18 June 2016

Weekend Cooking: Cooking with Summer Vegetables

Weekend Cooking hosted by www.BethFishReads.comWeekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

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2 Winning Recipes: Weekend Cooking @ BethFishReads.comSummer is here and cooking now involves grilling, salads, and my two favorite small appliances: the slow cooker and pressure cooker.

Here are a couple of recipes I made this week that were winners. Not only were they really yummy but both were pretty and relied on the fresh vegetables that are so plentiful at the farmers market right now.

Italian Vegetable Stew

I found the recipe for the vegetarian stew on the Epicurious app, and although it wasn't written for the pressure cooker, I was able to make adjustments. You might wonder about having soup in June, but we had a couple cool(ish) and rainy evenings this week, and the vegetable soup was perfect.

copyright Bon AppetitThe Recipe: Click through to the Epicurious site to find the original recipe on the Web. It's worth looking through the readers' comments for tips, some of which I took into consideration.

My changes: Because the recipe was developed for 6 to 8 servings, I had to cut it down for just the two of us. So instead of using two different greens for the soup, I used just 1 bunch of collards, which I did not precook. I more or less cut the remaining ingredients in half, and threw everything but the bread, beans, and cheese into the electric pressure cooker. I set the cooker for 5 minutes. When the time was up, I let the pressure release naturally. Then I stirred in the beans and let them heat up in the soup for a couple of minutes. This was excellent and reheated in the microwave perfectly the next day.

Snow Pea, Scallion, & Radish Salad

copyright Fine CookingI love Ellie Krieger's recipes and have reviewed several of her cookbooks over the years. The following recipe comes from her The Food You Crave book, and is a refreshing salad that looks so pretty in the bowl and on the plate. I served this with simple grilled chicken breasts.

The Recipe: Click through to the Fine Cooking site to find the original recipe. Again, read over the reviews for some tips, which are really helpful.

My changes: I doubled the number of radishes and scallions called for in the recipe. I didn't have the right salad dressing ingredients so I used unseasoned rice wine vinegar and good olive oil instead. I also omitted the sugar in the dressing, and we didn't miss it at all. This was still good the next day for lunch.

I pinned both recipes to my Pinterest "Recipes: Tried and Liked" board.

14 comments:

Mae Travels 6/18/16, 6:23 AM  

Soup and salad are amazing in how much variety they offer. I've never been a pressure-cooker fan, but this looks good. Do they still tell you never to put beans in a pressure cooker?

best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

jama 6/18/16, 7:33 AM  

Thanks for the recipes! I think I need to acquire a taste for radishes. They always look so pretty in salads. :)

Tina 6/18/16, 7:50 AM  

I'm with you all the way about soup, doesn't matter if it's summer. Good nutritious stuff all the way around! Funny how a rainy evening makes soup a perfect meal. I also like how you tweak recipes, we do the same, adding more of something or substitute some things we like better. Thanks for the links!

rhapsodyinbooks 6/18/16, 9:36 AM  

For some reason I actually prefer soup in summer, so it sounds perfect!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity 6/18/16, 9:38 AM  

We definitely get into veggie/side dish ruts in our house. Sometimes I spend so much energy on the main dish that the rest gets thrown together (thank goodness roasted veggies are so yummy). The Italian Vegetable Stew sounds delicious and such a great way to get in extra vegetables.

Margot 6/18/16, 10:25 AM  

What a great idea to put snow peas, radishes and green onions together in a salad! I can't wait to try it.

Katherine P 6/18/16, 11:03 AM  

That radish and snow pea salad sounds absolutely amazing. Light and fresh and definitely perfect for a hot day. The Italian Vegetable Stew sounds good but I'm not one for soup when it's super hot. I will have to pin that recipe so I can remember it when it cools down.

Deb in Hawaii 6/18/16, 11:36 AM  

Both recipes look and sound delicious--thanks for sharing. I eat soup all-year-round, although I'll toss some cold soups in sometimes on the warmest days. ;-) Radishes are a newer like for me--I never much cared for them until a few years ago when I had them roasted and I gradually got to where I really enjoy them.

Deb in Hawaii 6/18/16, 11:39 AM  

And a just saw where you linked your soup up to Souper Sundays!
Thanks for sharing! ;-)

Claudia 6/18/16, 11:43 AM  

I do get into salad ruts, so a pretty change is always welcome. And, I'm always up for new ways to use my pressure cooker. Good tips Beth.

Esme 6/18/16, 5:08 PM  

The snow pea salad looks good and fresh. Do you ever do ratatouille?

(Diane) bookchickdi 6/18/16, 5:26 PM  

The vegetable stew looks so good and perfect for a rainy day. I like that you can customize it with whatever you have on hand too.

Gilion at Rose City Reader 6/19/16, 12:31 PM  

Both look good, but the radish salad is one I want to try immediately!

Joy 6/19/16, 12:44 PM  

Those both look really good for taking advantage of the current produce available at local markets.

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