Baba Ganoush

This time of year our eggplant game is seriously over the top. We overwintered some eggplants in the high tunnel and planted many more because we didn’t know how productive the overwintered ones would be. As a result we have an abundant and beautiful array of purple, green, and white eggplant varieties at the ready. Last year we froze them and this year we have begun dehydrating our surplus as well. Still there is nothing better than the flavor of freshly harvested veggies and eggplant is no exception to that rule. So we set out to find a new & delicious recipe to utilize them. We didn’t have to look far. The recipe came to us in fact! A friend of a friend shared with us how she loves Baba Ganoush and I immediately took to Google to see if it was a simple recipe that I could possibly get my family to try. I was intrigued to find the word hummus even associated with eggplant but that is a real good way to describe this dish – an eggplant hummus! It was simple enough and it was a hit with our family and I’m sure it will be with yours too! Here’s how we do Baba Ganoush at Bain Home Gardens!

The Ingredients

  • 2 pounds eggplant
  • 1/4 cup of tahini
  • Oil of choice (we used avocado)
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
  • Salt
  • Parsley
  • Tony Catchers

The Prep

We will be roasting the eggplant at a very hot 450 degrees so go ahead an preheat your oven.

Wash your produce and go ahead and chop off the calyxes of the eggplants and chop your parsley too and set it aside.

Prepare a baking sheet and cover with parchment paper.

You may need a mesh strainer and will definitely need a basting brush so shuffle through those cabinets and drawers and pull these tools out along with a measuring cup.

Let’s Cook!

Most Baba Ganoush recipes called for Italian eggplant however that is not what was growing in the garden. We only had the Thai varieties so that is what we used. We are happy to report that because we did we were able to skip a step later on.

Cut your eggplant down the middle, lengthwise. Brush on your oil of choice on the meat side of the eggplant. We used avocado oil because it is what we had on hand however most recipes use extra virgin olive oil for this. After brushing on the oil place eggplant meat side down on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cook for 30 – 40 minutes depending on the size of your eggplant. Our Thai Long Green Eggplant actually could have been removed about 10 minuets earlier than the Purple Ribbed variety.

As seen in the images above the skin of the eggplant becomes very loose and is really easy to peel off after they come out of the oven. Just be sure to let them cool about 10 minutes before trying that!

So a couple of recipes online suggested taking the meat out of the skins and placing into a mesh strainer to remove the naturally occurring water that is in the eggplant. The suggestion was to leave in the strainer (of course with a bowl below) for upwards of 10 minutes stirring as needed to help the process along. We did this for 5 minutes and after NOTHING came out we continued with the process. It could be that Italian eggplant has a higher water content than these Thai varieties. Not sure but moving right along…

At this point all left to do is to combine your remaining ingredients. Some may choose to do this by hand but I like to make use of my power tools and I used my blender. I added the eggplant, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, and avocado oil to the blender. I blended until smooth which didn’t take long ( 30 seconds or so). After blending I tasted the mixture so I could determine how much salt and Tony Catchers I wanted to add. I should mention that the recipe called for smoked paprika but seldom buy paprika so we just added a little spice with the Tony Catchers. After seasoning to taste we blended once more to evenly distribute seasoning and viola – done! Garnish with parsley when you serve. We forgot to harvest it and harvested it the next day and ate with the left overs.

How you choose to enjoy this hummus like dip is your choice – with chips, on pita bread, warm or cold – the options are endless. Our son was eating it by the spoonful with nothing at all! I guess Baba Ganoush rewally is all its cracked up to be!

For a short video of us making this dish click here. Here is a challenge for you: Try this dish with someone who does not like the flavor of eggplant and without telling them it is eggplant see if they like it. Let us know what happens! Happy cooking – from our family to yours!

Kohlrabi Slaw

If ever there was proof of alien life kohlrabi would have to be it! We love this little alien crop swollen stems and all! We have grown it for 3 years and we usually eat it as is or occasionally roasted. This year we thought we would do something fresh. So we decided to try a slaw. This was super easy and required no cooking skill whatsoever! Just a peeler and a shredder! It is so easy we decided to make a pictorial guide instead of our usual recipe format.

The Ingredients

From left to right we have our purple variety of kohlrabi. We harvested it a few days ago and stored it in the fridge until we were ready to make this dish. Next we have a very oddly shaped carrot (it was so sweet), one half of a red apple and one half of a small sweet onion.

The Light Work

For the kohlrabi separate leaves from bulb. Wash both. Remove the leaves from the stem and set aside. Peel bulbs and carrot. Set a little of the carrot tops aside for garnish or you may choose to chop them an add into your slaw. This depends on how much carrot flavor you want in your dish.

Shred kohlrabi, carrot and apple (we left the skin on). We thinly sliced the onion instead of shredding. Since we were not cooking the greens we made sure to mince them well. Mix all of your ingredients evenly. Here is the point where you can really make this dish your own. At this point you could use some apple cider vinegar, mayo, pepper and lemon to make this with the traditional flavor of a coleslaw. I however wanted to venture out a bit more. I added Sicilian Lemon White Balsamic Vinegar with some olive oil. It was the perfect mix of sweet from the kohlrabi and carrot with the tangy of the vinegar.

The Finished Product

Easy enough for ya’? We chose to store in a mason jar but a bowl will do just as well. We served it with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. The flavor was just as I imagined it would be. This is a guilt free easy recipe that I’m certain we will recreate over and over again! You can add radishes even salad turnips! So will you make the BHG version or the traditional version? It is a win – win situation and in the year of 2020 we can all use that! From our family to yours!

Sweet Potato Bread

As the seasons go by I have to say that I am a bit pleased that we have steadily increased our food production for our family and community. With each increase however comes the challenge of utilizing the produce in ways that are fun and exciting for our adventurous family of four. I wouldn’t say that we are foodies per say but anyone can become bored with the same foods, even if they are home grown!

  • Prepping bed for sweet potatoes
  • All done! Now we wait!

This year we doubled our sweet potato planting. Last year we loved them so much and used them in pies, smoothies and of course we made yams as a side dish. The flavor versus store bought was, once again, unmatched. We knew we could never go back! So we planted more! This enabled us to share them with our CSA members and benefit ourselves. In addition, a fellow grower sent us beautiful basket that they had grown! Now to enjoy these babies! I immediately wanted to do sweet potato bread because it was something I planned to do last year before running out of potatoes. I figured it couldn’t be that difficult so I took to the internet. I found a few options that really struck my interest. This is the recipe that I modified for our family.

The Modifications

We did adjust this recipe ever so slightly to fit our tastes.

  • We left off the nutmeg simply because we were out. We also left off the pecans because I didn’t feel up to cracking them. Even a farm girl is allowed to be lazy – sometimes.
  • Instead of boiling our potatoes we cooked them as if we were making yams:
    • In a small cast iron skillet we placed 3 tablespoons of vegan butter, 1 teaspoon dried Rosemary, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 pound of peeled & cut sweet potatoes and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and baked at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
    • Remove and allow to cool to blend in blender or transfer into mixing bowl & use an emersion blender very carefully!
  • Since we added cinnamon to the potatoes already there was no need to add anymore in the mixing process. We also only used 1 cup of sugar since 1/2 cup had already been added to the potatoes when they where cooked.

Story Time!

The day before I decided to make this dish I also made a batch of hot sauce using our Scotch Bonnet and Habanero peppers. Coincidentally the blender that was used in that process was again used in this recipe. When I tasted the blended potatoes I kept wondering why it had a hint of spice. “Duh Shena!” I exclaimed followed by hysterical laughter. I then announced to the family that the Sweet Potato Bread would be spicy. The reactions just spawned another round of laughter! At this point, I was for sure that I had ruined the bread but I’d come too far to back out now!

Back to Modifications

  • We used a 9 x 5 inch glass loaf pan and looking back I would have preferred to use a metal one instead and use a little less of the batter. Guess it is time to invest in a metal loaf pan!
  • In regards to cook time, it took one hour and twenty minutes for the bread to pass the knife test. I’m sure this is in part related to the use of a glass pan and using more batter than I should have. Since the bread cooked for longer (to be done at the center) it was darker than it should have been however not burnt.
  • After removing from oven, allow to cool and place on plate. Using a sifter I sprinkled powdered sugar over the top. Cut. Serve. Enjoy!

You maybe wondering how the spice affected the flavor. IT WAS DIVINE! After cooking the spice was barely noticeable and combined with the cinnamon it almost gave off hints of ginger. This is one mistake that actually paid off! We will definitely be amping up our sweet potato planting yet again for 2021 so that we can make more of these delicious loaves! Stay tuned!

LEMON BALM ROASTED SWEET POTATOES

Man – that was a mouthful! All those letters basically add up to a delicious dish that we now would like to share with you.

We all love sweet potatoes – pies, fries, bread and more – this is one ingenious vegetable! So when we originally harvested ours we immediately knew we wanted to make at least one pie and get creative with the remainder. The idea for this dish was borne when we were researching an entirely different crop – Lemon Balm. We love the flavor in tea but had never really cooked with it. When researching recipes that used it we found this one. While it looked very appetizing, we wanted something more sweet and savory. So we used this recipe as an outline, if you will, for our masterpiece!

The Ingredients

  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Lemon Balm
  • Oil of choice (we use olive oil)
  • Cinnamon
  • Sugar
  • Salt

The Prep

Wash your potatoes well and peel. We usually wash again before slicing. We used the crinkle cutter to cut these but after cooking you couldn’t really tell. Next time we will just cut. Be sure to cut evenly.

Wash your Lemon Balm and spin dry. Chop finely. We used about half a bundle.

In a bowl mix all ingredients. Be sure to coat the potatoes well with all your ingredients. We didn’t list the exact amount we used of the spices because we always season to taste. After mixing, allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Let’s Cook!

We prepared our masterpiece in several batches in the air fryer. After layering into the tray, we sprinkled a pinch of sugar over the top. We cooked at 400° for 15 minutes. If you sliced yours thinly then you may want to decrease temperature and/or cook time.

Enjoy!

My daughter and I worked on these while the guys were at work. It was hard to stop eating them – AND THE AROMA! This dish is fun, easy and delish! Do not expect to have leftovers.

Will you give our recipe a try? If so please do share your photos over on the community section of our Facebook page! We love hearing from you!

Veggie-ghetti

Have you ever had so many vegetables you just do not have any idea of what to do with them? This is an issue many home gardeners will run into several times during peak harvest season. It is also an issue we were facing over the weekend. If you want to see how we turned a mess of veggies into a tasty vegetarian meal then keep reading! If you wanna get straight to the recipe, we understand that too!

This past Sunday it became abundantly clear that there was a need to have a veggie chop and freeze day. Baskets of produce on the counters and in both refrigerators spoke the same exact story. Things have been so busy as we have done final preparations for the Fall CSA that we hadn’t been able to work it in weekly as normal. So I got the youngsters to wash up all the produce and set up the chopping station. Ironically it was also time to prepare dinner. As I chopped hubby observed to see what he could use to add to our meal for the evening. I readily offered the three eggplants that I had chopped up. If you could have seen hubbies face as he said, “No. I don’t want those. It takes too much to get them to taste good.” Yep, he said that! See, unlike me, he doesn’t like the natural flavor eggplant offers. That is ok, many of us feel that way about various veggies. So he quickly grabbed up some Italian Roasting peppers and stuffed them while I continued to chop. Four quarts of okra later I was finally left with the remaining peppers, eggplant and long beans. I decided to do a stir fry mix. One contained eggplant, beans and peppers and the other contained eggplant and peppers only. I diced the eggplants into fairly small pieces. I wasn’t sure when I would use these mixes so I froze these as well.

The next day marked vegetarian week for me. So as I mediated on what to prepare to please me and my carnivorous family members I thought back to the eggplant stir fry mix and had an idea! I began to prepare the following. It was totally made up as I went however I’m sure that someone somewhere has done something similar before. So let’s get cooking shall we?

The Ingredients

  • Eggplant
  • Bell Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Fresh Basil
  • Tomato Sauce
  • Spaghetti Noodles

The Prep

You will need to chop your veggies into a suitable size. Although I had no idea that we would be using these veggies for this meal when they where initially chopped, it just so happened that the size mimicked pieces of ground meat. So if you are going for a fake out then be sure to consider chopping small. If you are going for more of a ratatouille vibe then chunky is good.

Tip: Before you start chopping go ahead and fill your large stock pot with water for your noodles and put it on and medium high. Add salt if you prefer.

Let’s Cook!

This is so easy peasy that you really do not need the instructions but since this is after all a recipe we thought we better.

  • Add two tablespoons of olive oil to your pan and bring to a medium heat. Add all of your produce at the same time except the basil. Fry for 10 – 15 minutes while stirring frequently
  • Add seasonings (always to taste)
  • Add fresh basil
  • Add tomato sauce and allow to simmer on low for 10 minutes. Within this time add your pasta to your water which should be at a nice boil.
  • Add sauce to noodles & enjoy!

Click the photo for a short video of our preparation!

While eating dinner I asked hubby what he thought of the spaghetti. “It’s real good.” he mumbled between bites. I, feeling quite surprised and impressed with myself, had to tell him, “It’s those 3 eggplants you didn’t want to eat yesterday.” To which he laughed saying, “Touché, touché.” Mission accomplished!

Are you going to experiment with our Veggie-ghetti recipe? If so we would love to see your creation. Share your photos in the community section of our Facebook page or tag us in your Instagram post – #bainhomegardens. From our family to yours!