Zucchini Pasta Salad

Zucchini is an underrated vegetable. I often ignore it for the sake of more glamorous vegetables: creamy butternut squash, crisp peppers, even makes-you-feel-like-you're-eating-little-trees broccoli. 

But when there are two sad looking zucchini wilting in your refrigerator, you can't really ignore them anymore. (Side note: is the plural of "zucchini" still "zucchini"? I think so...)

The key is cooking the zucchini without other show-stealing vegetables. If you cook zucchini with other veggies, especially carrots and the likes, the zucchini gets overcooked and unbearably mushy. Cook it alone, monitoring it carefully, and you get slightly crisp but still cooked through, far-from-boring zucchini. Add pasta, a diced tomato, and herbs, and you have a light meal.

Grilled Corn Chowder

"Real" corn chowder is cream laden and often topped with bacon, just to make it all the more indulgent.

But fresh corn has so much flavor that it would be pitiful to obscure this freshness with heavy cream and butter. So we used skim milk and potatoes to make the soup just creamy enough, highlighting the corn, not masking it.

Roasted red peppers add color and smokiness. Basil adds summery-ness. Onions and garlic add the base flavor that is needed in any soup. Red chili flakes and lime make this soup sassy, as opposed to just rich and one note in flavor. 

Chocolate Strawberry Scones

We took the chocolate covered strawberry... and made it into a scone. Dark chocolate is an elegant substitute to her lighter brother, adding the perfect blend of sweetness and bitterness to complement the tart flavor of the strawberries. And coconut oil and buttermilk keep the scones light and soft. When the flavors are combined, they form a classy addition to morning coffee, afternoon tea, or even dessert. 

Thai Sweet Potato Carrot Coconut Soup

Sweet Potatoes are pretty amazing. Once cooked down, they become so silky that they make any soup feel rich and hearty. Add coconut milk, and you have a creamy soup that feels a lot richer than it is. Not rich to a point of disgusting. Just rich enough yet light enough to make this soup perfect for a cool, not cold, summer evening.

Vegan Apple Ginger Pie

Take a classic dish and renovate it. Bring it to the 21st century, with all its new diet crazes and unpronounceable health-food ingredients. But still make it as accessible as possible.

These were my lofty goals when deciding to revamp the oh-so-American Apple Pie.