The drops of rain on this dahlia mark the end of our sunny streak in Vancouver and possibly an early end to summer here. The recipes for this month’s Cottage Cooking Club inhabit the transitional space between summer and fall, as well.
Chard and New Potato Curry
Swiss chard is one of those amazing vegetables that shows up in the spring and keeps on producing right through until winter’s almost begun. Along with some potatoes picked when they’re small and a sauce that’s lightened with yogurt and heightened with Indian-inspired spices, this is a stew that’s welcome in any season. We both loved this curry, eating it without accompaniment on the first night and warming up the leftovers to serve over rice. It’s also one of those recipes that can serve as a template, allowing you to use whatever’s freshest or on hand. We’ll be having this one again and again.
Tahini-Dressed Courgette and Green Bean Salad
This dish hearkened back to my first experiments with vegetarian dishes, when I was in university. We all had jars of tahini in our refrigerators and Moosewood cookbooks on our shelves. Nowadays, I’m more likely to use tahini in Mediterranean or Middle Eastern cooking, but I enjoyed this slightly hippyish salad, especially with the addition of salad greens and tromboncino squash from my garden. The harvest from my first set of green bean vines is over and I’m awaiting more from the second set I planted, so I substituted snap peas, instead. They worked well. I can see myself making variations of this salad for myself (just me – unfortunately, Kevin wasn’t a fan) or using the dressing to marinate vegetables, lamb, or chicken before grilling or baking.
Caramelized Carrots with Gremolata
I couldn’t resist buying some heirloom carrots to use for this dish. These carrots were a deep purple on the outside, with a core of orange – we ate them up too quickly for me to get a shot of that, though. This is another dish I think I’ll be making often, using whatever root vegetables I have on hand. The freshness of the gremolata against the caramelization of the roasted carrots was lovely.
Asian-inspired coleslaw
And lastly, there’s this salad that’s almost like a quick pickle. We loved the combination of flavours in this salad – sweet, tart, earthy, spicy. It felt summery, but the cabbage, carrots, and onions can be obtained at almost any season – this would be a wonderful way to brighten up a late winter meal, too.
Next month, we’ll be exploring vegetarian flavours to pull us into the cooling of the year. I’m eating as much of summer’s bounty as I can, but I admit that autumn’s flavours are on my mind more and more.
Intrigued by this month’s recipes? Buy the book and join us.
Here are the links to the rest of the group’s posts for this month. I encourage you to check them out – you’ll meet some wonderful bloggers and get some great inspiration for vegetarian eating.
One Wet Foot 
Hi Teresa, what a great assortment of recipes you picked, love your presentation. Sounds like everyone really enjoyed the carrots, I will have to try that recipe for myself. Had great fun this month!!
purple carrots! I keep seeing packages of multi-colored carrots that I’m told are fabulous, I need to get some. Tonight I’ll be (finally) making my carrots as well, though I’m totally cheating and going low-brow. But any root vegetable roasted and caramelized as you say, is good!
The only recipe I made that was the same as yours was the slaw. We liked it, but I thought it could use a bit of zip (aka wasabi, or something).
All of your dishes look terrific. I’m happy you enjoyed the recipes – I love this book, don’t you?
Now that’s my kind of cottage food!
Dear Teresa, so much fun seeing the roasted carrots in the purple version (if I may say so) – love these purple carrots, they have such a sweet, yet nutty taste that only gets better when roasted/caramelised! The Asian-inspired Slaw looks wonderful too – my kids are crazy about that salad – and I love it too – your presentation is wonderful and colorful and so fresh – you are absolutely right, this salad works in the colder months as much as it does in summer. And the Chard and New Potato Curry has the most wonderful colors too – it looks absolutely fabulous. Seeing your version, I cannot wait to make it myself!
Thank you for participating again this month!
Andrea
What a stunning dahlia! I bet the carrots were gorgeous when cut into. Such a simple, yet amazing recipe. The salad was my favorite, along with the caponata. I really can not remember much about the coleslaw, though yours looks wonderful, love the addition of sesame seeds.
I love the purple carrots! I made that one too and LOVED it. You’re so right that it would work with other root vegetables, though that didn’t occur to me until you said it. I’m glad to hear your take on the other recipes which I did not try. The zucchini one looked particularly appealing to me. I enjoyed cooking from this book this month. Now I have decide whether to commit to the rest of the year.
You made some wonderful dishes! It’s the first time I saw purple carrots and I like the contrast of the gremolata. I am thinking of buying the book.
Gorgeous dahlia! And all of your dishes look beautiful! We loved the carrots too but mine sure didn’t look like yours – so pretty in purple! The sesame seeds on the slaw are a very nice touch.
I’m not going to lie Teresa, I was a little bit excited for the rain this week. I love Fall and with all the crunchy leaves in Kits park, I’m stoked for the cooler temps.
That being said, your cooking club recipes make an awfully good case for Summer 🙂 I’ve been getting a ton of swiss chard in my CSA from Farm City Co-Op lately so I may need to take you up on one of these.
So glad to be a part of FBC with you!! xo!
I love fall, too, but I was hoping for a little longer stretch of sun so that my tomatoes would finish ripening. Wet Coast problems…
Thanks so much for stopping by! It’s great being a part of FBC with you, too. I’m happy to have been introduced to some more Vancouverites through it, especially!
Your dishes look fantastic but that Dahlia….
Confession, I have two Moosewood cookbooks from my college days! Love tahini and the salad is definitely on my catch-up list. As is the coleslaw. Chard here is super expensive and tricky to find so skipped that recipe but wondering if I can sub spinach instead. You’ve got me thinking I need to make it.
Thanks so much. I still use my Moosewood cookbooks. 🙂
Spinach would definitely work in this recipe – kale, too!
Teresa! What a magnificent month of choices! First, the photo of the dahlia is the picture of natures perfection, very beautiful. Most of all, I really enjoyed the variations you made and in the photo design layout, the use of the snap beans, heirloom carrots. I prepared the curry and everyone loved that dish so much I could barely photograph it for the eager consumers, a big hit! Got a kick out of your Moosewood cookbook reference. Thanks for the lovely inspiration.