It’s summer time and your garden may be overflowing with cucumbers and zucchini and squash and tomatoes! If not, you likely know someone who is over blessed by these prolific heat lovers. We were given a box full of them after picking fruit at a local u pick farm.
I am going to be honest and admit that I’d never eaten summer squash before (except grilled at someone else’s house). After my experimenting I was so pleased that it will have a place in my garden next year.
Squash soup is one of my favorite new recipes. I added nutmeg and curry to give a little something extra and even the kids liked it. I’ve made it again since doubling the recipe and froze the extra batch. Yay for new freezer foods! Even though it was my first time trying it, after reading many recipes I came up with my own because I wanted to do it my own way. Sorry for no pictures, but it got eaten too fast. I’ll try to take some when we take advantage of the frozen soup. Here’s the recipe I made:
Squash Soup
RecipeServes 6
¼ cup minced onion
1 clove garlic
2 summer squash, peeled and chopped
2 T butter
2 ½ cups chicken broth
salt and pepper
½ tsp curry powder (opt)
pinch of nutmeg (opt.)
1. Saute onion, garlic, and squash in butter until tender.
2. Add broth and spices and simmer about 10 minutes or until squash is very soft.
3. Carefully blend soup until pureed. Make sure not to fill your blender more than 1/2 filled at a time.
4. Serve with dollop of sour cream.
Another new recipe I tried and loved is this lovely summer vegetable bake. Follow this link to the recipe. I layered thin slices of zuchini, squash, tomatoes, and potato over sauteed onion and garlic then baked it. The trick to making it look pretty was to layer them randomly overlapping in a round baking dish. When I got to the center I folded a few in half and slipped them together just like flower petals are. After baking they are topped with some cheese. Yum! My husband said he could live off this if he had to. A high complement coming from someone who’s really more of a meat eater.
That left all the cucumbers. Of course we eat them just plain, sliced. I like to put them in sandwiches and lettuce salads too. But we still had more and I tend to avoid fatty dips. This salad was a lovely fresh summer treat. I layered sliced cucumbers around the sides for looks then finely chopped up cucumbers, strawberries, and bananas. These three flavors complement each other nicely. Next time I may add some nuts. And a light dressing could be used if you like. But it was gobbled up as is and disappeared before the homemade pizza and popcorn that was served with it!
Then I made cucumber boat sandwiches for lunch one day. I cut cucumbers in half width-wise then length-wise then layered ham, provolone cheese, fresh spinach leaves, and halved grape tomatoes. The kids were less than thrilled with this general idea and one was clambering for bread for his sandwich. But in the end it was all eaten and I don’t think they’d protest it again. They’re usually pretty good at being stretched with new foods but we all have those days.
I was proud of everyone for being brave and eating so many new foods lately. We’ve also been trying a few new fish dishes and have loved every one so far.
Have you been inspired to try new foods lately? And… what’s your favorite things to do with this season’s garden overflow?