darn! I was hoping for a basket weaving challenge! LOL!

You could make a nice giardiniera from the carrots, peppers, squashes, cauliflower, and cucumber.

Well, you could roast the cucumber, along with the zucchini and the yellow squash and the radishes. I like roasted radishes very much. I've not roasted a cucumber yet, but Julia did it, so it's got to be good, right?

Julia Child's Baked Cucumbers

32 inches cucumbers
2 tablespoons wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon dill or 1/2 teaspoon basil
4 tablespoons minced scallions
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Peel the cucumbers. Cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut into lengthwise strips about 3/8 inch wide. Cut strips into 2 inch pieces. Toss the cucumber in a bowl with the vinegar, salt and sugar. Let stand for 30 minutes to several hours.

Drain and pat dry in a towel. Preheat oven to 375. Toss the cucumbers in a baking dish with the butter, herbs, scallions and pepper. Set uncovered in the middle level of the preheated oven for about an hour, tossing 2-3 times, until cucumbers are tender, but still have a suggestion of crispiness and texture. They will barely color during cooking.

Variation One: Parslied Cucumbers.

In a warm vegetable dish toss with 2 Tbsp minced parsley.

Variation Two: Creamed Cucumbers.

Boil 1 cup whipping cream until it has reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper, fold into the hot baked cucumbers, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

OK, so we have baked/roasted vegetables as a side dish, you could make the obligatory salad with the lettuce, pepper and tomato, or use the tomato and red pepper in Chase's roasted red pepper soup, it's yummy. If you prefer, make soup from the carrots.

I love the popcorn cauliflower, it's the only way I'll eat Cauliflower at all, or you could hollow the darned thing out and use it as a bowl to hold dip for the rest of the vegetables.

Or you can use it all in a pot of soup and make lettuce wraps as your "sandwich". Ignore the Velveeta in this soup, I never add it and I add any vegetables I have on hand that sound good, not necessarily the ones called for.

Cream of Vegetable Soup

•4 cups water
•2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
•3 cups diced peeled potatoes
•1 cup finely chopped onion
•1 cup diced peeled rutabaga
•1/2 cup diced carrots
•6 cups chopped cabbage
•1 cup chopped celery
•1/2 cup chopped green pepper
•1 garlic clove, minced
•1 teaspoon salt
•1 teaspoon dill weed
•1 cup butter
•1 cup all-purpose flour
•2 cups milk
•2 cups chicken broth
•1/2 pound process cheese (Velveeta)
•1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
•Pepper to taste
•Additional milk, optional

•In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, bring water and bouillon to a boil. Add potatoes, onion, rutabaga and carrots. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cabbage, celery and green pepper; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add garlic, salt and dill.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour; cook and stir over medium heat until golden brown. Gradually add milk and broth, stirring until smooth. Add cheese, thyme and pepper;
cook on low until cheese is melted. Stir into vegetable mixture; simmer for 5 minutes. Thin with milk if needed.

Yield: 12-14 servings (about 3-1/2 quarts).

Not very unique, I know. Elery says he'd take the whole basket of stuff and make some kind of Moroccan vegetable stew, use the cucumber in kind of a dip mixed with yogurt to moderate the spices. The lettuce? Darned if I know, I never eat the stuff. (grin) Maybe used in place of bread to scoop up the vegetables?

Annie

From your title I thought that there might be some obscure (icky) veggies, but I believe you struck gold! We recently enjoyed a sauteed cauliflower at an excellent local restaurant. After the waiter explained how they made it, I tried it at home with an excellent result!
Slice the cauliflower very thin, either with a sharp knife or a mandolin. Slice some garlic as well. Saute the garlic in grapeseed oil (i used EVOO) then add the cauliflower and the juice from 1/2 of a lemon (+ or -) , some chili flakes and keep moving the mixture in the pan. The dish is cooked when the cauliflower is caramelized and delicious. Season to taste!

I have that basket in my storage...avoiding it. But add 6 trays of asian pears, 20lbs green beans, and a dozen stalks of fennel...ugh. And a load of fruit files, lol.
Gotta get creative soon!

Easy, just dump everything in a blender and make a big smoothie. LOL!

That reminds me, tomorrow is farmers market day. I am never bored with vegetables.

dcarch

Harvest Lasagna.
My personal answer to an abundance of garden veggies. I use my turkey roaster and fill that baby with everything, even asian pears, yellow baby beets, carrots, zucs, cucs, chard, kale...
I make it while coping with all the tomatoes...two 1/2 sheet pans, aprox 12 tomatoes make the sauce, then blended with another dozen fresh and lots of herbs...basil, chives, thyme.
It is different every year but i always start with a base layer of white potato, then sweet potato.
The entire pan is half full of veggie, then caramelized onions, (i chop the greens and steam them on top of the near completed onions). I do not use sauce until halfway up. It keeps the giant veggie layer fresh and full of its own flavors. This year has a mushroom and prosciutto layer near the top, finished with parm and fresh cherry tomatoes.

Only use one box no-boil noodles and one 32oz ricotta. Last year i used rice noodles.
I let it cool and chill in the fridge overnight so if firms up and easy to cut and freeze into 2person meals. (this makes 20 hungry-man servings)

The final slice

sleevendog, just have to say that 'my' hungry men (friends) eat a whole lot more than yours! lol!!! and they eat it all FAST too! :O)

Like party music, the men in my life would eat at least twice that serving, LOL.

I finally gave up yesterday and started chucking vegetables into a stock pot and canned a kind of homemade V8 with onions, carrots, beets, kale, parsley, tomatoes, zucchini, even a couple of apples. All of it went through the Squeezo and became juice, which I canned in the pressure canner. No recipe and it's definitely not tested and approved by the government but I'm comfortable with it.

So, sleevendog, sometimes I'm dense, so walk me through this. A layer of mixed/assorted vegetables, sliced or chopped. The sauce? I'm assuming a pan full of those tomatoes are roasted, then mixed with uncooked fresh tomatoes? Then cooked stovetop with the herbs or just mixed together? Food processor? Where does the pasta come? On top of the vegetables, under the sauce? Ricotta too? Only one layer of pasta and cheese and sauce, or more than one? It looks like something I'd like a lot, there are few vegetables that I don't like.

Annie

Yeah. I have a dozen pics but they are to big and need re-sizing. I make this at holiday time also,so my parents and MIL will have leftovers in the freezer. (they want the recipe).
Oh, cool, this pic worked.
Starts out organized, lol. Then i just mandolin everything i have in veggie. Until halfway up, then the caramelized onions, dot with the ricotta all over and smoosh on the lasagna noodles, the no-boil type. The veggies soften and meld together...and steam...eggplant helps being so moist but some fruit like apples are super. (i have crates of asian pears). Naturally sweet and savory. It does shrink down. The top half is standard lasagna fare with a fresh tom sauce and a layer of greens. Not much pasta so not as heavy.
-I add more parm and mozz or whatever i have when i thaw and re-heat.
-the potato and sweet potato base is just a good glue to soak up extra moisture and hold it together.

This post was edited by sleevendog on Fri, Sep 20, 13 at 0:16

Every harvest year i think no way will i fill this thing, lol. Once again it was heaping full.
I cover with parchment, then foil and bake 350 for about an hour and 15. I just want the pasta barely done because this will be frozen and bake again. But i need it firm enough resting overnight that it will easily cut in portions. (food saver).
My sauce confusion was making this while i was roasting 50lbs of tomatoes and making salsa and
prepping some toms for fresh freezing. Multi tasking. I did not bother with a meat sauce, bolognese, or a chili this year. Weather is still too nice. Just had to get the corn and toms put up.
(the sauce is roasted toms blended with fresh until it looked rich and nice, not to thin, in the cuisinart)
Still no real recipe but that's how i fly, haha. (drives my MIL nuts)

I would be making this recipe with the cauliflower. I usually serve it as a main dish instead of a side.

GRATIN OF CAULIFLOWER WITH GINGERED CRUMBS - from seagrass12/04

1 1/2 pounds cauliflower, leaves trimmed, core removed
3 Tbsps. unsalted butter
2 Tbsps. all-purpose flour
1 cup light cream or half-and-half
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
dash of hot pepper sauce
1/4 cup grated Swiss cheese
1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsps. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cook cauliflower in at least 3 quarts of boiling water until just tender, 10-12 minutes. Rinse under cold water - drain. Cut or break into floweretes. Put in a well-buttered 2 quart casserole.

Melt 2 Tbsps. butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Whisk in the cream. Raise the heat slightly and cook until thick. Add the lemon juice, nutmeg, hot pepper sauce and cheese. Spoon sauce over cauliflower.

Melt remaining 1 Tbsp. butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir in breadcrumbs and ground ginger. Cook, stirring constantly, until golden. Spoon crumbs over cauliflower and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven until bubbly, 15-20 minutes.

Serves 4

This one uses up a lot of your ingredients and tastes very summery. I like to serve it over yellow rice.

SUMMER SKILLET SUPPER

1 (1 lb.) fully-cooked ham slice or 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts
2 large tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium size green pepper
1 medium size onion
1 medium size yellow squash (about 1/ 2 lb.)
2 medium zucchini (about 1 lb. total)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1/ 2 cup chicken broth or 1 envelope instant chicken broth mixed with 1/ 2 cup water
2 tsp.fresh chopped basil or 1/ 2 tsp. dried basil
1/ 2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp. pepper

Cut ham into 1/ 4 inch strips, about 1-1/ 2 inches long. Cut each tomato into 8 wedges; cut pepper into 1/ 2 inch wide strips and onion into thin lengthwise slivers. Cut squashes into 1/ 4 inch wide slices, halving lengthwise if larger than 1 inch in diameter.

In wok or large skillet over medium high heat, cook ham and all vegetables, except tomatoes, in hot oil about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium. Add remaining ingredients, except tomatoes; stir and cook until vegetables are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add tomato wedges and continue cooking until tomatoes are heated through.

This post was edited by ruthanna on Fri, Sep 20, 13 at 9:24

Wow wow wow! Great ideas, all. I'll give it a full week and then decide the winner -- votes accepted!

I said I'd give rachelellen's radish leaf soup recipe, but I forgot. Here it is, in her own words:

Radish Leaf Soup

If your radish leaves are fresh, I would start with a cream of radish leaf soup. I don't really have a recipe as I just make it, but...
Chop a smallish onion, a stick of celery and a large peeled potato, diced small in butter over a medium heat until the veggies soften and are just starting to turn golden. Add 4 c of chicken or vegetable stock, bring to a boil and reduce to a fast simmer.
While the vegetables are simmering, sort your leaves, discarding any that are yellowed. Wash them very well and chop coarsely. If you don't have at least 2 cups of packed leaves, augment them with some frozen spinach or other green. [I added some horseradish leaves] You didn't say whether your carrots had greens, those would be ideal.
When the veggies are soft, add the greens and cook until softened, but still bright green. Puree the mixture in a blender or with a stick blender and add a cup or two (to taste) of half and half [I used) or if you're feeling really decadent, heavy cream. Season with white pepper and salt to taste.
This will not make a really thick soup, relying as it does on the potato and pureed veggies for thickening so if you really prefer cream soups to be thick, you can thicken it with roux at the stage just before you add the greens...you don't want to cook the greens too long and lose that fresh flavor.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did.

That is a really nice recipe. Very simply written and gives the right amount of marching orders. "while the vegetables are simmering, sort your leaves...."
Yet encourages an exploration of new flavors. Using such a simple base, just about any fresh green or vegetable can be used to finish the soup. Baby beet greens, baby chard and basil.
Last night i used the same base and added an ear of corn off the cob with fennel fronds. And a chopped tomato to the broth.

That is a lot of soup though. Finishes at almost two quarts. For two people as a main course or mid-week quick meal, 2 cups of stock instead of 4 w/ shallot or onion, celery, potato...
To lower the calories, a chopped tomato and a heaping spoonful of greek plain non-fat yogurt and/or a 1/4 cup coconut milk...
What i made last night would serve easily 6-8 as a first course.
Tougher baby greens like the kales i like to put in early with the broth.
My garden is producing as if it is early July with the calm weather without a frost yet. A new bounty of baby chard and mixed greens but not enough for a side dish. A good recipe to use the babies. I even have a dozen 4inch zucchini. Another bag of string beans, oy.

Horseradish leaves give me a stomach ache if larger than a hand and very bitter. Young and smaller than an average hand have a nice tang earthy flavor. Like arugula and kale.

I have a few friends that really want to cook and learn, but they insist on tight-fisting a printed recipe and following to a 't', getting frustrated and hysterical shopping for the exact ingredients, often giving up. Spend a fortune on morning latte', 20 dollar lunches, (and shoes, lol)
Then cocktails and take-out. (!)

This would be the perfect recipe for a girls get together cooking class.

sleevendog, wow, what a great post. You've given me lots of good ideas for the odds and ends in the garden. Lots of funny little eggplants in there, some sun scorched. Should be good in a soup like this.

You're right, it made a lot of soup. But we had house guests. Right now I am working my way through a huge pot of leftover zucchini and yellow squash soup (see above ingredient list!), and I'll probably freeze the rest. I MUST MUST have soup in the freezer at all times! :-)

I love even the big horseradish leaves (but then they don't give me a stomach ache). I munch them as a snack when I'm gardening; they are so plentiful. I often mix them with milder greens. I take out the big, tough center stalk. One of our favorite uses is to cook them with chickpeas or cannellini beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and hot vegetarian sausage (we like the Tofurkey and TJ brands) and maybe some cheese and/or pasta. Mmmmm.

It does take many years to catch on to cooking without sticking to recipes. I think maybe it's especially hard for people who started with baking, because you do have to be more careful there. Often I will follow a recipe closely the first time, then get creative with it next time (or even the first time if I decide it needs something more -- I dump in lemon, wine, vinegar -- often one of those three, but sometimes sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Maggi seasoning, soy or fish sauce, sesame oil, hot sauce, ketchup, spices, whatever feels right). But you have to learn to trust yourself.

I taught my son to put a small amount of whatever seemed to need something more into one or more little dishes and experiment that way, so he didn't have to be afraid of wrecking the whole pot.

Thanks, sleevendog, I just came back from the garden with eggplant, fingerling potatoes, butternut squash, cabbage, tomatoes, kale, poblanos and lots and lots of apples...

Annie

..."I love even the big horseradish leaves...."

I shall re-visit the large leaves rather than compost them!
Perhaps another garden snack gave me an off stomach that day. I may have over-snacked the peas and string beans, lol. I always pick the baby kales and chards for salad, so i thought the same with the horseradish.

I have two 'wild childs' in my garden. Rudbecia and horseradish. Both jammed in without care 10yrs ago...tiny little things they were. (haha)
I considered the horseradish an enormous garden foul as it is running up and down the blueberries and grape vines but all is fine as if they are companions.
(Best concords and blueberries ever this year).
The rudbeckia took over my greens bed some time ago but i don't mind being the only flower in my garden and no fuss. An easy dig-and-give gift for visitors.
The kales, redbore and lacinado, did not do so well but a few big leaves, rubbed with olive oil and on the grill, stems and all, is delish. Can't wait to try the horseradish leaves the same.
-I see a Horseradish Leaf Soup in my future...with white beans and lamb sausage!

Well, it's a tough call, but I think we have to name sleevendog this Year's winner. Congratulations and thanks!

Send me your snail mail address and I will send you your prize.

Great ideas still enthusiastically welcomed, of course.

This post was edited by gellchom on Wed, Sep 25, 13 at 8:41

Really? I would vote for rachelellen again for being so inspiring and filling my freezer with soup!
(how do i send my snail mail?)

ps. i need new winter tires, lol

Click on my name in this post, then click on the link to send an email.

It has been disabled? This is what came up.

..."The GardenWeb member gellchom has elected not to receive communications through forms on the site."

Oh! That's a surprise. I'll try to fix that. Meantime I'll click on your link.

A lot of good recipes here but I must say the Harvest Lasagna looks fantastic!