What do Brussels sprouts, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms have in common? They were all in my pantry begging to be made into soup. The lentils looked lonely, too, so I threw them into the mix. Hearty soups are best made in the winter, after all, even if the term “winter” doesn’t seem to currently imply [...]
Although sweet pies typically feature fruit enclosed by crust on both the top and bottom, savory pies are made with veggies and/or meat and often sport only a top deck. Shepherd’s Pie, for example, is made with beef and veggies on the bottom and a “crust” of mashed potato on top. An English version of [...]
When it comes to versatile flavor and nutritional bang for your buck, you can’t beat dried beans. On the downside, though, dried beans take a while to reconstitute — depending on how you do it, there’s either a lot of soaking and simmering involved, or a lot less soaking and simmering time and a lot [...]
Like Spanish tapas, the Arabic tradition of mezze involves small dishes that are hugely flavorful. Most are very simple to prepare — in fact, there are plenty of single-ingredient mezze, like the olives pictured here. There are also two- and three-ingredient small dishes that just involve a bit of spice or oil added to the [...]
Continue reading about You Can’t Go Wrong with Roasted Eggplant
I just love northern African cuisine — it’s fragrant and nuanced, yet easy to prepare and dependent on inexpensive staples like rice, lentils, and legumes. You may need to purchase a few spices to make your dishes more authentic, but spices last for six months to a year if you store them in a cool [...]
I know not everyone is going to be with me on this one, but poached eggs have always been my favorite. Scrambled eggs are nice, and so are hard-boiled eggs, but for me, the creamy poached-ness is where it’s at. Poached eggs are easy to make, too: just crack an egg into boiling water, set [...]
Dips are fantastically fabulous: you can make them out of nearly any ingredients that you can purée, you can serve them with a variety of dippers (crackers, tortilla chips, raw veggies, etc.), and if you make the dip less thick, it becomes a sauce for pasta, a marinade for meats, even a spread for sandwiches. [...]
Continue reading about Dips, Dinners & Other Delicious Dishes
Lately, paneer has started popping up in mainstream markets. This is fantastic news for anyone who likes Indian food, cheeses of all kinds, or likes to try out new ingredients. You can substitute a firm fresh cheese like queso fresco for paneer — or even tofu, if you’re so inclined — but paneer is tops [...]
What started out as a way to make use of summertime tomato and basil became an exercise in finding out just how useful ground-up lentils can be. (Ground-up dried beans would be equally useful, but lentils are a lot thinner and therefore easier to grind in a coffee or spice grinder.) I like lentils in [...]
Continue reading about Tomatoes, Basil & Lentils Together at Last
You know the rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot (or steamer) when you cook it? The crunchy, coveted, burnt-but-not-burnt grains that everybody fights over? It’s definitely the best part of the rice, but you usually don’t get much to enjoy per batch of cooked rice. Well, here’s an idea: purposely make a [...]
