Although I like beans in general, I’ve never been a big fan of the traditional three-bean salad, mostly because red kidney beans are my least favorite bean. I utterly adore Great White Northern beans, though. And small red and black and cranberry and chickpea and really any other bean except lima. If you’re like me [...]
Continue reading about Reimagining a (Very Simple!) Bean Salad
Sweet corn, savory herbs, juicy tomatoes — what more could you want? Summer brings out the best on our plates. (Summer also means that my refrigerator tends to be a bit bare since a lot of my future meals are anchored to my garden dirt.) And now that we’re — sniff! — at the tail [...]
Continue reading about Guaranteed Summer Hits: Sweet Corn & Fresh Herbs
Remember the Ranch days? The days when everything was dipped in and topped with Ranch dressing? Ranch fries, Ranch burgers, veggies swathed in a sea of slightly speckled white. There’s no denying Ranch’s creamy, herby appeal…but you can create a much tastier, much more nutritious version of it using plain Greek yogurt and fresh or [...]
Continue reading about Giving a Favorite Dressing a New Wardrobe
Ying and yang, night and day, refined oils and unrefined oils. They’re all polar opposites. But while ying and yang are equal halves of a whole and night is just as beautiful as day, refined oils are nowhere near the equivalent of their unrefined counterparts, neither in terms of flavor nor nutritive value. Refined oils [...]
It’s strawberry season! Not to mention chive season and lettuce season. Cool evenings and not-too-hot days make for smoother, softer-tasting chives (as the season progresses, they get more and more oniony) and sweeter, softer-tasting lettuce (hot days = more bitter leaves). All of that means it’s the perfect time to enjoy simple salads, either as [...]
Continue reading about Spring is in the Air…and on the Plate
Compared to fish, clams, scallops, mussels — even lobster — shrimp strikes me as the richest, smoothest morsel of the sea. Wild shrimp are especially sweet and creamy. The only trick is not to overcook them into tough rubberiness. Seeing as everyone loves a speedy and delicious dinner, though, the fact that they cook so [...]
Who says a salad can’t be manly? The term “salad” derives from sal, the Latin word for salt. A dish that’s salata or salada is simply one that’s been seasoned with salt — the original word has nothing to do with lettuce. And while some of the best classic salads are lettuce-based (Caesar Salad, Salade [...]
I have a confession to make: I’m not a fan of plain-Jane, eaten-as-they-are almonds. I like to toast sliced almonds and include them in all sorts of dishes, and I love to grind sliced almonds into flour and use them in a wide variety of baked goods, but the idea of munching on unadorned almonds [...]
If salads were clothing, they’d be mix-and-match separables — nearly any combination of ingredients can become a great salad. It’s just a matter of choosing complementing contrasts: salty/sweet, soft/crunchy, earthy/bright. Those contrasts are what makes each ingredient a noticeable part of the whole. In this salad, for example, the lettuce is crunchy, but the papaya [...]
Dressings are probably the #1 Best Thing to Make Instead of Buy. All you need is an oil, an acid, and maybe some spices or condiments. Oils can range from extra-virgin olive oil (great with everything!) to unrefined peanut and sesame oils (fantastic with Asian dishes) to delicate nut oils like walnut and pistachio that [...]
