Vegetable Recipes
Selland's market-cafe in Sacramento is an uncommonly good café and often a source of inspiration for foods to prepare. Recently I had some of their asparagus and loved the texture - slightly crunchy (definitely not mushy!) - and the hint...
Although for the most part we can get asparagus all year long, I usually only get them in the spring, when they are in season. How can you resist, when you see hundreds of them in the produce section, saluting...
My father got bit by the frittata bug this week and made these for us for lunch a few days ago. This is a quick and easy, no-nonsense recipe that makes a terrific frittata in hardly any time at all.
In California winter can transition to spring in a flash. It seems like yesterday we were beset by chilly storms while the forecast for this week is all sunny and 70s. Daffodils are blooming, as are cherry trees, and the...
The best thing about knowing how to make an easy blender hollandaise sauce is that once you get the hang of it, you can make the most simple of vegetables into something quite elegant. Case in point, these steamed asparagus...
Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord. ~Elise As a child I despised the asparagus my mother served. It was steamed to a dreadfully pathetic wilt and tasted, I assumed, no better than the old grass clippings trapped in the blades...
Sometimes the simplest things are the most enjoyable. My mother whipped up this quick and easy baby bok choy dish the other night. It was so good I made her make it again the next day so I could watch...
I admit, I am not the greatest fan of bok choy, perhaps as result of too many poorly done stir-fries during college. That said, my father made this recipe from Fine Cooking the other day and it was so good...
There are certain routines in our family for which I am unendingly grateful. One is that at the dinner table there is always a green vegetable of some sort. I may not have loved some veggies as a child, but...
One of our favorite side dishes is hot sauerkraut, delicious served with pork or bockwurst - a mild German sausage. You can also make a sandwich with toasted or grilled dark rye bread, melted Jack, havarti, or Muenster cheese, the...
All these years I've been loving beets but throwing the beet greens away. Yikes! No more. This is a delicious way to serve greens, whether collard, kale, or beet.
Gobsmacked. I thought I was pretty well versed in what one could do with cabbage, addicted to the stuff as I am. Whether it's braised, in stewed, stuffed, boiled, or made into coleslaw, we eat cabbage in every which way...
Fennel is one of those vegetables that until recently, I didn't really cook or eat that often. It seemed to me to be kind of precious, something unusual, not an everyday veggie like broccoli or green beans. At first the...
Leeks are an aristocrat of a vegetable. They require much of the year to grow, lots of space and tender care: You need to hill up soil around them on a regular basis to get that shank—the part you eat—long...
Braised onions are the side of choice with beef Bourguignon but they are also wonderful with roast beef and other stews. Trader Joe's sells a pack of multi-colored pearl onions that cook up beautifully as braised onions. The catch? You...
Looking for a festive holiday side dish? One my favorite winter sides is my dad's sweet and sour red cabbage. The following recipe takes that Austrian standard up a notch with the addition of apples, onions, and roasted chestnuts. So...
Oh la la. This is not your grandma's broccoli cheese casserole. Ever since Christopher Kimball challenged people to Google broccoli casserole, insisting they would be disappointed with what they found, I've been meaning to post a killer broccoli casserole. And...
Have you ever cooked with broccoli rabe (usually pronounced "rob", also known as rapini)? It sort of looks like broccolini or Chinese broccoli, with longish stems, small green florets, and lots of leaves. It's actually more related to turnips than...
Have you ever had broccoli rabe (pronounced "rahb" or "rah-bee" depending on where you are from)? I have sort of a love hate relationship with it. It looks like broccoli, but it doesn't taste like it. Broccoli rabe can sometimes...
The problem with most broccoli salads is the broccoli - the raw broccoli. Some people like raw broccoli, and actually, I love raw broccoli stems. They taste a lot like cabbage or cauliflower. But the florets? If they're raw, keep...
Some people get chocolate cravings. I get broccoli cravings. Sometimes I think it's my body's way of telling me I've been laying on the bacon a bit too thick (or maybe the chocolate!) But honestly I could eat broccoli every...
I never used to like brussels sprouts, until one day I had them when they weren't over-cooked. Still just a little bit crunchy, they had a wonderfully nutty flavor. Who knew brussels sprouts could taste so good? Now I love...
Have you started your holiday meal planning yet? If you have, bravo! If you haven't, don't despair, neither have we. Typically that happens about two days before the event. But if I have anything to do with it this year...
Please welcome guest author Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic as he shares one of his favorite quick and easy brussels sprouts recipes. ~Elise "It's funky. Abrasive. It's not afraid to get in your face and call your mama ugly." That's...
There are two approaches to holiday cooking - fancy and complicated, and simple and easy. (Guess which camp we're in?) Here is a colorful, simple harvest bake, with chopped butternut squash, tart apples, and cranberries. The hardest part is cutting...
If you have only one oven in your kitchen, any Thanksgiving side dishes you prepare generally need to be made on the stovetop, as the turkey is taking central stage in the oven. Here is a simple butternut squash side...
Even though it's 90 degrees here in Sacramento in mid October (are we having weird weather this year or what?) the pumpkins and butternut squash are out in numbers at the market. One of the things I love about winter...
Revised and updated, from the recipe archive. Original recipe posted in 2005. ~Elise Tucked away in funky Bernal Heights, my old neighborhood in San Francisco, used to lie an Italian trattoria which served exceptional Italian food. The restaurant is long...
Fennel lovers, onion lovers, unite! And then take a shower in grated Parmesan, lemon zest, and chopped parsley. I'd like to say this is quick and easy, but it's not quick. It's long and easy, the sort of thing you...
Okay, if you are like me, you'll hear the word "soufflé" and think, "too much work, too hard." Let me assure you that not only is this carrot soufflé as easy as they come, it's gobsmacking good. My father made...
People either really love cauliflower or they really don't. Those of us in the first camp will enjoy it almost any way - raw, steamed with butter and lemon, or in this case puréed.
Cauliflower lovers unite! I'm always looking for ways to dress up my favorite white vegetable. Here's a quickie, inspired by Southern Italian flavors. A little bacon (or pancetta), some roasted pine nuts, some garlic (of course), oregano, and red pepper...
Also known as celeriac remoulade, this salad is a refreshing accompaniment to seafood dishes and very easy to make. Celery root looks like a giant turnip, but tastes more like a cross between celery and jicama. The result is a...
Perhaps you too have noticed an odd, pale green, oblong is-it-a-fruit is-it-a-vegetable in your market and wondered what the heck it was, or what you could make with it. Actually I've known the name of it for a while—chayote; one...
The weather has finally decided to cool down around here and the first acorn squash have appeared at our local farmers market. Acorn squash are wonderfully easy to prepare - just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, add...
Is there a more classic vegetable side dish than glazed carrots? Maybe steamed broccoli, maybe. Yet, as simple and classic as glazed carrots are, you need to know what to do in terms of adding sugar, salt and heat in...
This delightful cold pea salad recipe comes from my friend Chigiy's friend Beth, who brought it to a recent BBQ. It calls for Smokehouse Almonds, but I think it could easily be made with tamari almonds too. Perfect for picnics...
My father made this cold tomato and zucchini soup the other day. "Don't call it gazpacho." "Why not? It looks like gazpacho, but with some zucchini." "It's my soup. I made it up. It's not gazpacho. Don't call it gazpacho...
The word "coleslaw" comes from the Dutch word, "koolsla", "kool" meaning cabbage and sla, salad. The word entered our English language from the Dutch in New York in the late 1700s. Since then it has been a featured side dish...
My brother Eddie was over for dinner a while ago one fortuitous night when we happened to be having collard greens. I say fortuitous because Ed introduced us to a wonderful new way to serve these healthful, somewhat bitter greens...
My father found this Louisiana recipe for collard greens in the Wall St. Journal earlier this year that we've now made several times. Each time I wonder why we don't make them more often, they're so good! The combination of...
Corn season has finally arrived. This morning my father picked up some yellow corn from the local farmer's market that was so fresh we could eat it raw. Must have been picked this morning. Did you know you could eat...
If you've been reading this site for a while you'll know that we are big spinach fans here. We get spinach fresh from the farmers market every Saturday morning, and it disappears quickly. Here is a creamed spinach dish that...
People either love turnips or they hate them. And if they love them, it was probably an acquired taste. I can still remember making a face when thinking I was biting into a yummy potato in one of my mother's...
About this time of year a lot of people come to this site searching for green bean recipes. We have several, but most of them are geared to the summer, when we have a bountiful supply of fresh green beans...
The debate usually begins like this. ME: Dad, how do you make your hash browns turn out so crispy? DAD: Use a potato ricer. It's the only thing I've found that really gets the moisture out of the potatoes. The...
About this time of year we start having cucumber salads almost every night with dinner. The cucumbers are growing a bit out of control in the garden, climbing up the tomato cages and all over the zinnias that line the...
When the hot weather hits, nothing is more cooling than a cucumber salad. Inspired by a fabulous cucumber salad shared with a friend at the Sea Salt restaurant in Berkeley, I canvassed my neighborhood grocers for some delicate Persian cucumbers...
We eat a lot of hot and spicy dishes around here; a great way to cool the palate is with the delicious combination of yogurt and cucumber. This easy-to-make cucumber salad, also called "tzatziki", is a refreshing accompaniment to spicy...
Updated December, 2011. A month ago or so I made some potato salad. I love potato salad and was well pleased with this one. Then the next week my father made his version of potato salad. It was great too...
Dad originally got this recipe from Dean & DeLuca, and over time it has become a family classic. Only he has the patience to make it. The recipe is little involved, but the results are fantastic. Luxuriously rich, smooth, and...
Check out these "eggs in a nest" baby potatoes from Hank. Perfect for spring! ~Elise I made this dish up on a whim. Elise and I were at the market and I saw some pretty Lacinato kale and gorgeous multi-colored...
Updated, from the recipe archive. Originally posted in 2005. Here in the San Joaquin Valley, the eggplant season is in full swing. At our local farmers market last weekend one could find eggplants of every variety - globe, Japanese, striped...
The trick to Eggplant Parmesan is to drain the eggplant slices of excess moisture first, before cooking. We found this recipe recently in the New York Times and adapted it to our taste (olive oil only - no canola oil...
Another one from the recipe archives, first posted in 2004. Even though my father doesn't like eggplant in general, he loves this terrine from Jacques Pepin and we've made it several times. Once he even insisted in making it during...
Fresh fava beans require patience. You have to shuck them twice, once to remove the thick shell, and then again, after cooking the beans, to peel the outer skin. Are they worth the effort? You tell me. Fresh favas, or...
I never used to know what to do with fennel, but these days, I can't get enough of it. Fennel is the most wonderfully versatile vegetable. You can slice raw fennel thin and serve it with a little shaved Parmesan...
I made these fingerling potatoes a few days ago as part of a composed salad and we loved them so much I made them again tonight just on their own, to accompany steak. These potatoes can be served warm, room...
Ever see those skinny little green beans in the market? They’re a French variety of green bean, also known as haricot vert, or filet beans. Haricot verts are more delicate than regular green beans and cook up more quickly. This...
Recipe and photo updated July 8, 2011 Ever since that wonderful movie with Jessica Tandy I've wondered about fried green tomatoes. People really eat green tomatoes? I recall being served fried tomatoes for breakfast while visiting London, but they weren't...
Now here's a salad for the season. Our neighbor Pat stopped me yesterday and handed me a recipe for a beet and pomegranate salad that she had pulled from an old issue of Sunset magazine. Perfect timing, as the pomegranates...
A recipe for those of us who love both beets and brussels sprouts. (Isn't it pretty?)
Note that thyme is the essential accent which brings all the ingredients together.
Green beans are the labradors of the vegetable world, they just seem to get along with everyone. Which is why you will usually find some incarnation of green beans on a holiday dinner menu. This simple preparation of green beans...
There is nothing better than garden fresh green beans. Even when my parents abandoned their garden beds for ten years, they still had their green bean "tee-pees" every summer. My father is rather picky about his beans. They must snap...
My mother is the only person I know who prepares green beans with salsa. It is such an easy and delicious dish and perfect for the summer when fresh green beans are plentiful. The trick of course to great tasting...
It doesn't take much to dress up green beans for a holiday meal. In this recipe the beans first blanched and then sautéed with pancetta and shallots, with some salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning. You can use...
Mmm. Asparagus. You can steam them, boil them, roast them, but I don't think anything beats the flavor of asparagus that are simply grilled. The smoky flavor, the char marks. Tender, but still with a little crunch. Seriously good. I...
The first time I tried grilling corn-on-the-cob, by placing shucked corn directly on the grill, the results weren't all that stellar. Too dried out and chewy. I consulted "She-who-knows-everything-when-it-comes-to-home-cooking" (a.k.a. mom) who informed me the way to do it was...
Are you familiar with edamame, the salty soybeans often served at Japanese restaurants? I became addicted to them when I lived in Japan years ago; they're the Japanese version of bar nuts, almost always served at bars there, with beer...
A grilled onion salad. Why not? Grilled onions can be just as good chilled as hot, especially when you let them marinate in an herb dressing. The grilling produces all sorts of caramelized goodness in the onions, taming their bite...
Have you ever cooked with radicchio? Until recently I have only had it in salads. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, radicchio looks like a small head of red cabbage; you can usually find it in...
Mid July is about the time of year when tomatoes start coming full steam into season. I have 5 tomato plants in my garden that are now producing more tomatoes than we can think up ways of using them. (Gazpacho...
A dear friend of mine from Alabama called me recently and demanded to know, "why aren't there any grits on your site?!" Uh, because I'm not Southern and I don't know what the heck I'm talking about when it comes...
These got a little browned, but they were still crunchy and delicious. When I announced that I wanted to make brussels sprouts, inspired by a recent recipe in the New York Times, my father let out a loud groan. Dad...
We almost always have puréed sweet potatoes or garnet yams with our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Usually we just bake them, scrape out the insides and mash them with a little butter and brown sugar. My father found a wonderful...
We had dueling home fries here the other day, a veritable home-fry cook-off between my mother and father. Mom makes her fried potatoes sliced, using raw potatoes, and usually serves them as a side when we have fish for dinner...
This was the year I fell in love with black eyed peas. (The food. Already loved the band.) They have a wonderful flavor, almost smoky, even without bacon or ham. Earlier this last summer we put them in a salad...
Caramelizing onions, by slowly cooking them in a little olive oil until they are richly browned, is a wonderful way to pull flavor out of the simplest of ingredients. Onions are naturally sweet; and as caramel comes from the simple...
I can imagine, that if you didn't grow up eating artichokes and if you were encountering them for the first time, they might seem a little intimidating. How one cooks and eats an artichoke is not obvious from its appearance...
Sometimes you want to get right to the heart of the matter, in this case the heart of the glorious fresh artichokes that arrive each spring. Here’s how to trim an artichoke to get that heart, which you can use...
"You've converted me into a kale lover," a friend declared after eating a hearty bowl of this kale with sausage and white beans. Yay! I love it when I hear things like this. At our house a green vegetable is...
Living for a while in Japan does strange things to your food preferences. Instead of thinking, "eating seaweed? PHEW!" one gets a warm glow and a faraway look in one's eyes thinking, "Eating seaweed? Ahhh. Yummm. Which kind do I...
If I could, I would reach out to each and every one of you, take you by the hand to the market, buy a bunch of kohlrabi and some ham, go back to your kitchen with you and make this...
Have you started your holiday meal planning yet? We are just now getting around to it. If you like glazed carrots, here's a way to dress them up for a feast. Sauté the carrot rounds in butter, and then cook...
Updated, from the recipe archive. Originally posted in 2005. A typical holiday feast around here is a rather colorful affair. Lots of browns, yellows, reds, and greens. And then there is orange. I can't remember a Thanksgiving without a vibrant...
Have you heard about the "canvolution" sweeping the country? Check out CanningAcrossAmerica.com for canning events and resources. ~Elise One of our favorite products is jarred marinated red bell peppers. They're convenient for recipes that call for roasted red peppers, and...
Guest author Garrett and I made these mashed potatoes the other day. So good! ~Elise The story of my first Thanksgiving away from home is one I tell with pride. Sure, we all have epic disasters in the kitchen and...
One of our favorite ways to eat green beans is with salsa. The tomatoes, onions, chiles, spices, and vinegar perk up the beans in the most wonderful way. This bean salad recipe is sort of a riff on the salsa...
Do you love a good three bean salad, you know, the kind with a sweet vinegary dressing? I do. It's sort of that last minute pantry item type of dish that is quick and wonderfully filling when you are hungry...
My mother is the only person I have ever known who can make summer squash taste this good. Often this time of year gardens are overflowing with zucchini and summer squash. This quick and easy recipe is a great way...
Have you ever tried mustard greens? Related to kale, cabbage, and collard greens, they are the peppery leafy greens of the mustard plant and are used frequently in Chinese, Japanese, and Indian cooking. I find them less bitter than kale...
The sauce for these potatoes is very easy to prepare and a wonderful way to cook up some fresh garden tomatoes. The cilantro, cumin, and tomatoes combine to a unique and delicious flavor.
Nopalitos are the edible young paddles of the prickly pear cactus, grown throughout their native Mexico, the southwestern United States, and the Mediterranean (brought back by the conquistadores). The paddles are widely available in Mexican markets in the US, either...
Do you like artichoke hearts? We do! Please welcome Hank Shaw as he shares this delectable artichoke salad recipe. ~Elise One of my favorite artichoke heart recipes, this is a simple salad that is great on a warm spring afternoon...
Mmm, mmm okra! Yes, some people shy away from this odd little vegetable, usually because depending on the preparation it can be a little slippery slimy. Personally I love okra, any which way, including slimified. Alas, not everyone shares my...
Recipe updated March 3, 2011 With cheese, onions, and potatoes, how can one go wrong? Unless of course you are on a diet, in which case you should probably stay away from this one. This recipe is easy to make...
Some dishes depend on one special ingredient, the absence of which gives you something rather ordinary, the inclusion of which creates something extraordinary. This is one of those dishes. This carrot salad comes from the Middle East, and depends on...
These. Are. So. Addictive. And once you know how to make them, you will never have an excuse to not cook sweet potatoes again. Those kids that won't eat their veggies? Hah. They'll eat so many of these fries their...
I gave my father a subscription to Gourmet as a Christmas present 20 years ago and have been reaping the rewards ever since. This simple oven-fried potatoes recipe came from a 1985 issue. It has been so much part of...
Green is the color of Ireland, which you understand immediately if you've ever been there or even flown over it. Looking over the land from several thousand feet up, one cannot but be struck by the patchwork of vivid shades...
Have you noticed the brightly colored bell peppers in the market lately? They're glorious. Here's a quick and easy recipe for Italian peperonata, or fried peppers, with onions, fresh plum tomatoes, garlic, and basil. This is one of those "I...
There has been much written on the best way to make mashed potatoes - how long you cook them, with peel or without, reserving some of the cooking liquid, etc. etc. I have discovered that the real trick to creamy...
Most pickled beets I find are much too vinegary, hiding rather than enhancing the naturally sweet flavor of the beets. I usually just boil beets and eat them unadorned, but my mother has a way of preparing pickled beets that...
You know Prince Charming? The tall, dark, handsome guy who comes riding up on a white horse to whisk you away to a fantasy life at some medieval castle? Well, my tall, dark, handsome guy doesn't have a horse or...
The easiest way to prepare parsnips is to slice them, steam them, and dress with butter and salt. However, to get the fullest, richest flavor from the parsnips, they should be roasted. The browning caramelizes the natural sugars in the...
Please welcome Hank from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook as he shares one of his favorite things to make with wild foraged ramps, ramp and parsley pesto. Outstanding with pasta, though I ate half of this straight with a spoon. So...
Have you ever had roasted asparagus turn out tough and stringy? Here's a tip from my friend Alanna: use the fat spears, not the skinny ones, for roasting. This is a quick and easy recipe for beautifully roasted, tender asparagus.
This has to be one of the easiest ways to prepare roasted carrots. The method of preparation comes from my friend Suzanne. She uses the "Nantes" French carrots from Trader Joe's or the bunched baby carrots at Whole Foods, but...
Every Saturday my dad heads to the local farmers market and, if the season is right, comes home with a big bunch of beets, which he then scrubs clean, boils, quarters, and marinates in oil and vinegar. So by the...
If you show up at my father's house with a bagful of fresh brussels sprouts to be cooked, he will howl and complain like a 3-year old confronted with liver and onions. Such then, is the sweet satisfaction of seeing...
Who knew that cauliflower could be such a perfect vehicle for olive oil, lemon, garlic, and Parmesan cheese? I'm used to eating cauliflower raw, steamed, or puréed. I love cauliflower and will eat it any way it is prepared. But...
Normally fennel tastes like a cross between celery, cabbage, and licorice. Roasting, however, brings out an entirely new flavor - as if pine nuts decided to join the party.
Years ago my pal Peter showed me how to roast garlic whole and eat the warm, toasty cloves right out of the head. How wonderfully simple! And perfect for garlic lovers.
Here is a flavorful alternative to boiling your beans - roasting them with a balsamic vinegar honey coating, topped with toasted walnuts.
Oven roasting new potatoes with a little olive oil, garlic, and rosemary is a simple and easy way to prepare a savory side dish.
Perfume makers should give up on chasing pheromones and start trying to mimic the scent of truffles instead, the aroma is so irresistible. Have you ever used truffle oil in your cooking? I think I have a new best friend...
Recently I had the pleasure of attending a fabulous class, taught by and in the home of local cooking maestra Evie Lieb. In the class we covered many dishes, but my favorite was the Roasted Parsnips with Horseradish-Herb Butter. I...
Often this time of year, our gardens are filled with more zucchini than we know what to do with. Here is one quick and easy way of preparing zucchini. I had a variation of this the other night at my...
For years I've walked by those packages of baby artichokes at Trader Joe's not willing to try them because they just didn't seem worth the effort. I'm glad to report that I was completely wrong. They actually take less time...
This is a classic Sicilian side dish, prepared with leafy greens, toasted pine nuts and raisins. It may sound like an odd combination, but it works; it's sweet, savory, salty, spicy and just a little bitter. So as my mother...
We have a thing for greens in our family. Beet greens, collard greens, mustard greens, Swiss chard, kale. My mother even picks dandelion greens to add to soups, and mix in with other greens. The thing about most greens is...
Oh my, this is a good one. I never would have thought to pair kale with tahini (thank you to my friend Peg for the suggestion), but it's great. Sort of reminiscent of a popular Japanese dish with spinach and...
Anyone will tell you, "eat your greens"! And they're right. Bitter greens especially—kale, collard greens, mustard greens, etc. They're good for you, packed with vitamins, and they help digestion. That said, frankly I never knew what to do with them...
The Swiss chard I planted last spring survived the winter to vigorously return this year. Last week we made a yogurt dip with the leaves of some swiss chard I picked. The ribs from that bunch went into this dish...
Mustard seeds. Do you cook with them often? I discovered how wonderful they were years ago when my Indian friend Sanjay would come over and make dal for us, peppered with mustard seeds. They're so tiny, but boy do they...
After several years of observing the results of my feeble gardening attempts, my next door neighbor Pat (76 and still going strong) graciously responded to my pleas for help and has been guiding me this spring with soil amendments, starter...
There are many ways to make delicious scalloped potatoes. For this version, I consulted several books - Kitchen Sense, two James Beards, and the Joy of Cooking. Basically you layer thinly sliced potatoes with any number of extras - cheese...
Okay, so not everyone loves turnips as much as we do. But even if you aren't the biggest fan of that radishy root, this recipe might just turn you around. Not surprisingly, cream, butter and onions bring out the savory...
Sugar snap peas are a garden staple in the spring. At least around here you plant them in November or December and see them poking out of the ground late February to early March, depending on how warm or cold...
We recently had sherry potatoes (potato slices baked in sherry and butter) at Selland's, our favorite local cafe. They were so good that we spent many tries attempting to recreate them in our kitchen. I scoured the Internet looking for...
Are eggplants showing up in your local markets yet? They are here, and guest author Garrett has tossed together a classic Chinese dish using long and tender asian eggplants from the farmers market. Enjoy! ~Elise The actual name for this...
Ever order Chinese long beans at a Chinese restaurant? So so good. Guest author Garrett McCord shows us how to cook them up quickly, Sichuan style. ~Elise Chinese long beans (also called Chinese green beans, yardlong beans, and chopstick beans...
I wasn't always a lover of peas. When I was a kid, on the days peas were being served for dinner, my siblings and I would jockey for a particular seat at the dining room table. This spot had a...
Okay, so "smashed" potatoes are sometimes considered just a lazy way of making mashed potatoes. And indeed, they take a lot less effort. But smashing them is also an excellent way to get butter and herbs into all of the...
Spring has sprung here in Northern California. The sweet peas are blossoming, the snap peas are climbing, and I have peas on my brain! Today I had a hankering for snow peas and cooked up a bunch this afternoon just...
This corn bread is packed with cheese, onions, and whole corn, and flavored with bacon drippings. Need I say more? Recipe courtesy of my friend Lynn R. of Newton, Mass., who I think adapted it from one in The Southern...
I make a great pie crust, my father, a killer meatloaf. My mother? She's the queen of salads. When the three of us cook together, which is more often than not, mom almost always gets salad duty, because she just...
What would be your dream diet? You know, the diet in which you could really eat anything you wanted, and as much as you wanted. If you asked me at dinner tonight, I would have to say, spicy corn fritters...
Popeye was the best thing that ever hit the spinach industry. When I was a kid you couldn't pay me to eat lima beans or peas, but spinach? I begged for it; we all did. Especially if it came from...
My father recently celebrated his 82nd birthday. In our family, we aren't big on presents or cards, instead we honor the occasion with a dinner and family gathering. For dad's birthday, we prepared a wonderful Provencal fish soup (recipe to...
Updated, from the recipe archive. First posted November, 2005 I never get tired of eating spinach. Good thing it's so good for you! This is a fun take on spinach, a Korean version, with the spinach wilted in sesame oil...
"Sufferin' succotash!" Raise your hand if you grew up with Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings. I'm guessing that these days there are more people familiar with Sylvester the cat's oft-uttered exclamation than there are those who have actually tried the...
Steamed broccoli is the best cure for over-indulgence I know. It's cleansing, healthful, high in vitamin C, protein (45% of the calories in broccoli are from protein), and fiber. The easiest way to dress broccoli is to mix in a...
Stewed tomatoes is one dish I've never had any place but at home, cooked by my mother. I've never seen them on a menu anywhere, have you? Too bad, too; as they are truly delicious, and so easy to make...
Why is it that baked beans are so popular around the Fourth of July, but making them usually requires several hours of baking in a hot oven? Where we live it gets pretty darn sizzling in the summer and the...
Starting in September around here, people who grow zucchini in their garden begin to discover super-sized zukes that somehow missed getting picked earlier and just kept on growing. My mother's friend Claire gave us such a monster zucchini from her...
If you grow zucchini in your garden, and you're the kind of wonderful person who brings your neighbors a share of your bounty, and such bounty includes foot-long several pound zucchinis, might I suggest that you include a recipe to...
Evie suspected that when I tried her summer squash salad recipe that I would have to eat my words (no pun intended) regarding my mom being the only one who could prepare squash well. Well, I have eaten my words...
If you've been following our Simply Recipes updates on Twitter then you know that I recently spent a week in the Bahamas with several other food bloggers at the Club Med Food and Wine Festival (more on that soon). As...
A perfect holiday side dish from Hank Shaw. Enjoy! ~Elise This is a lovely way to eat smaller onions. I learned this recipe from Italian cookbooks, where they call it onions agrodolce, but the concept of sweet-and-sour onions is pretty...
A reader emailed the other day asking if I was Austrian on account of the sauerkraut and cabbage recipes on Simply Recipes. My father's grandparents on both sides were from Austria and he grew up with many traditional German and...
I never liked Swiss chard, until several years ago I had some that had been freshly picked from a friend's garden. It was so sweet and buttery I couldn't believe it was actually Swiss chard. It was then I learned...
I've been on a chard kick this season, getting one or two bunches a week for the last several months. It cooks down to something more substantial than spinach, and is more tender and therefore cooks faster than kale or...
Recently I had the privilege of dining with one of my favorite food bloggers, Carol Blymire, who after cooking her way through the French Laundry cookbook and blogging about it, is tackling an even more absurdly wonderful but complicated project...
I'm guessing that you are either a turnip lover or not. Turnips aren't one of those happy-go-lucky neutral vegetables, like green beans for example, that seem to get along with everyone. No, turnips have a bit more "I dare you...
Dad found this recipe for turnip and potato patties in an old (1985) issue of Gourmet magazine and made them the other night. They were terrific, not too turnipy. Sort of a cross between a pancake and a fritter.
Sometimes deciding what to make for dinner comes starts with the inspiration of just one ingredient. A friend of mine sent us some wonderful blue cheese this week and my father decided that he wanted to make twice baked potatoes...
You know when you learn how to make something new, and it's so good, and so easy to make, that you think back with regret to all the years you've lived without knowing how to do this thing? That's how...
Now this is a salad made for summer - fresh garden green beans, ripe tomatoes, Parmesan, and pancetta. You can substitute bacon for the pancetta, but if pancetta is available, we recommend using it. The flavor works marvelously well with...
Every weekend during the summer, if we are lucky, there will be a good supply of wax beans at the farmers market. These golden yellow (and sometimes purple) versions of green beans are harvested young, and are sweet and tender...
If you've ever grown cherry tomatoes in your garden, you know how wonderfully prolific they can be in summer months. The following salad combines the sweetness of summer cherry tomatoes with white beans and parsley. The secret sauce is the...
Old fashioned watercress is getting harder to come by, at least around here in Sacramento. Whole Foods carries watercress, but the leaves are too tender, and lack the bite of what I grew up eating. This is my mother's recipe...
Zucchini season is upon us, and already neighbors are coming by with bounty to share. Here is a favorite recipe for zucchini fritters, which look a lot like potato latkes, except without the potato. A tasty, easy option if you...
Another week, another refrigerator drawer filled to the brim with garden zucchini. Sound familiar? To take a break from our usual (almost daily in the summer) way to cook up the zucchini (see mom's summer squash), we prepared a classic...
My father found a recipe for zucchini sautéed in butter and olive oil with onion, parsley, and thyme in one of his decade-old Food and Wine magazines. He made it a few days ago and it was perfect - tender...
