garden Recipes
Our Favorite Garden Recipes
Part of gardening is figuring out what to do with the vegetables you grow. If you have ever grown cucumbers or zucchini, you know you will have an abundance of them! These recipes are some of our favorites and are modifications of recipes we have found online or in our favorite cookbooks. Each one has been made multiple times in our own kitchens and has been tweaked for perfection. We have included the simple ones that will get you through that cucumber or zucchini onslaught but also have included a few that take a little more preparation. We hope you grow to love the gardening-harvesting-creating good food cycle and benefit from the good health it will bring you! Be sure to check back periodically for new recipes!
Cucumbers
Cold Cucumber Soup
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Our cold cucumber soup is an easy recipe for a hot summer day when those cucumbers are coming fast and furious! This recipe uses greek yogurt which can be nonfat or whole milk versions. We have tried them both and they are both equally delicious. We use fresh garlic and fresh squeezed lemon juice. We store ours in a large mason jar with a whole lid (not a canning lid) for up to one week. This soup is great as a side dish to a sandwich at lunch or to take the place of your normal salad at dinner. It is great as a summer meal with homemade crusty bread!
Ingredients:
5 to 6 cups cucumbers (peeled, seeded and cut into small chunks)
1 and 1/2 cups greek yogurt
1 fresh garlic clove (crushed)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Throw all the ingredients in the blender and blend for a minute or two until the cucumbers are at your desired consistency - it will be thin like a soup. If you prefer it thicker, add an additional cucumber.
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
These pickles are a sweet treat any time of the day. There is no canning supplies needed except we store ours in canning jars with whole plastic lids. They could last in your refrigerator for several months but probably won't make it that long before being eaten!
6 cups small pickling cucumbers (washed and sliced)
1/2 cup red onion (sliced paper thin)
1 Tablespoon sea salt
Place cucumbers onions and salt in a bowl - mix and set aside for 30 minutes
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp celery seed
Heat vinegar, white sugar and celery seed in a pot on the stove on low heat until the sugar dissolves then
remove from heat and let cool.
Place pickles and onions in 3 jars stuffing them in as tightly as you can to the top.
Pour brine into the jars (split between the jars). If the pickles aren't completely covered, you can add a little water to the top. Secure the lid and turn upside down a few times to mix. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours to marinate and enjoy!
Cucumber Salsa
Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
Cucumber Salsa
This cold cucumber salsa is delicious with tortilla chips or can be used as a condiment for grilled salmon or chicken.
2 cups cucumbers (peeled, deseeded and diced)
1 cup of tomatoes (deseeded & diced)
1/2 cup of sweet red onion (diced)
1/2 cup of sweet red bell pepper (diced)
3 Tbsp of fresh squeezed lime juice
2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c fresh cilantro (chopped)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Mix all ingredients together and chill for several hours before serving
tomatoes
Gazpacho
Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
This is our first summer making cold soups and we couldn't be happier with this Gazpacho recipe! Like the cucumbers, our tomatoes are ripening quickly, and we can't keep up with just putting them in our salads!
We like our tomatoes peeled for this recipe although the original recipe did not call for peeling. We include our fresh basil, garlic and red onion from the garden into the recipe. This soup makes a great lunch or dinner especially when served with homemade crusty bread!
To peel tomatoes:
Boil water in a small pot on top of the stove and blanch
fresh picked tomatoes for one minute. Set them aside on a paper towel. When all are complete, pull skins off and core them, putting the remaining parts into the blender.
This can get rather messy, so we advise keeping paper towels, and the trash can handy! Blanch enough tomatoes to fill the blender with a little room at the top for the cup of cucumbers.
Ingredients:
5 cups tomatoes (blanched, cored & peeled)
1 cup cucumber (peeled & seeded)
1/2 cup red bell pepper (chopped)
1 fresh garlic clove (crushed)
1/8 cup fresh basil (chopped)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in the blender and blend for a minute or two, if the soup is too thick add water slowly until the Gazpacho is at your desired consistency.
Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
Pizza is one of our favorite foods and we make pizza once a week faithfully. There are good pizza sauces on the market that tout organic ingredients and come in a variety of different flavors. We think pizza sauce made with tomato and basil that are fresh from the garden is far superior in flavor and is worth the time it takes to make!
Ingredients:
10-12 fresh picked tomatoes (blanched, cored & peeled)
1/2 cup red onion (chopped)
1/2 cup red bell pepper (chopped)
1 Tablespoon Sea salt
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
8 - 10 fresh basil leaves (torn)
To peel tomatoes:
Boil water in a small pot on top of the stove and blanch
fresh picked tomatoes for one minute. Set them aside on a towel. When all are complete, pull skins off and core them, putting the remaining pieces into a large frying pan with a lid. This can get rather messy, so we advise keeping paper towels, and the trash can handy!
Cook the mixture on low until most of the liquid has evaporated stirring regularly. The tomato sauce should become thicker than soup consistency. Once completed, allow to cool and spoon into the blender. Blend for a minute. Store in quart jars in the freezer until you make your pizza. Each quart jar will make sauce for two 16 inch pizzas. Since we only make on large pizza at a time, we only fill our jars halfway and freeze them.