It’s hard to say whether the current status quo is due to an onslaught of commercials featuring kids eating carrots while playing in valleys or whether Americans have a group-mind when it comes to dressings, but one thing is clear: Ranch is just about everybody’s favorite dressing. I love the concept, too — you can’t [...]
Eat, don’t spray! No need to buy fancy spring specials at the market when your lawn is full of free, fresh greens and herbs. I’m talking dandelion greens, purslane, and wood sorrel; wild alliums like chives, ramps, and scapes. Instead of spraying Roundup and contaminating our water supply — when it rains, all those herbicides, [...]
Nobody can resist a salty, crunchy potato chip. (Hence the famous campaign of “You can’t eat just one!”) But you know what’s even more irresistible? Homemade potato chips! Sweet potatoes make especially delicious chips since their sweetness provides a natural contrast for salt and spices. And as long as you cut the potatoes as thinly [...]
Want a tastier, healthier substitute for commercial mayo? Try using plain whole-milk Greek yogurt whenever you’d normally reach for the mayo. If you want to give it even more of that mayo-like tang, just stir a squirt of fresh lemon juice and a small spoonful of mustard into the yogurt. The result? A full-flavored, creamy, [...]
Here’s something I bet you didn’t know. I didn’t know this, either, until about two weeks ago: you can eat broccoli leaves! They’re quite similar to kale, in fact. Which makes sense seeing as they’re in the same plant family. (Brassica members also include cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts.) Seeing all those lush leaves — [...]
Continue reading about Broccoli is More Than Stems & Flowers
I’ve written about crepes before, but they’re so versatile that I just had to cast them in a starring role yet again. This time, the supporting actors are chicken, feta, tomatoes, and dill … although you can include whatever fillings you’d like in your triple-decker crepewich. You can also mix and match the flours you [...]
“Eat your greens!” people like to say. They’re right — you should. Mostly because they’re tasty (inexpensively so) and because they’re good for you. Usually people mean dark leafy veggies like spinach and kale when they say “greens.” But what about the other, untapped greens that are even more likely to be growing just outside [...]
Continue reading about Fresh New Ways to Follow Popeye’s Advice
Nutritional yeast is one of my favorite seasonings. You can’t bake bread with it, but you can sprinkle it on nearly anything you’d like to give your dish an extra boost of savory umami-ness. Kale chips are especially addictive when tossed and roasted with nutritional yeast; salads gain another flavor dimension with it; blending it [...]
Continue reading about Savory Secrets for Your Popcorn…and Whatever Else You Like
In keeping with my recent fascination with buckwheat, I’d like to share another trick I stumbled across lately: sautéeing leftover buckwheat to create an entirely new flavor and texture. Seeing as cooked buckwheat lasts for a good week in the fridge, you might as well cook a big batch and then enjoy it various ways [...]
Just about everyone agrees that crab cakes are sublime. Just about everyone likes shrimp, too. So why not make shrimp-crab cakes? The tiny and amazingly cute wild rock shrimp that come in cans are ideal for making cakes since they’re already so small, plus they can hang out in your pantry right next to the [...]
