I thought it'd be fun to share our favorite recipes with each other. Or, if you want to try a new ingredient, you can ask if anyone has any good recipes with them.

Hubby and I recently decided to get a "vegetable subscription" (not sure if that's the correct English term, mind you.)

You essentially pay for a bag of biological vegetables every week. You get whatever is fresh and seasonal and though you get a list of what will be in the bag a week in advance (subject to change if the harvest turned out differently than planned), you don't get a say in what you get.

The bag we'll be getting next week (Tuesday) contains endive, kale, courgette, cabbage, rutabaga and carrots.

So what will we be doing with them?

Mashed potatoes with endive
Cook potatoes and mash them. Or if you want to save time, get potatoe mash from a pack. Make the structure of the mashed potatoes the way you like it best, I personally like lumpy.
Stir fry the endive to soften it up to your liking. We usually throw it in the pan, toss it around a bit and take it out again. Then mix it in with mashed potatoes.
Sprinkle in a hand of nuts. Nuts with a strong flavour work best, I like peanuts for this recipe.
Season to taste. I like salts and tons of pepper. A little bit of curry powder to spice it up tastes great too.

It's easy to make and doesn't take long.

For the rest we wanted to try something that we never did before, so we got recipes for them. If they turn out good, I'll post them.

Courgettes, I think, are called eggplant in the USA--There is a dish I love called Eggplant Parmesan--the eggplant is sliced and breaded, lightly fried--but I think baking would work as well--then you add parmesan and mozarella, and serve with spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. I love the stuff. Rutabagas are good, but hard to peel and cut. They are good just diced up and stewed in a bit of water till tender. For cabbage, I like to chop it coarsely, and saute or stir fry it in a bit of olive oil til crisp-tender--if it gets a bit caramelized, thats even better. And the best thing you can do with cabbage and rutabagas is combine them! They taste great together. I think endive, kale, and carrots are great in salads--endive and kale can be chopped, and the carrots grated, and just tossed together with any kind of lettuce or other veggie, like celery, onion, and chopped fresh tomatoes. Yum--I'm making myself hungry ^^

Reading this post makes me hungry! I may dig about to something to contribute, though it'll most likely be something I've only eaten, never prepared. I'm not much of a cook. Ehe.

Wrong one there Kattzyze. Courgettes are called zucchini in the USA - aubergines are eggplants.

Now if you have a surplus of courgettes/zucchini... here is the recipe for you! Especially if everyone's sick of courgette soup by now.

Creamy courgette lasagne:

Ingredients:
9 dried lasagne sheets (you can also use fresh if you prefer)
1 tbsp sunflower or olive oil, plus a little extra
1 onion, finely chopped
700g/1 lb 9 oz courgettes/zucchinis (about 6) coursely grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250g tub ricotta cheese
50g/2oz cheddar, grated
350g jar tomato sauce for pasta (I just use a tin of chopped tomatoes,
a little balsamic vinegar, a bit of sugar, and some basil - much
cheaper than buying ready-made pasta sauce - and you know exactly
what you put in it!)

Method:
1. Heat oven to 220C(430F)/fan 200C(400F)/gas 7. Put a pan of water on
to boil, then cook the lasgne sheets for about 5 minutes until
softened, but not cooked through (this shouldn't be necessary for
fresh lasagne sheets - check the directions on the packet). Rinse in
cold water, then drizzle with a little oil to stop them sticking
together.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan, then fry the onion.
After 3 mins, add the courgettes and garlic and continue to fry until
the courgette has softened and turned bright green. Stir in 2/3 of
both the ricotta and the cheddar, then season to taste. Heat the
tomato sauce in the microwavefor 2 minutes on High (or, you know, do
it in a saucepan...) until hot.

3. In a large baking dish, layer up the lasagne, starting with half
the courgette mix, then a lasagne sheet, then tomato sauce. Repeat,
top with blobs of the remaining ricotta then scatter with the rest of
the cheddar. Bake on the top shelf for about 10 minutes until the
pasta is tender and the cheese is golden.

Thank you for clearing that up for me, Heather-- I knew you recently gave me a lesson on what courgettes were (spin the courgette! ), but I still got them mixed up with aubergines. In the US, aubergine is a color, not a vegetable (yes, another name for that particular color is -- eggplant ) And yeah--tomatoes and zucchini stewed together are excellent--throw in a bit of chopped onion,celery and thyme, and a dash of sugar and you're done.

We picked up out first vegetable bag today. Everything in it looked so fresh and green, it was fab.

We stirfried half of the cale with an onion, planning to make an omelet with it. The quantity of kale was huge though and even with 3 eggs, it was more egg-coated kale than a kale omelet . Still, it was pretty tasty, so here's the recipe:

Softly stirfry the chopped onion. After a few minutes, when the onion is glazy, add the finely chopped kale.
Put the lid on the pan until and let it sit on a light heat until the kale has the consistency you like (can be as little as 5 minutes or as long as 40).
Then add the eggs, salt, pepper and a small tablespoon of soysause.
Wait until it's cooked, then serve on bread or toast (we used ciabatta bread).

To continue on with the Eggplant theme: Ratatouille!

I've estimated ingredients, but feel free to adjust depending on vegetable size, number of people being fed and the size of your appetite.

In a big heavy sauce pot:

Saute in some olive oil with a wooden spoon (metal and onions don't mix):
2 cloves garlic, minced or smashed with the flat of your blade
1/2 to 1 onion, diced

Once everything is translucent, mix in:
2 tablespoons tomato paste

Mix very thoroughly and cook until it starts to crust on the bottom a bit.

Add in 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and deglaze the pot (scrape up the bits on the bottom of the pot).

Once deglazed, add in :
1 diced eggplant (washed, peeling is optional)

Stir off and on for a few minutes until eggplant starts to soften and releases juices.

Once eggplant starts to darken and soften, add in:
1-2 diced zucchini squash (washed, peeling is optional)
1-2 diced yellow squash (washed, peeling is optional)
2 tablespoons fresh or 1 table spoon dried parsley
2 tablespoons fresh or 1 table spoon dried basil

Stir occasionally and let cook for 20 minutes or so, uncovered, until veggies have softened up a bit.

Add in:
1 can diced tomatoes drained

Heat thoroughly, then serve.

You can top this with grated Parm cheese, if you want a bit of extra flavor. I think it tastes fine just as it is.

I specialize in desserts and confections. Sometimes I cheat, and don't make things from scratch. ^^;