Chunky Fresh Tomato Salsa

One of these days I want to can my own salsa, but for now making a batch at a time is what works for me. We made this salsa to go in burritos filled with our favorite America's Test Kitchen beef taco filling. It's just a great, basic fresh salsa recipe that you could put on practically anything.

CSA Week 11:

In the box: 1 green leaf lettuce, 1 bunch carrots, 1 basket cherry tomatoes, 2 pounds Sweet Girl tomatoes, 2 pounds red potatoes, 1 head garlic, 1 bunch cilantro, 1 basket blackberries, 1 basket strawberries

We were out of town for most of the week, so we didn't do anything super spectacular with this week's haul. We continued to work through the lettuce from last week in addition to this week with side salads at dinner and big salads at lunch. The carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, and berries made good simple snacks.

I made a great lunch salad this past week that I was pretty proud of. I used lettuce, cherry tomatoes, feta, homemade pesto, sliced chicken sausage, and boiled red potatoes. It was very filling and flavorful, with a good mix of carbs, proteins, and veggies. I boiled the potatoes the night before, packed things in separate containers, and tossed them together when I was ready to eat it. I could have eaten the whole salad cold, but since I had access to a microwave I warmed up the potatoes and sausage before adding it to the salad.

For the rest of the potatoes, I made a potato and green bean side dish using a recipe from my friend Sarah. You just toss together steamed green beans and warm boiled potatoes with a dressing that included olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, dried oregano, minced garlic and finely chopped onion. What did I have with it? A hot dog sans bun. Sometimes I'm more interested in planning the side dish so the entree/protein ends up being an afterthought. On another note, I highly recommend Applegate Farms beef hot dogs, they have the best flavor of any hot dog I've ever had. I signed up for their email newsletter so I can get coupons.

About half of the Sweet Girl tomatoes and some of the cilantro were used to make the salsa recipe below, and the rest were used for a batch of pico de gallo that I made ahead and brought along to enjoy with our friends over the weekend. 

Chunky Fresh Tomato Salsa
adapted from Rick Bayless - Mexican Everyday
makes about 2 cups

Notes: Don't even bother making this unless you can use ripe (preferably local) summer tomatoes.

1 garlic clove, peeled
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (such as 2 serranos or 1 jalapeno), stemmed and halved, remove some or all of the seeds if you want it less spicy
1 pound ripe round tomatoes
1/3 cup loosely packed roughly chopped cilantro
1 large green onion, roots and wilted outer leaves removed, chopped onto small pieces
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (or light-flavored vinegar)
Salt, to taste

Turn on your food processor. While it's running, drop the garlic and chile pieces in one at a time, allowing each piece to get finely chopped before adding the next. Turn off the processor and remove the lid. Chop about half of the tomatoes into quarters and add them to the processor, along with the cilantro. Pulse 4-6 times, until the mixture resembles a coarse puree. Scrape this mixture into a bowl.

Chop the rest of the tomatoes into 1/4-inch pieces and add to the bowl, along with the green onion. Taste and season with the lime juice (or vinegar) and salt (I used a generous 1/2 teaspoon). Stir to combine.

This salsa is best if eaten with an hour or two, but you can also store it in the fridge for a few hours if you want to make it ahead of time.  

Tomatoes Stuffed with Summer Corn Salad

We weren't super hungry for dinner one night, so I made this super fast appetizer as our main meal, using lots of the fresh produce from the CSA.

CSA Week 10:

In the box: 1 green leaf lettuce, 1 red bottle onion, 2 pounds tomatoes, 4 ears of corn!, 2 pounds mixed summer squash, 3 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 basket blackberries, 1 basket strawberries.

We had a killer grill fest one night. We grilled burgers (which we ate wrapped in lettuce leaves, both to cut down on carbs and because sometimes it's hard to justify buying a whole package of hamburger buns for two burgers). We also grilled all of the summer squash, sliced in planks. Inside, on the stove, we cooked all of the corn, and we made oven fries with about half of the potatoes (America's Test Kitchen has a fabulous recipe).

The other half of the potatoes were used to make a delicious Indian dish that I will blog about later!

The leftover corn, red onion, and tomatoes were used for the stuffed tomato appetizers.

The leftover corn salad and leftover tomatoes (chopped) were combined with some of the lettuce to make a substantial salad for lunch the next day.

The blackberries were some of the biggest I'd ever seen! I wish I'd done something special with them, but I just put them on yogurt like I do with all the fruit we get.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Summer Corn Salad
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens - June 2010
about 16 small stuffed tomatoes

Notes: This is a pretty loose recipe. It wasn't even a formal recipe to begin with; in the magazine it's pretty much just a side note. So all amounts are approximate, depending on how many you want to make and what ingredients you have on hand. I had just two ear's worth of leftover kernels to work with, so I compensated with some frozen corn, and because of that I sauteed it in butter along with the red onion first. I think lime juice would be a great addition to this salad, if you have a lime on hand.

8 small tomatoes, sliced in half along their equator, insides hollowed out
About 2 cups of corn kernels, from leftover corn on the cob and/or frozen
1/2 medium red onion (or 1 small), chopped
2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (whatever you have)
generous 1/2 cup crumbled feta (goat cheese or queso fresco would be great too)
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

If using frozen corn, saute for a few minutes in a little butter, adding the red onion if you want (especially if you don't care for raw onion). Set aside in a medium bowl and allow to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Add to the corn mixture the herbs, feta, oil, salt, and pepper and toss to combine. Spoon mixture into tomato cups, and serve.

Moroccan-Style Chickpea Soup

I know what you're thinking. It's August. It's way too hot for soup. And you're probably right. But, hear me out. I work in a very air-conditioned building and sometimes I DO want a bowl of hot soup for lunch, even in August. I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Also, Joe wanted to go out to dinner that night, but I wanted to cook and use up some CSA veggies. So we compromised: he made this soup while I did my TurboFire workout, and then we went out to dinner afterwards. Best of both worlds! When we came home, the soup had cooled and we portioned it into small containers to freeze. I've been enjoying this soup all week long. 

CSA Week 9:

In the box: 1 red leaf lettuce, 1/2 pound spinach, 2 pounds tomatoes, 1 basket grape tomatoes, 1 pound summer squash, 1 bunch basil, 1 head garlic, 1 bunch radishes, 1 basket raspberries.

This soup used the remaining pound of potatoes from last week, and some of the summer squash from this week.

We ate lots of salads this week topped with grape tomatoes, chopped regular tomatoes, basil, and spinach. I followed Barefoot and in the Kitchen's method of prepping the lettuce ahead of time and it helped save a lot of time during the week. I tore lettuce and spinach into pieces, washed them in the salad spinner, and put them into a plastic bag with a paper towel. I only prepped about half of the lettuce this way, then a few days later, I did another batch, since lettuce seems to last longer intact as a head of lettuce than it does torn into pieces.

We made a veggie pizza topped with pesto made from the basil, sliced zucchini and red onion (sauteed first), sliced tomato, and slices of fresh mozzarella. That same night I chopped the rest of the squash and tomatoes to save for a weekend breakfast burritio. We sauteed the veggies, added salsa, black beans, leftover Mexican rice, shredded cheese, and wrapped it in a tortilla.

I don't really care for regular radishes plain; they are pretty spicy for me. But this week I discovered that a great way to cook radishes is to first cook bacon, then saute sliced radishes in the leftover bacon fat in the pan. So good!

Moroccan-Style Chickpea Soup
adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
serves 4-6

Notes: They recommend serving with "plenty of Tabasco". Nice idea, but we totally forgot to do this. We also forgot to mash some of the potatoes with a spoon to thicken the soup, but since we froze the soup, they got a little mashed during the thawing process, so it worked out. If you are planning on freezing some or all of the soup too, you could probably skip the mashing step as well.

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 onion, minced
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika (we only had hot smoked paprika, so we used that)
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 (15.5 ounce) cans chickpeas, rinsed
1 pound red potatoes (about 3 medium), scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley and/or mint
Pepper, to taste
Lemon wedges and Tabasco, for serving

Using a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the onion, sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the onion is softened. Add the garlic, paprika, saffron, ginger, and cumin. Cook, stirring, for just 30 seconds, so that they become fragrant. Add the chickpeas, potatoes, tomatoes (including their juices), zucchini, and broth. Stir to combine. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fork tender.

Mash some of the potatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon to thicken the soup. Off heat, stir in the fresh herbs. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve with lemon wedges and Tabasco.