Baked Green Tomatoes

I am not fond of fried foods, so I try to find baked alternatives whenever possible. Baking doesn't give quite the same result, but it makes for a much less oily and lighter-tasting result.

A few unripe tomatoes dropped off my vines so I decided to make fried green tomatoes with them. This recipe can be used for fried or pan-fried tomatoes, but I prefer them baked. I ran out of cornmeal making sourdough cornbread, so I added gluten-free flours to the tiny amount of cornmeal I had left. The result was a wonderful, creamy center and a crispy crust. These were especially good with a little Good and Evil Hot Sauce.

Baked Green Tomatoes made with both yellow and blue cornmeal.

Baked Green Tomatoes

2-4 green tomatoes
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup garbanzo flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Stir the apple cider vinegar into the soy milk and set it aside to curdle. Slice the green tomatoes into 1/4" rounds. In a small bowl, mix cornmeal, flours, onion powder, black pepper, and salt.

One at a time, dip the tomato slices in the soy milk and then in the cornmeal mixture to coat. Place coated tomatoes on the baking sheet, spray tops with a little cooking oil, and bake for 20 minutes, flipping tomatoes halfway through.

Variations: Try sliced zucchini instead of or in addition to the tomatoes. Experiment with different flour combinations or use 3/4 cup cornmeal and no flours.

Zucchini Bread

I found myself with a surplus of zucchini this week. I could only find one of my bread pans, so the excess batter became muffins. This recipe makes two loaves of bread or about 18 large muffins. Turbokid screamed "Cupcakes!" when he saw the muffins and devoured two of them.

Zucchini Bread

2 cups grated zucchini (about two zucchini)
3 Tbsp ground flax seed
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium ripe banana)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp baking soda
3 cups white whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two bread pans.

In a small, stir together the ground flax and water and let sit for about 5 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, combine the grated zucchini, flax and water mixture, coconut oil, mashed banana, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda, then add the flour and mix well.

Pour batter into the bread pans. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Muffin variation: This recipe makes approximately 18 muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes.