I served chilled cucumber soup followed a roasted eggplant and tomato orzo dish. The cucumber soup was inspired by the huge bag of cucumbers which came in our CSA box this week. I had failed to finish the cucumbers from the previous weeks box and the only thing I could think of doing with them besides putting them in salad was making soup. I poked around the internet and my cookbooks and cherry picked ingredients according to what I liked and what I had on hand. The result is rather refreshing but with a very strong flavor. Think tzaziki in a drinkable form. Note: this recipe and the following feed 7-8.
Chilled Cucumber Soup
3 lg or 4 medium cucumbers seeded and chopped
1.5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small yellow or white onion, chopped
1 tsp of salt
a generous handful of chopped dill
1/2-1 tsp of chile pepper (I used a chipotle powder)
1-2 cups of plain yogurt*
3/4 cup of butter milk*
* One of the guests had a daily allergy so I also made a vegan version by using plain soy yogurt and water in place of the yogurt and buttermilk. Surprisingly good!
You put it all in a food processor and puree, then put it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. Super easy. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste. You might want to put in less of the yogurt and buttermilk in the beginning and add more if you think its too thick.
I started thinking about the main course with a couple criteria in mind. 1) it could not be very complicated to make, and 2) it had to use the eggplant and romas I had gotten in the CSA box. I also had a pile of meyer lemons on the counter from our tree that I thought would be nice to incorporate. A search for eggplant and lemon turned up this recipe which I used as a basis for the dish. From there it just grew organically into something quite tasty.
Warning: This recipe cooks a lot of the ingredients separately before combining them in the end so planning out when you are going to do everything is advised. I didn't really plan much at all before starting it, so that's probably why it's so rambling.
A Rambling Dish of Roasted Eggplant and Romas with Orzo, Among Other Things
This picture has nothing to do with the dish--it's just a pretty farmer's market haul.
1 tsp red pepper flakes
lots of olive oil
optional vegetable oil
1 large onion
6-8 good sized roma tomatoes, diced
2 cans of garbanzo beans
3 meyer lemons (if using regular lemons, use only 2)
4 garlic cloves
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
handful of basil, ribboned
1.5 cups of orzo
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 450F, if you are so inclined you can preheat the pan you will roast the eggplant in.
Toss the diced and salted eggplant in the juice of 1/2 a lemon, the red pepper flakes, a few glugs of olive oil and pinch or two of salt. Spread onto a baking sheet or roasting pan and cook until soft and brown in spots, about 30 min. You should stir several times during the roasting so that the eggplant doesn't burn.
Put together the vinaigrette by whisking together the juice of the remaining lemon, 1 garlic clove crushed and minced with a large pinch of kosher salt and the ribboned basil and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of olive oil. Let sit.
Then drain the cans of garbanzos and dump the beans into a loaf pan or some other smallish oven proof pan. Mince the remaining 3 cloves of garlic and add them. Then you want to basically cover the garbanzos in oil. I used about 2/3rds canola oil and 1/3rd olive oil. It's a lot of oil. I was hesitant and I didn't quite cover them but should've since the ones on top got a little dried out. Cover the pan with foil and put it in the oven on a rack below the eggplant. Cook it until the eggplant and tomatoes are done, it doesn't really matter how long.
Lastly (for the oven anyways), in an oven proof skillet, saute the onions over medium heat until they are soft. Once the onions are soft add the diced tomatoes and cook, covered but stirring occasionally, for 10 min. Then put the skillet, uncovered, in the oven and let it cook for 10 min. I got very excited about this part because there are few things better than roasted tomatoes.
At some point you need to cook the orzo in salted boiling water until al dente.
The garbanzos, eggplant and tomato/onion mixture should be finishing all around the same time. Once they are all done you combine them (spoon out the garbanzos, don't dump the oil in) and the orzo in the skillet, if its big enough, or a large bowl if you are going to serve it immediately. Throw in the chopped parsley and stir in the vinaigrette. Salt and pepper to taste. You can return it, covered, to the turned off but still warm oven until ready to serve. I passed around some crumbled feta at the same time but it wasn't really necessary.
Ok, I guess I failed on requirement 1. Trust me when I say it's not that complicated.
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