Vegetarian Enchiladas

This week, we had green tomatoes in our farmer's box. Last time I got green tomatoes in the box, I made a green tomato and swiss chard gratin. There are very few recipes that I don't finish, but this was one of them (oddly, the other one of recent memory also had swiss chard, so I might just hate swiss chard). When I saw green tomatoes on the list this time, I thought, "oh, crap. What am I going to do with them?" Additionally, we get four ears of corn every week. We are up to our eyeballs in corn. We have a bunch frozen in the freezer, and yet it just keeps coming. So I wanted something that would make use of both things. Googling recipes for green tomatoes I found that you could make enchilada sauce with them, so we went in that direction.

Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Medium Onion, diced
• Garlic, minced
• Approximately 2 lbs green tomatoes, quartered
• 4 Peppers, roughly chopped (we used bull's horn peppers, because we had a lot from our box. They were mildly spicy, so this had some heat. You can use whatever combo of peppers you want.)
• Half a bunch of cilantro, destemmed
• 1.5 teaspoons Salt
• <0.25 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1.5 teaspoons cumin
• Juice of one lime
• 4 cups broth (we used veggie bouillon, since I've not yet made broth this year. You can use chicken, as well)

Steps

1. Put all ingredients from tomatoes to lime juice in a blender and puree. This may take multiple batches.
   
   
   
   
   
2. In a medium/large stockpot, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onions until fragrant.
3. Add the pureed tomato mixture and chicken broth into the pot and bring to a boil. Once it's reached a boil, lower the heat. Let simmer uncovered until it's at the thickness you want. We simmered for an hour and a half, or so. Stir occasionally and give it a taste every so often. If it's too sour, you can add some sugar. We didn't, since enchilada sauce tends to a be on the tart side. Once it's done, feel free to blend further. I used an immersion blender, because any time you get to use an immersion blender it's a good day. You can also put in in the regular blender, but you have to be careful about steam and overflow.

The finished product. Ours turned into a red sauce, even though we used green tomatoes, because the peppers were red.

Now, on to the enchiladas!

Corn, Black Bean, and Spinach Enchiladas

Ingredients

• Olive Oil
• Half an onion, diced
• Garlic, minced
• One can black beans
• 2 ears corn, shucked
• Half a bag of frozen, chopped spinach
• Cumin
• Juice from half a lime
• Corn tortillas
• Green Tomato Enchilada Sauce (see above)
• Shredded cheese (we used the Mexican cheese blend from Trader Joe's)

Steps

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
2. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a large frying pan until fragrant. Add the black beans, corn, spinach, and cumin. Once cooked, add the lime juice.
3. Pour a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of a square baking dish.
4. Fill the tortillas with the filling, and then roll the tortilla. Place it seam down in the baking dish. Continue until the dish is filled.
5. Pour more enchilada sauce over the tortillas until they are covered. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
6. Bake 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown.

The finished product! Garnish with avocado, diced tomato, and sour cream (we used low-fat Greek yogurt, since it's tangy).

Note: You will have lots of extra sauce. You can just freeze the leftovers for later. We also had some leftover filling, since our baking dish only held six enchiladas.

Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp Scampi

I think I've mentioned this, but it is squash season. That's basically all you can get at the Boulder Farmer's Market at this point in the season. And while I like squash, sometimes you need to do something different with it. Enter spaghetti squash with shrimp scampi.

Ingredients
Spaghetti Squash
Shrimp (number of shrimp depends on the size)
Cherry Tomatoes, halved
Garlic
Butter/Olive oil
Lemon
Artichoke hearts (optional)
Parmesan Cheese

First, roast your spaghetti squash. Pre-heat the oven to 425-450 degrees F. Poke some holes in it with a knife and stick the whole thing in the oven on a baking sheet covered in tinfoil and let it roast for about an hour. The skin should be easy to pierce when it's done. Take it out, cut it in half, and fork out the insides so that it looks like noodles.

To make the shrimp scampi, sautee your shrimp in garlic and butter (I also added some olive oil) until they turn pink. When they're done, remove from the heat, and squeeze the juice of your lemon over the shrimp. Toss the squash and tomatoes in with the shrimp and the sauce. You can also add the artichoke hearts now, if you're using them. It's now ready to eat. Add lots of Parmesan cheese, and you have a squash dish that isn't too squash-y. We had it with a side of crusty bread, but this dish is Paleo (if you use olive oil instead of butter)/Gluten free without it.

Stuffed Delicata Squash

Fall is here, and so are squash. Carl an I got a delicata squash from the farmer's market the other day. I had heard you could eat the skin (not that you can't in a regular squash, but the delicata skin is supposed to be actually tasty), so we decided to get one and try it. We stuffed it with a wild rice stuffing.

Ingredients
Delicata Squash
For the Stuffing
Wild Rice
Broth or Water
Celery
Carrots
Leeks (or onions, or shallots, or...)
Garlic
Pine Nuts

Assembly Instruction
To assemble, you'll want to cook the wild rice stuffing separately before putting it in the squash. Wild rice takes about an hour to prepare, so plan accordingly.
1. Put olive oil in the bottom of a pot, enough to cover the bottom. Add garlic and leeks, and sautee until the leeks are soft. Add the celery and carrots, and continue stirring until they are soft. Add the rice, stir to coat in olive oil, and then follow the instructions on the wild rice package for how much to use and how much to cook.
2. Once the rice is about half-way done, you can pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F and start prepping the squash. To do that, cut the squash in half and remove the seeds.
3. About five minutes before the rice is done, stir in the pine nuts. When the rice is done cooking, portion it into the squash. You may have leftovers that don't fit in the squash, that's fine. You can serve it on the side or save it for later.
4. Bake squash for 25-30 minutes. It'll be done when it's easily piercable with a fork or knife.

As I mentioned above, you can eat the peel. Carl didn't like it. I found it pretty bland. It definitely didn't add anything to the dish, for me.

Fresh Peas

English peas (shell peas) are in season in New England right now, although I'm not sure how much longer you'll be able to find them in the farmer's market. If you can't get English peas in the shell fresh, just buy them frozen. I thought I would pass along a tip that I learned from Mark Peel, executive chef at Campanile in Los Angeles. As you shell the peas, divide them into three groups--small, medium, and large. I like to do this in front of the TV, since it's a little tedious, but luckily all the peas in one pod tend to be about the same time, so you don't have to sort through individual peas. The peas cook at different rates, so put the large ones in first, then the medium, then the small. You'll get perfectly cooked peas every time.

Frozen Green Beans

Green beans are not a vegetable that you should buy frozen. Some vegetables, such as peas, corn, and okra (to name a few) freeze pretty well. You can buy them frozen, or buy them fresh and then freeze whatever you have leftover. Green beans are not in that category. They get really waterlogged and then come out soggy when you try and cook them. This tip is brought to you by my dinner, which hopefully will still turn out well. Also, I'll try and post it, because I think it would be really delicious with fresh beans. I know I've been really remiss in updating this blog, but I have a few issues with pictures I need to sort out. I'm also going to just start fresh and not post all the back recipes I have, because I'll never post anything new if I'm waiting to update all the backlog.