Vegetarian
Peach, Walnut & Beet Ravioli with Rhubarb Butter
My day started at the farmer’s market. Well, actually it started with a hangover, followed by the grouchy realization that I needed to bring my car to the shop for a pricey operation. But, after that, it started at the farmer’s market. Still quite fuzzy and unsteady from the aforementioned hangover, and at this point, uncaffeinated, I ran around the market, tasting various types of lettuces, homemade jams and about 800 calories worth of various cheeses on toothpicks. Standing in front of some root vegetables and feeling inspired by the...
read moreSpinach and Wild Mushrooms
Anyone who has tried truffle mushrooms knows that they’re a holy substance, and priced accordingly. Truffle oil packs the flavor of truffle mushrooms into a small bottle that costs anywhere from $10-20 and can last for years (like saffron, a little bit goes a long way). I bought mine at Whole Foods, but sometimes you can score a good deal in the kitchen sections of TJ MAXX or Home Goods (I know, weird, right?) I made this dish to go with my family’s Thanksgiving dinner and it was a huge hit: simple, delicious and an equally flavorful...
read moreRoasted Winter Squash and Parsnips with Maple Glaze and Spiced Almonds
The only thing cozier than watching and smelling gorgeous orange squash as it roast in the oven, is eating said squash. This dish allows you to do both. So, hooray! I used different types of squash to maximize the range of natural flavors; butternut squash is the least sugary of the three vegetables here; Kabocha (a Japanese winter squash) is a tad sweeter and parsnips, once caramelized, have an almost candy-like flavor profile. The effect of eating these together (especially when paired with spiced almonds) is that while eating the dish,...
read moreCoconut Corn Samosas
As someone who runs in horror from any recipe featuring the word “pastry,” I decided that the best way to confront this fear was simply to refer to anything with dough AND a filling as “a samosa.” (Apologies in advance, to anyone who knows enough about samosas and Indian cuisine to find the glaring flaws in this recipe / logic.) I decided to try these “samosas” out for Thanksgiving dinner, serving dozens of them with a few different fillings (curried cabbage, cumin-flavored carrots & peas, and a coconut-creamed corn). The...
read moreWatercress Dip
I’m not sure when mayonnaise and cream became the most popular accompaniments to beautiful, healthy vegetables, but it’s gotta stop. Seriously, people. It’s intervention time. There needs to be an alternative! “Wait, what? There IS an alternative? What is it?!” Well, Bre’s-inner-voice, funny you should ask. Here’s a dressing where watercress and fresh herbs come together to make a flavor-packed, crisp and creamy party dip! Disclaimer: there is a bit of fat, but it just serves to kinda keep things together, make this look...
read morePretzel Crusted Mozzarella Balls with Spicy Mustard Sauce
Let’s get a few things straight:1) Pretzels (aka: salt delivery-methods) are one of the greatest snacks out there. Quick disclaimer: I spent a good portion of my life in Philadelphia, the unofficial birthplace of the soft, twisted pretzel. Regardless, I think this argument is pretty solid. Point #2: Mozzarella sticks are ALSO awesome. Point #3: A culinary mash up of mozzarella sticks and pretzels is… wait for it… DOUBLE awesome. Duh. Yes, indeed. I made this cheesy balls of wonderment for a football party and they were...
read moreSwiss Chard & Raisin Tarte
This is my original take on Tourte aux blettes, a sweetened swiss chard tarte that’s been popular in France since the 14th century. There are may variations on this dish but the constants are chard, eggs, cream, some type of fruit and some type of nut. Essentially, when I say “original take” or “adapted” recipe, it means that I’ve made something a bunch of times, each time adding to my list of things that could make the dish more awesome, and then eventually editing that list down to a workable recipe. Below is the final...
read moreCaramelized Onion & Apricot Sauce
This sauce was written as one component of my experiment to deconstruct a Moroccan Tagine and reimagine it in ravioli form. The main part of the entrée— the squash and carrot ravioli— had a feisty cumin-heavy flavor that needed to be balanced by a slightly tangy and sweet sauce. Enter: caramelized onions and apricots. Admittedly, this is an experiment that should have never succeeded, but somehow did. And, since the sauce ended up being the most revered part of this dish, I have since made a big jarred batch and applied it to a whole...
read moreMoroccan Carrot Ravioli with Onion Apricot Sauce
Recently, I’ve been inspired by (read: awake all night thinking about) the idea of deconstructing and reinventing some of my favorite one-pot dishes. Three that I was particularly tickled by were: 1) “what if I made Korean bibimbop but in sushi form, with cabbage leaves for the outer casing?” 2) “what if I could make some sort of paella / lasagna hybrid by infusing saffron into my noodle dough?” 3) “what if I made ravioli based on the ingredients of a vegetarian Moroccan tagine?” Knowing my penchant for carrying things...
read moreChinese Cucumber Salad
I’m not sure why, but people seem very judgmental and ill-informed about the whole business of pickling. I mean, when you get down to it, “a pickled vegetable” is really just a vegetable that someone has poured vinegar over and then walked away from for a few minutes. Yeh, that’s all. It was only in a recent conversation with my mother, during which her reaction to pickling was “oh, that’s gonna take FOREVER,” that I became aware of the misconception. As if pickling is a task that is culturally united with basket...
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