Burger Night Minus the Ground Beef

Recently I've been experimenting with meatless menu items that are nutritious and tasty.

A couple of nights ago I opted for a spicy black bean burger instead of my usual ground chuck burger and was pleasantly surprised.

Lightly fried in olive oil and served with sun dried tomato pesto, my veggie burger was tasty and satisfying.  Ground beef burgers truly capture the taste of summer and I'd never give up on them completely, but I could see myself getting into veggie burgers a lot more often!

Parsley and Cilantro Ommlette

One predicament I frequently find myself encountering in the kitchen is having an abundance of leftover herbs such as parsley, cilantro, basil, etc. and nothing to do with them.

A quick and easy fix to this issue is to cook the herbs with a beaten egg and make a healthy, tasty herb ommlette.

This ommlette contains parsley and cilantro and made a lovely lunch.

Garlic Scape Pesto!

With the arrival of garlic scapes at our local farmers market this spring, another recipe I enjoyed trying was garlic scape pesto.  Preparation was simple, and called for 2 parts of chopped garlic scapes to one part (by volume) shelled pistachios and one part coarsely chopped parmigiana cheese.

Olive oil was drizzled over the ingredients and all were placed in a food processor.  Pulse continuously until the mixture becomes a spreadable mixture.  Place in a small resealable jar, pour olive oil over the top of the pesto, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Enjoy on pasta, with bread, or on crackers.

Scapes: The Other End of the Garlic Bulb

This weekend as I toured my local farmer’s market, I noticed that multiple vendors were selling garlic scapes.  Resembling long, coiling sections of rope, this odd addition to my usual farmer’s market fare intrigued me and got me thinking about how I could integrate them into my cooking.

Scapes grow above-ground and are trimmed by farmers and gardeners to ensure that the majority of the energy utilized by the plant is directed towards the bulb.  Like the bulb, scapes are a delicious accompaniment to a variety of spring table fare.

I decided to keep my first attempt at cooking with them simple: I chopped the scapes up and placed them in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil.  They cooked slowly, almost like a clove of garlic would, and my wife noted that the kitchen had the distinct aroma of cooking garlic.

After about 12 minutes of cooking over low heat I placed the scapes on a salad and they were DELICIOUS!  Paired with sautéed asparagus, sautéed radishes, and field greens, the salad was a tasty and healthy accompaniment to my meal.