What would you do with these ingredients?

[pistolabella]

I have two bags FULL of homegrown squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. I have a medium sized whole chicken. I need to use all of these things, and i've just about "had it" with grilled vegetables. I can always eat a roast chicken. I thought i'd ask here for some ideas...what would you do if you had to make something with these ingredients tonight? I have a variety of herbs & grains at my disposal as well. This is a household of only 2 people so the ability to flex or morph it into lunch and possible additional dinners a plus.

[Chris Hennes]

Lots of curries with that ingredient set, which tend to reheat reasonably well too.

[FrogPrincesse]

Squash, zucchini, tomatoes - ratatouille is the first thing that comes to mind. Good on its own, and you could make an omelette with the leftovers, or a vegetarian lasagna.

[pistolabella]

I've never made a ratatouille though I've eaten several. I've found some good looking recipes for roasted vegetable ratatouille. Does anyone have thoughts on whether the leftover roasted veggies from a ratatouille would hold up in a curry or even a minestrone soup later? I have such a large quantity of ingredients and so many options that I am having trouble focusing. If I simply roast the chicken tongiht, i like the idea of using what's left to make a stock to do something with tomorrow WITH whatever is left from the vegetable contraption I end up making.

[Alcuin]

I recommend ratatouille too. It's great cold, hot, room temp. It goes with eggs, chicken, pork, pasta, lots of grains. It is extremely versatile and gets better with a bit of time.

If I were going to roast vegetables to use in ratatouille, I would just make the ratatouille and cook veg for curry when I needed too-the veg might be a bit tired from all that cooking. I'm sure it would be fine though, as long as you like your squash well cooked.

[andiesenji]

You can slice the zucchini and pickle with a sweet-sour pickling liquid as for "bread and butter" pickles.

These are great in salads, on sandwiches, chopped to add to tuna, chicken or egg salad, etc.

[Lisa Shock]

I'd make a sweet squash pie for dessert, zucchini fritters and tomato soup. That said, squash curry with a tomato based sauce and a salad of raw zucchini sounds good, too.

[Jaymes]

I'd go get some green chiles and Mexican cheese and make Calabacitas:

Calabacitas (for the non-Spanish speakers, "calabasas" are squash; so in the Spanish manner of adding "itas" to something to indicate the diminutive, "calabacitas" are little squash - in this case, cubes).

2 lbs summer squash, cut into bite-sized pieces (you can use yellow, or zucchini, or patty-pan, or a mixture, or whatever)

1 T butter or vegetable oil

1/2 small white onion, diced

3 tomatoes, diced (canned, stewed are fine)

a couple of large, mild green chiles, blistered, peeled, seeds and veins removed (you can use a 4oz can of green chiles; I prefer the whole chiles, and I chop them myself)

8 oz-can yellow corn, drained (or fresh, cooked corn)

1 C cheese - grated (if you're somewhere were you can get Mexican cheese and you have a favorite that melts well, use that; if not, good-quality mild Cheddar works fine)

salt & pepper to taste

Note: You don't have to chop the vegetables too finely; in fact, I prefer a larger dice for this.

Boil diced squash until just barely tender. Do not overcook, as you're going to be cooking it a little more. Drain squash and set aside. Put the butter or oil into the pot and saute onions, tomatoes and chiles until onions are clear. Return squash to pot. Add corn and stir to combine. Try not to stir it too much. You don't want the squash to break down. Salt and pepper to taste (you're going to be adding cheese, which is salty, so don't oversalt at this point). Heat through. Add cheese. When cheese is melted, serve immediately.

[HungryC]

Hmm...I'd be tempted to small dice the zucchini & squash and cook w/garlic & onion 'til tender/soft, then add a bunch of chopped fresh tomatoes & herbs, and use it to top pasta. In a similar vein, you could cook ("smother") the squash with peeled shrimp, onions/garlic, thyme, and tomatoes.

Save the chicken for tomorrow's dinner!

[nikkib]

If you have a load of ingredients i would definitely make a nice tomato soup that you can freeze if need be, depending on how much squash you have you could also do a squash and cumin cream soup too - then a ratatouille to garnish the chicken and then have on top of a pasta dish tomorrow.

RareRollingObject has a great recipe for Zucchini fritters over on her food blog which you could have with the chicken too or for brunch/lunch tomorrow. Zucchini is also great when sliced into batons and sauteed with some chopped chilli for a few minutes then adding baby spinach until it just begions to wilt and then squeezing 1/2 a lemon over the top before serving

I make a nice roasted squash dish with chilli, cumin and coriander seed that could also go with the chicken - basically boil until tender then empty the pan of water, return to the heat and toss the squash in it for about a minute before sprinkling them with the spices and adding to a roasting tray with about 1/2 an inch of oil in it and roasting until it begins to caramelise.

[Darienne]

I'm with Pistolabella...Roasted ratatouille. I made it in a pot for years until one day I roasted it instead. Love it this way. In fact we had it for lunch today.

Jaymes' Calabacitas sounds great. I might just make it for the sake of making it. But lazy as I am, I'll probably just roast everything which is roastable.

[pistolabella]

I'm definitely going to split my ingredients now - i HAVE to make calabicits after reading that recipe! I think the other half of the veggies will become ratatouille. The final dregs of all vegetables and bits of chicken will go on couscous or something. These are all great suggestions! Thanks.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'd do the Calabacitas with some of your veggies, and then I'd do Locro de Zapallo (creamy squash and cheese soup) with the rest of the squash and zucchs. LdZ is an amazing soup whether it's hot or cold, and it's incredibly simple to make. If you choose to boil your chicken and then finish it on the grill (spiced however you want - I like yogurt-based curries with Locro) then you'll have the stock handy.

Locro de Zapallo, (Thick Golden Squash Soup, for those who don't speak Andean Spanish - down here a Calabaza is a specific type of white-fleshed squash, while Zapallo is golden):

1-2 nice sized gold squashes, cut into cubes

2-3 zucchinis (depending on size), cut into slices

3 cups of chicken stock

1 tsp achiote powder (or 1/2 tsp achiote oil)

2-3 tbsp Aliño (crushed garlic, red onion, parsely, and cilantro, kind of like Chimichurri)

salt to taste

1 lb of Queso Fresco (or drained Ricotta if you can't find or make QF)

Bring the stock with the achiote, Aliño, squash and zucchini in it to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer until the squash is just fork-tender. Allow to cool a bit, then crumble in about half of the cheese. Transfer to the blender and pulse until it's quite creamy and no longer lumpy. Crumble in the rest of the cheese. If you serve this hot, have popcorn ready on the side to toss in at each bite; if you serve it cold, float half an avocado in it and sprinkle with cilantro.

[nikkib]

That sounds amazing!

[djyee100]

In case you have any leftover zucchini, you can make "zucchini parmesan," basically eggplant parmesan made with zucchini. It tastes good.

I posted this simple recipe here (post #3):

[DanM]

Zucchini mushroom tacos from Rick Bayless. I'd replace the chorizo with your chicken

http://cookingclaire.blogspot.com/2010/04/rick-bayless-zucchini-musrhoom-tacos.html

[annachan]

With the veg, I like to roast them and toss them with couscous.

Roasted veg ratatouille, provided it isn't too saucy, the leftover would make a great hand pie filling. I usually have frozen puff pastry on hand so leftover often becomes pie. If you have some chicken meat left over, I would even add some of that to the filling.

[threestars]

I am thinking of a roasted chicken salad.

[pistolabella]

The squash and cheese soup sounds incredible. That's definitely happening this week.

The ratatouille last night turned out wonderfully, and I have a little more than half a chicken to deal with tonight. Such a terrible plight, having wonderful excess food to play with.