Summer Fridge Frittata

We’ve been so lucky this summer to have a ton of beautiful produce from our Spoonfull Farm CSA, but we’ve also been so busy that sometimes, cooking doesn’t end up happening. That means that some weeks we find ourselves with a whole mountain of produce on our hands that we would hate to see go to waste. Enter: the summer fridge frittata, so named because it’ll clean your fridge right out if you play your cards right. This is really what frittatas are made for – making leftovers new again (and getting great use out of our beautiful farm-fresh eggs in the process)!

Serves 6
Hands-On Time: 30 min
Total Time: 45 min

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Ingredients

12 large eggs
2 TBS half and half
1 cup + 1 TBS sour cream
1 head kale, any variety, roughly chopped
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced (I use a mandoline, see note below)
1 cup shredded/grated cheese (I used half parmesan and half mozzarella because I had them on hand)
1 bunch scallions, white/light green parts thinly sliced
1/2 TBS red pepper flakes
1 TBS garlic powder
Juice from one lemon
2 tsp salt, divided, plus more to taste
1 TBS minced chives + more for garnish
1 TBS minced fresh dill + more for garnish
Olive oil

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Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Whisk eggs until yolks and whites are well combined. Add 1 TBS sour cream, half and half, and cheese, and whisk together. Add at least 1 tsp salt, whisk to combine, and set aside.

In a 10-12 inch ovensafe skillet (cast iron is best!), heat a thin layer of olive oil over medium heat. Add scallions and cook, stirring occasionally, for about a minute. Add zucchini slices and toss with oil and scallions. Add 1 tsp salt, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice, and toss to coat. Cook until slices start to become translucent and soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add chopped kale and allow to wilt and cook down, tossing with the zucchini and scallions, about 5 more minutes.

Pour the egg mixture evenly over the vegetables and gently stir to distribute egg and vegetables. Once edges of the eggs have set, about one minute, carefully transfer the skillet to the preheated oven. Allow to bake anywhere from 7-14 minutes – the eggs should be set, and the top should be slightly puffed and golden.

While the eggs are baking, combine the remaining cup of sour cream with the chives and dill in a small bowl, and set aside.

Once the frittata has finished baking, remove from oven and let cool at least 5 minutes on a cooling rack in the pan. When ready to serve, slice into wedges, garnish with reserved chives and dill, and top each wedge with the herbed sour cream mixture. Serve with toast, a light green salad, or both.

Note: I use my mandoline slicer at least twice per week, if not more, so I can’t recommend them enough. HOWEVER. You have to be extremely careful when using them, and never use a mandoline without a protective hand guard. I use this mandoline from OXO, which includes a protective guard.

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Surprise Teriyaki Chicken & Grilled Bok Choy

So there aren’t any cool surprises about this recipe – the surprise was mine when the marinade I threw together because I thought it would taste good tasted exactly like teriyaki *facepalm*. But that’s okay, because a recipe for teriyaki chicken that you can throw together with pantry staples and class up with some grilled veggies is great in my book. And, for the record, I wasn’t wrong about it tasting good.

Surprise Teriyaki & Grilled Bok Choy

Serves 4
Hands-On Time: 45min
Total Time: 45min + 8hrs for marinade time

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Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut in half
4 baby bok choy
White or brown rice, prepared according to package instructions

Marinade
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 TBS chili oil
1 TBS sesame oil
1 TBS sugar or honey or agave syrup

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Whisk together all marinade ingredients in a baking dish. Put chicken in the dish with the marinade and use a spoon to coat the top side with sauce. Cover and let sit in the fridge 6-8 hours (you can leave it up to 24 if needed – it’ll still be good, but a bit saltier than it would otherwise).

Once you’re ready to start cooking, preheat your grill to medium-high heat. Halve each baby bok choy, leaving the tough connecting stalk at the bottom. Brush the cut side with vegetable oil. Grill, starting with the cut side, until tender and slightly charred, about 3-5 minutes on each side.

Remove the chicken from the marinade and set the marinade aside, reserving it. Grill the chicken until there is no visible pink when cut into, or a meat thermometer reads an internal temp of 165 degrees. Let rest 5 minutes.

While the chicken is resting, pour the reserved marinade into a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil for at least 1-2 minutes (THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU JUST USED IT TO MARINATE RAW CHICKEN). It may be reduced enough for your taste at that point, if not, continue to simmer until it’s the consistency you like.

Serve chicken over rice topped with the sauce formerly known as marinade, and with the bok choy on the side.

Note: I grilled the bok choy and chicken because it’s August and I don’t want to deal with the stove more than I need to, but there’s no reason you couldn’t pan-sear both of them, or roast both of them, or cook them any other way that gets the job done.

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Lemon Basil Vodka Spritz

It feels more special to make a cocktail in the evening in the summer, instead of just pouring myself a glass of wine. Winter calls for red wine most nights, but this bright lemon basil spritz will hit the spot after a long day in (let’s be real) an overly air-conditioned office. If you don’t have or can’t find lemon basil, this would also be delicious with regular basil.

Makes One Drink
Hands-On Time: 5 min
Total Time: 5 min

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Ingredients

1 cup loosely packed lemon basil leaves
1 TBS agave syrup
1.5 oz vodka
Juice of half a lemon
Can of soda water or seltzer water
Ice

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Muddle together the basil leaves and agave at the bottom of a glass. Add lemon juice and vodka. Add ice. Fill the rest of the glass with seltzer. Garnish with additional basil leaves and lemon slices.

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Raspberry Cobbler

In my opinion, this is the perfect summer dessert – almost no hands-on time, can bake while you’re eating a meal or doing literally anything else, uses summer berries, goes well with ice cream, etc, etc. And for almost no effort, you get a deliciously caramelized lid, and jammy berries, and something that seems like it took a lot more effort than it did. You’ll be making this weekly, just because you can.

Serves 8-10
Hands-On Time: 10 min
Total Time: 1hr 20min

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Ingredients

1 lb raspberries
1 cup whole milk or half and half
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup + 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8 baking dish dish or 9-inch round cake pan.

Whisk together the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in milk until combined and mostly smooth. Whisk in melted butter until combined. Pour into prepared baking dish. Scatter raspberries over the top of the batter. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup sugar evenly over the top.

Bake for one hour. The berries should sink to the bottom of the batter and the top should be golden brown and have a firm crust. Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving with ice cream or whipped cream and additional berries.

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Weeknight Rice Noodles with Meatballs

Serves 4-6
Hands-On Time: 30 min
Total Time: 30 min

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Ingredients

Sauce
2 1/2 cups beef broth
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 TBS grated or minced ginger
2 TBS sesame oil
2 TBS honey
2 tsp chili oil

Meatballs
1 lb ground beef
3 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp salt

Assembly
16 ounces rice noodles
1 lb mixed sliced mushrooms of your choice (I like to include at least some shiitake)
4-5 baby bok choy, halved
Bunch scallions, white/light green parts thinly sliced, dark green parts roughly chopped
Vegetable oil for frying meatballs

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Cook the noodles a minute or two shy of the package directions. Drain and set aside in a large bowl.

Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine the ground beef, garlic, onion powder, salt, and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl. Shape the mixture into about 16 meatballs (1 1/2 inches across). Heat vegetable oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook the meatballs in the oil until browned and mostly cooked through, about 7-9 minutes. Transfer to a separate plate or bowl. Add the mushrooms to the pan with vegetable oil and meatball drippings and cook until browned. Add bok choy and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the dark green parts of the scallions and cook another 2 minutes. Add the vegetables to the bowl with the noodles.

Add the broth to the pan and simmer until slightly thickened, about 8-10 minutes. Add the meatballs in for the last 2 minutes of cooking, turning occasionally. Pour the meatballs and sauce over the noodles and vegetables and toss to combine. Serve topped with the thinly sliced scallions.

Note: If you’d like the sauce to be slightly thicker, whisk together one tablespoon of sauce with one tablespoon of cornstarch and combine with remainder of sauce before simmering.

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Mashed Garlic Butter Carrots

These are reminiscent of a savory preparation of mashed sweet potatoes, plus you get to use up a big chunk of summer produce in a somewhat novel way! Serve these with anything you’d normally serve with mashed potatoes for a tasty, colorful twist.

Serves 4-6
Hands-On Time: 15 min
Total Time: 30 min

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Ingredients

2 lbs carrots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
4 TBSP unsalted butter
Salt to taste + for cooking water

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Bring salted water to a boil in a large stockpot. Once boiling, add carrots and garlic and continue to boil until fork-tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain the carrots and garlic and place in a medium bowl with butter. Using a fork or potato masher (I use this one from Williams-Sonoma and like it) mash the carrots and garlic together until they’ve reached a mostly smooth consistency. Season with additional salt to taste.

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Carrot Top Chimichurri

Hate food waste? Same here. That’s why I’m always so excited to learn new recipes for things that would otherwise be considered food scraps, like beet greens and carrot tops. This carrot top chimichurri has a more earthy, vegetal taste than the normal parsley and cilantro variety, but it’s just as delicious and a great way to keep one more thing out of the trash or compost bin. Serve it with steak, use it as a marinade, or do whatever else you would do with regular chimichurri!

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 4-6
Hands-On Time: 15 min
Total Time: 20 min

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Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped carrot greens from 1-2 lbs of carrots
1 small to medium shallot, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 TBSP crushed red pepper flakes
2 tsp finely chopped fresh oregano
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt + to taste

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Combine shallot, garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt in a small bowl. Cover with the red wine vinegar and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

Add the chopped carrot greens and oregano to the aromatics and vinegar mixture and stir to combine. Whisk while slowly adding the oil. Add additional salt to taste.

Optional: You can serve the chimichurri as-is at this point, but I like to take an immersion blender (I use this set from Cuisinart and love it, but you can also get a standalone immersion blender) and give it a few pulses. It shouldn’t be smooth/creamy, but it’ll be a little finer than just chopping will normally get it.

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Sous Vide Steak with Chimichurri

I’m obsessed with cooking steaks sous-vide. It always turns out perfectly, you can set it and forget it while you prepare the rest of dinner, and it’s overall less messy. Yes, you still need to use a pan or grill to sear the meat before serving, but the pan gets less dirty than it would if you were fully cooking the steaks in it. Topped with some carrot top chimichurri prepared while the steaks were cooking away with no effort by you? Mmmm. Perfect. I use and love Joule Sous Vide by ChefSteps (I am generally wary of IoT and bluetooth connected appliances, but the app has SO many cool cooking guides and the machine works fantastically) but there are a lot of great options out there.

Sous Vide Steak with Carrot Top Chimichurri

Serves 4-6
Hands-On Time: 25 min
Total Time: 1hr

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Ingredients

2 lbs sirloin steak
1/4 cup + 2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil or butter
1 1/2 TBSP kosher salt
One batch of Carrot Top Chimichurri

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Place steak in a gallon sized, freezer-safe zip-top bag and add 1/4 cup of the olive oil or butter and the salt. Cook according to directions from whatever sous vide mechanism you’re working with.

Once the steak has finished cooking, heat a large pan with the remaining olive oil or butter over medium-high heat. Sear the steaks for 1-2 minutes per side, or until the meat no longer sticks to the pan and has a nice brown crust.

Remove the steaks from the heat and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Slice and serve topped with the chimichurri.

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Linguine with Prosciutto and Breadcrumbs

A few weeks ago, NYTFood published a list of quick and easy summer meal ideas by Mark Bittman. I made one of the suggestions while rushing to get out the door to the airport, desperate to avoid overpriced and meh airport and airplane food. It came together like a dream, even allowing for elaboration and personal touches. Keeping the garlic roughly chopped allows it to get soft and roasty, and the crispy prosciutto adds a nice crunch. Here’s my dressed-up take on Bittman’s excellent suggestion.

Pasta with Prosciutto and Breadcrumbs

Adapted from #14 on this list of summer meal ideas

Serves 4-6
Hands-On Time: 15 min
Total Time: 15 min

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Ingredients

1 lb linguine
1 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
3 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed, and roughly chopped
3oz prosciutto, roughly chopped
Juice from 2 large lemons
2 TBP butter
1/4 cup + 2 TBP extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt for pasta water
Basil for garnish

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Cook pasta according to package directions in heavily salted water. Drain, place in a large bowl, and toss with 2 TBP of olive oil and the lemon juice.

In a large pan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the prosciutto and cook for about one minute. Add the garlic, breadcrumbs, and red pepper flakes and cook until the breadcrumbs are toasted and the prosciutto is crispy.

Pour the breadcrumb and prosciutto mixture over the pasta and toss to combine. Serve with basil leaves and lemon slices for garnish!

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