Green Bean stuffed Zucchini - weekend recipe

This is a vegetarian dish you can use as a side dish or an appetizer. It is wonderful with your excess zucchini and the wonderful filling made with string beans and cheese.  I love these sliced in wedges to serve as an appetizer with a rich red sauce or a creamy dip.

Stuffed Zucchini with Green Beans

8 small zucchini (If you use a larger zucchini you should remove the seeds first)

2 cups cooked string beans, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces

1/4 cup chopped shallots

3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese

1 tsp. thyme

Salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Slice zucchini lengthwise and parboil for 5 minutes. Scrape centers (with a melon baller or small spoon) into a bowl and set aside. Also set aside remaining zucchini shells. Sauté shallots in half of the butter. When shallots are golden, add thyme and chopped centers from zucchini. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in green beans along with Gruyere. Stuff into zucchini shells. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and Parmesan. Dot with remaining butter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

RECIPE THEME

Each month a theme is chosen and a number of recipes on that theme from my massive archive will be shared.  This year we have 12 new topics, different from the topics of last year.  To find the recipes of last year, check out this recipe link or search the blog with the topic Recipe2018. 

You can search the monthly theme by looking for the theme keyword in the search box and it will pull up the recipes on that theme as posted, so look at the bottom of the recipe in each posting for the KEYWORD in the () to search for each  month.  All recipes this year will be tagged Recipe2019 so you can find them all.

The themes are:

Jan 2019 – Chicken and Dumplings (CDumpsJan)

Feb 2019 - Pasta Dishes (PastaFeb)

March 2019 - Edible Flowers (FlowerMar)

April 2019 - Seafood Recipes (SeafoodApr)

May 2019 - Cajun And Creole (C&CMay)

June 2019 - Vegetarian Dishes (VegJun)

July 2019 - Zucchini Recipes

August 2019 - National Mustard Day – mustard recipes

September 2019 - Quiche

October 2019 - Crock Pot meals

November 2019 - Pies

December 2019 - Mocktails

Weekend Recipe - Hungarian Baked Vegetable Stew

I love Hungarian sweet paprika.  Hungary is a place with a large number of sweet and chili peppers and they make a sweet paprika that has all the smokiness and robustness of paprika, but is sweeter than a paprika made from chili peppers.  I love it because I can eat it without causing a flair up of my rosacea.  It is a wonderful ingredient in meat rubs and marinades and I use it in Paprika Chicken Rub, Barbeque Spice Blend, Italian Dressing and Marinade and several other blends.  This recipe proves it is also good on vegetables.  I found this recipe in a great cookbook called Herbs in the Kitchen by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger.  If you have a great number of root vegetables this is a wonderful wintertime baked dish you can serve as a main dish and it is perfect when the weather turns cold like it is this weekend here.  And freeze the extra, because it tastes better with age!

 Hungarian Baked Vegetable Stew 

•4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large shallots, diced
• 1 medium red or green sweet pepper, diced
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 or 4 bay leaves
• 1 pound potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 2 turnips or parsnips
• 1 rutabaga, about 4 inches in diameter

• 1 Daikon radish
• 1 tart green apple
• 19-ounce can of chopped tomatoes
• About 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
• 1 tablespoon light honey
• 2 teaspoons Hungarian paprika (you can also use BYP Paprika Chicken Rub)
• 1 chili pepper, ground or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3 cups rich red wine (of course a Hungarian Wine is best)
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over moderate heat and add shallot, pepper, and onion. Stir in the minced garlic and bay leaves, and cook for about 5 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Wash, peel if necessary, and rough chop potatoes, carrots, turnips or parsnips, radish, rutabagas, and apple. Add to skillet along with tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes.  Stir in salt, paprika, chili pepper, parsley and red wine. Mix ingredients thoroughly and transfer to a lightly oiled earthenware or ceramic casserole. Cover and bake for 1 hour.  Reduce heat to 300º F and bake 1 hour longer. Remove the casserole from the oven and let stand, covered, for about 15 minutes. Serve in individual bowls, and pass with sour cream.

Weekend Recipe - Berry Salad

This is an excellent spring salad to perk up your taste buds and add a burst of fruit flavor to your next chicken maid dish!

Berry Good Salad

Serves 6

l/2 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

l/2 pint fresh blackberries

10 ounces spring salad mix

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

1 ounce dried cranberries

1 ounce dried raspberries

1 ounce chopped walnuts

2 pinches coarse black pepper, or to taste

Vinaigrette

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons tarragon or dill herb vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8  teaspoon ground black pepper

1. To prepare the salad, combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl. Just before serving, add vinaigrette and toss well.

2. To prepare vinaigrette, combine oil, vinegar, mustard, shallot, salt and pepper in a bowl. Whisk well.