according to package directions.  Drain, rinse in cold water to stop the cooking.

In a large bowl, combine the pasta, peppers, tomatoes, kalamatas and Asiago cheese.

In a small jar (not smaller than a pint) with a tightly fitting lid, combine the vinegar, olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper.  Screw the top on tightly and shake like crazy until everything is well mixed.Pour over the pasta mixture and mix well.

Serve right away or store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

This recipe makes about 8 heaping 1 cup servings so adjust the recipe for as many servings as you'd like to have on hand.

Cucumber Salad with Dilled Yogurt

Cucumbers fresh from the garden are one of life's little pleasures.  The harvesting season is entirely too short, if you ask me; I wish it was all year long.  Of course, there are cucumbers available at the grocery store all year long, but just because they look like cucumbers, doesn't make them cucumbers.  Fresh summer cucumbers not only smell like cucumbers, they taste like them too (which isn't true for the winter cucumbers in the grocery store).

Because it is so crazy hot here right now (90 degrees Fahrenheit and oppressively humid at 10am) , I don't feel like fighting the air conditioning in the kitchen with the heat from my oven.  So, it's going to be a salad sort of day.  I've got some of those luscious cucumbers and some big, beautiful tomatoes resting on my counter, and I can almost hear them calling to me to dress them in yogurt and dill.  They like that.

This version of this salad is simply utilizing what I had on hand.  A squeeze of lemon in the yogurt sauce is nice, too, but I didn't have any.  If you've got a lemon, go ahead and give it a little squeeze.

Cucumber Salad with Dilled Yogurt
(serves about 4)

• 1/2 c plain yogurt (full fat)
• 1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh dill
• 1-2 big tomatoes, sliced about 1/3" thick    
• 1-2 cucumbers, sliced on the diagonal 1/3" thick
• very thinly sliced red onion, (about 1/4 of the onion, maybe less)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Mix the dill, yogurt, and a little salt together in a small bowl and set aside for at least 15 minutes to give the dill time to flavor the yogurt.*

Layer 2 tomato slices on each plate, topped with 3 cucumbers and a few strands of onion.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Drizzle yogurt sauce over and top with a little more chopped dill, if desired.

Eat with a fork and knife.

* Note - the longer you allow the dill and yogurt to do its thing, the stronger the dill flavor will be.