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Summer Vegetable Fanfare

Food Guys Greg Patent and Jon Jackson let vegetables lead them around their local farmers markets. "Eggplant, corn, snap peas, green beans, leeks, onions, shallots, garlic, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes - summer vegetables don't require a lot of cooking."

Dorothy Patent sautés zucchinis and onions by first browning the onions (white or red) in olive oil until they're caramelized, pushing them to the edge of the pan. She adds sliced zucchini (1/4 inch thick slices), and browns them for four minutes per side. Quickly mixing them with the cooked onions, chopped garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, she's got a quick-to-prepare side dish.

Bake a globe eggplant (with garlic slivers stuck in the holes you've stabbed into it, before baking) at 400 degrees F for an hour. Scoop out the interior; drain the juices in a strainer and use the puree, with salt and pepper, for a spread on French bread, to make bruschetta.

You can use early sweet corn in spoon bread or a corn soufflé, or sauté it in butter or olive oil with other diced vegetables and herbs like thyme and basil. Even dried beans are tender in summer, and make a good three-bean salad. Some vegetables, like wax beans and Japanese eggplant, are rarities out of season; many supermarkets don't carry them.

And of course there are fresh tomatoes, a category onto themselves. Greg preserves some for winter by baking them in the oven for long enough to dry out 90% of the moisture. He packs them in olive oil in containers in the freezer.

(Broadcast: "The Food Guys," 8/7/16 and 8/11/16. Listen weekly on the radio at 11:50 a.m. Sundays and again at 4:54 p.m. Thursdays, or via podcast.)

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