Mediterranean
Sweet Potato and Artichoke Salad
Do you want a salad that really says “Fall?” A little more substantial, delicious warm, with some cooked vegetables as well as raw? This Mediterranean-inspired sweet potato salad delivers a riot of colors, flavors, and textures to wake your palate from its slumber. With tender sweet potato cubes, crunchy celery and peppers, tangy olives and capers, and a garlicky lemon dressing, this is sure to be your new Fall favorite.
Roasted Tomato Sauce over Pan-Toasted Gnocchi
Last week, I extolled the virtues of my fave way to put up tomatoes. I’m picking a big bowlful of tomatoes every few days at my house, and I have developed my own routine. Early in the morning, before it gets hot, I roast them, then freeze them. I’ve also posted my method for freezing basil, and it’s my most popular You Tube video to date! Once you have those two essential meal prep items, you have invaluable flavor, concentrated and ready to go. One really fast and easy meal that you can make with your prep is this Roasted Tomato Sauce over Pan-Toasted Gnocchi.
The BEST Way to Freeze Your Tomatoes for Winter
This is the month, when all the heirloom tomatoes that I’ve been nursing along suddenly ripen. This has been a tough year, with no rain and high heat, so it’s been a labor of love, if daily watering can be called love. My reward is a weekly haul of mixed tomato varieties, packed with intoxicating tomato flavors. Now it’s time to freeze roasted tomatoes!
Moroccan Chickpea B’Stilla-Sweet, Savory and Showy
Moroccan food is a treasure trove of plant based flavors. Their traditional dishes, like tagine, are usually graced with plenty of vegetables, spices, sweet and tart balance, and fresh herbs. When I visit Moroccan restaurants, though, the vegetarian tagine is usually pretty bland, while the meat based dishes get all the attention. That is why I like to make my own versions of Moroccan food, and borrow the combinations from the meaty recipes and use them to make spectacularly tasty plant based dishes.
Like this Moroccan B’Stilla. Based on a pie usually made with poultry, this one is packed with dried fruit, spices, chickpeas, almonds, and a hit of coconut milk and lemon. Instead of the hard-to-find Brik pastry, I used easy to get filo dough, and basted it with refined coconut oil instead of butter. The result is a gorgeous, bronzed ruffle of crisp filo, encasing an intense, sweet-savory filling.
Chickpea and Pecan Pesto Calzones
Everybody loves calzones! These plant based calzones are packed with nutty chickpeas and pecan pesto, and wrapped in whole grain dough. Engineered to be as easy as possible, this recipe gives you a no-knead pizza dough as well as the simple calzones, made with canned chickpeas. Super tasty vegan Italian food!
“Green Up” Your Hummus Routine
We all love hummus. Like so many global foods, hummus has become as American as tacos and pizza. We love it so much that we can’t resist tweaking it here and there. Kind of like meeting someone great, and saying “I love you! Now change!” We just can’t resist.
Try Tomato Mayonnaise Pie!
When tomatoes are at their peak of flavor, give them a starring role in this fast and easy pie! Shave time and ingredients from your effort by using mayonnaise as the secret ingredient in the crust, and as a base for a lemony drizzle at serving.
Weeknight Quickie Summer Pasta-Tricks for a Quick Meal!
Think you are too busy to cook? Not when you can make this easy, plant-based pasta in minutes! Good extra virgin olive oil is key to the flavor, so you need to learn more about where your oil comes from.
Make Purple Sweet Potato Gnocchi for a Colorful Bowl of Comfort
Gnocchi are pillows of joy. I've been teaching gnocchi-making classes for over 10 years, to sold out crowds. People just love the idea of making their own gnocchi, and we all get to roll up our sleeves and make mountains of tender dumplings. What few people realize...
You Need Meal Prepping, and Caramelized Onions Make Life Better
Meal Prepping is The Key to Eating Well Ask people what keeps them from eating healthfully, and most will say: lack of time. Somewhere along the line, we became convinced that it's just as good to grab packaged food, to save time for other things. But the real...
You Need a Comforting Pasta to Keep You Warm This Winter. Try Farfalle with Roasted Tomatoes and Pistachios
I know, it's a crazy-busy time of year. We are all running around trying to get things done, as the temperature drops and it gets dark earlier and earlier. It's disturbingly easy to take refuge in bad choices, and comfort yourself with fast food and snacks. For the...
Smoky Trumpet Mushroom Pizza is Perfect for Fall
Smoky Trumpet Mushroom Pizza Celebrates the Mushroom Remember when wild mushrooms were, well, wild? Oysters, shiitakes, all the wild mushrooms had to be hunted and foraged, and only made brief appearances during mushroom season. Now, we have mushroom growing...
Kale, The Gift That Keeps on Giving, and Kale Pesto Tartines
Around this time of the summer, the zucchini cartoons start appearing in the paper. Gardeners are creeping around in the dark of night, unloading zucchini on unsuspecting neighbors. My question for everyone trying to unload their zucchini is, have you ever grown kale?...
Cook Kale on the Grill, For an Easy Pasta Meal
I have big news! I finally bought a new grill. Yup, just a run of the mill, under $200 number. No bells, no whistles, no LED lights or motorized spit. Because, really, I don't need anything fancy. Just heavy grates and consistent heat. It took me some time, after...
Matcha Pistachio Halvah “Eggs” For Easter or Anytime
My Halvah Surprise The last thing that I thought I would rediscover in Amsterdam would have to be halvah. On my recent trip to the city of Canals and VanGogh, I was wandering from shop to shop, just checking things out, when I happened into a place called Sum Sum....
In a Hurry? Make Edamame Hummus With Lime
If you are hungry and tired, and just want a quick and delicious meal, look no further. All you need is a bag of edamame in the freezer and a few other fresh ingredients. This creamy, sprightly spread takes only a few minutes to make, and once you have it, you have a...
It’s Drink Wine Day! Here’s a Risotto with Pinot Noir to Help
National Drink Wine Day Do you really need an excuse to drink wine? Well, one has come along, it's National Drink Wine Day today. To get into the spirit of things, I thought I would do a fantastic flavor pairing and create a bowl of umami-amped risotto, just by...
Red Lentil Soup with Pomegranate Roasted Shallots, It’s About Freedom
You may have noticed, I have been pretty immersed in bowls these days. Riffing on simple bases of grain, topped with little compositions of colorful vegetables, crunchy garnishes, and drizzles of sauce. My book Great Bowls of Food came out at the end of May, and...
End of Summer Roasted Squash and Tomatoes over Whole Grain Polenta for a Fall Feast
Few foods are as comforting and satisfying as polenta. Cornmeal polenta is soft and creamy, but with just enough texture to give it a toothsome crunch, and perfect for grilling to a crisp golden crustiness. Grilled polenta offers the best of both worlds, with the...
Tomato Jam is My Jam, the Easy Way to Savor and Save Tomatoes
Do you ever suffer from "canning guilt?" That's when you see flats of berries and crates of tomatoes, all at peak flavor and ripeness, and think, " I should really get some jars and lids and put up some some of this gorgeous produce, if I only had more time." And...
Fresh Artisanal Pastas from Dumpling and Strand, with Squash Blossoms
I rarely get that excited about a new product coming to market. Most of the time, it takes me months to get around to trying new things, in part because of my recipe testing queue. But fresh artisanal pastas might just get my attention. Even as I am working on holiday...
Celebrate Stress Awareness Month with Pesto Kale Salad
Did you know that April is Stress Awareness Month? (Stressed Inner voice: HOW DID IT SLIP BY ME!?!?! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN!) Yes, it's a whole month in which we should take a deep breath, stop beating ourselves up for not knowing that it's stress awareness month, and...
Baby Squashes Filled With Creamy Squash Hummus, Kick Off Your Veganuary
It's January, or, "Veganuary," depending on your calendar. "Veganuary" is simply the idea of giving up animal foods for the month of January. Rather like Meatless Monday, but with a little more of a commitment. Creamy Squash Hummus is a perfect way to kick off your...
A Flatbread Hack to Make Easy Za’atar Bread
Bread is the most elemental of foods. Grain, water, salt, and some busy little yeasts to do the heavy lifting. Depending on your level of commitment, it can take days to craft a great loaf. True artisans nurture starters for decades, and slowly ferment their doughs to...
Roasted Squash and Whole Wheat Pasta, Perfect for Fall
Everybody loves pasta. October is National Pasta Month, as if we needed any more reasons to love our noodles. But for many people, the default setting is white flour spaghetti, macaroni, or lasagna noodles. Perhaps you are one of the people who tried whole wheat pasta...
Heirlooms Stuffed with Ancient Grains, Easy Summer Fun
It's officially the tail end of tomato season, where I live. So there is a twinge of pre-nostalgia as I savor the last of the best tomatoes of the year. The heirloom tomatoes are at their peak, as they finally finish ripening and hang heavy on the vine. Contemplating...
Cool Off with Watermelon Gazpacho
There are few things better suited for each other than a hot, humid summer day and a watermelon. In a sign that the Universe loves us and wants us to be happy, the peak season of the watermelon is in perfect sync with our need for something just exactly like a...
Miyoko Schinner, Queen of Vegan Cheese, and Now The Homemade Vegan Pantry
Miyoko Schinner is both a grande dame and a hot new face on the vegan scene. She is the author of one of the first wave of vegan cookbooks, the Now and Zen Epicure, which she put out in 1990. That book is out of print, although a revised new version did come...
Seared Romanesco with Blood Orange-Olive Sauce, & Treating Vegetables Like Main Courses
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kate Jacoby, co-owner and pastry chef at Vedge A vegetable restaurant in Philly. It was for an article about the trend in cooking vegetables more like the centerpiece of the plate, not the side. In the course of the...
Preserved Lemons, Why Did I Wait So Long To Try Them?
Preserved lemons have always been on my list of things to try making. Not at the top, but on there. Most recipes that call for them seem to involve chicken and fish, so I figured maybe that was what they were all about. That and I already work lemon zest and juice...