Guaranteed to please meat lovers, Italians, and veggie-heads alike!
Lasagna-style zucchini noodles with fire roasted tomato sauce, meaty eggplant, fresh ricotta, and crispy mushrooms Guaranteed to please meat lovers, Italians, and veggie-heads alike! If you're a gardener or you know a gardener, you've probably found yourself with an abundance of overgrown zucchinis. I do a little harvest from the garden every couple of days and even though I swear I've picked all the zucchini there are to be picked, somehow there's always a gigantic one hiding out that I missed last time around. These massive zucchinis start to pile up in the fridge as I silently protest baking them into something. Don't get me wrong, I love baked goods, but I don't need to make dozen muffins each week for a household of two. And a dozen muffins doesn't even make a dent in the rapidly mounding pile of zucchini giants. Because, don't forget, I still have plenty of young zucchini, lovely and soft, ripe for the eating! So the giants sit and wait to be loved while I think desperately about ways to love them that don't involve sugar and flour. Such problems I have, huh? Well, fear not dear readers, for I have found a solution. A few weeks ago I made a pasta dish with zucchini noodles (a delicious little work in progress that I intend to post soon), and it got me thinking about the great potential these subtle little veggies have. I like the zucchini noodle concept, but I have a few qualms with the common zucchini noodle, the foremost of which is moisture. Pasta noodles, not watery. Zucchini noodles, way too watery. But not these zucchini noodles. No, no. These zucchini noodle are salted, squeezed, and baked until they retain just the right amount of moisture. And magnificent as they are, there is A LOT more to love of this lasagna. This is one of the best lasagnas I've ever eaten, and I say this as someone who grew up eating lasagna every other week from skilled Italian mamas and aunties and nanas.
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Easy peasy zucchini popovers drizzled with lemon glaze and thyme Last month I introduced a new post series, the "About" series, which spotlights a particular fruit, vegetable, or grain for botanical and culinary celebration. This month we're shining the spotlight on zucchini. The glorious zucchini. I've been bringing in armloads of zucchini this season and the constant supply has forced me to stretch the bounds of how I think about and cook with it. One can only have so much zucchini bread or ratatouille. I can assure you that the recipes featured this week will be the start of many more zucchini-based recipes to come, because these babies are prolific and I am determined to use them in new and interesting ways. I love zucchini and it's got a lot of potential, but it can be really underwhelming. I say this as a former vegan who's eaten my share of squeaky, flavorless zucchini stir fries and mushy veggie burritos. Zucchini isn't a particularly flavorful vegetable and the texture can be wonderful, but it's touchy. You've got to treat her right. The zucchini's culinary strength lies in it's versatility. It can easily sneak into sweets, adding a subtle note of savoriness (as in today's recipe). It can be consumed raw- crunchy and fresh. I can be tossed into a quiche, sauteed, or grilled. And if you take the time to remove a little moisture from it, it soaks up flavors miraculously well, making it an excellent choice for sauce-y dishes. You can also eat zucchini flowers, which have a similarly delicate flavor and really unique, almost creamy, texture. They're often served stuffed with some sort of cheese and herb mixture, lightly battered, and fried in a way that feels utterly luxurious.
Hitting reset , a new post series, and an ode to fennel Today was the summer solstice. Tomorrow the days will start getting shorter (they're already getting hotter). And 2015 is half-way over, startlingly so. The start of the year feels so fresh in my mind. I resolved to start my days more intentionally, to acknowledge my accomplishments as well as my shortcomings, to bring myself closer to a vegan diet again. I resolved to invest more in this blog. Some of these resolutions have stuck, others have slowly faded back into the background. That's just the nature of things- progressing somewhere, regressing elsewhere, and still elsewhere standing perfectly still. But it's good to set goals for yourself, to re-evaluate your priorities and approach to life. And there's something about feeling as though a new page has turned over, a fresh start has been given. Truly every moment of every day is a fresh start, but being aware of that doesn't necessarily make me zen enough to integrate it into my every day reality. So I take advantage of moments when I can remind myself of this with some external feeling of significance, like new years. But new years isn't enough. After a strong start to the year and yet another busy spring, I'm feeling a little puttered out. So how about some summer solstice resolutions? I have a lot already in mind, probably too many, and I know I ought to pair them down rather than overwhelm myself with unrealistic expectations (another of my new year's resolutions!). So I'll share with you just a few that I am very confident in, and that have to do with food, exercise, and this here little blog. Spoiler alert: one of these resolutions has to do with you learning all about the glories of fennel today (And this post is long! Sorry).
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AuthorHi there! I'm Cara- plant ecologist, gardening addict, and whole foods enthusiast. My whole life revolves around plants, including my kitchen. Join me here at LWM each week as I post local, seasonal, plant-based recipes and write about my never ending quest to find balance and tranquility in this crazy little world. Archives
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