Corn Tomato Avocado Salsa Salad

Jeanette Chen of Jeanette’s Healthy Living offers this versatile and simple salad, which is also wonderful as a salsa. She suggests using it as a topping for fish or chicken, as a bright addition to tacos, as a dip for a quick appetizer, or as a tasty side salad. Perfect for warm weather dining, where gatherings are more casual, this delicious recipe highlights the fresh and healthy ingredients of the season.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 cups corn kernels
3 cloves garlic minced
1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
1 red bell pepper finely chopped
1 avocado chopped
1 scallion minced
1/4 cup cilantro or basil leaves minced
1/2 jalapeno pepper seeded, minced
2 limes, juiced
drizzle extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add corn and garlic and sauté until corn has a few brown spots. Transfer to a bowl and toss with remaining ingredients. Serve.

Zucchini Summer Squash Tomato Gratin Recipe

Screenshot 2015-07-21 15.14.53Everything’s coming up zucchini! Jeanette Chen of Jeanette’s Healthy Living shares this lovely French inspired summer dish from her kitchen. This gratin is basically a zucchini tomato summer squash casserole that has goat cheese sprinkled on top. First thought, there’s a layer of sweet sautéed onions and garlic at the base of a casserole dish. Then, sliced zucchini, tomatoes and summer squash are alternately layered row by row. The trick is to use zucchini, tomatoes and summer squash that about the same diameter so the gratin looks as uniform as possible. Save the other pieces for a saute for another day.
Serves four to six people.
Zucchini Summer Squash Tomato Gratin Recipe
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, halved, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 zucchini (~ 1 pound), cut into ¼” slices
2 summer squash (~ 1 pound), cut into ¼” slices
7 small tomatoes (~ 1 pound), cut into ¼” slices
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray bottom of 13x9x2 inch casserole dish with cooking spray or brush lightly with oil.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet; add onions and saute until translucent; add garlic and saute another minute; transfer to casserole dish and spread to cover the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence.
Alternately layer zucchini, summer squash and tomato in casserole dish. Drizzle remaining olive oil on top. Season with salt, fresh ground black pepper and remaining Herbes de Provence. Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes; uncover dish, sprinkle goat cheese on top and continue baking, uncovered, for another 30-35 minutes, until browned.

Grilled Thai Chicken Recipe

Screenshot 2015-06-08 13.59.17Ready for a great barbecue marinade for the summer? Jeanette from Jeanette’s Healthy Living shares this recipe, which is good for both chicken and fish. Both are best marinated overnight, so try to plan ahead; otherwise, if you marinate it in the morning, you’ll be good to go. One trick Jeanette uses when she grills chicken or fish is to place the chicken or fish on a baking tray lined with a piece of lightly oiled foil. She slides the whole thing on to the grill – this makes it so much easier to turn the pieces of chicken or fish and there’s no grill scraping in involved. This recipe serves four and can be doubled.
Grilled Thai Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
2½ pounds chicken pieces on the bone (Also good for fish)
Thai Chicken Marinade
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup coconut milk (canned)
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cilantro roots or stems, minced
Directions
Mix together Thai Chicken Marinade in large bowl. Add chicken and toss well to coat all pieces. Marinate in refrigerator overnight. Grill until done.
Click here for the full recipe
Grilled-Thai-Chicken-3

Grilled Ratatouille with Eggplant, Peppers and Tomatoes

Grilled-Ratatouille-watermarkedWith local CT Eggplant, peppers and all varieties of Native Tomatoes currently in season and arriving fresh daily at Stewart’s, now is the perfect time to enjoy this summery Grilled Ratatouille recipe from our friend Jeanette, of Jeanette’s Healthy Living Blog: “Grilled Ratatouille wrapped in foil is the perfect way to enjoy summer eggplant, tomatoes, onions and peppers. The best part is that there’s almost no cleanup involved.”

Grilled Ratatouille with Eggplant, Peppers and Tomatoes

Ingredients
1 small eggplant, cut into bite size pieces
2 bell peppers, cut into bite size pieces
1 vidalia onion or large sweet onion, chopped
2 whole tomatoes Cheesy Recipes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt-free Italian herb mix
salt and fresh ground pepper
splash of red wine vinegar

Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl, toss together eggplant, peppers, onion, olive oil herb mix, salt and
pepper. Place large piece of aluminum foil (make sure foil extends several inches longer than
baking sheet) on baking sheet and spray lightly with cooking spray. Spread vegetables on foil.
Cover with another piece of foil, folding bottom foil over top to seal packet. Cut several slits in
top of foil pack. Place on grill (I slide the packet onto the grill from the baking sheet). Place
tomatoes on top of grill; cover grill; grill tomatoes about 10 minutes, until skin blisters; turn over
and grill another 5 minutes; remove from grill. Grill foil wrapped vegetables until tender, about
25 minutes in total.
2. Remove skin from grilled tomatoes and chop tomatoes. Toss with grilled vegetables and add a
splash of vinegar.

Pesto Pasta Salad

Fresh-Tomato-Mozzarella-Pasta-SaladThe beginning of beefsteak tomato season is here! Cecarelli Farms of Northford, CT just brought us some native field-grown tomatoes perfect ready to enjoy. Jeanette Chen of Jeanette’s Healthy Living blog shares this simple recipe which really brings out the flavor of the tomatoes. This is enough pasta salad to serve 10-12 when served with other dishes at a barbecue or over lettuce for the family.

Pesto Pasta Salad

Ingredients

3 cups chopped chopped tomatoes

4 small pieces fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, cut into bite size pieces

1/3 cup fresh pesto 4-5 cloves fresh garlic, minced

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil salt

fresh ground black pepper, to taste

a handful of fresh grated Parmesan cheese,

optional 1 pound dried gluten-free or whole grain pasta

Directions

In a large serving bowl, toss together tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, pesto, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Let marinade for an hour or longer. When ready to serve, cook pasta according to package directions; drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta cooking liquid. Toss hot pasta with tomato mixture, adding some pasta cooking liquid to loosen up sauce. Serve. Click here to read Jeanette’s wonderful post.

Summer Squash Salad

summersquashsaladSummer salad options are many with all the fresh vegetables coming in here at Stewart’s daily from local Connecticut farms. Katie from The Parsley Thief  shares a special summer salad her Pop served up with all fresh ingredients using squash which is just becoming available. Enjoy!
Summer Squash Salad
Ingredients
1 pound of fresh peas
2 red scallions
1 zucchini squash
1 summer yellow squash
1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil
2 Ounces Feta cheese
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste.
Directions
Shell the peas into a bowl. Then you need to bring a small saucepan of salted water to a boil, and blanch the peas for about 2 minutes, and drain. Next, take 2 red scallions, clean them up, and thinly slice them. Add this to the bowl with the blanched peas.
Next, take the zucchini & squash, and thinly slice them. Put them in the bowl.
Then you’ll need to mince up some fresh basil. You only need about a tablespoon of minced basil, but Katie used a bit more. Add that to the bowl.
Sprinkle about two ounces of crumbled feta cheese into the bowl.
Lastly, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, some salt and pepper to taste.