I have a quick one for you this time around. I threw these easy sauteed greens together just a few weeks ago and it has been my go-to side ever since. I’ve been eating it with veggie burgers at dinner and with eggs for breakfast.
It’s a super simple combination of leafy greens with a few toppers to enhance the flavors and make them more delicious.
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I cook with broccoli a lot. But I can’t say it’s because I particularly like it. It’s more of my it’s-good-for-you sense prevailing. I don’t exactly dislike it. It’s not bottom of the barrel in terms of vegetables I can’t stand. No, broccoli just falls somewhere in the middle.
Unless we’re talking about broccoli salad. Then, oddly enough, things change.
I have no idea why. Maybe it’s akin to drowning raw vegetables in ranch dressing, but I’d like to think this has a few more nutrients than that combination.
When I make broccoli salad. I could eat the whole bowl. I love the classic, but over the years, I’ve come up with my own version. For example, crunchy bacon pieces are great in it, but I rarely feel like cooking bacon when I can throw together the salad in minutes otherwise.
So I’ve improvised to create a similar flavor without the work.
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Brussel sprouts season is upon us! Every time I think I’ve made roasted Brussels sprouts in every way possible, another idea strikes.
This recipe is super simple and it’s one you will love if you are a tahini fan. If you are unfamiliar with tahini, it is a paste the consistency of natural peanut butter that is made from sesame seeds. A standard ingredient in hummus, it can be worked into everything from snack bars to soups and salad dressings.
Or as it turns out, roasted Brussels sprouts.
Looking for fresh fig recipes? You’ve come to the right place! These are my favorites for using this unique fruit during its short season.
Fig season always goes way too fast for me. One minute, I’m thinking about all the things I could make with them, and the next I can no longer find them at the farmers market.
The point? You have to grab them when you can and be prepared to use them up!
Over the past few years, and I know I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but really since we moved to California, I’ve gotten much more acquainted with the fig. I’ve had the opportunity to use fresh figs in a lot of different recipes.
If you have fig fever, too, these fresh fig recipes may be just what you are looking for. Or maybe they can at least inspire some new ideas of your own.
They are just a few of the ways I’ve managed to use figs in meals and desserts.
I’m headed back to Indiana soon to visit family and that always brings one vegetable to mind…corn.
Fresh sweet corn is my second favorite summer vegetable after heirloom tomatoes. I’ll admit I have pretty high standards for it, too. We grew up eating it straight from the garden so I know a good ear of corn. The kernels burst in your mouth with each bite. If there is even the slightest hint of chewiness, it’s past its prime.
Since one can only eat so many ears of corn on the cob this time of year, I’ve come up with many recipes that use fresh corn cut off the cob. These are a few of my favorites to enjoy every summer from soups to salads to relishes!
I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.
I hope to see you there.
I can still remember those hot and humid days in central Kentucky in July and August when I’d laugh about not wanting to heat up the oven due to summer temperatures.
Then I’d do it anyway because a blueberry pie or peach crisp was worth a couple hours of mild discomfort.
Looking back all I can think is – Heat? What heat?
Here in the Central Valley, heating up the oven is no laughing matter. I barely even want to turn on the burners on the stove.
Not even dessert is worth it.
But on rare occasions, I don’t look ahead to when a deadline will actually fall and I pitch something like a bread to a client. It finds me with no choice but to turn on the oven. Last week, I had one of those days.
Not wanting the extra degrees to go to waste, I sliced some tomatoes from the garden and put together an easy galette for lunches.
I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.
I hope to see you there.
One thing you might not know about me is that I am a nightmare of a consumer.
If the opportunity presents itself, I will always ask what something is, it’s correct name, or where it’s from when I’m shopping for food.
This is especially true during stone fruit season here. There are so many varieties that I find myself constantly introduced to something new.
And I want to know what it is.
A couple weeks ago, I bought a bunch of fruit from the farm stand. They make it super easy. All the stone fruits are the same price so you can mix and match white and yellow peaches and nectarines, apricots, plums, and pluots to your heart’s content.
When I got home and cut into a fruit with a greenish-brown skin, I was expecting a pale center. Instead, I was greeted with one of the most gorgeous hues I’ve seen.
I knew it was a plum or pluot, but I needed more details. I also needed more so I could photograph them!
Believe it or not, I don’t remember being introduced to nectarines until we moved to California about six years ago.
I knew they existed, but they weren’t around in Kentucky and Indiana like, say, peaches. Peaches were everywhere there. And delicious.
But nectarines were a new-to-me fruit. I actually started liking them a lot more than peaches. I think it has to do with their firmness. They have a peek moment of ripeness for me where they are super sweet, but still firm, not mushy.
Over the past few years, in addition to eating many fresh, I’ve also used them in some recipes. Given that their season is rolling back around, I wanted to bring some of those back to the spotlight.
This simple vegetarian side dish combines cauliflower and mushrooms with cilantro and lime! It’s also hearty enough to make it your meal.
Ugh. No riced cauliflower?!
That thought ran through my head at the supermarket this week. It’s pretty ridiculous if you think about it. Since riced cauliflower didn’t even exist even a few short years ago.
Between the time that it became popular and it became available in bags, I’d buy a whole head and send it through the food processor. Which is always a mess to clean up. Which is why I now buy it in bags.
But our supermarket can be hit or miss with it. So it was back to buying the whole head this time.
And I decided to chop it by hand instead of dirtying the food processor. Which is equally as messy, by the way.
I’ve been needing some new go-to vegetable side dishes, though. Something that could pass as a main course if I didn’t feel like making anything else to go with it.
Things have been simple around here lately. My next recipe is proof of that.
Life has been busy. Cooking has been light. The focus has been on fruits and vegetables. Especially before we take off to the Big Island in a few weeks where all bets will be off. I can’t visit Hawaii without consuming a fair amount of kalua pork, rice, and mac salad.
So breakfasts like these have been common.
