Recipes from our Indian Summer Picnic

I shared with you in Friday’s post an Indian summer picnic that Matt and I enjoyed for our weekly date.  You can read more about it here. Today I’m going to share with you the recipes from that picnic.  I got the soup and salad recipe from two cookbooks that I got at Half Priced Books Several years ago.  I love both of these cookbooks:   Soup Bowl: An Inspiring Collection of Soups, Broths and Chowders  and Salad: Simple and Fresh Dishes Perfect All Year Round.  You can purchase the cookbooks here and here.

Roasted Garlic, Sweet Potato, Broiled Eggplant & Bell Pepper Salad with Mozzarella

INGREDIENTS:

2 sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into chunks)

2 tbsp. olive oil

pepper

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1 large eggplant (sliced)

2 red bell peppers (seeded and sliced)

7 oz. mixed salad greens

10 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese (sliced)

Dressing:

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove crushed

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 small shallot (finely chopped)

2 tbsp. fresh chopped basil

pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Roast sweet potato chunks in oil, pepper and garlic at 375 degrees for thirty minutes or until soft.  Broil eggplant and bell peppers for ten minutes or until soft and slightly charred.  Place salad greens on plate and assemble sweet potatoes, eggplant, bell peppers and cheese on top of the greens.  Whisk dressing ingredients and pour over salad.  Serves four.

Roasted Squash, Sweet Potato & Garlic Soup

INGREDIENTS:

1 sweet potato

1 squash

4 shallots

2 tbsp. olive oil

5-6 garlic cloves (unpeeled)

3 ¾ c. chicken stock

½ c light cream

salt and pepper

snipped chives for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Cut squash, sweet potatoes and shallots in half length wise.  Scoop out seeds of squash.  Brush with oil.  Place face side down in shallow roasting  pan and  roast at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until tender.  When cool, scoop out flesh from skin and place flesh in a saucepan.  Add stock and pinch of salt.  Bring to boil, reduce and simmer partially covered for 30 minutes.  Let soup cool and pour into blender.  Blend until smooth.  Return to sauce pan and stir in cream.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with chives.  Serves 6-8.
Note:  I ended up adding more garlic.  I also added a little brown sugar and butter to taste.

Zucchini Brownies

These were so yummy.  To me, these brownies have the texture of zucchini bread and the taste of chocolate, chocolate chip cookie bars and lava cake combined.  I found this recipe from a blog that I follow called The Pioneer Cookbook.  You can get the recipe here.