My Israeli Salad

If you ask D about my eating habits, she'll not hesitate a moment before telling you that they're strange. Among what she deems my more odd tendencies is my affinity for salad in the morning. She - and most everyone else - like starting the day with oatmeal, yogurt, pancakes. (I do, too. Not sure how else to explain this, this, this, and, you know, this whole category.) But I'm also quite content to make breakfast from chopped vegetables, some avocado, a squeeze of lemon, and a hunk of feta cheese.

That's what I did while living in Israel. If I wasn't running out the door with a bottle of drinkable goat's milk yogurt in hand, I was frequently making this salad in the mornings. Frankly, I was making a version of this salad nearly three times a day.

Classic Israeli salad doesn't have feta or avocado. It's just tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, lemon, and salt. That's good, too - but this is better. It's more luxurious, and more filling. Serve it with pita and some hummus or labneh, and you've got a complete meal. For years, this has been my Israeli salad. I'll happily stuff it into a falafel sandwich, just like real Israeli salad, but I'll also pile it on wheat toast, taking things in a slightly different (but still delicious) direction.

israeli salad 1

When my mom and I are eating together, we often make something like this. The feta she buys is softer than mine, and it has this way of melting into the salad that I really like. If you think you'll enjoy that, buy a soft feta. Sheep's milk feta is especially nice, and the one I get at my local Whole Foods is pretty soft. Otherwise, buy a hard feta and cube it for the salad.

I hope you get a chance to make this while tomatoes are still plentiful and cucumbers are nice and crunchy. Before you know it, we'll be talking about apple pie. Here.Comes.Fall.

My Israeli SaladServes 2 as a side salad

2 cups cherry tomatoes (I like to use more than one color) 1 avocado, halved, pitted, and cut into chunks 3 Persian or other small cucumbers, quartered lengthwise and cut into chunks 5 oz. feta cheese, cubed or crumbled juice and zest 1 lemon 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 teaspoon salt freshly cracked pepper

In a medium bowl, combine vegetables and toss to combine. Add cheese, and give the mixture a few turns, avoiding breaking up the cubed feta too much. (This is less of an issue if you're using crumbled feta.)

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice and zest, olive oil, salt, and several grinds of pepper. Pour over salad, toss gently, and taste. Add more salt, pepper, or lemon as needed. Serve.

How to Use (Up) Zucchini

Friends, the zucchini glut is nearly over. Those plants have practically exhausted themselves these past few months. Before you know it, we'll be talking apple pie. But we've still got a week or two more of zucchini overflow, and I thought I'd share a couple delicious ways to put zucchini excess to good use.

These are recipes I've been making all summer, and you should certainly take the opportunity to make them while zucchini plants are still producing. Lest you think we're only talking about stir fry or gratin, I've got you covered for brunch and snacktime, too.

zucchini boats

Zucchini Boats

Enter the world's easiest dinner. You can have it on the table in under half an hour, and coupled with a side salad and maybe a slice of baguette, it's the perfect summer meal. We're talking about zucchini halves, hollowed out and filled with a mixture of chopped zucchini innards, ricotta and feta cheese, lemon, and herbs, then broiled till bubbling and brown. While I've got a recipe for you here, this is the sort of thing you should feel free - nay, compelled - to improvise. If you only have ricotta, skip the feta. If you have mozzarella, use it in place of the parmesan; just as good. And while I use mint and basil, any other herb would work here. (Thyme would be especially nice.)

Zucchini Boatsserves 4

2 pounds zucchini or summer squash of any size 1 cup ricotta 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 1/4 cup mixed chopped herbs (basil, mint, dill, thyme, marjoram, all great) zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon 1 egg, beaten 1/4 teaspoon salt freshly cracked pepper

Preheat the broiler.

Halve the squash, and use a small spoon to slowly scrape away the flesh of each squash half, leaving about 1/2-inch-squash shell intact. Chop removed flesh into bits, and place chopped squash in a medium mixing bowl.

Add to bowl all remaining ingredients except Parmigiano cheese and stir to combine. Spoon mixture into squash shells, transfer to foil-lined broiler-safe baking dish, and broil about 15 minutes, until zucchini are soft hot, and brown on top. Serve warm.

zucchini frittata

Zucchini Frittata

One of my favorite discoveries this summer was the fact that squash blossoms are delicious in other forms than fried. Go figure. My health-conscious friends will likely appreciate this post, since squash blossoms are among summer's treats, and there are ways to cook them that do not involve copious amounts of oil.

The starting point for this recipe came from Food52 founder and all-around awesome lady Amanda Hesser, who created a frittata using squash blossoms and garlic scapes. I added thinly sliced zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes, and finished the whole thing with some lumps of fresh chevre. Amanda's frittata came out perfectly yellow. Aiming to discredit suspicions of food snobbery at my house, I'll admit that I like my frittatas slightly overcooked. There, I said it. Mine come out golden brown, and I'm quite happy that way. Feel free to treat your frittata-ed eggs more gently.

Zucchini Frittataserves 4-6 as one course of several

8 large eggs, lightly beaten Salt and freshly cracked pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 5 garlic scapes, thinly sliced, or 2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped 8 zucchini blossoms, stems trimmed to 1 inch 1/2 a large zucchini, sliced very thinly (on a mandoline, if possible) a handful of cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved 3 ounces fresh chevre or goat cheese

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place zucchini in a strainer, sprinkle with salt, and let strain for 20 minutes. The zucchini will start to emit liquid. After 20 minutes, transfer zucchini to a kitchen towel and press to remove excess liquid and salt.

Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Add sliced tomatoes and zucchini to egg mixture. Place a 12-inch non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter and when the butter is foamy, add the garlic scapes, spreading them around the pan. Cook for 1 minute. Lay the zucchini blossoms in an even layer in the base of the pan. Cook for about 1 minute, then turn and wilt the other side, another 30 seconds. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the pan. Dot the top of the egg mixture with blobs of chevre. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake until the frittata is just set, 6 to 8 minutes (more if you're crazy like I am). Remove from the oven. Lay a large plate on top of the pan, and invert the frittata onto it. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

zucchini bread

Zucchini Bread

Ok, I don't know how to break this news any other way...I have made 6 loaves of zucchini bread in the past three weeks. I'll happily blame the apparent fixation on a slew of recent housewarming and condolence gifts I gave. But really, I can't resist the way my kitchen smells when this zucchini bread is in the oven.

The recipe is from Deb, and having made it three times, I can tell you, there is no way to improve this recipe. It is absolutely perfect. This is the time to make this bread: zucchini is everywhere, but the weather is cool enough to turn on the oven. Don't waste a moment. You know what? Make a double batch. Freeze a few loaves. Thank me later.

Zucchini Breadmakes 2 loaves

3 eggs 1 cup olive or vegetable oil 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 cups grated zucchini 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional - I'm not a nuts-in-bread fan so I skip) 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts (if using), chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir dry mixture into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

So there we have it. A few great recipes for the most prolific summer vegetable there is.

Now...a question. What are your favorite zucchini recipes?

Mediterranean Lentil Salad

With the plentiful tomato salads and the peach cobblers of a good East Coast summer, lentils are often forgotten, relegated to the soups, stews, and curries of colder months. Such has been the case in our home. We've plowed through pint after pint of beautiful blackberries (making just a couple of these). We've eaten our weight in red, orange, yellow, even purple cherry tomatoes (and fried our fair share of green ones; if you're clicking over, check out those vintage NDP photos! My, how far we've come...). But the lentils, they linger in the pantry, waiting for the air to grow colder.

The lentils were hiding, for sure. But last week, I peered deep into my pantry, looking for items begging to be used - the neglected cans or bags of whatever legume I felt inspired to buy, however many months ago. Blame it on the new home purchase: I'm already twitching at the thought of migrating my whole kitchen worth of stuff, so the leaner, the better. Also: last week, I was reading about Slow Food USA's $5 Challenge, a call to food lovers to "take back the value meal" by gathering friends and family and eating a meal that costs $5 a head. Lentils give some of the best bang-for-buck of any food item out there. They're inexpensive, full of protein, and easy to make. Also, easy to make taste delicious.

In the case of last week's one-pot wonder, lentils met up with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, parsley, plenty of feta cheese, and a zippy lemon vinaigrette. We ate it just that way for dinner on Monday, and it was great. When I packed it for lunch later in the week, I decided I wanted it to have a kick, so I added a couple tablespoons of homemade sriracha to the mix. (That's right: I finally made my own sriracha! Folks, the stuff is amazing. I'm planning meals around it. If you're at all interested in making some for yourself, I'll post my own experience soon, but the original recipe can be found here.) I liked the salad even better with the spicy sriracha mixed in. Feel free to skip it, if you prefer.

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The best part of this dish is that it stays good for upto a week in the fridge. Make a big bowl of it in advance; a squeeze of lemon before serving makes the dish taste as good as new. I've never been so glad to pull lentils out of hibernation.

Mediterranean Lentil Salad makes 8 portions

I had a jar of oven-roasted tomatoes that I'd made earlier in the summer, so that's what I used here. If you don't have any, raw cherry tomatoes will work great. I also roasted my own peppers for this recipe, the process for which is quite simple: char over a gas stove or under the broiler until skins have blistered all over, then transfer to a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes. Remove, peel skins, and peppers are ready to use. With all that said, jarred roasted peppers are absolutely fine in this recipe. You can find them at most supermarkets.

2 cups Puy (black) lentils - you want lentils that will keep their shape when cooked 1/2 cup oven-roasted cherry tomatoes or 2/3 cup halved raw cherry tomatoes 2 roasted bell peppers, chopped 1 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1/4 cup chopped dill Juice and zest of 1 lemon 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, to taste freshly ground black pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add lentils, and cook, covered, for about 20 minutes, or until cooked all the way through (test a few for doneness). Strain, rinse with cold water in the strainer to cool the lentils, and transfer them to a large bowl.

Add remaining ingredients to lentils. Toss to distribute. Let sit for 10 minutes to marry the flavors, then serve immediately or refrigerate and serve later. Lentils will keep about 1 week. If serving after a few days, revive with an extra squeeze of lemon and grate of the pepper mill.

Peach Tomato Salad

I get as excited as the next girl about making zucchini gratin, corn soup, peach cobbler, etc. Never was there a better time for produce than smack in the middle of summer. The downside, of course, is that some days, I'm too pooped to patchke. I'd rather just stand over the sink, peach in hand, and let the juice dribble down my chin as I indulge in an effortless, delicious, afternoon snack.

This salad is for those days. It's for the other days, too; but when the heat has gotten the best of you, you'll be thankful for something this good, this seasonal, that requires so little actual movement on your part (the better to sit near the fan and let the sweat evaporate. You know what I'm talking about.)

When the peaches and tomatoes are as good as they are right now (this very moment! Get thee to the market, pronto!), they need nothing. They do benefit, however, from a drizzle of fine olive oil, a sprinkling of sea salt, and a couple drops of reduced balsamic vinegar or saba (my favorite ingredient ever: reduced grape must. You can get it at Italian grocery stores and on Amazon). That's all, folks.

cherry tomatoes

Peach Tomato Saladserves 2

2 juicy peaches, peeled (probably need to use a paring knife if they're as juicy as they should be) 1 pint good cherry or grape tomatoes a few tiny basil or mint leaves 3 tablespoons fine olive oil, preferably a fruity one flaky sea salt 2 teaspoons reduced balsamic vinegar or saba; pomegranate syrup would also be good

Peel peaches and slice each peach into 6 wedges. Halve tomatoes. Arrange on platter, and top with mint or basil leaves.

Drizzle oil over salad, and sprinkle lightly with flaky salt. Drizzle the vinegar or saba with a very light hand.

Either serve immediately (fine), or allow salad to sit for 10 minutes. Tomatoes and peaches will exude their liquid and seem, impossibly, juicier. Eat up.