Category: Veggie Challenge (Page 6 of 6)

Vegetable Challenge: Cousa Squash

March 18, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I wandered into a local neighborhood produce store, hoping to find something unique for our vegetable challenge. The selection was fine if I just wanted to buy some produce but trying to find something unique proved to be a challenge in itself. After wandering through the produce aisles two or three times, I spied some cousa squash on the shelf above the zucchini and yellow summer squash. I was way too excited to find a squash, let’s just say that.

I knew nothing about cousa squash so I searched on Google for it. Apparently, the cousa squash is from the Middle East and is similar to zucchini and other summer squash. I think it’s a bit sweeter and its shape is shorter and a bit fatter than zucchini but it is indeed very similar. I’m sure you could substitute zucchini and cousa squash for each other in any recipe.

Recipe for Cousa Squash

I saw lots of recipes for stuffed cousa squash. Basically you stuff them with a mixture of meat, rice, spices, and some other vegetables. I didn’t have the ingredients or the patience to make stuffed squash so I opted for a simpler dish.

Ingredients

1 to 2 Cousa Squash, roughly diced

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

Garlic (1 to 2 cloves if using fresh. A generous sprinkle if using garlic powder)

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil of choice. You could use olive oil. I chose to use avocado oil because that’s what I had on hand.

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and add a bit of oil.

Dice the vegetables and mix together. Add a bit more oil directly to the vegetables and mix.

Sprinkle the spices on and then pour out onto the baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, stirring the vegetables about half way through.

Notes

Even though you’re roasting these vegetables, the squash has a lot more liquid in it than you find in many vegetables. So this dish won’t roast in the same way as the vegetables we often roast such as winter squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and so on. Instead, this is more similar to a sauteed dish. The squash will be soft.

Variations

I chose to roast this in the oven but you could make the same dish and saute it instead in a good sized saute pan.

You could also add a bit of cayenne pepper to the seasonings.

Once you’ve cooked this, you can serve it as is for a side dish or sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on it. You can also add this to an omelet or frittata or add it to some rice or quinoa to make a pilaf.

Eggplant Veggie Challenge with Baked Rounds

March 11, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Today’s eggplant veggie challenge uses purple eggplants but they do come in other colors too.

Eggplant is considered a nightshade vegetable, similar to peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos. You can tell it is a nightshade because it has an elf cap on it’s stem. Buying eggplant was intentional for me. It is not the type of vegetable that I routinely pop into my cart during the weekly grocery shopping (unlike carrots, celery, peppers and cauliflower.)

I was surprised to find out that botanically speaking, eggplant is actually a fruit. I guess that makes sense because although I’m calling them a vegetable for the Veggie Challenge, they have seeds on the inside and are the “fruit” of the plant. As a fruit, they are the part of the plant that bears fruit and has seeds in the middle. So I guess other nightshades. as well as cucumbers, peas and pumpkins are fruit too, although, I would classify them as a vegetable. I think cooks and most people consider them a vegetable.

The legal definition of a vegetable tends to lead to what cooks consider the fruit. For example, tomatoes are taxed as a vegetable even through they are technically a fruit.

Vegetables are technically the roots, stems and leaves of a plant.

Eggplant can be a great low carb swap for noodles in lasagna or other recipes. A nutrient dense food, one cup of eggplant, cubed and cooked, has only 35 calories and has good fiber, copper, potassium and manganese.

This eggplant veggie challenge is easy to make:

Peel the eggplant
Slice it into half inch thick rounds
Dip both sides into scrambled egg batter
Bread each side with bread crumbs
Bake in a 350 oven for 5-6 minutes each side

Of course if I skipped the bread crumbs, they would be lower in carbohydrates.

Later, I pulled this eggplant veggie challenge out of refrigerator, sprinkled them with a little parmigiana cheese and shredded mozzarella cheese. Then I microwaved them 30 seconds to take the chill off and to melt the cheese. I added salt and pepper to taste.

Do you have a recipe you enjoy for eggplant? Bake? Saute? How do you prepare it?

Shredded Zucchini – Veggie Recipe of the Week

March 4, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

I love zucchini and usually slice it into rounds. Today I used a grater and shredded it into bits. I added it into my salad to bulk it up with more vegetables.

Besides adding it to a salad, zucchini is also good to add to a stew or a soup.

Other people like make it into a side dish. It is easy, just saute the shredded zucchini in olive oil, scramble an egg into it and stir in some freshly ground Parmesan cheese.

I may try shredding some apples and combining the shredded zucchini with a tart dressing for an apple-zucchini slaw.

This week’s veggie challenge brings ways to use the zucchini with several ideas for shredded zucchinis including salads, stews, soups and with eggs.

Fried Riced Cauliflower – Veggie of the Week

February 25, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

I prepared my cauliflower in a way I never tried before. I know I tried riced cauliflower last week, but I it was from a package rice and I tried it with a warm riced cauliflower salad. Pretty good!

However this week is special because I riced it myself to make “fried rice” which is actually “fried riced cauliflower.” All I can say is WOW, this is a WINNER!

Start with a beautiful head of cauliflower. It’s still messy to rice cauliflower using a grater, but that’s okay, it’s easy enough to clean up and worth it for the delicious taste.

I even grate the core of the cauliflower to use the whole thing. Usually I throw that part away, but since it is riced so small, it doesn’t need to be discarded.

Chop up other veggies into a small size too. Use what is in your refrigerator, but make the cauliflower the star. By that I mean, don’t use a whole stalk of celery or a whole onion.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Onions
Green pepper
Red pepper
Celery
Carrots
Riced Cauliflower
Salt & Pepper
Soy Sauce (if desired)

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet. Add onions. After they get a little translucent, add the other veggies. Toss or flip with spatula. Add the rice, cover for a minute and flip again.

Wisk one egg to scramble it. Drizzle over the mixture. Stir, turn and blend into the veggie mixture while it cooks. The cauliflower cooks pretty quickly since it is riced so small.

Add soy sauce if you need to, but I like it plain.

Serve with stir fry chicken or inside out egg rolls.

Seaweed Salad — New Vegetable Challenge

February 25, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I found this seaweed salad on the salad bar at Whole Foods so of course I bought some, simply because I thought, “now this is a great choice for the new vegetable challenge we’re doing at Becoming Elli!” How was it? Pretty good, actually.

According to the sign on the salad bar, this seaweed salad is made with kombu seaweed, sesame seeds, sunflower oil, scallions,ginger, natural flavor (what does this mean anyway?), and sea salt.

Thanks to my Google search, I learned that kombu seaweed is a type of edible kelp. Kombu is a good source of glutamic acid, iodine, potasium, calcium, dietary fiber, and many obscure enzymes. You don’t want to eat too much of kombu because too much iodine can be harmful to you.

Because I bought this already prepared, I have no idea if it’s hard to make your own salad.

I will certainly buy this again next time I’m eating at Whole Foods. It was very tasty. I don’t know if I’ll buy it unprepared and make my own salad but perhaps if I’m feeling even more adventurous, I will.

Riced Cauliflower – Weekly Veggie Challenge

February 19, 2019 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

Riced cauliflower has the advantage of looking like a grain and taking on the flavors of spices and other ingredients. It’s a lovely way to “veggie up” a meal without realizing that you added a whole lot of fiber and nutrients without adding tons of calorie dense pasta or rice.

The downside of riced cauliflower is the mess. When I used my grater to rice the cauliflower, it was all over the place. I’m going to try again with a different, more careful plan and will post photos then. A head of cauliflower here in Ohio in the winter is around $2.50 or $3.00 depending on the size and the store.

Easy Short Cut: Meanwhile, you can take the easy way out, by buying frozen riced cauliflower. Seasons Choice brand from Aldi, for around $2 for twelve ounces. This version had some garlic and parsley added to it, but they offer a plain version too. The parsley adds a nice color balance, because when served plain, it’s kinda drab.

Here I added some riced cauliflower to a warm veggie salad. (chopped onions, peppers, celery with about 6 olives thrown in for flavor) and it tasted great! Next time I may add some tomatoes or other color for more visual appeal.

I will definitely add riced cauliflower to my on-going veggie list.

Pea Shoots — Weekly New Vegetable Challenge

February 13, 2019 / Jill McCauslin / 1 Comment

Pea shoots made it into my shopping basket this week for the Becoming Elli new vegetable challenge. Aren’t they gorgeous?

I bought these at Kriegers, a locally owned health food/produce store.

These microgreens are grown by Vigeo Gardens, an Akron, Ohio-based modern farm.

What is a microgreen? It’s a young vegetable, typically between one to three inches. They fall somewhere between a sprout and baby greens.

I did exactly as the label advised and threw them on top of my salad. They were delicious. I think I preferred them to the broccoli sprouts I tried a couple weeks ago. They’re crunchy and have a delicate flavor.

Jicama for Lunch – Veggie Challenge

February 11, 2019 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

How to Peel and Prepare a Jicama
Jicama is pronounced “Hick – ah – mah” and has the texture of a sweet (not spicy) radish or a potato. Raw, it tastes almost like an apple. Its crunchy texture makes it perfect for slicing into strips to dip into hummus or guacamole.

Most recipes for jicama call for you to “julienne” slice it, which is cutting it into tiny slivers like matchsticks. You cut it half, then half again, slicing it into 2″ long and thin (about 1/4 to 1/8th”) strips.

The skin had to be taken off with a vegetable peeler, which was a bit awkward for me. It’s a tough skin but not too difficult to remove. Underneath it looks like a potato, but it has about half of the calories and also fewer carbohydrates. One cup of jicama has 49 calories and 11 grams of carbohydrates. One cup of potato has 116 calories and 26 grams of carbohydrate. I would dub the jicama a healthy vegetable.

I ate some of the jicama raw — like you would munch on slices of carrots or celery. I liked it a lot, especially the texture and slight sweet flavor. Most of the recipes I saw online talked about substituting jicama for potato to make fries. Then I prepared the rest of it by sauteing the jicama on medium heat on the stove in a little olive oil and lightly salted it. Delicious! I would give this one 5 stars. Low in calories. High in Flavor.

Before serving to guests, I need to perfect my julienne knife skills. My julienne slices are more like finger widths, not matchsticks. I should have sliced all of these again to get the slim stick-like size.

This one was grown in Mexico. It is in season during the fall, winter and spring. I bought it at Giant Eagle (which is a Pittsburgh-based large chain grocery store.) It’s a root vegetable, so no wonder I find it similar to a radish or a potato texture.

Next time I cut it, I’m going to cube it and mix with red, yellow, green peppers, along with carrots and celery to make a salad. A little lime juice and cayenne pepper sound like the perfect dressing!