Tracie and I have been on quite a vegetarian, bordering on vegan (eek), kick lately. What with the hot and humid weather and facing the end of summer we've resorted to a lot of grain and summer veggie based salad variations.

Having come away from Turkey just over a month ago, a lot of our ideas stem from Mediterranean roots. Since we've both been writing a lot about Turkish food lately, trying to catch up on the writing and reflecting we fell behind while traveling to other places we've been stuck on a kind of Turkish Mezzes theme. It's all pretty simple to make as long as you have good "mis en place". 

Also, after traveling for five months and not having steady work or our business up and running yet, we have a pretty damn tight budget. So most days we are all about using the dry goods with a light mix of fresh veg to keep it healthy and interesting. Here's what we came up with. 

Late Summer Cous Cous with a Creamy Cold Gazpacho

Prep and Cooking Time: 45 minutes, max

I suggest you read over the recipe  once or twice before you even look at your ingredients and then just do it as you remember. I'm sure it'll be fine. Confidence weighed with a little knowledge in the kitchen can take you to new places. Don't be a wuss. 

Late Summer Cous Cous

1 Cup Israeli Cous Cous

1 Cup Water

Bring water to boil. Pour over cous cous in a bowl. Cover until well absorbed about 10 to 15 minutes. We then tossed with a bit of Olive Oil to keep the grains separate.

Other Ingredients:

1 cup Cherry tomatoes, washed & halved

2 small eggplant (we used long pingtung eggplant, but use whatever you have)

2 cloves garlic

2 sprigs of thyme, washed

1 bunch mint

1 tsp chives (I grabbed 5 long chives out of our garden and minced them)

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

salt & pepper to taste

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I sliced the eggplant lengthwise, about 1/4" thickness, and tossed them with a drizzle of EVOO, & minced garlic and thyme. I let that sit while I cut up the tomatoes, washed the mint and torn it into smaller pieces. I like the brightness of torn mint, I think it is a bit stronger than cut mint, but that is just theory.

I got my iron grill pan medium high heat, this takes about 10 minutes. Then I started cooking the eggplant. Since they have plenty of oil and my pan is well seasoned, there was no problems with sticking. I grill by waling away. I wanted to do all of the cooking on the stove top so I grilled each side about 7-8 minutes each. 

I cooled them on my cutting board and diced them and tossed them into my bowl of pre-cooked cous cous, torn mint, halved tomatoes, and minced chives. I tossed it all with salt, pepper, a little more EVOO and the squeeze of lemon.

While I'm grilling I helped Tracie make the Gazpacho.

Creamy Cold Gazpacho (for 2-3)

2 cups Field Tomatoes (or Heirloom or whatever you like)

5 Springs of Fresh Oregano, minced (yields about a tsp minced)

1 shallot, minced

2 Poblano Peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded, diced

1 Chili Pepper, sliced rounds (use what you can get)

1-2 Tbsp Sherry vinegar (To Taste)

1-2 Tbsp Yogurt (Greek Style, Thick)

1/2 cup water

Salt & Pepper

Roast the peppers first. If you have a gas stove just use tongs to set them on the burner, med high flame, and turn until completely blackened. Otherwise, you have to broil them or perhaps light up the grill. Put them in a Tupperware and close the lid, shake like mad until the skins are mostly off. 

Wash under water if needed or leave what charred residue that remains, it tastes good anyways. Split and seed the peppers. Cut down the side and open up with your fingers, use your hand or the back of a knife to scrape the seeds and the bitter top of the pepper and stem out. Dice and reserve.

The rest is easy. Core and dice your tomatoes up. Wash, dry and pick the oregano leaves. I minced them quickly, but you don't have to it's all going into a blender. Dice the shallot (again you don't have to, but I think it purees smoother, prove me wrong please). Slice your chili pepper up, discard the top, use the seeds. 

Drop everything into the blender except the yogurt. Put it on pulse, if you have that setting, and slowly buzz it down to a rough puree and then crank it up until it is your desired smoothness. Add the yogurt to finish it up. Taste. Adjust seasoning and add water if needed.  Chill a bit and I'll bet everything will be ready about when you are ready to eat.

This meal cost us about $10, more or less. All the herbs were from our garden. All the vegetables were bought at the farmer's market and all the dry goods we have had for a while.

That's not including the little bit of a bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's Sorachi Ace from the genius of Garret Oliver