Crookneck Squash Soup with Curry and Ginger

This is another tasty way to use up that abundance of yellow crookneck squash in your garden or that your neighbor keeps giving you.  I won't be giving mine away because Crookneck  is one of my favorite varieties of summer squash, with fast-growing prolific plants, and a mellow flavor.  The slightly bent neck is what earns it the name of Crookneck.  The bumpy skin looks deceptively tough, but it is actually quite thin and tender, and there is no need to peel it off.  Any type of yellow summer squash could be used for this recipe.  

This recipe is an adaption of one I discovered on Examiner.com.   The ease of making it and the use of ginger were what grabbed my attention.   Ginger is a one of the world's oldest and most popular medicinal spices. It's reputation as an aid for digestion is what I think of first.  In many of my recipe books, the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger are also mentioned.  But most importantly for me, I thoroughly enjoy the taste of ginger. Then, mix it with curry, and I dive in. The amount of fresh ginger root and curry spice was just right for me, but if you enjoy the tamer side of life, I suggest you reduce the amounts by about half.  The original recipe also used cream, but obviously, I omitted that for my dietary needs. 

Did I mention that this is easy to make?   Just put all of the ingredients together in a large soup pot and let it simmer until the squash is tender.  Preparation Pzazz!    

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs yellow crookneck squash, cut into 1" cubes (6 cups)

1 onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, shredded(about 1/2 cup)

Variety of summer squash from the garden

1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger (1 tsp dried)
(or less if desired)

2 teaspoons curry powder (or less)

3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

Paprika and chopped cilantro or parsley for garnish (optional)



Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a large soup pot and simmer over medium-low heat until squash is tender.  Use a handheld blender to puree the soup, or transfer it to your blender in batches.

Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 6                                
Serving Size: 1 cup
Calories: 39                        
Total Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 81 mg
Total Carbs: 8 g
Dietary Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 2 g

Lemon Balsamic Beets

The beets in Tom's garden are ruby red and delicious!  I relive my favorite childhood memories of planting and harvesting beets with my mom in her garden, then enjoying their sweetness together. Maybe that is why I asked Tom to plant more beets this year.  With each bite, I recall those fine summer days of long ago.  Our Duluth summer will come to a close all too quickly, but fortunately Tom's garden is doing remarkably well, as you can see in this photo from August 18.  That was just a portion of the harvest in a single day. Tom has been busy daily harvesting the bounty, while I have been trying to keep up with processing and cooking it all.  

One of my recent ways to add Pzazz to my food without fat or carbohydrates is to add flavored balsamic vinegar. The Rustic Olive is a new premium olive oil and balsamic vinegar "tasting bar" in Canal Park in Duluth. They carry an amazing line of flavored balsamic vinegar and high quality extra-virgin olive oils. I have never seen such an array of balsamic vinegar!  Blueberry, Espresso, Mango, Maple, Dark Chocolate, Pear, on and on it goes! Their Sicilian Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar seemed like a good option to try for a variety of summer foods. I splashed some on my finely pulverized beets and let them marinate for about an hour before I ate them. Refreshing and lively!  Definitely my new favorite way to enjoy summer beets.   

As a side note, I read in a diabetes magazine sometime in the past year that there have been studies indicating that about a teaspoon of vinegar can help lower blood sugar for that meal. Fascinating.  I'll see if I can find that article again and do more research into the topic and report back to you.  Meanwhile, check out The Rustic Olive for Pzazz if you are in Duluth! Or stop by my house for an armful of kale, chard, beets, and a variety of summer squash that I will gladly share with you, my sweet friends!

Ingredients:
1 cup peeled and cooked sliced beets
1 teaspoon Sicilian Lemon white balsamic vinegar or more as desired (another type of white balsamic vinegar could be used)


Preparation:
I chopped the sliced,cooked beets in the chopper attachment of my Cuisinart Smart Stick. This gadget minced them so fine! Then I added the lemon balsamic vinegar and let them marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. I garnished them with a sprig of lemon basil. Of course, a couple of flowers from the garden also added some Pzazz to the meal!

Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 1
Serving Size: About 3/4 cup
Calories: 57
Total Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 75 mg
Total Carbs: 14 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 2 g

Swiss Chard Scrambler

A few days ago, I posted a recipe for Tarragon Swiss Chard to put on top of scrambled eggs. I did a variation of it yesterday morning by sauteing green peppers (picked from our garden) with the Swiss chard and tarragon, and then put all of those ingredients with the egg whites into the Magic Bullet before I cooked them.  It worked remarkably well!   

Swiss chard (also called just chard) is a often declared a "vegetable valedictorian"!  It is a rich source of beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, manganese, and magnesium.  It also supplies vitamins C, E, and high levels of K. But it is also contains oxalates, which can lead to kidney stones if you are prone to them. Thankfully, that is one health issue I don't have, so I get to eat Swiss chard daily if I want to, and I often do!  We have abandoned planting any spinach in the past few years, in favor of planting more chard instead.  The spinach always seemed to bolt too early and didn't yield very much. Chard, in contrast, just keeps pumping away all summer and into the fall in our garden.  And the colorful stalks make it much more attractive than spinach. I often substitute chard for spinach in most recipes in the summer when it is so abundant in our garden.

Our garden chard

It made me curious about the differences between the two vegetables.  My quick search showed that chard is a member of the same family as spinach and beets. No wonder I could easily swap out the spinach for chard. And did chard come from Switzerland?   No, the plant did not originate in Switzerland as the name implies. It originated in Sicily and it is a staple of Mediterranean cuisine.  But a Swiss botanist determined the scientific name for the plant and his homeland has been honored since the 19th century for his contribution.   

Both chard stems and leaves are tasty, but it is the leaves that are the powerhouse of nutrition  while the stems don't contain nearly as much.  There are several varieties of chard, based on the color of the stem, including green, white, yellow, and red stems.  The white stems tend to be the most tender, but I love the color of the red stems.  Tom plants "Rainbow chard" which is a collection of all of the colors.  No matter what color you use, this recipe is dynamite!             

Garden pepper

Sauteed chard, peppers, and tarragon

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons coconut oil
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and leaves,chopped (Separate the chopped stems from the chopped leaves)
(about 2 cups total chopped)
About 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon, or more if desired
1/8 teaspoon Nature's Seasons
6 egg whites

Preparation:
Heat oil over medium heat.  Add chopped green pepper and chopped stems from the chard.  Saute until tender, adding a bit of water if needed.  Add the chopped chard leaves and fresh tarragon.  Saute until tender, again adding a bit of water if needed.  Let cool slightly.  Pour into Magic Bullet (or similar device), add the uncooked egg whites and Nature's Seasons. Process until desired consistency is achieved.  Pour contents into a fry pan lightly coated with coconut oil, and cook on medium heat until egg whites are fully cooked.  If there is too much liquid from adding too much water to the vegetables, simply drain it off and cook all of it a bit longer. Divide into two portions and share with a friend or save it for yourself for another day!  Or your partner could use half of the sauteed vegetables and half of the egg whites to put into an omelet or frittata if they don't need pureed food. Either way, a garnish of fresh tarragon adds visual Pzazz!

Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 2

Served with whole wheat bread spread with coconut oil

Serving Size:
Calories: 97
Total Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg                          
Sodium: 326 mg
Total Carbs: 2 g
Dietary Fiber: 1 g
Protein: 12 g

Kale Blueberry Kefir Smoothie

Our niece Emma and her family from Boston were visiting us on Monday and Tuesday.  As she looked at the abundance of kale growing in Tom's vegetable bins, she told me how she has been making kale and kefir smoothies for breakfast. It made me wonder why I haven't made one recently.  Last summer I posted my Mud Slide smoothie, using kale, blueberries, a frozen banana and soy milk and how much I loved it. So I decided to whip up a kale and blueberry kefir smoothie yesterday morning.  Pzazz for sure!  And so simple!  

If you aren't familiar with kefir, (properly pronounced keh-FEER)  it is a close cousin to yogurt, in that they are both cultured dairy products.  But kefir it is a fermented milk drink with curds that are much smaller than those found in yogurt,  therefore it is easier to digest for those whom are lactose intolerant. Like good quality yogurts, kefir contains probiotics. (I provided a link to the Mayo Clinic Health website for a discussion on the possible benefits of probiotics and prebiotics.) 

A difference between yogurt and kefir is that yogurt has bacteria that act as food for the beneficial bacteria already residing in a healthy digestive system.  But kefir, on the other hand, can actually repopulate the digestive system with the healthy bacteria required for good digestion.  

In this smoothie, I used blueberry flavored kefir, which also has some sugars in it, so that is probably not as healthy as my Mud Slide Smoothie.  However, it was quick and easy, and I barely have any blueberries from our garden this year, so this was a good substitute.

The combination of probiotics and kale was a divinely healthy way to start a gorgeous summer day in Duluth. When I went out to the garden early in the morning to harvest some kale, I was awed by the beauty of the morning dew still clinging to the leaves.

Sorry for my digression from food to beauty.  Back to the smoothie.  If you are new to "green smoothies",  you might want to increase the amount of blueberry kefir to 1 cup or something similar to gain the right amount of sweetness.  Also, I like Nancy's Organic Kefir, but Lifeway Kefir is also good and usually substantially cheaper.  I'll try it with a different flavor of kefir another day.  And maybe add half of a frozen banana, which always makes smoothies so creamy and velvety.  Yum!

Ingredients:
1 cup lightly packed finely chopped fresh kale, stems removed first
1/2 cup blueberry kefir

Preparation:
Put the kale and kefir into a Magic Bullet or similar device and process until all kale is finely pulverized.  I put a small amount into a covered Mason jar to see how well it would keep in the refrigerator and it was still very fresh looking and tasting at noon. Now I wish I had made more.

Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 1
Serving Size: About 3/4 cup
Calories: 116
Total Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Sodium: 92 mg
Total Carbs: 20 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 8 g

Tarragon Swiss Chard

Starting my morning with a healthy dose of vegetables for breakfast helps put me on the right track. I have posted other recipes for filled egg white omelets using a variety of vegetables.  But laziness prevailed this morning and I took the easy route and made a simple puree of Swiss chard and tarragon and plopped it on my scrambled egg whites.  Easy and much less work than an omelet.   Maybe not as pretty, but my taste buds were just as happy.  I haven't figured out what to call it yet, though.  Any ideas?   I even spread a bit of it on a piece of toast and loved that, too. 

The pairing of tarragon and chard was inspired by my friend, Tahirih.  I had shared some tarragon from my herb garden with her and she had stir fried it with beet greens and raved about it.  If you aren't familiar with tarragon, it has a flavor similar to anise.  I have had it in my perennial herb garden for several years,  but hadn't used it for anything other than with a vinegar/oil dressing for potato salad. So I was pleasantly surprised at how well it complimented the chard. You could certainly substitute dried tarragon for the fresh if you don't have any fresh tarragon available.  Do taste the fresh herb before you decide how much you want to use, as it can be overpowering if anise isn't your favorite herb.  

The Swiss chard, kale, beets, peppers and tomatoes in Tom's raised vegetable bins are vibrant and hearty. This photo gives you an idea those bins.  Yes, we already have a few ripe tomatoes in the bin on the left.  

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 large bunch Swiss chard
(yields about 1/2 cup chopped stems and 4 cups chopped leaves)
1 small sprig fresh tarragon, minced
1/4 teaspoon Nature's Seasons
1/4 - 1/2 cup water, approximately

Preparation:
Heat the coconut oil over medium heat and saute the chopped chard stems until tender.  Add the chopped leaves, and fresh tarragon, and saute until wilted.  You may need to add about 1 -2 Tablespoons of the water to make them tender.   Transfer to a Magic Bullet or similar device and add just enough water to make the Bullet do its job and get the desired consistency you want. Put it on top of scrambled egg whites, or in an omelet, or spread it on toast. Any of those ways, you are certain to have Summer Garden Pzazz!

Nutrition:
Servings per recipe: 1 cup
Serving Size: About 1/2 - 3/4 cup              
Calories: 68
Total Fat: 4 g
Cholesterol:0  mg
Sodium: 698 mg
Total Carbs:  4 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 4 g

Currant Kale Soup

Garden Kale

This is an adaptation of Dark Leafy Greens with Caramelized Onions, Raisins, and Pine Nuts from Rebecca Katz's cookbook, One Bite At a Time.  When I turned this into a pureed soup, Tom thought it was even better than its original form.  Maybe it was the melding of the flavors in the pureed form that made it so delectable.

I used kale as the greens both times I made it.  Swiss chard or beet greens or any other type of dark leafy greens would work well.  
Remember, kale is a natural cancer "phyter" with all of it's phytonutrients.  And it is abundant in Tom's vegetable garden right now, as you can see in the photo.  Its rumply green leaves are simply beautiful! I am adding a label of "kale" to my recipes that include it, to make it easier for you to find more of these healthy possibilities.  

Just a quick note about preparing kale:  a quick and easy way to de-stem kale is to rip the leaves from the stem by holding the bottom of the stem in one hand and pulling the leaves up from the bottom with your other hand.  Quick and efficient. The stems can be tough, so it is definitely best to remove them unless the kale is still very tender and young.  

 Ingredients:
6 cups destemmed and chopped kale
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 small red onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
pinch of sea salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup currants (or raisins)
1 Tablespoon toasted pine nuts (optional)
1- 2 cups water to achieve desired consistency









Preparation:
Cover the chopped kale with cold water and set aside until ready to use.

In a large, deep saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt.  Saute for 3 - 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to low and cook slowly until the onions are caramelized, about 20 minutes.

Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, just until aromatic. Add the currants and stir for about 30 seconds. Deglaze the pan with 2 Tablespoons of water to loosen all the flavorful bits from the bottom.

Drain the kale.  Begin adding the kale to the pan with a pinch of salt, continuing to add as many greens as will fit in the pan. Add the water and cover and simmer until the greens are tender, 5 - 7 minutes. Add the pine nuts.

Puree in a blender, Magic Bullet or VitaMix or with an immersion stick, adding  vegetable broth or water to get the desired consistency.  I made a small batch so I used the Magic Bullet.  Next time I think I will make a large batch and use the VitaMix.  The velvety texture created by the VitaMix is uniquely wonderful and full of Pzazz!

Currant Kale Soup

Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 2
Serving Size: About 1 1/2 cups depending on
how thick or thin you make it
Calories: 283
Total Fat: 11 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 361 mg
Total Carbs: 25 g
Dietary Fiber: 6
Protein: 8 g

Swiss Chard Sauce or Dip

Garden Swiss chard

The Swiss chard in Tom's raised garden bins is prolific and delicious! Our son, Sam, even loves it.  A couple of mornings ago, he asked me to scramble some eggs with Swiss chard, onions, garlic and peppers to put into a wrap for a breakfast burrito of sorts.  I started by sauteing the onions, peppers and garlic and then added the Swiss chard.  As he looked at how much I made, he said he only needed about half of it.  So I saved half of it for me to use in some way.  

That "some way" came today, as I put the Swiss Chard mixture with canned Great Northern Beans into the Magic Bullet to make a dip to spread on crackers.  Then later, I thinned it with some of the reserved liquid from the beans, and warmed it up with a small amount of pasta and topped it with reduced-fat feta cheese.  I savored it both ways. 

Whenever I cook Swiss chard, I am amazed at how the large quantity of it raw shrinks down to the tiny amount in the pan.  When I made it for Sam's burrito, I think it was a bit more than four cups of chopped chard, though I didn't measure it exactly, and then I saved half of the finished product for my creation today.  So the list of ingredients below is more of an approximation than an exact recipe.  Next time, I will cook a large quantity of this to use in a variety of ways.  Have fun making your own Pzazzed version!


Ingredients:
2 cups chopped Swiss Chard
2 Tablespoons chopped red onion
2 Tablespoons diced green pepper
1/2 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/4 cup cooked, drained Great Northern Beans  (but save some liquid)

Preparation:
Saute the onion, green pepper, and garlic in the coconut oil on medium heat until tender.  Add the Swiss chard with a bit of salt and pepper and saute until tender. You will have about 1/4  - 1/3 cup of the mixture when the chard cooks down.  Put this mixture with the Great Northern Beans in a Magic Bullet or similar device. Puree to desired consistency.  You might need to add just a bit of the reserved liquid from the beans to get the Magic Bullet to do its job and to get the desired consistency.  




Nutrition per serving:
Servings per recipe: 1
Serving Size: About 1/2 cup      
Calories: 121
Total Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol:  0 mg
Sodium: 261 mg
Total Carbs: 15 g
Dietary Fiber: 6 g
Protein: 6 g