Lots of onion and cucumber ideas this week and coincidentally two recipes with lentils–good year-round in my opinion. And I included another Italian-style vegetable ragout in which the vegetables get soft and tender and sweet–kind of the Italian version of a stir-fry and equally delicious and useful when it comes to using various CSA treasures lurking in your crisper. And that beautiful garlic is being put to use in almost every recipe this week. Pick up some cilantro this week if you want to make a couple of the recipes, the red lentil dish and the cucumber, ginger sesame salad. Enjoy!
Summer Squash with Lentils, Parsley and Bacon
Spiced Red Lentils with Cucumber Yogurt
Summer Vegetable Ragout
Cucumber Salad with Garlic and Ginger
Fennel Notes
Grilled or Roasted Sweet Onions
Onion Sauce for Steak (or anything else)
Carrot Cake Pancakes (link)
Summer Squash with Lentils, Parsley and Bacon
This is so good! Lentils get overlooked a bit in the summer but I especially love salads with small green lentils in the summer. You can make them ahead of time and then have a robust, room temperature dish for whenever you need it.
1 cup small French green lentils or other small lentils that keep their shape when cooked
Splash of olive oil
1 Walla Walla Sweet, diced
4 cups summer squash, cut into small chunks –for zucchini I quarter them lengthwise and then cut them into 1/3-inch chunks (more or less depending on how much you need/want to use)
4 slices bacon, diced
2 ½ tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar or a combination (or more to taste)
2 small-ish garlic cloves, crushed and then minced
3 (or more) tablespoons good olive oil
Sea salt and pepper (to taste)
¼ cup chopped parsley
Cook the lentils until tender, about 15-20 minutes (this will vary depending on the kind of lentil you have). You want them to be tender but keep their shape so check frequently.
Drain them and immediately toss them with the vinegar, garlic and olive oil. Set aside.
In the largest skillet you have, heat a splash of olive oil over high heat and add the bacon and onion and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. You want the onion softened and bacon rendered but not crisp. Remove the onions and bacon from skillet and add to lentils.
Add another splash of olive oil and the summer squash and a few generous pinches of salt. Cook the squash over high heat for about 7-8 minutes until browned and beginning to soften.
Add the warm squash to the lentils along with the chopped parsley and the additional olive oil. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and/or vinegar.
Summer Vegetable Ragout
I wrote a spring version of this Italian-esque approach to vegetables earlier this season. Sweet onions, carrots, beans, squash, fennel or eggplant, kale and garlic all keep good company here. Again, it’s more of a technique than a recipe. The important thing is to cook them gently for quite a while and that all the vegetables are cut more less the same size. This is not an al dente dish and trust me it’s better that way.
Olive oil
1 medium or ½ a large sweet onion, diced
2 carrots, scrubbed, trimmed and diced
½ lb green beans, trimmed and cut into ¾-inch pieces
1 bulb fennel, any fibrous outer layers removed and trimmed and diced or
1 eggplant, diced (no need to peel or salt and drain)
1-2 summer squash, diced
1 bunch kale, leaves only, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced or minced and then mashed with some coarse salt with the side of a chef’s knife until you get a coarse paste
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Handful of chopped basil
More good olive oil for drizzling
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the largest skillet you have over medium-high heat. Add the onion and carrots and a couple pinches of salt. Toss and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the green beans, kale, fennel or eggplant and summer squash and a little more salt and a splash of water and cover the pan and cook for about 15 minutes on medium heat, stirring fairly frequently. If things start sticking add a little water. Keep cooking and stirring. A little browning is fine but try to avoid.
When all the vegetables are tender add the mashed garlic and the basil and stir well and cook for another minute or two until the garlic is fragrant. Adjust for salt and add pepper.
Serve with a generous drizzle of the best olive oil you have. With a fried or poached or hardboiled egg and a good slice of bread this is dinner.
Spiced Red Lentils with Cucumber Yogurt
–adapted from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Yes, two lentil recipes this week. This may seem like a cool-weather dish but I made a red lentil curry last week with the rest of my homemade green curry paste (from last week’s recipe packet) and loved it in this heat. We ate it barely warm with a generous dollop of cool cucumber yogurt topping and it was delish.
1 cup red lentils
1 small bunch cilantro (stems and roots and all if possible)
½ or ¼ (if it’s a huge one) Walla Walla, roughly chopped
2 1/2 inches ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 mild-ish green chili (like serrano or jalapeno), seeds removed
1½ tsp black mustard seeds
4 tbsp sunflower oil
1½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 ¾ cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Salt
¾ cup Greek yogurt
1 cup finely diced cucumber
1½ tbsp olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1½ tbsp lime juice
Reserved chopped cilantro leaves
Cut the cilantro bunch somewhere around the center to get a leafy top half and a stem/root bottom half. If you don’t have a bunch with roots just use all the stems for this part. Roughly chop the leaves. Put the stem half in the bowl of a food processor (reserve the leafy half), add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli – all roughly broken – and pulse a few times to chop up without turning into a paste.
Put the mustard seeds in a heavy-based pot and place over medium heat. When they begin to pop, add the onion/cilantro mix and sunflower oil, stir and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Add the spices and continue cooking and stirring for five minutes longer. Now add the lentils and 1 ½ cups water, the tomatoes and a couple of pinches of salt. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the lentils are fully cooked.
Before serving, whisk together the yogurt, cucumber, oil and some salt. Stir into the lentils the butter, lime juice and chopped cilantro, taste and season generously with salt. Divide into bowls, spoon yogurt on top. You can serve this over rice if you’d like or enjoy as is.
Cucumber Salad with Smashed Garlic and Ginger
Another salad inspired by Yotam Ottlenghi and his wonderful book Plenty.
This salad is fresh, nutty and delicious and good with most anything this time of year. It needs a little marinating time so start the dressing right away if you have other things to prepare.
If you don’t have a mortar and pestle chop the garlic and ginger as finely as you can and then mash it a bit with some salt on your cutting board with the side of a chef’s knife.
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
½ cup of onion, very thinly sliced
1 ½ inches fresh ginger, peeled and chopped (see headnote)
2 large garlic cloves, peeled, and chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 large or 3 medium cucumbers, washed
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar and sugar until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Whisk in the oils. Add the sliced onion, and toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and for as long as 4 hours.
Now either mash the ginger with some salt in a mortar and pestle until it breaks down a bit and then add the garlic and mash a bit more until it’s a rough paste or put the ginger, salt and garlic on a cutting board and smash with the side of a chef’s knife until well-smashed. Scrape the contents from the board or mortar into the bowl with the onion and dressing. Stir to combine.
Slice the cucumbers in half lengthwise, place them cut-side down on the cutting board, and slice at an angle into ¼ inch slices. Add the cucumber, sesame seeds, and cilantro to the bowl and stir to combine. Let sit ten minutes, then pour off some of the liquid that has accumulated. Stir, season again with salt if desired, and serve.
Fennel Notes
Add very thinly sliced fennel to a green salad with thinly sliced cucumber and thinly sliced onion. Make a lemony dressing and/or add some chopped capers or olives and a few croutons and some shaved Parmesan and have yourself a lovely salad.
Add some ¼-inch fennel slices to the pan of onions below and grill/roast them too.
Dice and sauté fennel in olive oil until browning and al dente. Then toss with some cooked faro, lots of chopped parsley or mint or a combination, plenty of lemon juice, olive oil and minced garlic and salt and pepper.
Grilled or Roasted Sweet Onions
I eat half of these standing at the stove before they ever make it to the table.
Preheat the oven to 425 or light a grill.
Wash and remove the outermost layer of 2 Walla Walla Sweets. Cut them on “the equator” into ½-inch slices/rings. Toss the onions gently with olive oil and sea salt and spread on a sheet pan or in a grill pan. Roast or grill, turning once, until charred around the edges and tender—about 20 minutes. The time can very greatly based on your stove/grill and how big your sheet pan is.
Serve as is as a side or on sandwiches or burgers. You can also drizzle with a touch of balsamic or sherry vinegar. You can also chop them up and add them to salads of any kind.
Onion Sauce for Steak (or anything else)
Wash and remove outermost layer of 2 Walla Walla Sweets, cut in half and slice into thin half-rounds
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Cook the onions with a couple pinches of salt over medium heat in a large skillet and bit of olive oil until very soft and beginning to brown. You’ll want to stir regularly. It could take 20 minutes or so to get to this stage. Then add the mustard and cream and pepper and stir well and cook for a few more minutes. Serve with any kind of grilled or seared beef or pork.
If per chance you find yourself with some time in the morning and if you want to make something fun for anyone–old or young–these Carrot Cake Pancakes are fun and decadent seeming.