What To Do With Your End-of-Summer Harvest
If you have a garden, August and September mean it’s harvest time! If you’re like me, you may be wondering what to do with all your produce, especially all of those tomatoes. Last week I shared my homemade tomato sauce recipe and today I’ll share some other easy ways to make sure nothing in your harvest goes to waste.
What’s in-season?
Some veggies that you’ll find abundant in your garden or at farmer’s markets right now include:
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Herbs, such as basil, rosemary, oregano, and parsley
Leafy greens, such as lettuce, kale, chard, and spinach
Onion
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Many of these seasonal veggies are delicious raw in salads or dipped into dips, but there are a lot of ways to enjoy these vegetables cooked as well. Keep reading for delicious ways to use any of your seasonal veggies!
Cabbage
I love the crunch that cabbage gives to dishes. Some ways that I like to use cabbage are:
Slaws: try this Easy Asian Slaw or Coleslaw with Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette
Chop it finely and add to sandwiches or tacos
Add it to a stir fry, like this Sesame Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Carrots
Carrots are something I always try to keep on hand because they’re used in so many of my favorite dishes. To add carrots to your meals, try:
Shredding them into a slaw or slicing them thinly and adding them to salads
Or, you can even try freezing them!
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is a highly versatile veggie that has become a lower-carb substitute for flour in things like pizza crust, pasta, and bread. Some recipes that use cauliflower are:
Cauliflower rice, which can be frozen for later use
Corn
I personally like corn straight off the cob, but there are plenty of ways to incorporate it into your meals. Corn is also easy to freeze either on or off the cob. Some of my favorite recipes containing corn include:
Summer Corn Chowder with Zucchini and Carrots (this recipe uses multiple end-of-summer veggies!)
Cucumber
Unfortunately, my cucumbers didn’t do great this year, but usually cucumber plants produce more than I know what to do with! If you are stuck with too many cucumbers, here are some ways to use them:
Add sliced cucumber to water
Eggplant
The deep purple color of eggplant means it is packed with antioxidants, which are important for overall health. Eggplant can be a challenging vegetable to cook with, but there are plenty of ways to make it taste good:
Herbs
Fresh herbs are a great way to add flavor to your meals. Freezing herbs is helpful and allows you to save them for use during the winter months! Fresh herbs can be used in almost any recipe, but some of my favorites include:
Pesto - make a large batch and freeze what you can’t eat
Rosemary-Infused Oil - you could do this with any herb!
Leafy greens
Chard, spinach, collards, and more are abundant this time of year. Greens can be eaten raw in salads, but also added to pretty much any dish. Try adding them to smoothies or mixing them into soups or stews, or sauteing them into scrambled eggs.
Onion
Adding onion to almost any dish is a great way to make food more flavorful. I like roasting onion with bell pepper and zucchini for vegetarian tacos. Or I’ll add it to a baked egg dish.
Tomatoes
If you’ve ever had a tomato plant, you know that come August and September you’ll end up with more tomatoes than you know what to do with. There are so many ways to use your tomatoes if you get tired of just adding them raw to salads and sandwiches. Some recipes to try include:
Zucchini
And last but not least, zucchini! Zucchini is another one of those crops that can produce a lot. I like to saute, steam, or roast zucchini and eat it plain. Some other more exciting ways to eat zucchini include:
As you can see there are numerous ways to use up the veggies you’ve grown without letting them go to waste. What are your favorite ways to eat your end-of-summer harvest?
