A bowl of goodness

This bowl is full of goodness. It starts with a bed of brown rice, then pinto beans and sautéed summer vegetables before it's topped with avocado cream and jalapeño slices. This bowl is packed with fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. It's easy to prepare and is budget-friendly making it the perfect dinner for a crowd. Plus it's a way to use up all of that summer squash hiding in your crisper.

I love bowls like this. It's hearty without being heavy. I cook extra, so I can easily whip up a healthy lunch or dinner in minutes. This bowl is also gluten free and dairy free.

Cook brown rice according to the package. Then make all these yummy toppings. Cheese is optional, but would be an excellent addition as would homemade pico or tomatillo salsa.
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Pintos & peppers
1 red bell pepper, roasted (do ahead)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cooked pinto beans (or 1 15-oz can) and their liquid
1 jalapeño, minced
half of a red onion, diced
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 c cilantro
1 lime wedge

Preheat oven to 400. Put the bell pepper onto a baking sheet. Roast the bell pepper whole until it's browned all over and starts to blacken in places. This should take 30-45 minutes depending on the size of your pepper. Remove from heat and put into a sealed plastic bag. Once it's cool to touch, remove from the bag, and peel the skin off the pepper. Dice the pepper into small pieces. Do this step ahead of time. It can also be done the day before.

Heat olive oil over medium heat. When it's warm, add the onion, jalapeño, and salt. Stir often, cooking until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, roasted red pepper, and half of the cilantro. Cook until the spices are fragrant. Add the beans and their liquid (from the can or saved from cooking them). Cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes. Remove from heat and add the remaining cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

Sauteed summer squash & zucchini
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 of a red onion
1 summer squash, sliced thinly into rounds

1 zucchini, sliced thinly into rounds

2 garlic cloves, minced

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of sea salt. Cook until the onion is translucent, then add the squash and zucchini. Cover, cooking for about 5-8 minutes. Uncover, add the garlic, stir well. Cook for another few minutes, and remove from heat. 

Avocado cream

2 avocados

1/4 c cilantro

1/4 c ice cold water

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Blend all ingredients together until smooth. Eat on everything.
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Now assemble your bowls and serve with this michelada. Happy Friday friends!

Watermelon Agua Fresca & Gin Fizz

It's very hot and humid in North Carolina these days. There's no escaping it, unless a thunderstorm pops up and cools it down temporarily. It's the type of heat you don't really want to do anything in. I've lived in NC all my life, but the heat still gets to me. These days I cool down with bowls of gazpacho (recipe next week!) and watermelon.

This recipe happened because we found ourselves with two watermelons. Not the enormous oblong variety where you need two hands to hold it, but more the size of soccer balls. I decided to puree half of one of the watermelons, straining out the seeds and flesh, to make juice. From there I topped it with ice, soda, and limes. Cold and refreshing. No additional sugar needed. I let the natural sugars of the watermelon play the sweetener in this drink.

And if you're having friends over or in the mood for a cocktail, this Watermelon Gin Fizz is the perfect drink for these hot summer nights.

Watermelon Agua Fresca
Serves one
4 oz watermelon juice
2 oz club soda
2 lime wedges

Pour watermelon juice and soda over ice. Squeeze one lime wedge into the glass and use the other for garnish. Mix well.

Watermelon Gin Fizz

Serves one

3 oz watermelon juice

1-2 oz gin

1 oz club soda

2 lime wedges

Pour watermelon juice and gin over ice. Top with soda. Squeeze one lime wedge into the glass and use the other for garnish. Mix well before enjoying.

An easy summer meal

Stuck with too much basil on your hands? Make this health promoting pesto (it contains miso!), then eat it on everything in sight. Fill up an ice cube tray or a small ziplock bag to freeze the rest for a later day.

This is one of my favorite, easy summer meals when I don't have time to think about what's for dinner. If you have pesto this salad can be made in less than half an hour. We're big pesto fans, so I usually have some made.

Simply cook Israeli couscous according to the package. When it's done, mix a few spoonfuls of pesto into the hot grains (substitute millet for the couscous to make this gluten-free). Sometimes I mix in sautéed onions, garlic, and diced zucchini, but I think it tastes best eaten cold the next day with a large mixed salad. Or try Kelsey's version which looks perfect for summer.

Cold roasted vegetable salads

I've been reading Tamar Adler's book An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace and can't get enough of it. I had several friends recommend it months ago, but I just got around to buying it. I bought it to read on the beach over the weekend, but quickly realized this isn't a book for mindless summer reading. This is a book that should be on your nightstand, each word relished, pages read and reread, notes scribbled into the sidebars. Tamar waxes poetically about the simplicity and beauty of cooking.

“An Everlasting Meal is beautifully intimate, approaching cooking as a narrative that begins not with a list of ingredients or a tutorial on cutting an onion, but with a way of thinking… Tamar is one of the great writers I know—her prose is exquisitely crafted, beautiful and clear-eyed and open, in the thoughtful spirit of M.F.K. Fisher. This is a book to sink into and read deeply.” — Alice Waters, from the Foreword

It's simply a must read. Run to your local bookstore (or drop into your amazon cart) and buy it now.

Today's post is inspired by Tamar's chapter on How To Stride Ahead. She talks about roasting sheet pan after sheet pan of the best vegetables to enjoy all week long. I heard her loud and clear when she sang about eating cold vegetable salads.

Turning up the oven to 400 degrees when it's 100+ degrees outside, might sound stupid. But after I took a bite of those chilled roasted golden beets, tomatoes and zucchini, and cauliflower dipped in yogurt, I knew it was worth it. I also whipped up some garlicky lacinato kale along with onion, garlic, and the stems (diced small) while the other veggies were roasting away.

I roasted all my vegetables and sautéed the greens last night, so today's lunch was easy. I pulled out all the veggies, and piled them on a plate. I enjoyed this lunch tremendously. I'll definitely be doing this more as cold vegetable salads are perfect for the summer heat or when you want a lighter meal. This is also a great way to use up those CSA veggies you have piled up in the crisper.

Cold roasted vegetable salads:
Preheat oven to 400 for all recipes.

Cherry tomatoes + zucchini 
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 zucchini, .5 thick coins
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Spread tomatoes and zucchini onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle generously with oregano, sea salt, and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes or up to one hour. Remove from oven and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Set aside to cool.

Crispy cauliflower 
1 head cauliflower, cored and sliced 1 in. thick

Spread cauliflower onto a baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle generously with sea salt and pepper. Roast for almost an hour. Remove from heat to cool. Serve with this yogurt-tahini dip.

Golden beets 
1 bunch of beets

Prick each beet with a knife a few times, then wrap each beet in foil. Roast for an hour or longer, depending on the size. Beets are done when a knife easily pierces through the skin. Remove, let cool, and peel the skins off. 24 hours later, mix chilled beets with this pickled red onion.

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This week's Food Matter Project recipe is beet sandwiches. See what the host, Meg, made here and the rest of the participants whipped up here. I wrote about my favorite sandwich filling, the humble beet, last week. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. Simply roast, slice, cool, and pile onto a hearty veggie sandwich. Or eat the remaining beets as a chilled salad like above.

Boozy stone fruit crisp

Fruit cobblers and crisps are my go-to dessert in the summer. They're quick and easy with fresh, local fruit taking center stage. My mom would always make peach cobbler from the peaches we'd buy from roadside stands on our way home from the beach as kids.

Last weekend a good friend had a surprise birthday party for her husband. She put me in charge of desserts, so I made this blueberry-peach cobbler and this cherry crisp. They were both a success, but the cherry lambic crisp was my favorite. I soaked the cherries in Cerise—a cherry fermented ale—instead of the lambic. The topping was perfect with its notes of cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange.

Yesterday I realized my cherries, apricots, and peaches were in dire need of being eaten or made into something, so I decided to make a stone fruit crisp for a light dessert for two. I soaked the fruit with two tablespoons of bourbon. If you don't want it boozy (or aren't a bourbon fan), reduce to one tablespoon or omit altogether. I thought the bourbon worked perfectly with the maple syrup and spices.

I substituted coconut oil for the butter and maple syrup for the sugar to keep it wholesome and vegan-friendly. Feel free to use gluten free oats to make it a completely gluten free dessert. Yes, you must turn your oven on to make this dessert, but I think it's worth it. But if you're looking for a dessert that doesn't require baking, try Jacqui's raw tart instead. I won't hold it against you.

Boozy stone fruit crisp Serves two
Inspired by this recipe
2 cups stone fruit (peaches, cherries, apricots)
1-2 tbsp bourbon (like Bulleit)
1/4 c almonds, chopped
1/3 c oats
1 tbsp maple syrup
1.5 tbsp melted coconut oil
pinch of sea salt
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of cardamom

Preheat oven to 375. Slice the peaches and apricots, leaving their skin intact. Pit cherries and slice in half. Mix fruit in a bowl with bourbon. Stir and let sit for up to 30 minutes.

Mix almonds and oats in another bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Lightly oil two ramekins (our ramekins' have a diameter of about 3 inches, so they're fairly large). Fill with fruit and pour in the bourbon that collected at the bottom of the bowl. Scatter almond-oat mixture over the top.

Bake up to 30 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the topping is starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream and eat immediately. If you have leftovers, eat for breakfast the next morning with your cold brew coffee.

Happy fourth of July!