I love eggplant so much! We stopped growing it for a while because of the pest pressure, but I brought it back this year because a summer without eggplant (or watermelon) just isn’t as good. Now we have soo many eggplant. I did not remember how productive these plants are!! I, like everyone else in the world, don’t have that much time to deal with finicky recipes, so most days I roughly chop a bunch of veg and stick it in the oven and thats dinner. And its SO good! Here’s a eggplant roast that I often throw together:

Easy Eggplant Roast

This week the grains share included purple corn tortilla shells and barley grains! Against the Grain Farm provided the following recipe!!

VEGETARIAN BEAN AND BARLEY STEW

 

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Ingredients

• (Can be made on stove top or in a slow cooker where you can just set it and forget it!)
• Ingredients:
• 1½ tablespoons olive oil
• 1½ cups chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 2 cups chopped bell peppers (about 2 large bell peppers)
• 1 cup small diced zucchini
• 1 cup cooked garbanzo beans or about ½ can, drained and rinsed*
• 1 cup cooked white beans (Great Northern, Navy or Cannellini), or about ½ can, drained and rinsed*
• 2 cups cooked red kidney beans, or 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed*
• 1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained (2 cups fresh, in season)
• 1 cup water
• ¾ cup Against the Grain Barley Berries (rinsed and drained)
• 2 cups water or broth.
• 1 tbsp spice blend

Instructions

1. Place rinsed barley berries in pot with water (or broth) bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes until barley is tender but not overcooked. May need to add more liquid. Drain and set aside, but do not rinse.
2. Heat oil in a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add onions cook and stir 5 minutes or until softened, stir in minced garlic and vegetables.
3. Stir spice blend into the vegetable mixture
4. Stir in beans, tomatoes and water.Add cooked barley.
5. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
6. Serve a scoop inside Against the Grain Purple Taco Shells and top with fresh chopped cilantro, sour cream, shredded cheese and other toppings of choice.
7. This is a versatile recipe so vegetables, spices, beans can be added or deleted according to personal preference.

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HOLY BASIL! it is HOT.

I’m sure you’ve noticed and are sick of talking about it, but boy-oh-boy it’s sweltering and dry-as-a-bone out there. Our irrigation system is going 24/hours a day, for reals.  It is a crucial time of year as we have passed the deadline for planting most fall crops, s we can’t afford any crop loss. But we’re on it. The carrots are germinated and we’re watering them constantly until they are established. Fall cabbages are in the greenhouse, almost ready to get transplanted. Etc. etc. etc.

Because it’s so hot, we are spending most of our evenings at the beach, which is only a couple kms from the farm. I don’t want to be in the kitchen so it means we eat a lot of salad and cornchips. But I do try and make a couple quick meals each week we can take to the beach.

My favourite is roasted veg. I do enough so we can have leftovers. It’s something that takes a tiny bit of prep cutting, but after that it can cook while I do chores.  Roasted veg is a great side or even main. With a salad and a sausage, it’s an easy meal. things to roast: radish, hakurei, beets, carrots, garlic

Sauces make everything good. I love a good tahini/herb sauce. It makes everything good. Make a quick couscous, rice, or noodle with some roasted veg and a good thick splat of sauce and you’ve got a satisfying bowl. Marinated radishes also go well with this. Every couple of weeks I boil a batch of beluga or green lentils (they don’t go mushy) and add them to our “buddha” style bowls. I love to add chopped cilantro or thai basil to liven things up. Top it off with some sprouts or julienned kale or lettuce and you’ve got a fresh, quick and healthy meal.

The other thing that I love is to have a batch of caesar salad dressing and home made crutons in the fridge. It makes a salad a hearty, pleasing thing that anyone can get behind. I do the hedonistic anchovy, egg yoke style, but have also done a vegan version with nutritional yeast that I like almost as much. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese or extra nutritional yeast and you’ll almost not need much more than that! Goes great on Kale, lettuce, napa..you get it.

OK. That’s it for this week. Enjoy these summer days!!

xo
Jess