Tomatoes

 

Fresh from the garden, a whole mess of beautiful tomatoes.  I cut them up and sauteed with fresh basil, oregano, garlic, and a splash of balsamic.  It's the same salad I do cold but now I'm sauteing.  Nothing like fresh tomatoes! I made this earlier in the week and am making it again ('cause our tomatoes are prolific!) Good on bread or pasta. You can also take juice out as it's cooking for a very lazy version of tomato soup.  I didn't measure anything, but I am guessing a tablespoon or so of olive oil and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar?  Maybe?

Lots of fresh basil -- 10-ish leaves? I have a very happy basil plant that needs to be cut back regularly.  If you don't cut it back, it goes to seed.

Garlic -- I used dried, maybe 1 teaspoon?

Oregano -- also dried and I used probably 1 tablespoon?  (I'm a big fan of oregano!)

I cooked it for an hour or two?  It cooked down a lot! 

 

 

I also made roasted zucchini and popped about 4 tomatoes in the oven.  I was curious about that versus pan cooking.

(I'm thinking about trying to make some sort of roasted zucchini and tomato sauce in the food processor for pasta... I'll let you know what happens.)

I also made watermelon (we grew it), basil, (also home grown) and lime (also grown at home with love) granita.  I love it.  The husband, and the younger two daughters don't like it. I think daughter #1 will.  I will let you know.

Super fun cooking day!

We invented eggs...

Not really... but black salt with tofu is amazing.  (You blend the tofu with black salt and you think you have eggs!)  This quiche recipe is a new favorite of ours.

Crust:
•1 tablespoon ground flax + 3 tablespoons water, mixed together
•1 cup whole almonds, ground into flour
•1 cup rolled oats ground into flour
•1 teaspoon dried parsley
•1 teaspoon dried oregano
•1/2 tsp kosher salt
•1 tbsp olive oil
•1-2.5 tbsp water, as needed  (I needed a lot more the first time I made this.  The second time I didn't. I don't know why.)

(double for two crusts read  below)

Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a round 10-inch  pan.

Mix flax and water mixture in a small bowl and set aside

In a large bowl, stir together the almond meal, oat flour, parsley, oregano, and salt.

Add in the flax mixture and oil.

Mix until mostly combined, adding the remaining water until the dough about the consistency of cookie dough. The dough should stick together when you press it between your fingers.

Crumble the dough evenly over the base of the tart pan (or pie dish). Starting from the center of the pan, press the mixture evenly, working your way out from the center and up the sides of the pan. Poke a few fork holes in the dough so air can escape.

Bake the crust at 350F for 13-16 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm to touch. Set aside to cool while you finish preparing the filling.
 
For the quiche
 
Saute:
An onion
Broccoli
Kale
in a little olive oil
(we do a lot of this and just have leftovers)

Blend: (this is doubled already)
•2-3 boxes of tofu
Use Mori-Nu Silken Tofu which has a little liquid, but not much — no need to drain or press needed for the recipe--it just works.

•1 tablespoon olive oil
•1-2 teaspoons onion powder
•1-2 large garlic cloves
•1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast
•1 teaspoon dried oregano
•3/4-1 teaspoon black salt
•Black pepper, to taste
•Red pepper flakes, to taste (about 1/4 teaspoon for us)

We double the crust part of the recipe, and make two crusts for 2 quiches; in 1, we put the veggies and in the other we just put in the tofu mix with daiya cheese.  Add about 1/2 of the tofu blend to the "cheese" quiche add in the "cheese" and stir.    Put sauteed veggies on the bottom of one of the quiche crusts and then pour the blended tofu over (stir slightly so that the veggies are covered with the tofu blend--add more veggies if necessary and more tofu blend until full).  There should be plenty of tofu mix for two quiches. 


The pie crust is from one of my favorite recipe blogs, Oh She Glows and the filling is based on that recipe.