Summer Veggie Cooking

With all the produce in season, it’s fun and easy to do summer veggie cooking. Veggies are especially tasty when you grow your own, or buy them at a farmer’s market / produce stand.Summer veggies come in a variety of shapes, tastes, textures, and degree of firmness and wateriness. Here are some to choose from for cooking: tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash — zucchini and yellow, green beans, wax beans, beets, kale, collard greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, corn, okra, onions, bell peppers, potatoes. You can also mix them with some cold weather favorites for a little more variety, as sweet potatoes and butternut squash.

The veggies can be prepared in a variety of ways:

Roasting

To roast veggies, mix your veggies with some garlic powder or fresh garlic, crushed up rosemary, salt and pepper, and olive oil. You can add other seasonings from there, but the above will make a delicious dish when the veggies are good. Other additions can be: onion powder, paprika, mesquite powder, dried herbs such as basil, summer savory, oregano or thyme, and maca powder. You may also find some good blends at your local spice store or health food store.

Some possible combinations are: eggplant, yellow squash, butternut squash, red bell peppers / potatoes, onions, yellow squash, green bell peppers / zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potatoes.

Mix all ingredients together. Put in a roasting pan or cookie sheet with sides. Roast at 440 degrees. Turn with a spatula after 20 minutes. Let roast about 10 more minutes or until tender and crisped around the edges.

You can also put them in a baking dish, cover, and bake at 425 degrees about 45-50 minutes.

Sauteing

Saute veggies in a frying pan or wok. Heat the oil and saute onions, garlic, ginger. You can also add some coriander powder. Add veggies and a little water to prevent sticking. Cover and let cook until tender, checking on them every 5-10 minutes — turning as needed and adding more water if needed.

Some possible combinations: Swiss chard with beets and corn / Kale and/or collard greens with green beans and tomatoes / okra with corn and tomatoes / cabbage with beets and corn

For a quick main dish, saute onions, garlic, ginger, coriander as above. Add washed and cut up Swiss chard. Crack an egg over it, add salt and pepper, cover and cook on medium-low for 5 minutes.

Steaming

Steam vegegtables by boiling about 1/2 inch – 3/4  inch of water in a pot. Add veggies to the pot with a steaming basket in it. You can then add salt, seasonings, dried herbs if you like. Bring to a boil and turn down, cooking for 10-20 minutes, depending on the veggies. Check periodically to make sure there is enough water at the bottom of the pot, adding more if needed.

Or, cook in an Instant Pot. Add 1 1/2-2c water to the pot. Add steaming basket, veggies, optional seasonings. Set at pressure for 4 minutes (or less if you prefer crispy veggies). I like the veggies to be tender but not too soft. Then they are tasty and digestible. Four minutes seems to be ideal.

Some possible combinations: green beans, yellow squash, beets / green and waxed beans, red cabbage, butternut squash / kale with corn or potatoes / zucchini with corn and red bell peppers.

Other

Use your summer tomatoes in a homemade marinara sauce. You can use the sauce for pasta, lasagne, baked eggplant, or anything else your imagination comes up with.

Mix fresh herbs (that have been washed and finely cut) into the veggies to steamed or roasted veggies. Or add them to the sauted veggies near the end of cooking time. Red basil is especially colorful.

Enjoy enperimenting with your summer veggie cooking. You can also apply the same principles to winter veggie cooking.

If you’d like to chat about cooking ideas, feel free to contact me. I look forward to talking with you.