Summer is here! And with it, comes a foodie’s dream – summer produce! Fresh berries, corn, ripe tomatoes, zucchini, squash and beans make up some of the plentiful vegetables blooming out of gardens and in farmers markets.
I’m lucky enough to have been roped into the aforementioned local produce co-op with the Badass CEO – and this means that weekly I get a box of fresh, seasonal vegetables ready for my attempts at culinary mastery.
I love this process, as it creates an almost “Iron Chef”-meets-“24” situation – I only have so much time to create recipes using this box of vegetable goodness in my humble kitchen! There are few things that this Badass Foodie despises more than letting good produce go to waste.
One of the most plentiful summer vegetables is the summer squash. Summer squash comes in several different varieties, including zucchini, crookneck and pattypan. Most of what we see as “yellow squash” in our local markets is the yellow crookneck variety, and zucchini is green in color and somewhat resembles a cucumber.
Even if you aren’t lucky enough to have a vestibule of veggies, I hope you will incorporate yellow summer squash and zucchini into your summer cooking arsenal. Why?
Well, first of all, remember one of the cardinal rules of healthy, fit, lean people: Incorporate veggies into every meal – and lots of them! Vegetables, on the whole, fill you up, improve your overall health and help you to eat less calorically dense foods during mealtime. So, aim for 50%!
Until I started researching it, I often assumed summer squash was one of the “lesser” vegetables on the scale of kickass-itude (what, like that’s not a word?) However, squash is a nutritional powerhouse that can definitely aid in your quest to a better badass.
Don’t believe me? Check it out:
- It also contains a significant amount of vitamin A, beta-carotene, manganese and vitamin C.
- It is also a very good source of magnesium, vitamin A (notably through its concentration of carotenoids, including beta-carotene), fiber, potassium, folate, copper, riboflavin, and phosphorus.
- One cup of summer squash (yellow or green zucchini) gives you more than three times the amount of potassium in the typcical potassium supplement, which helps maintain metabolism, heart health and regulates internal water processes.
- Forget carrots, squash has them beat – squash contains more than 4,000 mg of lutein and zeaxanthin, two members of the carotenoid family that have been proven to protein the eyes against macular degeneration and other vision problems
- Summer squash is a great weapon in your battle against the bulge, as it is extremely low in calories and high in fiber. Also, squash has a high water content, so it will fill you up for very few calories – only 36 calories in a cup!
Great, so you know you should eat it. But how do you prepare it? For this squash, the simpler the better. You could follow my Badass Foodie rule of roasting vegetables and toss chopped squash with a little olive oil and salt and roast at 425 for about 10 minutes.
However, this week I wanted to try something a bit different, so I turned to my sautee pan and came up with the following “provencale-esque” summer side dish. This is definitely in my summer repertoire from here on out.
Badass Foodie Summer Squash Sautee
(Note: this is what I like to call a “Fake it till you make it” recipe – meaning that I approximate the measurements and encourage you to play around with it. I have written the recipe as I prepared it, but make it your own… it's hard to screw up!)
Ingredients:
- 1 medium yellow onion
- ½ teaspoon of grapeseed oil (or another healthy oil)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 medium yellow crookneck squash
- 3 medium zucchini squash
- 2 large tomatoes
- Several leaves fresh basil (dried is fine)
- Sprig of fresh rosemary (dried is fine)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
- Optional: Grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
1. Heat oil over medium heat in large sautee pan or skillet. Add diced onion and minced garlic and sweat over medium heat
2. Dice squash into medium size chunks – I used half moon shapes about 1 inch thick
3. Add squash to pan and sautee for 3 – 4 minutes, or until edges begin to soften.
4. Add diced tomatoes (along with their juices) to the pan.
5. Add herbs, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. (You want the vegetables to be tender but not mushy, so don’t overcook them – the squash should retain some of its crunchy texture.)
6. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, if desired. Enjoy!
Coming tomorrow: Super sets, drops sets, circuit sets, what's the diff? What's best?
