Summer Recap

Somehow another month has passed without a blog post or recipe to share with you, but I'm going to try to make it up with some new recipes starting next week! I made a big batch of soup this week that I'll be sharing here soon, and I hope to start making some pumpkin treats this weekend too!

In the meantime, I thought I would do a post about what I've been eating over the summer - even though I didn't spend as much time cooking or developing my own recipes, I still enjoyed lots of good food!

A lot of my meals were super simple dinners that I could throw together quickly as I was so busy working on my dissertation. I ate a lot of toast with various toppings like avocado or sliced radishes with butter or hummus, and I loved eating fresh tomato and basil sandwiches. I also added a cob of corn to my meals whenever I found local corn at the grocery store!

Near the beginning of the summer, I made a big batch of veggie burgers at my parents' house so that I could pull one out of the freezer any time I was there for dinner and needed a vegetarian option. I loved the flavour and texture of these BBQ chickpea burgers from Oh She Glows, and they made the perfect summer meal with a side of potato or pasta salad!

I always love eating panzanella in the summertime. I usually stick to traditional combinations of ingredients like tomatoes, cucumber, basil and sometimes cheese, but I really liked this fruity variation with strawberries and cantaloupe that I threw together!

On the right is a pasta salad that I made twice this summer - it's a variation of this recipe from the blog archives, but with some changes to the veggies (like corn instead of peas and extra zucchini and cucumber) and I left out the tofu and walnuts. My favourite part of this salad is the creamy lemony basil dressing!

For other quick and easy meals, I made pasta with avocado sauce (pictured on the right), following this recipe from Oh She Glows, and zucchini noodles with a sauce I whipped together using hummus (on the left). I didn't use my spiralizer as much this summer compared to last year, but I still love "zoodles"!

For Canada Day in July, I brought these red and white cream cheese-stuffed strawberries to a party and while they got pretty messy on the trip there, they were still a hit! I can't remember the exact recipe I followed, but this one from The Comfort of Cooking is a good example!

I managed to break out my ice cream maker once over the summer to make this chocolate stout ice cream. I followed a recipe from The Beeroness, but with a few minor changes (I reduced the sugar, left out the toasted coconut, and added a bit of arrowroot powder to thicken it). I thought it had just the right balance of chocolate and beer flavours, and I loved how it stayed creamy rather than turning icy in the freezer like other vegan ice creams tend to do.

Other than my homemade ice cream, I ate a lot of delicious ice cream treats over the summer, from countless bowls of self-serve frozen yogurt, to an amazing lemon meringue pie cone, to a couple of treats that I haven't had in ages - a cookies and cream milkshake and an ice cream float!

I also visited food trucks a few times over the summer, as my city has developed a pretty good food truck culture over the past couple of years. It's usually hard to find vegetarian options, but I loved this kale salad and flatbread with brie and peach chutney!

Finally, I also enjoyed many meals out at restaurants over the summer. Our patio weather seemed a bit limited this year, but I still tried to enjoy eating out on patios as much as I could!  Pictured above clockwise is some halloumi and fried zucchini crostini, caramelized onion grilled cheese, a tofu sofritas burrito bowl from my very first visit to Chipotle, and more Mexican food with tacos, chips, and guacamole.


Hope you all had nice relaxing summers and are ready for all the exciting things that come with fall, like pumpkin, soups, and Thanksgiving food!  Personally, I wouldn't mind a few more weeks of sunshine and warm weather though ;)

Sweet Corn "Polenta" with Peach & Tomato Salsa

I've been trying to make the most of the local corn season this month, eating corn at every opportunity. I always love eating it right off the cob with some salt and pepper, but I also like to change things up sometimes, whether its eating the kernels hot off the cob, or adding them raw to a salad.

This corn "polenta" is a new method of eating corn that I just discovered last summer. Usually when you hear of corn polenta, it refers to cornmeal polenta with some corn kernels mixed in. This recipe, however, is actually polenta made purely of corn.

It turns out that if you cook corn kernels, blend them up, and then keep cooking the mixture on the stovetop, it eventually turns into a thick, porridge-like mixture just like polenta.

To round out the dish, I wanted to make some kind of tomato topping. Since I also had some local peaches on hand from the market, I thought that peach and tomato would make a good combination as a fresh salsa to mix into the polenta.

A handful of fresh basil and some balsamic vinegar added even more flavour, making this such a fresh and summery meal! The corn flavour really comes through in the polenta, and I liked that it was a bit lighter than regular polenta, which tends to be made with milk, butter, and cheese.

This was a bit on the sweet side overall, especially if you use a sweet corn, but I love sweet and fruity meals in the summer so it wasn't a problem for me! Feel free to add a sprinkle of cheese if you want a savory dimesion - I think goat cheese or feta would work well.

Hope you all enjoy the last long weekend of the summer! I'm sure mine will involve more corn :)

Sweet Corn “Polenta” with Peach and Tomato Salsa
Inspired by Five and Spice

2 ears sweet corn

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes

1/2 cup diced peach

~2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Remove the husks from the corn and slice off the kernels into a large bowl using a knife. Run the dull edge of the knife down the sides of the corn afterwards to get all of the corn “milk” off of the cob. Place kernels and liquid in a medium sized saucepan and cover with ¾ cup water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then continue to simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the corn kernels with a slotted spoon and transfer to a blender (do not discard the cooking liquid). Puree until smooth, then return to the pot. Cook on medium-low for another 10-15 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture is thickened and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from heat and stir in olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, prepare the topping by stirring together the diced tomato, peaches, basil, and balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer corn puree to a bowl and top with the salsa.

Serve warm.

Makes 1 serving.

Cantaloupe, Halloumi & Basil Stacks

When it comes to shopping at my local farmers' market in the summertime, I've learned my lesson the hard way that the cheaper option is not necessarily the best choice!

It's so tempting to shop around and buy from the vendor offering fruits or veggies for the lowest price, but time and time again, I end up disappointed and wishing I had splurged on a nicer product from one of the organic farmers.

That was the case a couple weeks ago when I was on the lookout for a cantaloupe to make this dish. I saw a huge bin of cantaloupes for only $2 so I happily scooped one up, thinking I had found a great deal. Of course, about five minutes later I came across an organic stall selling local Ontario cantaloupes that looked much nicer and were only slightly more expensive.

My non-local cantaloupe turned out to be a bad one (not surprising) and ended up going to waste, but luckily I was able to get a beautiful local one a few days later so that I could make this recipe!

I've seen lots of recipes on the web this summer for watermelon and halloumi salads. Watermelon pairs really well with salty cheeses like feta or halloumi, so I wanted to try a similar combination using another type of melon - cantaloupe.

I kept this dish pretty basic, layering slices of ripe cantaloupe with pieces of sauteed halloumi (or grilled if you like!) and fresh basil. I also made a simple basil dressing to pour over everything to add even more flavour.

This was such a fresh and summery meal! Since the cheese is pretty rich, the melon really balanced it out, complementing the saltiness with some sweetness. I loved the basil dressing, so if you're lucky enough to have an abundance of basil growing in your garden, this would be a great way to use some of it up!

Hope you all enjoy the weekend - it's looking to be a beautiful one here!

Cantaloupe, Halloumi & Basil Stacks

Dressing

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

1 tsp agave or honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Salad

1 (160g) package halloumi cheese (I used a mediterranean flavoured brand)

~Half a ripe cantaloupe
Handful of fresh basil leaves

To make the dressing, place all ingredients in a blender or mini food processor and blend until it's as smooth as possible. Transfer to a small bowl.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Slice halloumi in half horizontally, then slice each half into three pieces. Brush one side of the tofu pieces with the basil dressing, then place face-down in the pan.  Let cook for about 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, brush the other side (that’s facing up) with the dressing. Flip, then cook the other side another 2-3 minutes, until most of the sauce has cooked off and the cheese is browned on each side. Remove from heat and transfer to a plate.

Slice cantaloupe however you like – you can either do long, curving slices or rectangular pieces to match the shape of the cheese. Arrange the cantaloupe and halloumi slices with some fresh basil on the plate, either layered in between each other or stacked on top of each other (like the two different presentations in the photos above). Drizzle with the remaining basil dressing.

Makes 2 servings (or more as a bite-sized appetizer). 

Corn, Avocado & Blueberry Kale Salad

I know I've been posting a lot of blueberry recipes lately, but when Ontario fruits are in season, I try to use them in as many ways as possible before they're gone!

My last two blueberry recipes were both breakfast items, so today I'm sharing a recipe for a salad featuring blueberries along with fresh corn, avocado, kale, mint, and pumpkin seeds.

I first discovered the combination of corn and blueberries last summer after trying a version of this salad from Two Peas and Their Pod. I thought the natural sweetness of fresh corn off the cob paired well with blueberries and their shapes and textures complemented each other too.

This summer, I wanted to make my own version of a corn and blueberry salad. I considered just making a really simple salad of those two ingredients, but instead I wanted to bulk it up a bit more so I used shredded kale as the base of the dish and added an avocado in both the dressing and the salad itself to make it a bit more filling.

The dressing is a simple oil-vinegar-agave mixture but with pureed avocado to make it thick and creamy, mint leaves for a refreshing note and some minced shallot for a bit of a bite.

Once you've made the dressing, the rest of the salad can just be quickly thrown together - I didn't even bother to cook the corn first, since I wanted the kernels to keep their firm texture in the salad. If you've never tried raw corn before, I recommend eating it that way!

I love salads that have lots of different layers of texture like this one, from the juicy blueberries to the creamy avocado, with some crunch from the raw corn and toasted pumpkin seeds. I also love salads that are filling enough to eat as a main course for dinner, and this one fits that criteria too!

I have a feeling I'll be posting more corn recipes soon, since I just heard that Ontario corn is now available - yay!

Corn, Avocado & Blueberry Kale Salad

Dressing

1/2 a ripe avocado (you'll use the other half in the salad)

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Juice of half a lime

1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp agave nectar or other sweetener

1-2 tbsp water

Herbamare (or salt) and pepper

1 small shallot, minced

Salad

~2.5 cups shredded kale

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 cob sweet corn (I prefer it raw in this recipe but you can cook it first if you like)

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 a ripe avocado, diced

~10 small mint leaves, thinly sliced

To make the dressing, place the first six ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree. Add enough water so that you can puree the ingredients until smooth (it should still be thick). Season to taste with herbamare and ground pepper. Stir in the minced shallot. Set aside.

To make the salad, place the shredded kale in a large bowl. Add about half of the dressing and massage it into the kale with your hands.

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry skillet on medium heat for a few minutes, until they are fragrant and lightly browned. Remove from pan and add to the kale. Slice the kernels off the corn and add them to the bowl, along with the blueberries, avocado, and sliced mint. Add the rest of the dressing and stir until is everything is mixed well. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Makes 1 large serving or 2 smaller servings.

Summer Pasta Salad with Roasted Pepper Dressing

I've been wanting to make a summery pasta salad for a few weeks now, especially after my sister Natalie made this tasty looking arugula pasta salad with chickpea, veggies, olives, and goat cheese. 

So when I finally managed to make a trip to my local farmers' market this past weekend, I filled my bags with all the summer veggies I could find and brought them home to use in this pasta salad.

Besides pasta (obviously), this salad has heirloom tomatoes, corn off the cob, field cucumber, Ontario radishes, and fresh basil, plus avocado (not local) and jalapeno. 

And as if that wasn't enough, I tossed everything in a creamy green dressing made with roasted cubanelle peppers and avocado. I actually meant to use poblano peppers, but when I couldn't find those, I took my chances on the milder cubanelles and the dressing still turned out wonderful.  

The original recipe that I adapted the dressing from was meant to be a salad vinaigrette, so I reduced the amount of water to make it thicker and doubled all of the amounts to make sure I had enough to coat a large amount of pasta. I loved the tang from white wine vinegar and lime juice, and it still had a bit of a bite from jalapeno, garlic, and shallots. 

This big batch of pasta salad was enough to last me through meals all week, and I looked forward to eating it for lunch every day!

You can't really go wrong with all those fresh summer ingredients, but I really loved the combination of veggies and bowtie pasta noodles coated in the creamy dressing.

And if the long list of ingredients scares you off, don't worry - you can easily adapt the recipe to your whatever fresh veggies you have on hand. I'm thinking red or yellow peppers, green beans, or fresh peas would work well in this salad, and feel free to add more herbs besides the basil.

Summer Pasta Salad with Roasted Pepper Dressing
Inspired by a recipe from Crazy Sexy Kitchen

Dressing

4 medium sized cubanelle peppers (can substitute poblano peppers if you can find them)

1 tsp olive oil

1 large shallot, minced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced

1 large jalapeno, minced

2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

1/2 tsp dried parsley

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

3-4 tbsp fresh lime juice

~2 tbsp water

Salt and pepper to taste

Pasta

1lb (one box) dried farfalle pasta

2 cobs of cooked corn, kernels removed

2 cups halved cherry or grape tomatoes

2 cups halved (or quartered) cucumber slices

1 cup halved radish slices

2 avocados, diced

1 large jalapeno, minced (optional)

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Salt and pepper to taste

First, make the dressing: Preheat oven to broil. Place the whole peppers on a baking sheet and broil until slightly blackened on all sides, turning occasionally to broil all sides. Remove from oven and place peppers in a bowl of water for a couple of minutes to loosen the skin. Carefully peel off as much of the thin outer layer of skin as you can, then slice off the stems and remove the seeds. Roughly chop the peppers into pieces.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic and sauté until the onion is softened, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer the cooked peppers, shallot and garlic to a blender. Add the avocado, jalapeno, basil, parsley, vinegar and lime juice and puree until smooth. Add water to thin out a bit (you can add more if needed, but you want a thick dressing). Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer dressing to a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Fill a large pot with water and heat on the stove until boiling. Add pasta to the water and boil according to directions on the box. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Place cooked pasta in a large bowl. Add the remaining pasta ingredients and toss to combine. Pour dressing over the salad and stir until thoroughly mixed. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Round Up: End-of-Summer Eats

Before summer officially ends and I start posting about Fall goodies like pumpkin, apples, cinnamon and chai, I thought I would do one more round-up of summer recipes that I've tried lately, to follow up on my "summer eats so far" post from a couple months ago!

I'll start with two things that I've been eating a LOT of over the last month: corn on the cob and fresh tomato-basil sandwiches.  This has been my go-to meal when I don't have any other ideas prepared for dinner, or I don't feel like cooking.

It's super simple, but often that's the best way to highlight end-of-summer produce! Even though I feel like I've eaten too many tomato sandwiches and corn on the cobs to count lately, I never got sick of them!

Another fresh corn dish that appeared on the blog Five and Spice recently and I bookmarked immediately was a raw corn polenta topped with broccoli pesto.  All you do is grate the raw kernels off a cob of corn and cook them in a pan until you get a nice thick, creamy mixture with a consistency like polenta.

I only had one cob of corn to work with, so my portion ended up a bit small (I would recommend two cobs for a meal).  Since I was a bit short on time, I skipped the pesto and just topped mine with finely chopped raw broccoli, tomatoes, and basil.  This was such a delicious and fresh summer meal, and I loved the texture and the sweet, pure taste of the corn.  I'll have to make more versions of this next summer with different toppings!


Here are a couple of other simple but delicious appetizers that I've enjoyed at family gatherings in the last month:

First is this bruschetta with brie and peach salsa that I adapted from In Good Taste. The bread gets toasted with a piece of brie on top so that the cheese is slightly melted, and then each piece is topped with a generous helping of fresh peach salsa.

I changed the salsa a bit by adding some diced cherry tomatoes and leaving out the cilantro as I was serving this to a couple of cilantro haters.  I made this as an appetizer for a dinner we hosted for some out-of-town guests, and everyone loved it!

Besides the crostini, I also made another simple appetizer based on an idea I had seen on other blogs.  All you do is cut thick slices of cucumber, scoop out some of the middle, and fill it with a dip.

I decided to use a tzatziki as my filling, which I mixed with a bit of fresh dill, and I also topped them with halved cherry tomatoes. These were a big hit and disappeared quickly!  So if you're looking for an easy idea to bring to potlucks but want something a bit more creative than just veggies and dip, give these a try!

Then last weekend, my parents were bottling wine, which is part of their annual early September tradition.  Since they were spending a long day working outside, my sister made up this beautiful fruit and cheese plate for us all to enjoy as a break.  You can't go wrong with crackers, fruit, and good quality cheese!

When it comes to summer meals, one option that I rely on a lot is veggie burgers.  I tend to try a new recipe every time I make them, and I usually have a few patties stored in my freezer for a quick dinner.

Here are two versions that I've made recently and would recommend: First is this falafel burger from Edible Perspective.  The burger was really savory from all the spices and herbs, and nice and hearty from the addition of both chickpeas and quinoa.  It did remind of me falafels, and it went really well with a yogurt sauce on a bun.

Next was a rather unique veggie burger made with broccoli, chickpeas and tahini from Peachy Palate. I doubled the recipe to make two burgers, and I thought they were perfectly moist and really flavourful, not to mention really pretty with all the specks of green!

The only issue I had with them was that my broccoli must have been slightly past its prime, because it gave off a bit of an unpleasant smell once it was cooked.  So even though my breath suffered from eating these, my tastebuds were happy!

I couldn't do a post about my summer eats without including my favourite meal from last summer - this roasted summer panzanella. I made it again the other week and was reminded why I loved it so much the first time - warm roasted summer veggies at their prime, combined with toasted bread and fresh basil, and soaked in a simple oil and vinegar dressing.

This time, I left out the cheese and used zucchini instead of summer squash.  I also tried it with balsamic vinegar and I think I might prefer that over the red wine vinegar that I used last time - although any kind of vinegar would work in this dish!

And finally, I thought I would end this round-up with a couple of my summer recipes that didn't quite work out.

I bought some fresh apricots from the market a few weeks ago and looked through my cookbooks for ideas on what to make with them.  I found a recipe for vegan apricot oatbran scones that sounded good, but they didn't turn out how I was hoping.

As you can probably tell, they came out of the oven really dark, and I had to try to scrape a layer of crispy burnt crumbs off the bottom.  The insides weren't much better - they were a bit too dry for my tastes. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but luckily I only made a half batch so they weren't too much of a waste!

Another recipe that came close to being blog-worthy but still needs some more tweaking was my attempt at making savory muffins.  I thought a combination of fresh corn, zucchini and herbs would make a nice muffin to go with summer soups and salads, and I also added some cornmeal for texture and nutritional yeast for some cheesy flavour.

I loved the taste of these muffins and the chunks of corn kernels in them, but I couldn't get the texture right after two attempts.  Both times, they would seem okay fresh out of the oven, but after that they became way too crumbly to eat properly. I guess this is another recipe that I'll have to revisit next summer, because they at least had good potential!


So there you have a little taste of what I've been making and eating lately!  I'll be sad to see summer tomatoes and corn go, but I'm getting excited to start cooking with some new seasonal ingredients, and to try some of the Fall recipes that are already popping up on some of my favourite blogs!

Baked Polenta Squares with Summer Vegetable Topping

Polenta is one of those ingredients that I keep in the cupboard but never think to use it, even though I usually end up loving it whenever I do make it.

So when Courtney posted a recipe for these gorgeous polenta napoleons with tomato vegetable ragout last month, I was inspired to dig out my polenta and make my own version of a summery polenta appetizer. I had also been eyeing a recipe for Mexican zucchini-corn filling from one of my Vegetarian Times magazines, so I used that recipe as an inspiration for the topping for my polenta.

I ended up creating my own dish using a mixture of summer vegetables that I thought would work well together, both on its own and with the polenta. I combined fresh corn with zucchini, tomatoes and yellow pepper, and added some extra flavoring ingredients like onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and spices. The filling is cooked in a skillet until the vegetables are softened and the tomato starts to break down to create a bit of a sauce.

The warm filling is then scooped on top of polenta squares that can be made ahead of time and baked just before serving. You can use storebought polenta rounds if you're short on time, but personally I love the taste and texture of this homemade polenta and if you use the instant kind like I did, it really doesn't take too much time or effort to put together!

Here's how the polenta looks without the topping - baking it in the oven makes it lightly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, with a nice golden colour:

I absolutely loved the way this dish came together!  I could eat the polenta on its own, but slicing off a piece of polenta piled high with the fresh summer vegetables was a much more fun and tasty way to enjoy it! It does get a bit messy once you start to cut into the squares though, so make sure you serve them on a plate to catch any vegetables that fall off!

I think this recipe would be a hit at any backyard get-together this summer, either as an appetizer or a light main course.

Feel free to double the polenta recipe or the topping if you are serving a larger group - if you have leftover topping, it will save in the fridge for a day or two and can be eaten on its own or as a filling for something else (I'm thinking it would go really well with quesadillas!)

Baked Polenta Squares with Summer Vegetable Topping
Inspired by The Fig Tree

For the polenta:

2 cups water

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup instant polenta

~1/2 tsp dried oregano (or another herb like basil, parsley, or italian seasoning)

Ground pepper

For the topping:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 small yellow onion, diced into small pieces

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 small jalapeno, minced

1 zucchini, chopped into 1/2” pieces

1 yellow pepper, chopped into 1/2” pieces

1 cob of corn, kernels removed (you can slice them off with a knife)

2 medium tomatoes (about 1/2 lb), chopped

2-3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp fresh lime juice

Dash of chili powder or smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

To make polenta:

Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan.  When it starts to simmer, add the salt.  Once the water is boiling, remove pot from the heat and slowly pour in the polenta, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. 

Reduce heat to medium and return pot to the burner.  Continue stirring the polenta until it gets thick and pulls away from the sides of the pot (mine took about 2 minutes). Remove from heat and stir in the oregano and pepper.

Grease an 8x8 square pan by spraying with cooking spray. Pour the polenta into the pan and spread evenly with a spatula.

Cool in the fridge for at least 1 hour to firm up.

Once it is firm, remove from the pan and cut into squares (I made nine large squares).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 450°F.  Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place polenta squares on the baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until they are lightly browned and crisp.

To make topping:

While the squares are baking, prepare the vegetable topping.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the diced onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until onion is softened and starting to turn brown.

Add the minced garlic and jalapeno to the pan and sauté for another 2 minutes, stirring often.  Add the zucchini, yellow pepper, and corn and sauté for another 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the cilantro and lime juice.  Season with a dash of chili powder or smoked paprika and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve by spooning portions of the topping onto each polenta square. Serve warm.

Makes 9 squares, or about 3-4 appetizer servings.  (Note: you may have leftover topping).

This recipe was submitted to Wellness Weekend at Diet, Dessert and Dogs.