Living in Niagara during August and September is one big harvest of yumminess. Yesterday I decided to process a bushel of red shepherd peppers (sweet). They are easy to roast using the barbecue and freeze wonderfully.
The whole process takes about 1.5 hours. To organize your workstation, you’ll need a cutting board, a pail for the peelings (to the compost of course!), a large sheet pan for the prepared peppers and a hot barbecue. This can be done in your oven, but it is messy.
Once the peppers are sliced in half and the seeds removed, place them skin side down on the grill. Cover and cook about 10 – 15 minutes until the skins are blistered and blackened.
Take the charred peppers and place on sheet pan. Allow to cool and the steam will loosen the skins. I needed to do about 4 batches of peppers to do the whole bushel but you can do smaller amounts.
The skins will just slide off after about 20 minutes. If some parts didn’t cook evenly, or are blackened, just leave them. It all adds to the smokey flavour.
Pack peppers in freezer bags. They store well for at least a year.
To bring a wonderful sunshiney taste to winter, use the red peppers on pizzas, sandwiches or in pasta sauces. Here’s a quick sauce that I use on cooked vegetables.
Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
In a powerful blender, like a Vitamix or Ninja, blend 1 cup roasted red peppers with 2 T olive oil, 1 small clove garlic, 1 T balsamic vinegar and salt/pepper to taste. Keeps in the fridge for one week.
In yoga philosophy, there are several suggestions for living
a happier and simpler life. We are
encouraged to practice non-greediness (aparigraha) or santosha
(contentment). I was raised on a farm
and those pioneer ideals of always using everything fully and embracing what
nature gifted us are already ingrained.
So it’s harvest time in my garden. When you are done admiring my special
gardening hat, you may note the lush greenery.
Everywhere. And my farm roots and
my yoga training insist that I find a use for it all!
Take carrots for instance. <!–more–> We traditionally only focus on the root, but the lacy green tops are quite edible. I chop them into salads, whip them up in my greens smoothies and I still have tons more. So today I got creative.
Vegan Carrot Top Pesto
After cutting the greens from the carrots,
and removing the larger, tougher stems (little ones are fine), I rough chopped
the greens until I had about 3 cups.
This is the seeds and garlic ready to be chopped finely.
Out came my trusty food processor.
This is one of the hardest working tools in my kitchen and I’m always
surprised that so many cooks don’t invest in one. It’s invaluable for making hummus, muffins,
lentil burgers, grinding nuts and chopping veggies. Mine is a $150 model and it’s worth the extra
to get the precise cutting. Here you see
the 1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds and one peeled clove of garlic ready to go for
a whirl.
Now add the carrot tops. As you
can see, there are a lot of greens in that bowl. Add ¼ cup balsamic vinegar, ½ cup good extra
virgin olive oil and generous amounts of salt and freshly ground pepper. You can adjust the seasoning later so use
less than you think at first.
This is what the mixture looks like after spinning, and scraping the
sides of the bowl down, and spinning again and again. Adjust the olive oil and seasonings as you
go.
Pour into a glass storage container and cover with a thin layer of olive
oil to keep the colour bright. It will
store covered in the fridge for a month or in the freezer for up to 3.
What do
you do with all that pesto? Add it to
cooked pasta (1/4 cup at a time, then taste); flavor salad dressings; use it on
cooked veggies or meat or make …..
Smoked Tofu Panini
Sandwiches
Prepare
bbq tofu: Slice one block smoked tofu
(extra firm; available at any grocery store) into ¼” pieces and marinate in
barbecue sauce for a few minutes. Broil
or bbq slices until browned (the tofu is all ready to eat so you’re just adding
flavor here).
Using a hearty multi grain bread, slice two
pieces for each sandwich. Spread
generously with the pesto.
Thinly slice a garden ripe tomato and layer over
the pesto, followed by a single layer of tofu.
Top with second slice of bread.
Using a panini press, grill the sandwiches until
heated through. Alternatively, keep the
bbq hot and use a sheet pan on the grill.
Make sure it’s well oiled and place sandwich on pan. Push down with metal flipper to compress
sandwich a bit. Flip after the bottom
gets nicely browned and repeat technique.
Serve with basil aioli (blend chopped fresh
basil with mayo or vegan mayonnaise) for dipping.
