Food: Two more ways to eat vegetables

Gazpacho

This is based on the Gazpacho recipe in the Joy of Cooking, but substantially modified over the years. I keep a big bowl of it in the fridge through the summer. It’s a good way to eat more vegetables and a variety of them, it doesn’t have many calories and it’s very filling.

2 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes
2 sweet bell peppers, yellow and/or orange, seeded and diced
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
3 green onions, chopped (white and green parts)
1/3 cup each of fresh basil, tarragon, chives, dill (any 2, 3 or 4 will do), chopped
2 cups cold water
¼ - ½ cup olive oil
Juice of two lemons
Salt (to taste)

Mix the bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions and herbs in a large bowl. In a blender, puree 1 can of tomatoes, along with half the olive oil and 1 cup of water. Add to vegetable and herb mix, and repeat for the second can of tomatoes. Add lemon juice and salt (to taste).

This keeps nicely in the fridge for up to a week.


Summer-time Egg Bake

My friend Paula and I made this for ‘breakfast at Wimbledon’ this year. If you watched the men’s final, you’ll know that it extended well into ‘lunch at Wimbledon’ as well, but this kept us going for about 4 hours!

1 T olive oil
2 bell peppers (red and orange look best), seeded and chopped
2 cups fresh spinach, torn into small pieces
¼ cup chopped green onions (green and white portions)
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs
2 T water
¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375.

In a small pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the peppers until they just begin to soften.

In a shallow oven-proof dish, sprinkle the cheddar cheese in a thin layer. Top with spinach, sautéed peppers and green onions. Top with 6 eggs, distributing eggs evenly. Just break the eggs into the dish and lightly disrupt the egg yolk. Sprinkle water over mixture, and then parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until egg is set.

We had this, along with berry muffins, for breakfast. The berry muffins use the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe, but we used whole wheat instead of white flour. In my experience, whole wheat flour is fine for making baked goods provided you will eat them in a day or two. And it’s much better for you than white flour.