I have a food related accomplishment: finally making a recipe I marked & the bonus was finding another way to eat cucumbers (not a fan of them plain. I can handle them best in spring rolls, sushi, juiced-with other items or pickled). If last week's cooked spicy-tomato dish (including a round up of other cucumber recipes over the last year) wasn't enough and you still need more cucumber ideas from your harvest or your box or spontaneous market purchase, this week I have a raw one for you. A. Clean n' Green Citrus Cucumbers is a CSA-provided avocado/orange dressing that I decided to toss over sliced cucumbers.
The box also presented a bounty of ripe tomatoes and basil as well so the second vegetarian dish features pasta sauce adapted from my Art Smith Kitchen Life cookbook. I placed it with lima beans and quinoa/brown rice instead of pasta. Remember if you want to use dried beans to allow an overnight soak and 45 minutes-1 hour to cook them.
Clean n' Green Citrus Dressing
1/2 avocado1/2 cup orange juice (about one large orange)
3 green onions (I used 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion)
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt
Place everything in a blender and whir until smooth. Store for 1 additional day in the fridge.
I put over 1.5 cups of sliced cucumbers and let it marinate for 8 hours.
Another pairing for this dressing as the CSA suggests is with strawberry-asparagus salad. I drizzled some of the dressing on my tuna sashimi too.
Basil-Tomato Sauce-makes enough for about 4-6 half-cup servings
about 2 lbs of diced fresh tomato, 1" chunks 1/2 cup packed rinsed basil leaves
1/2 small onion, diced
optional: 1 serrano pepper diced finely (or hot pepper flakes to taste)
salt to taste
1/6 cup extra virgin olive oil
Beans and Rice/quinoa- for 4 servings with the tomato basil sauce
1 cup dried lima beans (or other white bean)-soaked over night and simmered about 1 hour OR buy it canned-think the yield was about 2.5-3 cups once it was cooked
1 cup rice dried (used rice cooker, takes 30 minutes) or 1 cup quinoa (boil 7-10 minutes until spirals begin to separate, then drain)
Instructions
1. Combine oil and onion in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, just until onions and serrano pepper soften ~2-3 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes release their juice, about 4-5 minutes.
3. While this is cooking, coarsely chop the basil. After the tomatoes are juicy, add the basil and lower to simmer for 2 minutes.
4.Season with salt and if using the pepper flakes.
5. Can keep it chunky or pulse in a blender (allow it to cool so the lid doesn't fly off from the steam pressure or use a stick blender).
6. Portions up to you, I used about 1/2 cup cooked rice or quinoa and 1/2-3/4 cups of beans and topped with 1/2 cup of the tomato basil sauce. Best served warm.
So back to the beginning question-and maybe you can give me a nifty idea, what do you like to do to celebrate an accomplishment? For a few months, I would kind of like to just give myself a break to set some standing recurring dates to be social nights/weekend outings so I don't necessarily have to plan details and coordinate each time. A pedicure might be nice-I think I've only ever had two in my life. Perhaps buying something fun for the house to decorate (was eye-ing art work at La Jolla farmer's market before).
