Zucchini, summer squash, carrots

Today's vegetable dish featured the share's zucchini and summer squash and made use of some leftover rice as well.  I heated about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and added the following chopped vegetables: one onion, a tomato, one zucchini and one summer squash. The key to a good result was to cook these vegetables long enough; squashes and tomatoes are watery, so I cooked them until they were soft and all the juiciness was gone, with the sugars just beginning to caramelize. Then I added cooked rice, some fresh oregano, some salt, and some left-over cooked black beans. Lastly I melted some cheese over the top (I happened to have goat mozzarella, but many others would also work well).

We also had a salad made from the share's carrots; I used a recipe adapted from a long-ago newspaper clipping from who knows where, but any carrot salad recipe would do. Here's one:

1 lb. carrots, shredded (I don't peel them, and the food processor makes short work of shredding)

1/4 c. red onion, chopped

3 T. capers

2 T. lemon juice

1 t. curry powder

1/2 t. toasted cumin seed

2-3 T. buttermilk or yogurt

1 t. Dijon mustard

3 T. oil

Make a salad dressing by mixing all of the ingredients except the carrots; pour over the carrots and mix well.

Notes:

--When I cook rice, I try to make extra, so I'll have some on hand for other uses on other days. I do the same with pasta or potatoes. They all come in handy for quick meals, and it doesn't take any more time to cook up a double batch than a single. 

--These vegetables work just as well with pasta as with rice.  And with meat instead of beans--sausage, for example.

--Although we're not vegetarians, we don't eat that much meat--it's more a seasoning than a big part of the meal. We do eat many different kinds of beans to increase our protein ratio, and the easiest and cheapest way I've found to have them on hand is to soak about 1-2 cups of beans overnight and then pressure cook them the next day. In the pressure cooker even the hardest chickpea softens with 10 minutes of actual cooking time, black beans take only a couple of minutes, and lentils don't even need a pre-soak. The beans will keep for a week, and can also be frozen if you won't need them right away.

--Here's another great recipe for zucchini, from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/health/22recipehealth.html