Summer vegetables dinner

Instead of posting a recipe I thought I’d photograph a mid week all vegetables dinner and offer that as an inspiration instead of just a recipe. A dinner like this requires imagination but as long as you know your way around the ktichen, you can reproduce it easily with the simple instructions I provide below.

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We are lucky here in Kelowna to live minutes away from several beautiful small organic farms that sell their produce straight out of their farm. Fruits and vegetables are picked daily and it is always exciting to go to the markets and see what is best today. Produce is still cool from early morning mist or later warm from the morning sun.

This morning the highlight at one of the farms were these beautiful small new carrots in several colours and they inspired this vegetable centered dinner. I found mission figs (they must have come from elsewhere) in another market, then went to my favourite corn grower for a few cobs of fresh corn. Beautiful local red and green cabbages came from yet another farm (I do my rounds) as well as their cherry tomatoes in red and yellow. I had a few cucs at home and cauliflower from a day ago so I made simple dishes with each of them as well. I added falafel balls and roasted a few chickpeas for the salad and dinner was beginning to look good.

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Now I am not suggesting that you need all of these dishes for one dinner, any combination of two or three of the dishes would make a perfectly lovely dinner any time.

Here is the menu:

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Roasted new carrots and mission figs
with thyme honey drizzle

Shredded salad with red and green cabbage, romaine and roasted spiced chickpeas
with simple vinaigrette

Roasted confetti cauliflower with tahini

Falafel balls with tahini and sweet and savoury tomato jam

New summer cucumbers with fleur de sel

Cherry tomatoes

Fresh corn on the cob with spiced butter

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Directions:

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Cut the carrots in half lengthwise leaving some of the green attached. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and a pinch of sugar, then roast in 400F oven for about 10-15 minutes until just cooked through but still retain some crunch.

Cut the figs in half lengthwise, drizzle with a little honey and roast on the same pan with the carrots about 10 minutes. Remove when they are done.

Warm up liquid honey and a few spring of thyme in the microwave, let cool then strain. Add a bit of lemon juice and drizzle over the carrots.

Shred equal amounts of red and green cabbage ( a little less of the red perhaps), add a few leaves of shredded romaine (best cut with a knife for this salad) and thinly sliced radishes. For the vinaigrette mix olive oil and vinegar (3 or 4:1, depending on the vinegar) with a little dijon mustard, salt and a pinch of sugar.

To make the roasted chickpeas use freshly cooked or canned chickpeas, toss with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and other spices (cumin, chilli or prepared spice mix that you may have on your spice rack). Roast in 400F oven for about 10-15 minutes and let cool.

Toss the cauliflower in oil, season with salt and pepper and roast in 400F for a few minutes until just cooked and beginning to turn brown in spots.

Just before serving cut the cucumber in halves or quarters lengthwise, sprinkle with fleur de sel or maldon salt.

You can cook the corn in a bit of water in the microwave covered with a paper towel (8 min in my microwave). Mix soft butter with a little harissa or chilli powder and salt. Brush over the corn.

I had the falafels in the fridge, but you can buy them ready made. Serve with tahini sauce. To make the tahini add water a little at a time and mix until smooth sauce of=s formed. Add lemon juice, salt and a little garlic if you wish and mix it in.

That’s it. I’ll post the recipes later but really, these instructions should be all you need. Change, adapt and make it your own.

For dessert serve fresh berries drizzled with dessert wine or ice wine.

Enjoy.

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