Heat wave & tomatoes

Temperatures are soaring all over the US.  Tomorrow will be extremely hot in DC (100°F or more).  The humidity does not help.  And if you’ve been to DC in the summer before, you know how sticky it gets here.  So with the temperatures soaring, all of us are melting into puddles.  Non-cooking dishes do not only sound fantastic- they are essential for our survival.

What I do like about summer are tomatoes.  Especially tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market.  Have you ever really looked a tomato?  Up close?  Aren’t they beautiful?

And what do you do when you have delicious looking tomatoes and it’s hot outside?

Tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil.

Yum!

I hope all of you go out and get some beautiful tomatoes, and enjoy them.  All you will need is:

tomatoes (depending on size about 1-3)
fresh mozzarella (2-3 small balls)
basil (5-10 leaves)
Salt & pepper

Cut the tomatoes into slices.  Arrange them nicely on a plate.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Chiffonade the basil, and sprinkle over the plate.  Lastly, slice the mozzarella, and place a piece on each tomato slice.  You can drizzle the dish with olive oil, but I preferred the earthy flavor of the tomatoes.  Serve and enjoy.  A fresh baguette and butter are a fantastic addition.

And to leave you with something more to read, rather than just looking at the delicious pictures, here’s an interesting article.  It discusses how the tomato flavor and production in the US has changed over the last 50 years.

How Industrial Farming ‘Destroyed’ the Tasty Tomato

Stay cool!

Tomato Soup with Basil

As the days get warmer, and the sun shines longer, no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen.  Especially with the oven on…too hot!  As I mentioned before, I try to search out recipes that are fast, simple, and require very minimal cooking.  But just because you want a simpler recipe, does not mean that flavor has to be lost.

This is a very simple soup, although I’ve noticed I say that quite a bit!  Nonetheless, it’s hearty enough to fill you up (thanks to the rice)- but not too much that you feel stuffed.  And, it’s easy since I cooked it between going for a run.  Once all the ingredients were boiling, I grabbed my shoes for a quick run around the Mall.  By the time I came back, the soup was done cooking.

We let it cool off a bit before we ate, a bit more “gazpacho” style.  And even though it was cooler, it still had the great flavor.  Tomato season hasn’t started yet, but this would be a great one to do with fresh tomatoes rather than the canned.  It would give the soup more flavor.  But that’s something we’ll have to wait for, and enjoy over the summer.

We bought some bread from the Farmer’s Market, and ate it with the soup.  The bread was dense, and it absorbed some of the liquid from the soup, giving it a little more flavor.  Yum!

Tomato Soup with Basil
Adapted from: A Chow Life Blog

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans whole tomatoes (28 oz each)
1/4 cup basil, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 chicken bouillon
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/4 cup rice

In a large pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic, let it sauté for about 8 minutes, until the onions are translucent.  Then add the tomatoes, basil, sugar, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Then add the bouillon, broth and water.  Stir in the rice, and cover the pot until the soup is boiling.

Let it simmer for 15-25 minutes.  Remove the tomatoes from the soup and add them to a food processor (or blender).  Blend until it turns into smaller chunks (choose the consistency to your liking).  Pour back into the pot, cover, and simmer for another 10 minutes.

When serving, feel free to sprinkle some basil as a garnish.

Broccoli & Radicchio Pasta Salad

It’s a Sunday night, and what can we make (quickly!) for lunch tomorrow?  Pasta salad!  This was an extremely fast dish to make (the pasta cooking was the most time consuming), and by the next day the flavors blended even better.  This can be a dish for dinner, but we enjoyed this quick and easy lunch for the next 2 days. 

Broccoli & Radicchio Pasta Salad
Adapted from: Power Foods Cookbook

1 lb spiral pasta
1/2 lb frozen broccoli
1/4 cup grape seed oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 pints cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
1 small head radicchio, cored & shredded
1/2 cup basil, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 oz feta cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil, and cook pasta until tender.  Add the broccoli 4 minutes before the pasta is cooked.  Drain pasta and broccoli.  While the pasta is cooking, whisk together the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, honey, garlic, red pepper flakes, pepper and salt in a large bowl.  Add the drained pasta and broccoli.  Mix in tomatoes, olives, radicchio, parsley and basil stir to combine.  Top with feta cheese before serving.

No-riccotta Lasagna

I enjoy eating lasagna, but I can never order it at a restaurant or enjoy it made by someone else!  Why?  Because of ricotta cheese- it’s my stomach’s worst nightmare!  I’ve tried substituing other cheeses, but it’s just not the same….until I came across this recipe! 

I’m not sure if everyone else enjoys tofu like I do, but if you’re willing to give this at try, it really is enjoyable.  Obviously, you have to add a lot of flavor to the “tofu ricotta”, otherwise it’s a little bland.  But once you blend the tofu in the food processor, the texture is very similar to the ricotta.  Feel free to play around the with the flavors, and this way it won’t be the same lasagna each time you cook it.

No-ricotta Lasagna
Adapted by: Love and Olive Oil Blog

1 (14 oz) package of firm tofu, well-drained
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
4 zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch slides
5 cups marinara sauce
8 oz lasagna noodles
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  cook a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray.  Toast the pine nuts on a dry skillet over medium heat.  Keep stirring until they are golden. 

In a food processor, combine: tofu, basil, parsley, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice, salt, oregano, red pepper flakes, and sugar.  Blend until smooth and the texture will be similar to ricotta cheese.

In a skillet, heat oil and saute zucchini on medium heat until they are tender. 

Spread 1/4 of the marinara sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.  Then cover with a layer of noodles.  Layer 1/2 of the tofu mixture, then 1/2 of the zucchini mixture.  Then place another layer of noodles and the remaining zucchini.  Next, add 1/2 of the marina sauce and another layer of noodles.   Finally, spread the remaining 1/4 of the marinara sauce.  Cover the pan with foil and bake for 1 hour.   

Let it rest for 10 minutes before serving, sprinkle Parmesan cheese onto each serving.

Cabbage Thai Salad

As I have mentioned, I love salads.  Easy salads that take less than 30 minute to throw together and they can be a meal.  Growing up, my mom used to make a chinese cabbage salad, which included Ramen noodles as an extra crunch- and I loved it!  So when I saw this recipe from Mark Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook, I definitely wanted to try it to see this salad satisfied my love for the crunchy cabbage salad.  Simililar ingredients, but there are some fun additions.  I did change it just a bit, more of some stuff, less of others- but it is crunchy and refreshing.  My favorite was putting the sesame seeds on it!

Cabbage Thai Salad
Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 fresh hot red chile, minced
1 carrot, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 Chinese cabbage, chopped
2 handfuls of snow peas, chopped
5-7 radishes, chopped
1 handful of cashews
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup of sesame seeds
8 leaves of fresh basil, chopped
6 leaves of fresh mint, chopped

Mix all of these ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Although, this can get a big soggy, so it’s better to eat it right away.