I was invited to be the guest chef at the Las Vegas Farmers Market with the Southern Nevada Health District and showcase healthy eating with some of the fresh produce available.
http://www.lasvegasfarmersmarket.com/Las%20Vegas%20Farmers.htm
Van Dyke farms provided us with some awesome goods to cook up and allow the public to sample. We got kale, yellow squash, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes. I simply cooked up some whole wheat pasta ahead of time. On site, we sauteed some minced garlic and shallots. We added in all the chopped veggies, along with some lemon zest and lemon juice. I deglazed with white wine and stirred in canned cannelinni beans and the pasta to warm through. We served with a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan for garnish. It was excellent! Everyone was loving our lemon veggie pasta. Yellow squash, zucchini, and kale are all in season right now and are perfect to mix into your favorite dishes.
It got a little windy on day two but we survived!! As I told everyone at the farmer's market, if we can whip this up at a table, in a tent, in that wind, you could easily do it at home!
At home, I decided to whip up some spaghetti squash. Spaghetti squash is one of my absolute favorites and it is abundant right now! A spaghetti squash looks like this:
First thing, place the entire squash in the microwave for 4 minutes to slightly soften. Next, carefully, cut it in half lengthwise. Place the halves face down on a cookie sheet in 1/2 inch of water and place in the oven at 375 degrees.
While the squash is baking, you make the sauce. On this day, I used ground turkey and mushrooms. Ground turkey is a great substitute for ground beef. It is much leaner. Try substituting ground turkey wherever you would normally use ground beef: tacos, lasagna, spaghetti and more!
I minced up some red onion and garlic and threw them in a saute pan with a few tbsp. of olive oil.
Next, I crumbled in the ground turkey, to brown.
I seasoned the ground turkey with salt and fresh ground black pepper.
Note: Whenever I refer to "season with salt and pepper," I am using kosher salt, and grinding pepper from a pepper mill. You can buy kosher salt in a box at any grocery store. It just tastes better. Once you start cooking with it, you'll never go back! The only time you should use iodized salt when cooking is to season deep fried foods. The small granules of iodized salt stick to a hot fried food better and more evenly than the kosher crystals. Also, you may want to keep ground white pepper on hand as well. In some dishes, the mild flavor and lighter color of white pepper is better. Often, you have a pretty, light colored sauce, and you don't want to dirty up the aesthetic by adding big black pepper speckles.
I sliced up the shitake and button mushrooms. You can use the entire button mushroom, but the shitake stems are too woody; you have to remove them first, then slice up the cap.
When the turkey and mushrooms were cooked, I added in canned diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and dried basil and oregano. I turned the heat to low and allowed the sauce to simmer until the squash was ready.
After approximately 40 minutes, remove the squash from the oven. Drain the water and flip over the squash halves. Carefully scoop out the seeds from the middle.
Next, take a fork, and loosen the flesh of the squash from the walls of the squash by shredding.
The flesh will pull away from the sides in strings and look just like spaghetti noodles! Keep shredding until all the flesh is loosened and removed.
You can use the squash shell as a bowl to serve in, or you can scoop out the filling. Top with the tomato sauce mixture and garnish with some shredded Parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
Isn't that fun?!?! You get all the joy of a bowl of spaghetti with none of the guilt. The squash has added vitamins, minerals, and fiber that the pasta wouldn't! Take advantage of the seasonal offerings at your store or farmer's market!
