Roasted Kale and Butternut Squash with Heirloom Jacob's Cattle Beans, Adobo Sauce and Feta Cheese

While researching the book I'm doing for NaNoWrimo, I looked for Puerto Rican recipes on Pinterest. This one, for kale salad, looked really interesting. However, I don't really like raw kale (I know, I know, I'm a freak of nature). I like the health benefits, though, so I thought I'd just cook the kale. The recipe was sort of strange, anyway, as it called for hot squash in a salad.

I have to say, making this was pretty time-consuming. I don't usually do 'fancy.' I do basic. So this made me feel quite accomplished. And it was sooo pretty (hence the photo overload) that I almost didn't want to eat it. It was really good though--and VERY filling. Even my husband couldn't finish a bowl full. It's a very fancy, filling vegetarian meal. The adobo sauce I made was good--I liked it heated up, although I guess it is supposed to be kind of the dressing for the salad. But it was a good seasoning for the dish, and I enjoyed it. I did sort of wing the adobo sauce, so if you're picky about that kind of thing, use canned stuff, or you can follow the link for my basic recipe.


Anyway, I adapted the recipe to make a vegetarian meal instead of a salad. Here's the full meal version.


Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed (1/2-inch pieces)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp red wine or apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dried mustard
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1-2 tbsp adobo sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 cups cooked Jacob's cattle beans (any other kind would do just as well)
• 1 large bunch kale, stemmed and torn into small pieces
• 1/2 c. feta cheese

Instructions:

Wash, stem and tear up kale and place in a large casserole pan (mine was the big pyrex pan, about 9x14 I think.

Seed butternut squash, peel if desired, and cut into approx 1/2 inch cubes. Mine weren't too exact. Also, I don't peel mine because I grew them and they're organic. But if you're unsure, peel. The skins are very soft and edible, so feel free to skip this step. Spread over kale in the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the squash and kale, as evenly as possible.

Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes, until squash is very tender. If you're like me and your pieces aren't uniform, test the largest pieces. When they're done, so is everything else.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together 1/2 tsp. salt, vinegar, mustard, honey, adobo sauce, garlic slices, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper.

When squash is done, pour sauce over it and toss in the casserole pan. Some of the kale may be crispy, and that's fine!

Add beans and mix well. Return pan to the oven for a couple minutes until heated through.

Serve topped with feta or other crumbled goat cheese.

End of Summer Vegetable Saute with Cheese

This is one of my lazy non-recipes, where I just throw together everything that sounds like it would go good together, smother it with cheese, and eat it in mass quantities. Though I've never used a recipe, I've decided to try to replicate my methods on some of the dishes that I make often but without following a recipe. So if it's not exact, that's because I never measure anything and just throw together most of my old standbys without much thought.

Here's what I used for this one:

• 1 small zucchini
• 1 small yellow crookneck squash
• 1 onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1 c. shredded cheese
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1.  Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet
2. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently
3. Meanwhile, chop bell peppers & garlic or shred in food processor
4. Add to pan and cook about 3 minutes, stirring frequently
5. Meanwhile, slice zucchini and squash, and chop tomatoes
6. Add to pan, cover, and cook about 10 minutes or until zucchini is tender, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove from heat, add salt & pepper and top with cheese, cover,  and let sit until cheese is melted.

Baked Winter Squash (Butternut)

For years, I've looooved butternut squash. I mean, I could eat one every day all winter and never get tired of it. I know, because I've done it. So when my mom gave me some seeds, I was excited to plant them. Unfortunately, I didn't have much space in my garden, so I was only able to plant 4 hills (5 plants came up). I quickly decided that was enough, as the plants seemed intent on taking over the world. 

However, just when I thought I'd be overwhelmed by squash, the squash bugs descended and killed all my plants. Fortunately, they'd already set about 30 squash. Unfortunately, they weren't mature enough to pick yet. I wasn't sure what to do, since my mom said to pick them although they weren't quite ripe. I picked one to see how it was, and it was a bit watery (NOT the correct texture for this rich, creamy squash) and not at all sweet.

So I went to Fannie to see if I could use it up somehow (I left the rest of the squash in the garden to see if they could ripen up from whatever leaves were left on the vines).

Fannie's recipe for this is quite simple.

You will need:
1 butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise.
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. salted butter

Bake the squash at 375 for about 40 minutes or until soft.
Mash it a bit while leaving it in the skin.
Add butter and maple syrup and enjoy.

While this was not nearly as good as a mature squash, which is sweet enough on it's own, it did give me an edible way to eat the immature squash I'd picked. I haven't tried another one yet, but I'm sure I'll post when I do.

Sauteed Summer Squash and Zucchini with Onions

Remember my sauteed summer squash from the other day? Well, this is another way to do it. This was more like the one my mom used to make when we were kids, though she didn't use zucchini in hers. But, I'm trying to use up what we have, so this was another good option.

I served this with pork chops and apple zucchini bread. It's an easy side dish for just about any meat.

You will need:
2-3 tbsp. butter
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow crookneck squash
1 small onion
Salt & pepper to taste

 Melt the butter in a skillet.

Chop the onion and add to pan. Cook 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
 
While onion cooks, half lengthwise (if desired) and slice your zucchini and squash. Add to pan and cook for additional 10 minutes (covered if you like your squash well done, uncovered if you like it al dente), stirring occasionally.

Sauteed Summer Squash with Tomatoes

This is one of the summer squash recipes from Fannie Farmer. It's actually one of the variations of a recipe that is just fried squash. I added tomatoes to this, and since I had half a zucchini that needed to be used, I threw that in, too.

It was pretty good. My homegrown squash and zucchini has great flavor, and the butter was a different take on it, since I usually saute it in olive oil. But it was a quick, simple side dish and very edible.

For this, I used:
2 tbsp. butter
1 small yellow/crookneck squash
1/2 zucchini
1 large tomato
salt & pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet.

Cook over medium/low heat for about 10 minutes, until squash is soft, adding tomatoes for the last 3-5 minutes.

This made enough for a small helping of veggies for 2-3 people, and it goes well with any meat. I love any variation of fried squash, and could just eat this by itself. So good!

Pasta with Zucchini Pesto

Notice how I cook in trends? For a while it's ham, then it's rice, then it's pasta...Really, it's just because I look at a recipe and then see some right next to it that look good, so I mark them and while they're fresh in my mind, I come back to them.
 
Anyhoo, my husband asked for spaghetti one night, so I started looking through the pasta section of Fannie Farmer. This recipe was perfect because it uses a lot of zucchini, and I'm drowning in the stuff, and cream cheese, which I just made. Since I'm all proud of my cream cheese, of course I'm looking for ways to use it! Unfortunately, I didn't have fresh basil for this. Fannie Farmer doesn't call it pesto, she just calls it 'pasta with zucchini,' but from the strong basil flavor, even using dried basil, I would call it a pesto even though it is technically just basil sauce.
 

Cooking in pan.

For this, I used:
1/2-3/4 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 c. grated zucchini
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 c. fresh basil (or about 1/4 c. dried)
salt & pepper to taste

Put your pasta on to cook and make the sauce as follows:

• Put olive oil in sauce pan or skillet and heat, then add garlic and cook for about 1 minute on medium heat.
• Add zucchini and cook another 3-5 minutes.
• Add milk and cream cheese and cook until cream cheese melts and sauce bubbles.
• Stir in salt & pepper & basil.
• Drain pasta and toss or top with sauce.

 This was pretty tasty. If I made it again, I'd have to have fresh basil, though. And the sauce was a bit thin, so I think I'd like it better if it had more milk and was a creamier sauce. But otherwise, it was tasty and super quick and easy. A good vegetarian meal.

Sauteed Zucchini

 This is a super easy side dish I made to go with Little Joe's. Fannie Farmer lists several adaptations, but I stuck with the most simple recipe, the basic one from the cookbook, because I had my hands full with the main dish.

For this, you will need:
Olive Oil
2 cloves garlic
1 medium/large zucchini (FF says 1 lb, but I don't have a cooking scale, so I just used one whole one.
Salt & pepper

Chop the garlic and add to oil in pan. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, then add zucchini, sliced.

Cook for about ten minutes, until zucchini is tender. Do not let it get mushy!

Remove from pan, sprinkle with the garlic, salt & pepper. Voila.

This was one of the easiest recipes ever. And it was pretty tasty. The garlic did tend to sink between the slices of zucchini, and it got a bit toasted. Bits of it were browned and crispy, but it didn't burn and they were actually really good when I scooped them out and sprinkled them over the zucchini slices.

I served this with Little Joe's and tomato slices with salt & pepper. They were really good.

Zucchini Pancakes

Oh, look, it's another breakfast recipe! It might seem like those make up half my recipes, but the truth is, I rarely make anything more fancy than oatmeal for breakfast. During the school year, we eat a lot of oatmeal. But during the summer, I like to take advantage of those mornings at home, when I can make something my son really loves or get creative and make something like zucchini pancakes. As summer draws to a close and school approaches, I've been cramming in as many breakfasts together as possible. Hence, the numerous breakfast recipes of late.

But this will probably be the last one for a while, so enjoy.

You will need:
2 c. coarsely grated or chopped zucchini (I used a food processor and it came out perfect).
2 eggs

1/2 c. grated cheese
1/4 c. flour
1-4 tsp. fresh or dried parsley
butter or coconut oil for cooking
salt & pepper to taste

Trim and remove stem from medium or small zucchini.

Coarsely chop or grate 2 c. zucchini and add parsley.

Add cheese.

Add flour, salt and pepper.

Mix all ingredients.

Beat the eggs and add to mixture, mixing thoroughly.

Heat and oil a cast iron skillet and spread the batter into roughly pancake shaped masses.

Cook until golden brown on each side and top with parmesan or sour cream.

These turned out really, really good. I ate about five of them, and I didn't even feel guilty. My son, however, did not like them so much. He did eat one, after saying they looked disgusting. I thought they were quite pretty. They reminded me of potato pancakes, but a bit more tender because the zucchini is softer than potatoes. They had a bit of crunch, a bit of saltiness. The only problem is, I never know what to put on savory pancakes. But these were so good, they really didn't need anything. I may try making them again without flour and see if they turn out as good. These were amazing!

Squash and Cabbage Saute

I've had this recipe marked in my book for a while, since I had so much cabbage earlier in the summer. Now that I have zucchini and peppers ready in the garden, it was time to make this recipe at last. I paired it with the goulash I posted yesterday.

For this recipe, you will need:
About 1/4 head cabbage
1 green bell pepper
1 med. zucchini
vinegar
thyme
oregano
salt & pepper

Directions: 

Heat a skillet and add 2-3 tbsp. butter.

Add 2-4 c. cabbage, shredded or sliced thinly.

Add 1 chopped green pepper (about 1 c.)

Add 1 medium zucchini, chopped (about 2-3 c.)

Saute about 10 mins, stirring a few times, until zucchini is just getting tender.

Add some thyme and oregano. A pinch of each, fresh if possible, but dried is fine, too.

Salt and pepper to taste. I like a lot of pepper.

And 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar.

Stir in the seasonings and serve immediately.

 This recipe was really good. Usually, I'll make a vegetable side dish and think it wasn't really worth the effort, because it's just as good simply steamed with a bit of butter and salt added. But this was really good. Definitely worth the small effort. The flavors went together incredibly well. One of the best vegetable sides I've made.