Chopped Salad and Zucchini Bread

It’s been too long since I’ve posted – the summer is just flying by. Below are two recipes: one is with year round stand bys dressed up as a light and bright cold salad and the other is a tasty exotic zucchini bread full of flavor.
















Chopped Ruby Red Salad with Tarragon and Roasted Garlic Dressing
Recipe by Julie

Beets, carrots and kale are packed full of vitamins when eaten raw which is best done in the summer time. This salad can be made lightly steamed and then chopped in the winter. Also, these veggies together can be dressed up in a million different ways. Another version was created with the help of my friend Rylyn (age 5); we like to call it Sunset Salad. Toss the beets and carrots with rosemary salt, lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil.

1 bunch carrots (~ ¾ lb)
1 bunch beets (~ 1 lb)
1 bunch dino kale
¾ tsp sea salt, divided
2 large garlic cloves
3 tsp tarragon, chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp red wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover the unpeeled garlic cloves in olive oil, place on a baking sheet in the oven about 10 minutes. The cloves are ready when they are fragrant, golden, and soft to the touch.

2. Peel and grate the carrots and beets using a box grater or a food processor.

3. Remove the midribs from the kale leaves. You can either cut them out with a knife or place your thumb and forefinger on either side of the midrib on the cut side, hold the cut tip with your other hand and strip the leaf away from the midrib by running your fingers down its length. Stack the leaves together, roll them into a cigar and cut thin strips across the short length.

4. Place the cut kale into a bowl with ¼ tsp salt and begin massaging the kale, grab handfuls and release. Doing this with the salt helps break down the kale and will make it more palatable raw and easier to digest. Continue until the kale looks wet and wilted (see picture).

5. Combine the carrots and beets with the kale.

6. Peel the roasted garlic cloves and place them in a blender.with the tarragon, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, remaining sea salt, and some pepper.

7. Pour the dressing over the vegetable mixture and toss. Season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Serve at room temperature or cold. This salad keeps well.


My Special Zucchini Bread
Recipe by 101cookbooks.com

Play around with the optional treats. I skipped the walnuts and ginger and added the poppy seeds, lemon zest, and curry powder. The curry flavor is subtle and brings a nice richness to the bread.














1/2 cups chopped walnuts, plus a few to sprinkle on top
1/3 cup poppy seeds (optional)
zest of two lemons (optional)
1/2 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped (optional)

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup fine grain natural cane sugar or brown sugar, lightly packed
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini (about 3 medium), skins on, squeeze some of the
moisture out and then fluff it up again before using

3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon curry powder (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter two loaf pans, dust them with a bit of flour and set aside. Alternately, you can line the pans with a sheet of parchment. If you leave a couple inches hanging over the pan, it makes for easy removal after baking. Just grab the parchment "handles" and lift the zucchini bread right out.

In a small bowl combine the walnuts, poppy seeds, lemon zest, and ginger. Set aside. In a mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini (low speed if you are using a mixer).

In a separate bowl, combine the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and curry powder. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition.

By hand, fold in the walnut, poppy seed, lemon zest, and crystalized ginger mixture. Save a bit of this to sprinkle on the tops of the zucchini loaves before baking for a bit of texture. Avoid over mixing the batter, it should be thick and moist, not unlike a butter cream frosting.

Divide the batter equally between the two loaf pans. Make sure it is level in the pans, by running a spatula over the top of each loaf. Bake for about 40-45 minutes on a middle oven rack. I like to under bake my zucchini bread ever so slightly to ensure it stays moist. Keep in mind it will continue to cook even after it is removed from the oven as it is cooling. Remove from the oven and cool the zucchini bread in pan for about ten minutes. Turn out onto wire racks to finish cooling - if you leave them in their pans, they will get sweaty and moist (not in a good way) as they cool.

Makes 2 loaves.

Bran Carrot Squash Muffins

If you find yourself with lots of carrots or lots of extra zucchini, you can change the recipe to accommodate. If you happen to get an extra juicy carrot or zucchini, try to remove some of the liquid by squeezing a cup at a time in a paper towel. You can grate the veggies by hand, but if you have a food processor, by all means, save yourself some time and use it!

A few times when I've made this recipe, the muffins came out a little too sweet for my taste, likely because the carrots I used were super-sweet already. Consider crunching on a bite of your carrots before shredding, and cutting the sugar by up to half.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cup wheat bran
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg (optional)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup organic canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated raw carrot
1 cup grated raw zucchini or other summer squash.
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Grease your muffin tin really really well and consider using muffin liners to make things easier on yourself -- this is important. The bran and all the carrots make these muffins fall apart more easily, so you'll need to take care or your muffins will stick and your tops will fall off. This is okay in a Seinfeld episode, but less cool in real life. If you're filling the muffin pan to the top because you want big crispy muffin tops, also make sure that you grease the top of the pan and not just the inside of the cups or it will stick.

Mix dry ingredients: flour, bran, salt, bkg pwdr, bkg soda, nutmeg, cinnamon. In separate bowl, mix eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.

Add carrot & squash into wet stuff and mix to coat, then gently fold in dry ingredients 1/4 at a time until just combined.

Add raisins and walnuts, stir gently, then fill greased muffin cups 3/4 to all-the-way full. Cook 20-25 minutes at 400

A yummy breakfast treat -- goes great with a steaming cup of coffee

Zucchini bread, three ways

Special zucchini bread with crunchy topping, adapted from 101 Cookbooks won second place in the tasting competition.

Hooray for summer! Every day on the farm brings new, exciting, and delicious bounties. Lately, the summer squash has gone for broke, and we're swimming in bright green zucchinis, stripy zucchinis, pattypans, and this curious fellow:


This year, one of our seed suppliers, Johnny's, sent out the wrong seeds to everyone who ordered Costata Romanesca squash. In fact, the lovely round squash isn't a Costata at all, but something else: still delicious and prolific, but rounder and slightly wetter than what we bargained for.

Turns out the mystery squash is perfect for zucchini bread. The seeds inside (even a larger one) aren't too big, so I just chopped off the stem, cut the squash in wedges, and used a food processor to shred it all.

I tested three recipes, a traditional sweetish walnut-cinnamon-nutmeg loaf, a slightly zany nutty loaf with a secret ingredient, adapted from 101 cookbooks and a savory zucchini-basil muffin recipe, adapted from a message board post on a Chowhound message board.

The tasting panel generally agreed that the zucchini basil muffins won out, with the zany recipe not far behind. The more traditional recipe turned out too dry and slightly over-sweet. It could have done with some soaked raisins and extra zucchini.

And the winner is...

FIRST PLACE: Zucchini Basil Muffins
Adapted from the LA Times by way of Chowhound.

1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1 c. all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shredded mystery zucchini (or any other type should work fine)
3 tbsp sweet basil, finely minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese to top

Beat egg in bowl, stir in milk and oil, then mix in sugar.

Sprinkle baking powder and salt evenly on top.

Mix in flour until just moistened, then gently mix in zucchini and basil.

Fill a well-buttered muffin tin so that the cups are nearly full (slightly more than 3/4). Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 450 degrees, 20-25 minutes.

Makes 6-9 muffins. You can easily double for a bigger batch.


RUNNER UP: Special Zucchini Bread with sesame crunch
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

1 cup chopped walnuts
zest of one lemon
2 tbsp crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tbsp sesame seeds

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup fine grain natural cane sugar or brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg + one yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tbsp curry powder

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter one 5x9 loaf pan, dust it with a bit of flour and set aside.

In a small bowl combine the walnuts, sesame seeds, lemon zest, and gingers. Set aside.

In a mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer. Add the eggs, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini (low speed if you are using a mixer).

Sprinkle the baking soda on top of the mixture. Then sprinkle on the salt and curry powder as evenly as possible. Add the flour in 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until just incorporated each time. After the last batch of flour, fold in half of the walnut, sesame, ginger mixture.

Put the batter in the greased pan, making sure it is level with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Then sprinkle on the other half of the walnut, ginger, lemon mixture.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes on a middle oven rack. Check the bread after 35 minutes and cover if it begins to brown too quickly. The loaf will be done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Take the loaf out from the oven and let cool for about ten minutes, then remove from the pan onto wire racks to finish cooling.

Makes one loaf. To double, use 3 eggs instead of 1 egg + one yolk.