meals for april

Yes, these meals are from April, but I’m sure they’ll still be great in May!

Oh my goodness, these Spiced Mini-Burgers with Couscous Salad were amazing! This was probably the best thing we ate all month (and that’s saying something since it’s all so good)!

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 25m | Total Time: 25m

Ingredients

• 1 10-ounce box couscous (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 pound local farmer’s market ground turkey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano from farmer’s market
• sea salt and black pepper
• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (domestic, from California)
• 6 local scallions, sliced
• 4 Californian plum tomatoes, quartered
• 1 Californian seedless cucumber, cut into half-moons
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 8-ounce container local hummus (optional)

Wow, I am really proud of this picture. Nothing beats natural light! And the meal was awesome, too! At first, I was a little nervous about these Gouda Cheeseburgers with Fennel-Onion Relish (mostly because of the relish—not a huge fan of fennel), but it was VERY good! And, you will never hear me complain about a meal that has home-made sweet potato fries on the side. Why are you so wonderful, sweet potato fries?!

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 30m | Total Time: 30m
 

Ingredients

• 2 pounds medium sweet potatoes (about 4), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon domestic/Californian olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1/2 small local fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced
• 1/2 small red onion from farmer’s market, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/4 pounds ground local turkey
• 4 ounces Gouda from farmer’s market, sliced
• 4 hamburger buns or rolls from farmer’s market
• Local farmer’s market rugula, for serving

  
  

  
  This Lemony Baked Salmon with Asparagus and Bulgur is like a portrait of spring colors. Also, dill—who knew? Dill is really starting to grow on me. 
  
  Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 10m | Total Time: 40m
  
  Ingredients
  
  1 cup bulgur
  1 1/2 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth from farmer’s market
  sea salt and black pepper
  1 pound local farmer’s market asparagus (about 1 bunch), trimmed
  1 1/4 pounds local farmer’s market skinless salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces
  1 lemon, very thinly sliced
  2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill from farmer’s market
  Domestic/California olive oil, for serving
  
  While making this salmon, we happily discovered that our oven was broken (the bottom heating element doesn’t work and our salmon took about an hour to cook!). Why “happily”? Because now we get to buy a new oven! Our old oven was absolutely hideous, and we’ve been talking about getting a flat-top that’s easier to clean. We already had the money saved up, so we purchased one this weekend that will arrive on Saturday. So excited! It has a window! (Old one didn’t have a window, so we had to open the door lickety-split any time we wanted to check on our recipe.) It has an extra-large burner for our gigantic pasta pot! It has a “warming” burner! And it’s black! (Our old one was a hideous cream color someone thought was a good idea back in the early 80’s.) We’ve already replaced our dishwasher with a black model, and eventually we’ll replace the fridge too and get a black microwave. In the meantime, at least one more item in our kitchen is non-hideous!

Better than it looks, this Curried Eggplant with Tomatoes and Basil was tasty and wholesome.

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 15m | Total Time: 25m

Ingredients

• 1 cup white basmati rice
• sea salt and black pepper
• 1 tablespoon domestic (California) olive oil
• 1 local farmer’s market onion, chopped
• 2 pints Californian cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 eggplant (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 15.5-ounce can local chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/2 cup local farmer’s market fresh basil
• 1/4 cup local farmer’s market plain low-fat yogurt (preferably Greek), optional
   

When you make soup with purple potatoes, I guess you should expect the soup to turn out lavender. It may look strange (and it definitely didn’t photograph too well), but this Scallion and Potato Soup turned out very tasty. You feel like you’re drinking health in a bowl (and you probably are).

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 10m | Total Time: 30m

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unsalted local farmer’s market butter
• 18 local farmer’s market scallions (white and light green parts), sliced
• 1 1/2 pounds local farmer’s market new potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup local Washington dry white wine
• 1 1/2 cups local heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth from the farmer’s market
• sea salt and black pepper
  
  Happy spring!