Feed Your Eco Featured September Recipe: Organic Roasted Tomato Sauce

I found this month’s Organic Recipe on a great site devoted to green living in our nation’s capitol:  City Renewed- The DC Area’s Most Comprehensive Green Resource Guide.  I encourage you to visit their site when you get a chance.  It is filled with informative articles with excellent tips and advice anyone can use to make their home and/or office a more eco-friendly environment.  This site is also terrific resource for DC residents to learn more about local events, educational opportunities, Farmers Markets, festivals, and more.

Here in the southeast, the hot summer days yield an abundance of delicious, juicy, ripe, red tomatoes for us to enjoy well into the month of September. The process of roasting the vegetables in this sauce really brings out the natural flavors.   Many of the ingredients can be grown in your own garden or can be purchased at your local farmers market.  Try making this over the weekend and let us know what you think!  Thank you to City Renewed for sharing this!!

Organic Roasted Tomato Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 or more medium organic tomatoes, cored and cut into quarters or eighths
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 small or one medium onion, cut into quarters or eighths
1 large red bell pepper, cut into large pieces
1 leek, cut in half lengthwise, washed and sliced
1 small head of garlic
1/4 cup basil, chopped just a little
2 ounces goat cheese (optional)
Black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray large glass baking dish with nonstick spray. Put tomato pieces in dish, pour olive oil over tomatoes and stir. Bake for 30 to 50 minutes, stirring tomatoes every 20 minutes. Stir again then add onion, bell pepper and leek. Wrap garlic in foil and put on rack in oven. After about 30 minutes, when everything looks and smells delicious, remove baking dish and garlic from oven. Unwrap garlic, cut the top and squeeze the softened garlic into the tomato goodness. Add basil and black pepper, and mix well. Serve over chunky pasta. A dollop of goat cheese can be put on top for extra zing.

Photo Credit: helenkosings.wordpress.com

Simple Summer Vegan Dinner Party

I had some friends in town this past weekend. On Saturday we tooled around the Farmer’s Market and visited a couple of local shops and art galleries. The afternoon was spent cooling off in my pool; later enjoying the early evening breeze and manatee-watching off my dock on the Indian River.

We had picked up some veggies at the Farmer’s Market that morning so as night fell we broke open a bottle of wine and the four of us quickly put together a yummy light summer meal before we settled in to watch a soppy chick flick & eat watermelon, the end to a perfect day! All ingredients are ORGANIC, of course!

Veggie Salad with Peanut Sauce

1 bunch broccoli, chopped
2 ears corn on the cob, corn cut off the cob
1 red bell pepper, chopped
DRESSING
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
Salt & red pepper flakes to taste

Place the broccoli, corn & bell pepper in a mixing bowl. Put the remaining ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Mix thoroughly with the vegetables. Serves 4.

Sweet & Sour Vegetable Stir Fry with Almonds
     (adapted from The Complete Vegetarian Cuisine by Rose Elliot-1988)

1/2 cup sesame oil
1 cup slivered almonds
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, chopped
SAUCE
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon wine vinegar
2 tablespoons agave nectar

This savory mixture of sweet & sour flavors cooks fast so if you plan to serve it over brown rice (which is oh-so-yummy), be sure to start the rice early enough to be ready when you are! This dish is also good served cold.

Put the ingredients for the sweet & sour sauce in a blender and blend until smooth. Heat the sesame oil on medium in a deep fry pan or wok. Add the almonds & stir fry for 2 minutes. Turn the heat to high and add the vegetables. Stir fry for 5 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften. Turn the heat off, stir in the sauce and cover the pan for 2 minutes to heat through. Serves 4.

Grow Your Own Organic Vegetables

Summer is here and that means lots of sun and hot weather; but it also means delicious locally grown vegetables are in season. 

My sister and I have fond memories of enjoying delicious tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers, herbs and fruit grown right in the gardens of neighbors and nearby relatives.  Everyone is talking about going green and eating organic; even the Obamas have planted an organic garden on the White House lawn! 

Growing your own vegetables may not be as difficult as you think.  There are so many reasons to grow your own vegetables- they taste better, it is good for the environment, the veggies are healthier and lack the chemicals that are commonly found in grocery store produce. 

You don’t need a lot of money or land to have a bountiful garden to produce organic vegetables for you to enjoy and share with friends.  It takes patience, time and care to become an organic gardener.  Here are some resources that offer lots of help for us beginners:

Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening magazine shows how to plant and nurture an organic vegetable garden in this helpful video.

 

 I also recommend visiting OrganicGardening.com to learn techniques and ideas on how you can grow your very own organic garden.  They have an excellent article for beginners appropriately titled: The Beginner’s Guide to Organic Gardening.

Are you a gardener with tips and ideas to share?  We would love to hear from you!