Vegetable garden recipes About This Page:

[disneyknut]

I am NOT a gardener.. I don't like dirt & have never been a plant type of gal.. I do have favorites that I used to keep as houseplants in my old house.. I had a huge sunny window & my plants were beautiful but haven't really had any plants since we had kids ( 17 years ago)

Well, all that has changed this year.. I have gone a little crazy... not only do I have an herb garden on my widowsill ( using old coffee cups as planters,, decorative and functional) but I also have my all-time favorite house plant.. the spider plant hanging in my bay window in the office .. I it.. it's got tons of little baby spiders.

Then there's my garden.. my local dollar store had seed packets for 10cents each.. I bought some zucchini, my herbs, onons, jalopeno, banana peppers,green peppers & kohlrabi, started them in the house then when they all grew a little transplanted them into my garden .. ... and Jim bought 7 tomato plants.. then our next door neighbor ( who has a 1/4 acre garden gave Jim 30 of his leftover tomato plants.. then I also planted lettuce seeds in a pot for the guinea pig to enjoy ( she's been loving it)

EVERYTHING has grown & it's growing like crazy.. Jim planted some of the tomato plants in our VERY small garen area, then the rest all around the pool.. We are inundated with vegetables..

I checked this morning & I picked my first zucchini & see there are at least 5 other small cucumber sized ones on the plants ( not bad for 1 packet of seeds) & as for tomatoes.. I'll bet there are 75 nice size ones on all of the plants.. they are still green (I've already made fried green tomatoes several times)

Now.. what do I do with all of this.. I know I can give some of it away but I know I'm going to have an overabundance of the zucchini & tomato..

Any good recipes you'd like to share for these 2 veggies.. love zucchini cake & zucchini bread so I'll be making that (If you've got a 'different' recipe for zucchinibread/cake please share) & I think i'm going to make homemade sauce.. I a NOT canning them as I HATE to can so need 'use now' recipes..

if anyone has a good homemade sauce recipe I'd love to see that as well. oh heck.. just send me all of your zucchini & tomato recipes.

I'm okay with the rest of the veggies.. There aren't that many of those.. I think I've got 5-6 green peppers, have 3 jalopeno, couple banana peppers & I'm waiting for the kohlrabi to 'pop'.. Jim loves kohlrabi. The onion has just started to come out of the ground so I've got a while to ask for recipes for those goodies..

Help!!!

[Teresa]

Wow! Sounds like quite a bumper crop!
I don't have any different type recipes, but I can tell you - you can freeze tomatoes. They can be used in all sorts of things - chili, salsa, etc.

[Chrissi]

Rachel Ray had a great recipe for using up summer zucchini that she made on her show this past week. A big, yummy-looking pasta dish with zucchini. It looked so good! I bet you could find it on her website or on her show's facebook page.

My mom always used to make stuffed zucchini and zucchini marinara with our surplus zucchini and tomatoes. I never have any to can. I eat the tomatoes and zucchini like apples when Walt doesn't grill them fast enough to keep me from them. He has one of those veggie baskets and he just lightly grills the zucchini, summer squash, and grape tomatoes in the basket after marinating them all day in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Adobo san Pimienta seasoning.

[Sandra Bostwick]

I don't have any recipes, but I'm enjoying my first garden also! I was just bloggin about how excited I was!

Enjoy!

[GoofEme]

Zucchini Bake
6 med. zucchini sliced thinly
1 lg. onion diced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 can of stewed tomatoes (or equivalent from fresh)
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. seasoned salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
In a microwave safe dish suate the zucchini and onion in the oil. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and seasonings. Cook until the veggies are tender. Remove from the microwave and before serving, sprinkle the Parmesan chees over the top.
This recipe is from our church cookbook and was submitted by Jean.

The next one is with similar ingredients but is actually baked in a conventional oven, and it was submitted by Tina.

Baked Zucchini & Tomatoes
2 med. zucchini
2 med. tomatoes
1 med. mild onion
salta and pepper to taste
Butter
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers
Wash zucchini. Peel tomatoes ande onion. Slice all veggies into thin slices. In a greased 9x13 baking dish, make alternate layers of zucchini, tomatoes and onions. Sprinkle each layer with a little salt and pepper and dot with butter. Mix cheese and cracker crumbs together. Cover the top of casserole wit cracker crumb mixture. Bake at 350 for approxiamately 45 minutes to 1 hr. or until vegetables are tender.

Hope these are tasty, we have some pretty good cooks in our church.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Teresa

Wow! Sounds like quite a bumper crop!
I don't have any different type recipes, but I can tell you - you can freeze tomatoes. They can be used in all sorts of things - chili, salsa, etc.

That was going to be my suggestion as well. Whenever I've had a good crop in the past, that's what I've done with them.

I've got three cucumbers almost ready to pick - I still have half of one and picked another last night and have probably 100 tomatoes in total in the greenhouse, so I'm in a similar position.

[saremca]

My favorite way to eat zucchini is to grill it. Slice it into planks the long way, rub it with olive oil, and grill it until it's nice and caramelized. We grilled zucchini and corn last night, which I then mixed into some bow-tie pasta with diced fresh tomatoes and basil pesto. It was really good.

We also like vegetable wraps with roasted vegetables. I usually roast zucchini, green onions, tomatoes, peppers, a few garlic cloves, and maybe some eggplant if I have it. Just toss them in some olive oil and roast the veg at 400 degrees until they're tender, around 30-40 minutes. Cook a small amount of lentils or whatever beans you like while the vegetables are roasting, and make a dressing.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cumin

After the veg and lentils have cooled off a little, toss them with the dressing (I smash up the roasted garlic cloves, but you can leave them whole if you want) and wrap the mixture up in flour tortillas or lavash. You can add some feta cheese in too, if you like that, or anything really. Sky's the limit on this one.

[disneyknut]

Originally Posted by chezp

That was going to be my suggestion as well. Whenever I've had a good crop in the past, that's what I've done with them.

I've got three cucumbers almost ready to pick - I still have half of one and picked another last night and have probably 100 tomatoes in total in the greenhouse, so I'm in a similar position.

Theresa-Chez-- HOW do I freeze them.. just pick them & put them in ziplocs? That would be grat if I could do it that way.. jst bought a jumbo size box of ziplocs from Sams club so I'm stocked if that's the way to go..


BTW.. 8 more zucchini.. only one has been ready to pick bt I haven't checked today.. might have more and some ready to pick.. can't wait to make zucchini bread.
still no red tomatoes yet.. but I LOVE fried green tomatoes.. anyone know of a way I can keep tomatoes to stay green? would love to have fried green tomatoes year round

[cari68]

HOW do I freeze them.. just pick them & put them in ziplocs?

Ann, almost! Just core them first! When they thaw they're quite mushy, so don't expect them to retain the firmness or consistency of fresh tomatoes. When I thaw mine, I pull the skin off, as tomato skins make me gag, but you don't have to do that if you don't mind the skin. I hate canning, too, so I freeze bunches of tomatoes, and use them in stews, sauces and casseroles all year with no problems.

[Kellymel]

The way we did the tomatoes growing up -

Whole tomatoes in a big pot of boiling water, leave them in for a few minutes, the skins will usually get darker, drain and put in a collander until cool enough to handle, The skins will peel off almost whole. you can cut up or leave whole or go ahead and stew add whatever spice to it. You could also add fresh corn and have a base for homemade veggie soup. Fill the ziploc bags, get all the air out. you can use a straw if need be to "suck" it out. Lay flat and freeze. This doesn't take long at all.

[Sandra Bostwick]

My own veggies are not quite ready yet, but I made a delicous veggie, fruit and cheese plate for lunch.

I had four colors of peppers, a half sliced tomatoe, white and red cherries, grapes, mozzorella cheese and blue cheese. I have to say, though, blue cheese is one of those questionable foods. I mean, WHEN is it actually moldy?

Anyway, I cut everything up, arranged in nicely, and I felt like a crunching queen!