Quick and Easy Veggie Peanut Stir Fry

Having a teenager who is fussy with his vegetables, sometimes it can be a little challenging to get them to eat them every day.

One of the easiest ways I have found is to serve the vegetables with a flavorful sauce they like, such as peanut sauce. My son loves peanut sauce.

Who doesn't like peanut sauce? If anyone is allergic to peanuts, then any other nut butter will work just fine.

Today at the farmers market I bought some green beans, yellow squash, red bell peppers and cabbage. I also bought some Romaine for a side salad.

The recipe is really quite simple, even teenagers can make it!

I chopped some bell peppers, green beans and zucchini into bite size pieces.
Heated some coconut oil (you can use any oil you like) and stir fried the vegetables gently to prevent bruising,turning them occasionally. I added some Spike seasoning, turmeric and salt.

For the sauce, I blended together  1/2 cup of coconut milk, a Tbsp crunchy peanut butter, 1/2 ripe peeled tomato, 1 Tbsp. corn starch, 2 tsp sweet chili sauce, a sprinkle of salt and Spike seasoning.

When the vegetables were almost done, I poured over the sauce, covered the pan and let them cook for another 10 minutes.

The picture above shows how it looked after adding the sauce, before covering and simmering.

It came out really nice, colorful with a light peanut flavor that blended well with the vegetables.

Here is the full recipe:

Simple Veggie Peanut Stir-fry

Ingredients:

2 small bell peppers, seeded and chopped into bite size pieces
2 medium squash, chopped into bit size pieces
1/4 cabbage, thinly sliced
3 cups chopped green beans
Salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
Spike Seasoning to taste
1 Tbsp. Coconut oil

Sauce:

1/2 cup canned coconut milk
1 Tbsp. crunchy peanut butter (can use other nut butter)
2 tsp. Sweet Chili Sauce
1/2 ripe tomato, peeled and chopped
1 Tbsp. corn starch
1 tsp. Spike seasoning

Method:

Heat coconut oil in  a non-stick pan. Add vegetables and seasonings and cook on medium heat until they begin to soften.
Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in the blender and blend until smooth. Add sauce to pan, lower heat and cover with a lid. Cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and serve immediately over rice or noodles. Garnish with fresh herbs if you wish (I used fresh thyme)

Voila! Bon Appetit!

A Pesto with a difference ....

What do you do with fresh basil from the farmers market??? mmmmm .......

I don't know many people who don't like pesto .. especially when it is homemade. But there is one problem with it, I think. Most recipes have garlic as an ingredient which I'm sure you will agree that it doesn't do much to promote fresh breath!

So here it is ... I created my recipe using a garlic/onion substitute called asafetida and voila, no bad breath !!

Makes 1 cup pesto:

Ingredients:

1/2 bunch of fresh basil
Himalayan pink salt to taste
1-2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 raw walnut pieces
Dash of asafetida
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Dash hot paprika

Method:

Process all the ingredients in a food processor until almost smooth but with a little texture. This will keep for 3-4 days in the refrigerator, or can be frozen. Yes it can!

A Summer Vegetable Curry of sorts .... with Cranberry Bread?

Today I was in the mood for some kind of a mixed vegetable dish ... a curry or something.
Originally I thought about Ratatouille, the French vegetable dish ideal of Summer when tomatoes, bells, eggplants and squash are at their tastiest. But, it obviously wasn't meant to be today.

So ... here's what I did.



First, I found Lara Family Farm booth at Carmichael Farmers Market ..
Bought a nice selection of fresh pesticide-free veggies: potatoes, red bell, green bell, cauliflower, zucchini squash and ... heirloom tomatoes at $3 per basket .. omg so good!

As I was walking around to go home, I came across Dan (hope that's your name, I'm terrible with names!)  from Upper Crust Baking in Davis ...

I chose Sunberry, made with whole wheat, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.

Loved the look and the texture.



Here is the recipe I came up with today, I hope you enjoy and share it around! It's totally my own creation.

By the way, I served the bread toasted and lightly buttered with the curry, and it was DELISH!

Summer Vegetable Curry

Serves 4 with Rice or Pasta on the side

Vegetables:
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into bite size chunks
1/2 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 - 1/2 cup water as needed
1/2 large zucchini squash, sliced into half moons
3-4 cups of cauliflower, chopped

Sauce:
4 medium tomatoes
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup coconut milk or other alternative

Seasonings:
1/2 Not Chick'n stock cube
Spike seasoning (no salt) a good sprinkle
Salt and pepper to taste
Curry Seasoning, a good sprinkle (or more if you like!)
Maltese Olive Oil
Asafetida, a dash (to substitute onions/garlic, or you can use the originals!)

Heat olive oil in a saucepan with lid, preferably non-stick. Add the potatoes and bell peppers and cook on low-medium heat adding water as needed until potato is almost tender. While cooking crumble half the stock cube onto the vegetables and the Spike.

Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes (no need to peel unless you want to) into a blender, add a little water or milk, 2 Tbsp peanut butter and the peeled ginger. Blend until smooth.

When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the remaining vegetables (squash and cauliflower) and the tomato mixture and stir in, adding a little water if necessary.

Cover the pot and cook on low for another 10 minutes. 

Voila! Here is the final take ... was it good? No .. it tasted AMAZING ...



Feel free to swap the vegetables around, according to what is in season or what you like. This recipe would be really good with sweet potatoes or summer squash, as the tomatoes tend to be a little acidic and the sweetness of these vegetables lends itself to blend that acidity out.

You can also change up the spices as you like. A little Chipotle Pepper seasoning might be nice, or Smoked Salt ??

Enjoy and see you next week!

Margaret

Maltese Olive Oil and organic summer squash ... ???

I also found Maltese Olive Oil ... like I said, I haven't been to the market for so long that I didn't know about them. Apparently they are from Sacramento and have been doing the market for about 4 years. But their olive oil tastes amazing and so reminded me of the olive oil from Portugal, from the olives of my parents' trees in their backyard.  Really!

So what to do with fresh organic summer squash and a 

premium quality cold pressed olive oil?

I cut the squash into bite sized chunks and rinsed them (ended up about 3 cups of chopped squash)
Heated some water on the stove (1 quart) until it was boiling, spinkled with salt and turmeric, then threw the squash in and cooked for 2 mins (on the clock!)

Drained the water (do NOT throw the water out, it's packed full of nutrients!) and placed it on a plate. Added some fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, a little Maltese Olive Oil and some nutritional yeast (of course!)

Throw the chopped squash into the boiling water and sprinkle salt and turmeric

After cooking for 2 minutes drain the water into another pot.

I used the water to cook pasta so all those nutrients didn't go to waste!

Here is the final shot ... Garnished with a sliced organic tomato and oregano! YUMM!

Welcome to my Blog!

I had this idea today as I went to the Farmers Market, after not having gone for what seems like centuries ....

Which Farmers Market did you ask? I live in Sacramento, more precisely in Carmichael. The Market I'm talking about is the Farmers Market in Carmichael Park on Fair Oaks Boulevarde.

Anyway, as I was walking through I thought ... 'Why not combine my passion of cooking and helping others with the Farmers Markets?' So here it is!

Every week I will post a new blog of some wonderful fruit or vegetable or other vegetarian product, write about it and post a recipe ...

I hope you enjoy it, as much as I enjoy doing this!

In gratitude, namaste
Margaret