Roasted Summer Vegetables

This is a great simple dish to serve on it's own or alongside meat or with bread or rice or couscous. Other vegetables work well too - fennel, young beets, salad turnips, garlic, etc.

8 Baby carrots - cut in half lengthwise and then cut into 2 lengths
10 pearl onions, peeled
3-4 new potatoes - scrubbed and cut into 1 chunks
3 small zucchini - quartered or halved and cut into 2 lengths
a few sweet peppers cut into 1'2 to 1 wide strips
3-4 TB olive oil
sea salt and black pepper

15 Cherry tomatoes or tomato wedges

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put the squash, onions, potatoes, and carrots in a roasting pan and toss gently with the oil, coating all vegetables well. Season with salt and pepper. Put the pan in the oven and bake for 4-5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and stir ingredients. Return pan to the oven and continue this process until the vegetables are fork tender, 15-20 minutes. Approximately 5 minutes before the vegetables are done, add the tomatoes. 

Coconut Vegetable Curry

This is one of those recipes which you can swap vegetables in and out of with reckless abandon. It will all taste good. Serve with a side of rice and double it for leftovers!

2 small onions cut into 3/4 inch cubes
2 colored peppers - cut into strips or 1 chunks
1 potato, scrubbed and in 1 cubes
1 cup snap peas
1 cup thinly sliced carrots

Coconut-Curry Sauce
1/2 cup canned coconut milk
2 teaspoons tamari
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 TB brown sugar
2 teaspoons rice vinegar or cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sunflower oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 1 1/2 teaspoon cold water
sesame oil

Directions:
Blanch the snap peas, carrots and potatoes until tender-crisp in plain boiling water. Drain and rush under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain again. Combine the Coconut-Curry Sauce ingredients. Taste and adjust the sugar to your liking. Heat a wok or wide skillet over high heat until hot. Add the oil, swirl to glaze the pan. Then add the onions and bell pepper and stir fry for 3-4 mins until tender-crisp. Add the blanched vegetables and toss to mix. Stir the sauce and add it to the pan. Bring it to a simmer, tossing to combine. Stir the cornstarch mixture to recombine and add it to the pan. Stir until the sauce turns glossy, about 10 seconds (a bit longer if you are doubling the sauce). Add a drizzle of sesame oil and toss to mix, then serve alongside rice.

Celery Soup

This is a classic French recipe, this one taken again from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

3 TB butter
1 small onion
1 lb celery, roughly chopped (reserve the fresh greens for garnish)
1 large potato
salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 cups vegetable stock
2 tsp sugar or honey to taste (optional)
1/2 cup cream or sour cream (optional)
1/4 cup celery greens, finely chopped

Put the butter in a large, deep saucepan or casserole over medium heat. When the butter melts, add the vegetables. Season w/ salt & pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until celery softens a bit. Add the stock and cook until the vegetables are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes more.

Puree the soup in batches in food processor or blender and return to the pot. You may prepare the soup in advance up to this point. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days and reheat before proceeding.) Adjust the seasoning, adding more salt and pepper as needed. Reheat the soup in the saucepan and stir in the cream if you are using it, garnish with celery leaves and serve.

Pete's Mixed Poatatoes may include Nicola gold potatoes, Purple Viking (pink and purple skin with white flesh) and Adirondack Red (Red skin with pink and white flesh), Adirondack Blue (blue inside and out) and our Russian Banana Fingerlings. All would be great in a potato salad, mashed separately or together or sliced for frying or baking en casserole. To maintain the beautiful colors, scrub these potatoes instead of peeling, if the recipe will allow. Store your potatoes in a cool, dark environment away from onions. Cook's Illustrated goes a step further and recommends storing them with an apple in the bag.  Since they are not treated with an anti-sprouting agent in Spring these potatoes will be preparing to start their next cycle of life and tend to sprout quickly if kept at room temperature.

Our favorite way to cook these all together is roasting until all are soft and creamy delicious. Chop and toss in sunflower oil, salt, pepper and other herbs of your choice. Set oven to 475F and roast for 30-40 minutes.