I am tempted to just chop everything up and make a big salad with a little of everything in it – yes, raw corn, and YES, raw okra. And that will be dinner tonight. But eventually we’ll want something else, so I’ve got three ideas here – two from my go-to New York Times (cold noodles with tomatoes!) but one that was demonstrated at the Decatur Farmers Market. I have to say that I truly miss restaurant chef demos at local farmers markets. At once time that was a mainstay of the markets and always a source of creative inspiration … now they’re extremely rare, but the Community Farmers Market folks have local cooks who do demos most every week, and their recipes are perhaps a bit more practical and maybe easier to pull off.
Tomatoes
(2023) Sesame Tomato Salad
There’s another idea for using those tomatoes below, a Sesame Tomato Salad from the New York Times (yes, my favorite source for recipes) which I loved because I would never have thought to combine toasted sesame oil with tomatoes, and it’s delicious.
(2022) Stratta (basic recipe)
This recipe was demo’d at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market back in the day.
(2022) Tomato Vinaigrette
With that one tomato, I’m going to try this Tomato Vinaigrette recipe from Emily Nunn of The Department of Salad. She adapted the recipe from “Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home.” I’ve still got two red onions from past boxes, so I’ll put part of one to good use here.
(2022) Warm Okra and Tomato Salad
And finally, a different salad – this one with okra because I still have some of last week’s box of cherry tomatoes. It’s a recipe from the Washington Post.
(2022) Tomato Cracker Salad
And while there’s no zucchini in our box this week, I’ve been wanting to try this zucchini tortilla recipe that Ali Stafford adapted from https://whiteonricecouple.com/zucchini-tortillas/. So I’m trying it with yellow squash.
Stafford says keep an eye on these while baking. If you bake them too long, the Parmesan will cook too much and cause the tortillas to become brittle.
(2022) Matthew Reeves’ Ratatouille
With so many peppers and that pretty eggplant, it’s time to make ratatouille. Down below is the recipe I’ve adapted from one provided by Matthew Reeves, who with his wife Maggie Reeves, hosts a drop-off for Riverview boxes. What I love is that there are almost no quantities given (just a size for one can of crushed tomatoes). Ratatouille really must have been created as a delicious way to use up summer vegetables and you can juggle quantities of ingredients to suit what you have… and what you like. We didn’t get zucchini this week (at least not in my box) but we got eggplant, yellow squash, lots of peppers, and garlic. You could use the red onion that we got today if you like, or maybe you have some yellow onions on hand. At our house, we’re not big rosemary fans, so we’re leaving that out.
(2022) Cold Peanut Noodle Salad with Cucumbers
And because we have a bounty of cucumbers, I’ll make the Cold Peanuts Noodle Salad with Cucumbers from Alexander Stafford, down below. We like the dressing a little sweeter, so we add some honey.
(2022) Savory Breakfast Strata with Kale, Mushrooms, and Cherry Tomatoes
I have company coming this weekend. They’re getting the Savory Breakfast Strata from Nealey Thompson of Cook’s Warehouse – recipe down below. She made hers with chard but I’m using kale.
(2022) Real Greek Salad (Horiatiki Salata)
from Cooks Illustrated. Their onion treatment kills any bitter onion vapors, and is especially tasty if you start with sweet onions.