CSA Green Tomatoes and Bell Peppers
This past week we received a lot of green tomatoes and bell peppers from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). So I got busy looking for ways to use up our abundance. I just started using Zip List for compiling my weekly grocery list and used it to find most of my recipes this week. Here’s what’s been on the menu this week:
Balsamic Portobello Burgers with Bell Pepper and Goat Cheese
These were not a hit with the husband or the baby girl. To be fair, I’m pretty sure I messed up the recipe. In fact, I know I did. Here is what I did differently from the recipe. First, I used provolone instead of goat cheese. I did this for two reasons. The first was my husband hates goat cheese (a pretty good reason I think) and the second is that goat cheese is expensive! I got 3 pieces of provolone from the deli counter for 63 cents. No way could I get goat cheese for that. I also did not grill these as it’s November and kind of chilly out. I used a grill pan instead. I had the brilliant (or not as I found out) idea to pour the remaining marinade in the grill pan. All that did was produce a whole lot of smoke which, in turn, made the Portobello’s taste very smoky. I also used a green bell pepper instead of a red since that is what I have the most of. My poor meat loving husband also was very disappointed when he found out that when I said Portobello burger I didn’t mean a Portobello on top of a hamburger. I think this was doomed to failure from the beginning. Sigh.
I served the above with Bell Pepper Slaw. This recipe had some potential. I used a food processor for the cabbage and used the wrong attachment so instead of “thinly sliced and rougly chopped” it was finely chopped. This made it too soggy. I used a dash of ground mustard instead of the mustard seeds and celery salt instead of celery seeds. I thought these two substitutions were fine. I actually think the ground mustard gave it a nice kick. I didn’t measure either of these…just a couple dashes of ground mustard, and I just guessed on what would be a good amount of celery salt. I love celery salt in cole slaw so I figured I couldn’t go wrong on that. As I mentioned before, I did not have red bell pepper so I substituted green but did have the orange and yellow. I would be willing to try this again and would either hand chop the slaw or actually use the slicing attachment!
The next dish I tried was Unstuffed Bell Pepper Skillet. Marcella (my daughter) loved this. My husband and I were happy with it, too. It can be made ahead and frozen, as well. It wasn’t anything amazing but for an easy, inexpensive weeknight dinner, it fits the bill.
Tonight I made Spanish Tortilla with Bell Pepper. We enjoyed this but felt it needed a little more flavor. The 1/2 teaspoon of hot pepper sauce (I used Tabasco) wasn’t even noticeable. I will say we like things spicy in our household though, baby girl included. 🙂 I definitely want to make this again, but I’d kick up the spice factor for sure.
I saved the best for last. This morning I made some Green Tomato Bread. It was phenomenal! Seriously. I am going to make more and freeze it. SO so good! It is like a spice bread, super moist with a nice crunchiness on the outside. Delicious!
I also plan on making Spaghetti with Green Tomato Bacon Sauce for dinner tomorrow night.
