Fresh Food made with Fresh Veggies

As promised, here are the recipes that we made using the fresh vegetables from the garden!  All of the veggies that we picked a few days ago were mostly all used up in these salads.  All of these recipes are vegetarian and vegan, so enjoy!  I have collected and altered these recipes from various sources, including magazines, web blogs and websites, and I never seem to record where I found them....so I apologize if I haven't been able to give credit where credit is due!

The first picture, posted above, is the Bruschetta Bread that we made - we made two of them, one for each of us to go with our dinner.  The recipe isn't anything too crazy as we just wanted to use the cherry tomatoes that we picked from the garden.  The bread is a loaf that I picked up at the Metro grocery store that was called something like "Organic Whole Wheat with Sprouted Grain".  It was very delicious bread!  I cut the bread really thick, which Paul thought was a bad idea at first, but then decided after tasting the bread that it was a very good idea after all.

The topping consists of chopped up cherry tomatoes, orange pepper, onion, and fresh basil.  I brushed both sides of the bread with olive oil.  Then, I put the veggies in a bowl, mixed in 1 tbsp of olive oil and splashes of balsamic vinegar.  Then, you put the vegetable mix on top of the bread, and sprinkle it with cheese.  I used "Daiya Cheese" which is a vegan non-dairy cheese, but you can feel free to use any vegan cheese or regular cheese.  Put it in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes, and then switch it over to broil and let that go until the bread looks slightly browned.  Yum!

This next one was a huge success - Mexican Pasta Salad!

INGREDIENTS:
1 package of penne pasta
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 peppers (red, orange or yellow), chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup of Veganaise (or mayonnaise, if you aren't vegan)
4 tbsp salsa
2 tsp minced chipotle in adobo sauce
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the pasta.  Chop the tomato, pepper, and onion and place into a large bowl.  In a small bowl, stir the Veganaise with the salsa, chipotle, and spices.  Add drained pasta to the vegetables and drizzle with the sauce.  Toss to coat.  Refrigerate until cold.  Add the cilantro before serving.

This one lasted us a few days - we both had it for dinner that night and brought it to work with us for lunch for the next few days.  Definitely will be one that we will make again!

Another salad - Chickpea Salad!  This one is always great for packing up into work lunches or works as a great side dish at dinner time.  I found that I needed to add more white wine vinegar and oil to the mixture after everything was made to avoid it from being too starchy-tasting from the chickpeas.  You may have to add more vinegar or oil, to taste.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp white wine vinegar (more to taste)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
4 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 red peppers, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
**this recipe did call for parsley, but we omitted it because Paul isn't a fan.  You can add parsley or cilantro to this recipe if you'd like, as well as carrots (which we didn't have on hand)

DIRECTIONS:
In a bowl, crush together garlic and salt.  Mix in olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, cumin, cayenne.  In a separate bowl, stir chickpeas, pepper, onion.  Mix in dressing.  Cover and chill for several hours.

And lastly, here is a Bean and Rice Salad!  I found that this one had too strong of a lime taste to it, so maybe instead of adding 1/3 cup of lime juice, you might want to add less than that.  Next time, I think I will cut it back to 1/4 or less of lime juice, and add white wine vinegar to offset the lime flavor.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups cooked rice
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 pepper, diced
1/3 cup lime juice
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cilantro, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
** we also added chopped hot peppers, fresh from the garden to spice it up a bit!

DIRECTIONS:
Combine rice, beans, and peppers.  In a separate bowl, combine all of the other ingredients.  Pour over the rice mixture and refrigerate.

There you have it - three simple salads that you can make for dinner, and depending on the quantities that you prepare, they could last you for days worth of lunches throughout the week!