Garlic Lime Chili Chicken

Recipe: Nut-Free Basil Pesto

Rustic Rhubarb Tarts

Homemade Granola Recipe

Butternut Carrot Ginger Soup

Portobello, bacon, red onion quiche with homemade shell. 

Whoa momma this is some garlicky goodness, just make sure people around you are eating it too! These funny little guys pop up at the local Vancouver Farmer’s Market around mid June and don’t stick around very long. They are quite beautiful with a milder garlic taste, you can use them as you would a raw scallion. I was intrigued by all the market folk walking with these curly bundles in their bags so I spoke to one of the farmers and making pesto from them. 

Scapes are a little bit hard so trying to make the pesto by hand didn’t go very well, I chopped everything up and blended together with a make shift mortar and pestle, there are still pesto bits all over my kitchen. So if you have one, I would strongly suggest using a food processor for this recipe. 

1 bundle of Scapes (about 8 stems) 
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup parmasagn
1/4-1/2 cup of olive oil

Blend all ingredients in food processor, adding oil as necessary. 

One of my all time favourite meals, my momma used to make this for me throughout my 10 years of being a vegetarian and I still love it. The boyfriend uses it as a side dish to steak or chicken, but I think this is filling enough on it’s own. 

• 1 spagetti squash
• 1 1/2 cups mushrooms, chopped
• 3 large tomatoes, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp dried oregano or italien herb blend (I usually throw in whatever fresh herbs I have Parsley, Basil, Thyme etc 1/4cup each, the more the merrier) 
• 1/4 tsp salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup mozzarella or parmesan 

Slice squash lengthwise and bake at 375 until flesh is soft approx. 30-40 minutes. Let squash cool and then using a fork scrape the squash, it will come off in spagetti type strings. Sautee mushrooms, garlic, onion and herbs together. When the onions are soft add tomatoes and simmer until liquid has almost evaporated. Combine all ingredients in a baking dish, top with cheese and bake uncovered at 375 for an hour. 

A little bit of advice, DO NOT eat your squash if it is sprouting inside, like the photo below. This squash from the market sat on my table for a few weeks but was very healthy looking and firm, smelt fine and the flesh felt and looked normal. I googled to see if I should eat it and had mixed reviews so I went for it. What a disaster, the normal sweet flesh was disgustingly bitter! I hate wasting food so we tried to pick the yummy bits out but it was so gross it quickly went to the garbage. It wasn’t all bad because I planted some of the sprouts and they are growing insanely fast!

So these look amazing, right? Too bad they tasted like crap hahaha! I was really looking forward to this recipe because there were so many positive reviews but for some reason my batch had the strangest metallic aftertaste. I’m not sure where I went wrong but I’m willing to give it another go since they looked so good and it was my very first cracker attempt.

Sooo easy to make, this is my new “need a chocolate fix now” dessert! So easy that if you’re not paying attention and forget to put in half the milk and only 1 of 2 eggs it still works and tastes delicious! 

Recipe

All images © Melanie Shave