Miz Chef

Cooking Up a Healthy Life

Tag Archives: summer


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Fresh Tomato Soup

All of my life, I never liked tomato soup. It always tasted like watered-down ketchup to me. Granted, my experience with tomato soup had been the canned variety, but I also had once or twice tried it in a restaurant or catered affair situation (I can’t remember which) and thought it was equally distasteful.

Then, I found a recipe for tomato soup using fresh tomatoes…and it changed my world. Now I knew what tomato soup was supposed to taste like. And I never looked back.

This is my recipe for fresh tomato soup. The  ingredients are extremely simple and the focus is on the tomatoes. It’s best to make this in summer, when tomatoes are at their peak. It doesn’t much matter which variety you choose, as long as they’re ripe and fresh. Enjoy! Continue reading →

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Watermelon Pickles

Watermelon Pickles are a specialty of the U.S. South. It’s a very utilitarian recipe, as it makes use of all those watermelon rinds that add up all summer long.

Eating watermelon rinds ay sound strange, but like any other pickled vegetables, they have a delicious sweet-sour flavor that makes a great accompaniment to any picnic or barbecue. They also make great party snacks.

Enjoy!

Watermelon Pickles

2 lbs. watermelon rind
¼ cup kosher salt
2 cups apple cider vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon peppercorns
½ lemon, thinly sliced

Cut away any pink flesh from the watermelon rinds. Cut the rinds into cubes or strips and place them in a large bowl. \Add the salt and enough water to cover them. Cover the bowl and let the rinds soak in the refrigerator overnight.Drain and rinse the rinds. Place them in a large saucepan and cover them with cold water. Bring to a boil; lower the heat to low and simmer until they’re just tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 20 minutes. Drain and put them back in the pot.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, and peppercorns with 1 cup water (or more, if necessary, to cover the rinds). Bring to a boil; lower the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Simmer 5 minutes longer. Pour this over the watermelon rinds, add the lemon slices, and continue simmering over medium-low heat until the fleshy parts of the rinds are translucent, about 20-25 minutes.

Transfer the pickles to jars with tight-fitting lids. Cover with the cooking liquid. Pickles should be submerged; if necessary, add more liquid of one part water, one part vinegar. (Or, you can process them in a hot water bath.)

Pickles will keep in the refrigerator up to 2 week.


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Summer Tomato-Cucumber Salad

Well, for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, summer is coming to a close. Garden aficionados are gathering up the final crops of their summer vegetables and herbs, and are preparing their autumn and winter larders.

But there’s still time to enjoy some summer savory dishes. Pick some tomatoes and snap off a cucumber (or get them at the farmers’ market) to make this simple, yet savory, classic dish. Plan one last picnic or barbecue, soak in the warm sun while it lasts, and serve this to hold you over until next year. Pretty soon, it will be time for pumpkins, fireplaces, and warm fleece blankets. And that’s a different kind of joy.

Summer Tomato-Cucumber Salad

1 cup cherry or pear tomatoes, halved
½ medium cucumber, sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Few leaves fresh basil

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix well. Taste for seasoning and adjust, if necessary.

Serve at room temperature. You can make this a few hours ahead of time. Keep it stored  tightly sealed in the refrigerator.


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Cherry Tomato Flatbread Focaccia

Summer is tomato season, and cherry tomatoes are some of the most beautiful to be had. There are so many things you can do with tomatoes, and like any Italian will tell you, one of the best ways is to put fresh tomatoes on pizza or focaccia.

I like to make my own personal focaccia using 8-inch flatbread rounds. With so few ingredients, the fat and calories are kept on the low side. And by using whole wheat flatbread, I’m upping the health factor. Yet it’s filling and satisfying.

This flatbread focaccia is so simple and quick to make, you can have it any night of the week. Pair it with a fruity white wine or a cider and you’ve made the perfect light summer meal.

 

Cherry Tomato Flatbread Focaccia

Makes 1 serving

1 (8-inch) whole wheat flatbread
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Herbs or seasonings of your choice (such as basil, oregano, cayenne)
2 tablespoons parmigiano

Toast the flatbread in the oven or toaster oven, just until it starts to firm up.Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the tomatoes, oil, salt, pepper, and herbs or seasonings, if using.Spread the tomato mixture over the flatbread. Sprinkle the parmigiano over the top. Put it back in the oven and toast until tomatoes soften and bread is fully toasted, 2 to 4 minutes. Cut in half or quarters. Enjoy!


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Red and Gold Beet Salad

 

beet saladLove, love, love beets. There are different varieties, but I think it’s safe to say that the majority of us find the red most often. Getting the golden, pink, rainbow, or any other kind of beets, for me, requires a special trip to a farmers’ market or specialty store.

Well, this past week, I lucked out. The farmers’ market that sets up shop outside of my workplace once a week had golden beets, which is not always the case.beets

Anyway, in my opinion, the best thing to do with beets is make a salad with them. It’s the easiest thing in the world and so flavorful. And when you mix beets, it’s beautiful, too.

But if you can only find the red beets, it’s just as delicious. I like to roast beets, but in the summer, turning on the oven is not fun, so I boil them. (If you have a grill you can use, then that’s even better!). There’s nothing wrong with boiling, just don’t overcook them and use only just enough water to cover them in the pot. Enjoy!

Red and Gold Beet Salad

1½ pounds red and yellow beets
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Wash and trim the beets of excess roots or threads. Place in a medium-large pot and fill with enough water to cover the beets. Bring to a boil; lower the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until the beets are cooked. You should be able to stick the tip of a knife easily all the way through.

Remove beets from the water and let them cool. Peel off the skin and trim off unappealing parts (such as near the roots). Cut them into quarters or bite-sized pieces. Place in a medium bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently. Serve.
beet salad

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Picnic Posole Salad

posole text

I’ve been making posole salad for picnics, parties, and barbecues years. I think people enjoy it because it’s both something different from the usual fare, while offering something familiar and not too “out there.”

hominy

Dried hominy

So what is posole (or pozole)? Not everyone outside of the Latin community is familiar with posole. Posole means “hominy” (from the Nahuatl word pozolle), and actually refers to a stew, popular in Mexico and made with hominy and pork or chicken. But it is sometimes also used (loosely and unofficially) to refer to the hominy itself, which is properly called mote. Corn, in general, is known as maize.

Mote is maize that has had its hulls removed through a process known as nixtamalization. This involves boiling the kernels in a water-and-lime (or ash) solution. The resulting product is used in many traditional dishes throughout Latin America, the most commonly known being posole stew, a dish that goes back to the pre-Colombian Aztecs. Continue reading →


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White Bean Hummus with Garlic Scapes

white bean hummus garlic scapesBecause garlic scapes have such a short season (early summer), I’ve been on a garlic scape kick, using them in as many ways as I can. Last week, I made Lentils with Garlic Scapes and the week before that, I made Beet Greens with Garlic Scapes.

All delicious. But this week I decided to use the scapes in its purest form: raw.Garlic scapes Continue reading →

Lentils with garlic scapes


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Lentils with Garlic Scapes

Lentils with garlic scapesGarlic scapes are one of summer’s treasures and if you have a farmers’ market near you, try to find some. They’re available for a short time in early summer. Scapes can be used in many different ways—basically, any way you would use garlic or onions. Last week, I used them with beet greens (very tasty!).

Garlic scapes

For this recipe, I used garlic scapes as the flavor base for lentils. Scapes lend the dish a mellow garlic-like taste but there’s more complexity to it. The addition of fresh herbs really elevate this to a gourmet meal, but the simplicity can’t be beat. The final result is so flavorful and something really special. Continue reading →


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Beet Greens and Garlic Scapes

beet greens with garlic scapes

I was just commenting to someone that I sometimes feel that I cook more in summer than in winter. That seems counter-intuitive, but there’s a reason for this. With summer comes all the beautiful vegetables that you can’t get in winter (or they’re not as good in winter), and I definitely want to take full advantage.

One of those things is garlic scapes, which are available for a short while in early summer.garlic scapes

At the farmers’ market this week I found garlic scapes, as well as beets with beautiful lush leaves. Usually I cook beet greens with garlic, so I thought that garlic scapes would work well too. And they do. Continue reading →


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Chilean Tomato and Sweet Onion Salad

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One of the best things about summer is all the beautiful, luscious tomatoes that become available. So this is the season for tomato salads. It’s almost not even worth it to make tomato salad any other time of the year.

This is a simple Chilean version, which gets a bit of a kick from minced Serrano or jalapeno pepper. But if you like, you can omit it. Choose any tomatoes you like—there are so many options this time of year! Heirloom varieties make a stunning salad, but good old beefsteak tomatoes do better than fine. Continue reading →