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

Image via Martha Stewart

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.

Spanish Tortilla with Bell Pepper Image via Martha Stewart

 

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.

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