Garden + Grill
Summer Recipe Round-up Part 2
Summer is such a great season for cooking. There's nothing better, in my opinion, than just throwing everything on the grill and calling it a well-rounded meal.
The biggest downside is that sometimes it is too dang hot. But the biggest upside is there's SO much delicious local produce to incorporate.
I grew up having a garden with tons of tomatoes, corn, beans, and summer squash. This is the second summer that I've also joined a CSA -- or Community Supported Agriculture -- where I pay up front for local farm produce throughout the season. Like a lot of you, I needed to make sure I was eating enough veggies and wanted more variety ;)
[I get the bi-weekly basket from Third Way Farm in Havre de Grace.]
If you find yourself with a surplus of fresh produce or you just want some new recipes to toss on the grill, add some of these to your rotation and let me know how it goes!
--
Cucumber Caprese Salad (from Gimme Some Oven) -- I love the combination of mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and good balsamic vinegar, and I had a surplus of cucumbers. Perfection! This recipe calls for English cucumbers; I just used whatever I had. It also uses cherry tomatoes, but I eat all those like M&M's so I had to cut up regular tomatoes, which tasted just as good but created a little more juice!
Grilled Eggplant Caprese (from Lively Table) -- I told you I love this combo! I also had eggplant from the farm to use, and it was a REALLY hot day so I specifically searched for a recipe that used grilled eggplant (vs. roasted in the oven). Get weirdly specific with Google, friends.
"Perfect" Grilled Chicken Thighs -- inspired by The Salty Marshmallow.
If you read my last recipe round-up, you might remember that I love boneless, skinless chicken thighs. This recipe calls for bone-in, skin-on, but I'm not about that life. I also think sometimes measuring is overrated, or at least that's the mood I was in when I made these!
My edits:
I used only lime juice from a squeeze bottle because I didn't have fresh lemons and limes, and I didn't have lemon juice at all.
I used some garlic salt from a grinder that had some other stuff added, and I used plain garlic salt instead of powder. I did use the onion powder but I didn't measure.
I didn't include regular salt at all because I thought it would be salty enough from the garlic salt + soy sauce
I used spicy brown mustard instead of Dijon, and I eyeballed the pepper, mustard, and soy sauce. I probably used extra mustard than the recipe called for, about a tablespoon?
THE MARINADE WAS SO TASTY I WANTED TO EAT IT WITH A SPOON. I will neither confirm nor deny if that happened.
Grilled Boneless Pork Chops -- inspired by The Online Grill
Super quick and easy. Instead of a marinade, this recipe uses a dry rub.
I mostly followed this recipe, again using garlic salt instead of powder (really need to buy some garlic powder I guess) and omitting the ground mustard. I didn't have much paprika so I used what I had, and since the recipe is for four boneless chops and I had eight, I also mixed in some special pork seasoning I had that included most of the same spices and it all worked out just fine.
Stir-Fried Japanese Eggplant with Ginger & Garlic (from Flavor Feed) -- In addition to regular eggplant, I also got Japanese eggplant and Swiss chard in one of my farm hauls. For this recipe:
I used two Japanese eggplants.
If you try it, make sure you follow the directions and add the sesame oil to LOW heat. Meaning, let the pan cool somewhat after cooking the eggplant, because sesame oil will start to smoke real fast over high heat!
I also made it my own by adding chopped onion to the pan first, then a lot of ground ginger because I didn't have any fresh, and two heaping teaspoons of chopped garlic.
I let that cook together for a few minutes, then added chopped Swiss chard because why not? Do eggplant and Swiss chard go together? They do if I put them together.
Once the Swiss chard was soft, I put the eggplant back in, added more ginger and soy and mixed it all together. And yes, the chard and eggplant worked just fine as a pair.
Chickpea Tabbouleh -- link from Spoon University, original recipe from Bad Manners (formerly Thug Kitchen)
I found this recipe years ago and it's one of my favorite quick, easy, light dishes to throw together.
Rinse, drain, and mash two 15-oz. cans of chickpeas. Then add chopped tomatoes, celery, bell pepper, radishes, parsley, mint, and green onions and mix it all together. Finish by mixing it all with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I'm also 90% sure I've made this without the green onions and it was still good.
I suppose it's more of a spring & early summer dish with the radishes and mint, but it's also refreshing, which makes it perfect for hot summer days and nights!
--
Key takeaways:
Justine really likes caprese salads.
Eat more vegetables.
Summertime grilling makes it easy to cook simple, healthy meals relatively quickly. (I think "grilled" is both a technique and a flavor!)
You don't have to have all the ingredients or the marinade time a recipe calls for. You can do the best you can with what you have and a lot of the time, it'll turn out pretty darn good. And even if it's not the greatest, I promise you it is still better than cleaning mushy produce out of your fridge because you were waiting until you bought garlic powder to start cooking anything.
Questions about meal prep and planning? Recipes I should try? Let me know!
