I love the deep spicy flavors in Indian food, and for many years I was fortunate to have colleagues from India who would generously invite me to their annual Diwali celebration which is the Hindu festival of lights. One of my favorite Indian delicacies they served was samosas which is a pocket of fried dough filled with a savory mixture of spiced potatoes, onions, peas, or lentils.
This mouth-watering salad is a virtual farmer’s market in a bowl and is perfect for your next picnic or cookout. The fresh crunchy veggies, bittersweet charred sweet corn, and chewy quinoa tossed in a bright, acidic dressing are the perfect summer flavors to accompany your favorite protein. You can make the salad in advance and store in the refrigerator, however, bring it to room temperature to serve.
Cauliflower is a very mild vegetable and is most often seen on veggie trays because it has a great crunch and holds up well with thick dips. Roasting cauliflower brings out a sweet, nutty flavor that’s quite unexpected the first time you try it. The preparation in this recipe by keeping the cauliflower head whole creates wonderful little pockets for the spicy green curry sauce to seep into while it bakes. And look at the beautiful caramelization on the outer crust!
One of my favorite childhood memories is coloring Easter eggs. Even today years later, whenever I smell white distilled vinegar, my mind instantly goes back to Easter eggs. The next logical progression for our beautifully colored eggs was either egg salad or deviled eggs. When you’re a kid, stuffing half of a deviled egg into your mouth was fun and totally expected. When you’re a grown up not so much. So this version is a bit more mature and refined, however, you still get those wonderful flavors of rich egg yolks, spicy mustard, and creamy mayonnaise, but then there’s just a hint of heat from the Sriracha followed by the salty brine of the pickle juice.
And when no one is looking, you can stuff as many of these in your mouth as you can and still feel like a kid!
The side dishes that show up on the holiday table have started to look the same every year. I’m all for tradition and love a large helping of creamy mashed potatoes, however, how many green bean casseroles do you need to eat before you decide it’s time to broaden your options?
It’s kind of a joke in my family how much I love fresh from the vine-ripened tomatoes, and it is common to see me pluck a ripe, juicy gem from one of the plants in our garden and pop it in my mouth before it even makes its way into the house. So this recipe is an homage to my obsession with summer ripened tomatoes and a twist on a traditional Caprese salad.
This recipe is a super quick, packed with flavor side dish that works great for a weekday dinner, and comes together in about 15 minutes. The vegetables add a vibrant pop of color and the aromatics from the fresh herbs and lemon zest jazz up the mild chewy tenderness of the brown rice.
On days when I know my prep time will be short, I’ll chop the vegetables ahead of time the evening before, and store them in a container in the fridge. That way when you’re ready to cook, they’re ready to go!
Eating a low-carb diet doesn’t mean you have to give up on carbs entirely as long as you focus on whole, heart-healthy, unprocessed grains, like farro. Very similar to barley, farro is a dense, chewy grain that has a thick outer husk and deep nutty, rich flavor.
This recipe was the first time I cooked with farro, and I immediately loved it. I was happy with my decision to pair it with the fresh herbs and the fresh lemon juice which brightened up the flavor and made a great side dish.
As summer winds down and the season’s harvest of delectable tomatoes comes to a close, I managed to snag a few remaining heirloom tomatoes from the produce stand down the street this week and created this gorgeous masterpiece. It was so visually stunning when I prepared it, I hesitated eating it.
The tomato is a variety called a Lime Green Salad and this was the first time I’d seen it. The fruit is only 3 to 4 ounces in size, yet they literally burst with intricate, sweet refreshing citrusy flavor when you bite into them. So, of course, it was the perfect match for the sweet acidity of the citrus salsa and the spiciness from the pickled jalapeno.
I started shaving raw Brussels sprouts into salads a few months ago because I liked the slightly bitter flavor they add to fresh greens, and I wanted to work in some additional protein, iron, and potassium to my diet.
For this recipe, I decided to go all in and make the sprouts the focus of the slaw by having the creamy feta cheese and the tangy balsamic dressing bring the flavors together. The added crunchy sweet cashew dust was a perfect finish.