Vehicles for all the Vegetables
Ten ways to enjoy the harvest while we have it
Issue 49: From Dana
I hesitate to complain about the problem I’m facing right now when I open my fridge because it’s a good one to have. My vegetable drawer is packed tight with brown bags full of beautiful greens, pints of tomatoes, and random eggplants, peppers and cucumbers are wedged into any available space. We’re in the thick of high harvest, bringing it all home and faced with how we’re going to use it all up fast enough before it starts to turn.
My advice? Cram as many of those vegetables into each dish as you can. Avoid the type of dinners that revolve around a meaty main with a veg and starch side for the time being. There will be ample opportunity for those meals come late fall and winter when we’re forced to reach into our freezers to add something green to the plate.
Embrace this bountiful moment and go vegetable crazy. These dinners all encourage you to do just that, and getting kids involved is a great way to get them thinking about meals as canvases of flavor and considering which ingredients work well together.
Pasta – The highlight of our summer camp was always our “pasta challenge,” the day we went to the farmers’ market and gave small groups of students $10 to buy seasonal ingredients to make the most delicious pasta dish they could imagine. Corn-scallion-tomato-basil; squash, peppers and parsley; marinara with broccoli: all cooked in a pan with a little pasta water to create a delicious sauce. In all the years we did it, not a single meal was the same and the best part about it was watching students build up their confidence by orchestrating and cooking meals on the fly without a recipe.