Mediterranean Dinner

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It's officially summer. It's hot outside and cooking feels like such a chore. This is the time of year when I prefer no-fuss cooking that showcases the freshest summer produce available. So here, we have some simply roasted eggplants and golden zucchini with some diced ripe tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, green olives and tangy feta cheese on a basil mint lemon sauce. It's so simple but stunningly fresh and bright -- just the perfect summer meal. I served it with some homemade hummus, toasted pita, dolmades and roasted beets.

For the basil mint sauce, you will need:

• 2 cups packed basil
• 10-12 mint leaves
• small handful Italian parsley (about 1/2 cup packed)
• juice from 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• salt to taste

Blend all ingredients together into smooth sauce. That's it! You can also serve this sauce with some roasted artichokes and beets.

Hemp Burger

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When I started this blog, my only goal was to make good vegetarian food that I want to eat. That means, making satisfying and soulful real food that happen to be vegetarian -- none of the bird/hippie food that carnivores associate with vegetarian/vegan meals. For the most part, I've avoided ingredients that you can only buy at health food stores and stuck with vegetables that can be found at any supermarket.

Now, that said, I took a big step away from what I usually make with this hemp burger. We bought a big bag of hulled hemp seeds at Costco and I made some patties by mixing the seeds with some tofu. It was a little weird working with hemp seeds. Maybe I've gone crazy, but the patty mixture totally tasted and smelled like egg yolks. That led me to think that the mixture would make good egg-less quiches -- but that's another experiment for another day. This hemp burger had good substance and texture -- super hearty when sandwiched between two slices of whole grain bread. The addition of pepitas made the burger more substantive and added a bit of crunch. Aside from tasting like egg yolks (again, maybe it's just me), the burger is pretty flavor neutral, which means you can add a ton of toppings and condiments.

For this hippie-dippie hemp burger, you'll need:

• 1 cup hulled hemp seeds (I used Bob's Red Mill Hulled Hemp Seed)
• 1 block (14 ounces) firm tofu
• 1 cup cooked white rice (preferably day old, but if you don't have that handy, bread crumbs will do)
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted
• 1/4 cup (about 2 stalks) green onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast

To make the burgers, you will need:

• burger buns or bread
• toppings (I used tomatoes and spinach, but the possibilities are endless)
• condiments (I really like whole grain mustard with this)

Mush everything together. Make sure that tofu is totally broken down and well integrated. Refrigerate for 30 minutes so the mixture can set up.

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper. Form about 6 patties and place them on the parchment paper. Spray the top of the patties with canola or olive oil spray (optional for better browning). Bake for 30 minutes. Turn the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 10 minutes. The top should be golden brown. Assemble your sandwich and consume.

Avocado, Jicama and Daikon Radish Gazpacho

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I got the idea for this gazpacho from encuentro, a wine bar in Oakland. I thought the idea of making gazpacho out of avocado is so ingenious that I had to try it for myself. For my version of this gazpacho, I added some Daikon radish to balance out the sweetness of the jicama and the creaminess of the avocado. I also added some spinach for its bright green color. The resulting gazpacho had a nice peppery finish -- a little bite in the end.

You will need:

• flesh of 1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 medium jicama, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
• 1/4 cup Daikon radish, peeled and diced
• juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
• a small handful of spinach (about 1/4 cup packed)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup filtered cold water
• small diced jicama for garnish (optional)
• mint for garnish (optional)
• drizzle of extra virgin olive oil for garnish (optional)

Begin by blending jicama and Daikon radish together in a blender with a cup of water. I thought that the jicama and Daikon radish mixture was too grainy and fibrous at this point, so I passed half of the mixture through a strainer and returned the resulting liquid back into the blender. Then add the remaining ingredients and blend together. If you're making this ahead of time, pour the gazpacho into a prep bowl and cover with plastic wrap. To prevent oxidation, make sure that the plastic wrap is directly on top of and in contact with the gazpacho. Refrigerate and serve cold with optional garnish on top.