Category — Vegetarian Recipes

The other night, I got home from work around 5:15 and had dinner guests arriving at 5:30. I had this easy chicken dish planned, but very little in the way of side dishes. I knew I had some half bunches of produce here and there so thought I would quickly invent a salad on the fly based on what was laying around.

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If you read this blog often, you will know that I love putting things in the food processor and I also love Tastespotting. So when I saw this super fast and easy recipe on the Tastespotting blog for kale and walnut pesto, I had to try it.

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Eating seasonally in the winter can be tough, because while I can easily eat my body weight in citrus fruits, the vegetables can be less exciting. That is, of course, if you ignore all of the gnarly roots like rutabagas, turnips, and celery root. But don’t ignore those: with the right preparation and enough butter, they can be really delicious. To wit, I present a near-perfect winter side dish: a creamy puree of celery root, cauliflower, creme fraiche, and butter.

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I have been on the hunt for a chocolate cookie that’s crispy on the outside and chewy-gooey-fudgy on the inside. I’ve tried quite a few recipes, but this one is the best I’ve found - I love the crisp, crackly outside that yields to a soft center. All you need is a tall glass of milk.

What’s extra great is that there is no flour nor butter in them, just egg whites for binding, so they are practically health food. (OK technically it would be more accurate to say they are practically candy, since the bulk is made up of sugar and chocolate.)

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This is one of my favorite holiday snacks – crunchy sugar-coated nuts with balancing hits of salt and spice.

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I love broccoli soup, but I get tired of the same old cheese- and cream-laden preparations. I decided to do an Asian-inspired variation with coriander, ginger, lemongrass, and sesame oil – toasting the broccoli at the beginning, to add an extra layer of flavor.

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Last weekend I had the great fortune to spend some time in Yosemite. I went with some friends who are really excellent cooks and hosts, so I wanted to impress them by showing up with homemade granola bars for our hikes so I could seem like one of those overachieving perfectionist-types. Of course, these guys have known me for about ten years, so we all knew I wasn’t fooling anyone! Still, the end result for all of us: homemade granola bars with dried cherries, almonds, and cocoa nibs to fuel us through our very non-strenuous and pleasant hikes.

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With the last tomatoes of summer, there is something you must do. You must make jars and jars and jars of this extremely addictive tomato jam so you can have some until next summer comes.

It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and a lot delicious. You can put it on toast with a little ricotta or cream cheese, you can put a little dish of it on a cheese platter, you can put a dollop on a pork chop or some chicken, or you can eat it straight from the jar. No judgment here.

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As much as I hate unnecessary quotation marks, I can’t think of any other term for this. The process is so simple, with a little time on the stovetop and the bulk of the time in the oven, and yet the texture comes out closer to risotto than anything else. More good news: it’s almost impossible to overcook it, too.

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I don’t often make desserts with cherries, unless it’s a special request. There are 2 reasons: 1) I don’t like cherries that much, and 2) cherries have troublesome little pits that must be removed prior to baking them into a dessert. But it turns out a lot of people’s favorite pie is cherry pie. Why, people? With options like blackberry, apple, and sweet potato, how could you pledge your love to cherry? To me there is perhaps nothing less appealing than one of those gummy, syrupy open-crust cherry pies. So I have tried to figure out how to honor the unceasing drumbeat of requests for cherry pie while making something that I, myself, actually find palatable and worth the calories, which has resulted in this recipe for cherry raspberry pie.

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