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Posts from the ‘Vegetarian (or vegetarian option)’ Category

Sep 16

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Classic frittata recipe (with smoked salmon, fresh corn, and herbed goat cheese)

A frittata is a beautiful, easy meal to make. Combine eggs with meats, vegetables, herbs, cheese, or pretty much any other prepared ingredient you have around, and within 20 minutes you have a delicious, healthy, fancy-seeming meal. As an added bonus it’s perfect for making ahead, since you can wrap and freeze it for up to 1 month or at the very least save the leftovers (which are equally good room temperature or warm) for breakfast or lunch the next day. (A slice of frittata and some bread make a pretty delicious sandwich, I might add.)

Salmon_frittata

Cooled

And this is exactly the sort of dish I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve mentioned on the site before that I’ve been putting together a guide to these sorts of basic, foundational recipes, all of which act as a backbone or a stage for whatever vegetables, proteins, grains, or other items I happen to have in my kitchen or that look good at a market stand. These recipes make it easy to eat seasonally and help me avoid the sort of puzzle-piecing anxiety that results from grocery shopping without a plan in mind, and for most people having these sorts of recipes around can open a new world of quick, easy, healthy home-cooked meals. I love to talk about these sorts of “anything goes” recipes because they do wonders at making people more interested in cooking, more comfortable in the kitchen, and more at-ease with letting go of recipes and diverging from planned-out shopping lists.

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Sep 9

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Gribiche-dressed simple potato salad

This one’s been on my list for a while.

Potato_salad

By “my list” I mean the running list of things I want to cook – recipes I’ve come across, ideas I’ve picked up from here and there, random inspirations that come to me at random. It’s a long list, and until recently sort of wild and overgrown like an uncontrollable and unmaintained patch of land, growing far more quickly than I could make any progress on it. I’d throw almost anything on the list, from a full-fledged recipe to just a word or two. (Until recently, one entry said merely “bacon.” Who knows.) It began to feel like a losing game, so a few weeks ago I culled and organized it, organizing it by type of dish and by season so I can more easily use it as a resource.

That’s how I remembered about gribiche. Read more

Aug 11

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Homemade Toby’s tofu paté

Homemade_Tobys

I’ve been nervous about this one for a while. I knew that someday I’d have this recipe to share with you, but I haven’t been sure how best to break the news. Tofu is kind of a touchy subject to broach, and with a name like “tofu paté” I can guarantee I’ve already turned away a good number of people. But as someone recently separated from my regular Toby’s source, I know this information might be valuable to a good number of people in need and I’m here to help.

Because there are many reasons people might be reading this post, I’ll give you some options:

  • If the word “Toby’s” really gets you going, read number 1.
  • If you don’t know about Toby’s but are potentially open to things made with tofu and the words “nutritional yeast” don’t make you go “what now?” read number 2.
  • If you don’t know about Toby’s and are really, really not into the idea of tofu … I apologize. Go here to distract yourself. Read more

Jul 27

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Trail cooking – sesame peanut noodles, a pair of cocktails, and two meal plans

Trail_cooking

We’ve camped a lot this year. A lot a lot. We realized, in fact, that we have probably spent more nights in our tent over this past year than in any other place. It’s been fantastic, in part because we’ve camped in some amazing, jaw-dropping places (like the Canadian Rockies, the Boundary Waters, and Yosemite), but also because we spent most of our years in Southern California wishing we had more time to head into the wilderness, pitch a tent, and spend days doing not much of anything but hiking.

So these days I have pretty good footing on matters of camp cooking. I get a lot of questions both on this site and from friends and family about how to plan for camp meals, and this page from last year has been by far my most popular this summer, so soon I’ll put together a new site feature all about planning camp meals and menus.

But first, I want to talk about trail cooking, an entirely different beast. Read more

Jun 7

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Roasted sunchokes with pumpkin seeds, pickled red onion, and shaved Parmesan

Duo_sunchokes

It took me years to take a serious look at a sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichoke). I’d pass them by at the market, eagerly turning to more comprehensible things. I had no idea what they were, much less how to prepare them, and I wasn’t even sure if they were vegetable or some exotic form of ginger. I mean, look:

Sunchokes_board

Not exactly the sort of vegetable that inspires confidence. That peel. Those knobs. The sheer wall of intimidation, having no idea what one might do with such a thing.

But, boy, was I wrong. Despite their gnarly outer appearance, sunchokes are pretty fantastic. They have a sweet, nutty, almost creamy flavor that retains a hint of crisp even when thoroughly cooked, sort of like a water chestnut, and they’re lovely roasted or pureed or even deep-fried in thin slices like potato chips. There’s no need to deal with the peel, which is thin and edible, and cutting off the knobs is actually kind of fun. Should you find yourself facing a sunchoke, do not shy away! Go on in. Read more

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