Healthy vegetarian tacos without cheese! Wait, what? How? Lightly pickled red onions, cilantro garlic yogurt sauce, creamy avocado, and crunchy roasted chickpeas with caramelized cauliflower guarantee these tacos have a lot of texture and flavor without tons of fat and calories. These are extra-approved by my husband! He was thrilled with them. We’ll definitely be making these again soon! Continue reading
I love the moment when you break a perfectly poached egg open and the gooey warm yolk spills all over everything. Especially a crunchy piece of toast with lemony avocado spread. Yay! Moment of egg happiness! However, until now I’ve been sadly limited in my poached-egg consumption because the technique of poaching eggs has eluded me. Somehow I always ended up with an overcooked egg bomb with no gooey yolk in sight, or an undercooked icky blob. Yet I wanted to learn, because a poached egg or two is such a great way to add a delicious little package of protein to your otherwise veggie- or grain-based meals, any time of day. Finally, Martha Rose Shulman’s technique in The Simple Art of Vegetarian Cooking: Templates and Lessons for Making Delicious Meatless Meals Every Day showed me the way to a fully cooked white with still slightly gooey yolk. I was so thrilled when it worked! I may even have done a happy egg dance. And if I can poach an egg, so can you – better get your own happy egg dance ready! Continue reading
If you’ve got a sad and lonely bag of baby carrots sitting in your fridge, pull them out and make this roasted carrot dish now! You will be pleasantly surprised if you’ve never roasted carrots before. Roasting concentrates their natural sugars and flavor and they’re very different from raw or steamed carrots. I often just eat baby carrots raw, but it turns out they are not just a healthy snack. They are also a healthy side dish! This recipe calls for pomegranate molasses, which is a wonderful ingredient to have on hand if you like to make Middle Eastern dishes. It is basically pomegranate juice that has been reduced way down so it’s thick and sticky, and you can even make your own (but I bought mine). But if you don’t have any, the original recipe from Food52 says you can use balsamic vinegar, which is a bit more likely to be in your kitchen already. Just don’t use regular molasses – it’s too strong for this dish.
Love mushrooms? This is definitely a Lazy Sunday kind of recipe. It takes a bit longer, but oh is it worth it. Three kinds of mushrooms enriched with a touch of truffle oil, layered with Dijon cheese sauce and tomato thyme sauce between creamy sheets of pasta and baked to perfection, then sprinkled with crumbs and cheese and crisped up to add a crunchy topping. You know I love some crunch! I won’t pretend this is slenderizing, but if you want to pull out the stops for a special occasion for the mushroom lovers you know, this is just the thing! You might even fool those carnivores. If you’re making this for a dinner party, just put it together in advance and pop it in the oven when your guests arrive. If you don’t have any truffle oil, just leave it out, but if you love mushrooms, it’s nice to have on hand since it’s like a hit of super mushroom intensity! Continue reading
Hello, Spring! Asparagus season is here, and asparagi (I know that’s not really the plural, but I think it should be) are featured in many Easter dinners for those who celebrate. Really, though, any time is good to enjoy asparagus – think brunch and lunch as well as dinner. Here is a very easy way to make an asparagus crowd-pleaser using your broiler. You will end up with lightly charred stalks topped with crispy, crunchy Parmesan and golden breadcrumbs. Yum! Continue reading
I realized I didn’t blog on Sunday as usual because I was busy cooking. Too busy cooking to blog about cooking? I hoped that you would forgive me. Especially because of new and delicious things to share! Like this easy-peasy vegetarian slow cooker white bean cassoulet. Usually cassoulet has a mix of meats in it, but this is a lovely guilt-free and healthy version that simmers all day, smelling delicious all the while. So put this together and then go out and live your life, and come home to something comforting and warm on a chilly spring day! That’s what we’re having in New York City, so comfort is needed. Continue reading