Mediterranean Vegetable Stew

The cold winter months make warm, hearty soups and stews more appealing.  Sometimes we need a little variety in our hearty soups to keep it interesting.  This stew has an exotic taste and aroma to spice up a dull winter's day.

Yellow summer squash (or straight-necked squash) can be found year round in the grocery store.  The flesh is tenderer than the crooked-neck squash; and holds its texture better than zucchini.  One cup of diced summer squash provides about 10% of your daily requirement of B6, riboflavin, folate, potassium, and manganese.  It also has lots of your daily requirements of vitamin A (5%), C(35%), and K(7%) (Self, 2012).

Mediterranean Vegetable Stew

Ingredients;

2 yellow summer squash about 6-8 inches long (slice and quarter)

1 large onion
1 or 2 green, red, or orange bell peppers

1/4 cup of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground or flaked, coriander or cilantro

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp paprika

2 cups fresh or canned diced tomatoes (with the juice)

2 cups water
2 Tbsp tamari or soy sauce

Dice onion and saute' in olive oil for 5 minutes.  Mince and add garlic cloves. Saute' 5 minutes.  Add salt, and all spices and saute' for 3 minutes.  Add water, squash, bell pepper, tamari, and tomatoes.  Bring to boil and simmer 15-20 minutes.  Enjoy an entirely new kind of stew!