Garden Dinners

Whenever possible, I make dinner from stuff I harvest directly from the garden.  This year, with my planting strategy, I have had enough of something to made a nice dinner for 1 or 2 every night I've wanted to.  After a long winter of heavy cooking and baked goods, and I've been trying to keep meals light and simple.  I have mostly eliminated wheat from my vegetarian diet, and I am using much less dairy- and it hasn't felt like a huge sacrifice either.

Here are some weeknight dinners that often take less than a half-hour to put together, based on using homegrown veggies and preserved foods when available:

Homegrown arugula salad with sprouted beans, scrambled tofu with poblano peppers, avocado salad with southeast asian chile garlic relish.

This did take longer than 15 minutes.  Red Bibb lettuce and sliced carrot salad with ginger miso dressing, garden onion/herb/lettuce spring roll with peach-pepper relish, rice vinegar-pickled radishes, and sushi rolls: pickled salted apricot and lemon basil, pickled radish, wilted chard and ume plum sauce. 

Radish greens sauteed in garlic, preserved lemon, and olive oil, on whole wheat pasta, with chile garlic relish.

Bibb lettuce salad with sliced english breakfast radish dressed with toasted sesame oil and rice vinegar, and white miso soup with bean threads, grated radish, ginger, scallions and chives.

Sauteed radish greens with garlic and preserved lemon, with a spinach, feta, spring onion, and roasted red pepper gluten-free savory scone. 

Bibb lettuce and toasted almonds with creamy avocado herb dressing.

Homegrown Caprese with lemon basil on field greens with blended balsamic dressing. 

Baby field greens salad with sungold tomatoes, an avocado with chile garlic relish, parsley, and Castel Veltrano olives. 

A smooth, pureed soup of carrots, garbanzos and cumin, with a parsley-preserved lemon pesto swirled in. 

Swiss chard, tofu and Carrot Holy Basil on short grain brown rice. 

Zucchini, corn, herb, and falafel burgers, with dill-onion yogurt and Sunsugar tomatoes, sauteed collard greens with shallot 'bacon' and Cuban black beans.

Sesame Ry-Krisp with feta, olive oil, chile garlic relish, and Castel Veltrano olives. 

Corn and cheesy feta cakes with baby scallions and a tomato basil salad, and zucchini-flalfel burger with red pepper, served with dill herb cream.