Why I love Chocolate Chia Pudding

I love this sort of thing – a bowl of something that feels indulgent, but is actually quite nourishing. Chia seeds bring fiber and omega-3s, Greek yogurt delivers a nice amount of protein, and the cacao powder shows up with deep chocolate flavor without being overly sweet. It’s filling, make-ahead friendly, and easy to adapt.

It also works for vegans, just swap in a non-dairy yogurt and you’re all set. As a savory breakfast person, I usually like this as an afternoon snack, but it also works just as well as a dessert.

Tips for Great Chocolate Chia Pudding

There are a couple things I’ve found that help here, especially if you don’t love the tapioca-like texture of puddings made with chia seeds:

• Use a hand blender. Use a hand blender rather than a food processor. A food processor tends to chase the chia seeds around the bowl, while a hand blender smooths everything quickly and evenly. A high-speed blender works as well, but the hand blender is faster and easier to clean.
• Fully hydrate the chia seeds. Chia seeds need time to fully plump up. Mix the chia and yogurt together, preferably the night before, then add the rest of the ingredients and give everything a quick pass with the hand blender.
• Splurge on good cacao powder. I like to raw, natural cacao powder here. The chocolate flavor is deep, direct, and intense, and since it’s the main flavor note in the pudding it’s worth sourcing a good one.
• Play with sweetness. Feel free to adjust the amount of maple syrup. I usually land somewhere between 2-3 tablespoons. The recipe calls for 3, but you can dial it back or swap in another natural sweetener if you like.
• Don’t skimp on the crunch. Clusters of crunchy granola are what really make this bowl for me – they add needed contrast to the pudding vibes. If granola isn’t your thing, try toasted nuts, toasted coconut, toasted pumpkin seeds, or freeze-dried berries. This peanut butter granola is really good with here, or if you want to double down on the chocolate, try this low oil and naturally sweetened granola.

More Chia Recipes

• Chia Breakfast Bowl
• Chia Pudding (with mango)
• Watermelon Raspberry Breakfast Bowl
• Glowy Beauty Bowl
• all Chia Seed Recipes

Continue reading Chocolate Chia Pudding on 101 Cookbooks

Easter Brunch Ideas

I limited this recipe list to long-time favorites. Real go-to options, the brunch all-stars. Be sure to browse the list of menu ideas down below if you need inspiration on that front!

Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole: A top contender for Easter brunch. Breakfast casseroles are a thing for good reason. You can prep them the day before. They’re great for serving a crowd, and they’re endlessly adaptable. This is my take on the popular Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole. It’s a deep-dish merging of grated cheese, bagels, eggs, plant-based sausage along with the crunch and savoriness of everything bagel seasoning. The bagels that break through the top get beautifully crunchy and kissed with oven-toasted cheese. Give it a try!
Fregola Sarda: It’s a favorite recipe from Near & Far. The perfect lunchy, brunch dish, and it’s made with fregola. Fregola is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour – rolled, sun-dried, and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. The pasta is rustic and nutty, each grain with a raggy surface adept at catching flavor. So good!

Deep Dish Quiche: The deep dish quiche of your dreams. It’s made with a flaky all-butter crust. The filling is silky smooth and creamy, while still being perfectly sliceable. Switch up the add-ins based on the seasons – roasted cherry tomatoes in summer, winter squash later in the year.


A Tasty Frittata: I love a good frittata as part of a brunch spread. You can pre-bake them a bit ahead of time which opens up the oven for other dishes if needed. This is a tasty, super adaptable frittata recipe made with potatoes, onions, and eggs drizzled with a cilantro chile sauce. Don’t skimp on the sauce!

The Best Waffles: You’re looking at the waffles I make for (literally) every family brunch, and they’re perfect for an Easter brunch gathering. You can set up a toppings bar, and let people make their own, or pre-make them and hold in a warm oven. If you’re a waffle fan, please give these a try. Everyone needs a solid waffle recipe in their back pocket, and I’m quite sure these are the end of the waffle conversation for me. Enjoy!

Red Fruit Salad: Red fruit salad, and arguably so much better than old-school fruit salad! It’s perfect as spring rounds the bend into summer. A simple, seasonal fruit salad made with plump strawberries, sweet cherries, lemon zest, and coriander brown sugar. Five ingredients. So good. If cherries aren’t quite in season where you are, go with 100% strawberries.

Classic Pancakes: If you’re more of a pancake family, this is a classic pancake recipe that delivers a beautiful, classic stack with impossibly tender crumb and golden edges. It has been a favorite go-to since I first posted it in 2006. The pancakes have lightness and lift, and good color. The recipe is also endlessly adaptable based on what you have on hand.

Sheet Pan Frittata: If you like to serve family style, a sheet pan frittata is another great option. You don’t need much to make a great one. This one starts with a dusting of lemon zest (key!) across a sheet pan, and uses a simple egg, cream, salt and pepper base.

Tofu Scramble: This tofu scramble is fast, savory, and flavorful egg-free brunch option. Made with spinach, curry powder, nutritional yeast, garlic, and onions, this is the version we’ve been making for years! Also, super adaptable to whatever vegetables and seasonings you have on hand.

Skinny Omelettes: Setting up an omelette “station” with a range of toppings works great if you have a casual brunch situation. People can make and customize omelettes to their liking with fillings like caramelized onions, pesto, herbs, choice of cheeses, etc. These omelettes are made with eggs cooked crepe-thin and stuffed. A delicious and lighter alternative to heavy, cheese-stuffed omelette recipes – great for lunch and brunch.

Easter Brunch Ideas: Breads & Cakes

Braided Onion Bread: Every Easter brunch spread welcomes a statement piece. This is one of my favorites. Made with a rich, buttery, yeast-based dough, each of the four strands in the braid is stuffed with a caramelized onion and grated cheese mixture. If you’ve never baked a braided loaf before, I’ll admit that stuffing the strands adds a layer of complexity, but the whole process is incredibly forgiving if you commit and keep going. Give it a try!

Glazed Lemon Cake: A sunny, bright addition to any Easter spread. This lemon cake is moist, fragrant and topped with a salted lemon glaze. It is made with lots of lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You don’t need a mixer, the olive oil based batter comes together quickly, and you’re not much longer than an hour from having a beautiful cake to share.

Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: This oatmeal bread wins the award for best toast. It’s a hearty oat-flecked loaf with a buttermilk base studded generously with melty cubes of cheddar cheese and punctuated with thin slices of jalapeño pepper. Where the cheese touches the pan it turns to golden-crispy perfection.

Cinnamon Rolls: If making these cinnamon rolls for Easter brunch, I’m going to make a suggestion. Swap out the cinnamon for citrus. Like, use the zest of a lemon or two in the filling and a tablespoon or so of lemon juice in the icing along with the heavy cream called for as the liquids in the icing.

What To Make with Extra Eggs

If you find yourself with extra cartons of eggs after Easter, here are some ideas.

Deviled Eggs: I love these so much – beautiful and delicious deviled eggs made with an herb-flecked filling and topped with toasted almonds.

Egg Salad: My go-to egg salad, and what I turn to when craving an egg salad sandwich. This post talks you through all the little tweaks and tips that go into making the perfect egg salad sandwich. Served on garlic-rubbed toasted bread with chopped celery, onion, and whole-grain mustard.

Shredded Egg Salad: A fun alternative to classic egg salad (above). This one is made by shredding hard boiled eggs on a box grater. The resulting shredded egg salad is light, fluffy, and bright. Pictured here on avocado toast with scallions, pickled red onions, a pinch of curry powder and sesame seeds.

Easter Brunch Menu Ideas

Here are a few sample menus to start with. When I say toppings bar, I just mean putting out a range of different topping options. It’s a great way to let everyone make omelettes or waffles exactly the way they like it.

Menu #1

• Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole
• Strawberry Salad
• Ginger Grapefruit Juice

Menu #2

• Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread
• A Tasty Frittata or Skinny Omelettes with Toppings Bar
• Iced Green Tea
  
• Glazed Lemon Cake

Menu #3

• Breakfast Bruschetta + Toppings Bar
• Herb Cream Cheese Scrambled Eggs
• Pineapple Coconut Water

Menu #4

• Waffles with Toppings Bar
• A Tasty Frittata
• Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk

Easter Brunch Drink Ideas

Freshly squeezed juices, or homemade drinks are an easy way to make a brunch menu feel extra special. Here are a few favorites from past brunches.
Pineapple Coconut Water: A beautiful shade of Easter yellow, this beauty is always first to go at any brunch spread. Freshly juiced pineapple is at the heart of this quencher – made with coconut water, lime, and straight ginger juice. It’s invigorating, fragrant, hydrating, and that pure, intense shade of yellow that somehow tips us off to its strength and vitality before ever picking up the glass.

Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Iced Green Tea: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Ginger-kissed Grapefruit Juice: This grapefruit juice will jolt you to attention. It’s just the thing if you’re looking for something bright, invigorating, spicy, and full volume citrus. Steep grated ginger in a bit of sugared water, and then strain it into a lime & grapefruit juice blend.

Continue reading Easter Brunch Ideas on 101 Cookbooks

White Bean Soup: Canned vs. Dried?

Let’s talk about how I like to pull this soup together, starting with the beans. Many white bean soup recipes call for canned beans but I always cook this soup using dried beans for a couple of reasons. First, they maintain shape and structure well, instead of going to mush in the pot during the simmer. Second, cooking beans from dried gives you both plump flavorful beans and the rich broth that comes along with them. That broth is the stealth secret ingredient here – when you change it to something different (water, a different broth, etc.) it changes the foundation of the soup.

What To Serve With White Bean Soup

There are a lot of ways to make this soup even more of a meal. Here are a few ideas:

• Put an egg on it: More times than not I top this soup with a spoon-fried egg (pictured), or a poached egg. You get the added protein and extra staying power.
• Side Salad: Soup and salad is a classic combination for a reason. I love this cilantro salad alongside this soup, or something like this easy kale salad. Or, just poke around the salad recipes to find other ideas.
• Artichokes: If you see baby artichokes when you’re shopping for the fennel called for in this recipe, grab them and cook them in olive oil until they’re nice and brown and caramelized. I wrote this post about how to cook artichokes if you need a bit more instruction. Make a big platter full!
• Good Bread: thick slabs, well toasted, preferably rubbed with a peeled clove of garlic.

Variations:

I love the combination of caramelized fennel, saffron, and a squeeze of citrus in this soup, but you can certainly take it in other directions. For example, in place of the saffron, you could try a favorite curry powder. Just keep in mind that part of what makes this soup special is the subtle way the flavors meld together – they form a somewhat subtle, harmonious chorus. Stronger spices will bring something different entirely. Still good, but different.

Can I Freeze This Soup?

Yes! This soup freezes like a dream. Allow it to cool completely. Transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag, and freeze in portions. To reheat, I usually let the soup thaw a bit. Put a small amount of water in the bottom of a soup pan, transfer the block of frozen soup to the pan, cover, and heat over medium for a while. Stir now and then.

More Bean Soup Recipes

• Farro & Bean Soup
• Ribollita
• Dried Fava Bean Soup with Mint and Chiles
• White Bean Soup with Pesto Herb Dumplings
• Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans 
• Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh) 

More Soup Recipes

• Rustic Cabbage Soup
• Tortellini Soup
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Lively Up Lentil Soup
• Split Pea Soup
• Miso Soup
• all soup recipes

Continue reading White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil on 101 Cookbooks

This asparagus ribbon salad is all about contrasts. You have silky ribbons of asparagus piled with crispy chickpeas, toasted almonds and coconut, and snappy bites of apple. A vibrant lemon olive oil dressing pulls everything together, and a drizzle of hot honey softens the lemony edge. It’s a bit of a springtime weirdo, but in a really good way.

If you’ve never shaved asparagus into ribbons, I encourage you to give it a try. The resulting tangles of asparagus are delicate, tender, and wonderful. They absorb dressing nicely, and welcome all sorts of crunchy, contrast  ingredients you might have around – nuts, seeds, fried shallots, etc. That’s (basically) how we ended up with today’s recipe.

How To Make Asparagus Ribbons

Shaving raw asparagus into delicate ribbons is my favorite way to enjoy uncooked asparagus. The ribbons are delicate, becoming instantly tender when tossed with a simple lemon oil.  The key here is using a Y-shaped vegetable peeler. Beyond that, a few tips:

• Buy medium-thick asparagus, thin asparagus is hard to peel into ribbons.
• Wash asparagus and snap off the thick woody ends.
  
• Start peeling your ribbons just below the tip of the asparagus. Rotate if needed to get as many ribbons as possible per spear. I usually have a bit left, the part that is too hard to get to with the peeler. Slice that piece (and the tip) into thin strips. Pictured below.
  

Place the crunchy toppings on your salad at the last minute so they retain their crispness. Enjoy! -h

More Asparagus Recipes

• Simple Asparagus Soup
• Avocado Asparagus Tartine
• Asparagus Panzanella
• Asparagus Stir-Fry
• All asparagus recipes

Continue reading Asparagus Ribbon Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Hot Honey on 101 Cookbooks

Crispy Chickpeas: Pro Tips

Sad, chewy chickpeas are not what you’re after here. And there are a number of things you can do to get golden, super-crisp chickpeas.

• Dry well: Get your chickpeas extra dry before baking, and you’ve won half the battle. – Hot oven: Crank that oven up, get it screaming hot.
  
• Hot pan: Preheat your baking sheet. Chickpeas coated in oil hitting a hot pan is the pairing you’re after, and the hot pan gets things crisping more quickly.
• Don’t overcrowd: If you cram your chickpeas onto a small pan they’ll steam. The opposite of what you want for crispiness.

Ways To Use Crispy Chickpeas

• In salads: Swap in some crispy chickpeas for the regular chickpeas in this quinoa salad, toss some into this favorite coleslaw, or add some to this wedge salad. If none of those strike the right note, browse the salad recipes – lots of salads there that would welcome some crispy chickpeas. Use them in place of croutons.
• Lunch on the go: I love including crispy chickpeas in bento-style, feel-good lunches.

More Chickpea Recipes

• Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls
• Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chickpea Salad
• Turmeric Chickpeas
• all chickpea recipes 
• all bean recipes

Other Salad Toppers

• Candied Walnuts
• Turmeric Cashews
• Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
• Salad Booster 

Continue reading Crispy Chickpeas on 101 Cookbooks

Strawberry Scones: The Ingredients

A few words about the ingredients I use here and why.

• Flours: Most scone recipes use all-purpose flour exclusively. But I find that adding a percentage of whole wheat flour can really anchor a scone and bring flavor dimension. Don’t worry, you won’t run into any dreaded whole-wheat dryness with these. The whole wheat flour really lends rustic farmhouse vibes in the best way possible with a tender crumb. Now when I go back to tasting more conventional scones, they end up tasting too one-dimensional to me.
• Sugar: I’ve baked these scones with a rotating cast of sugars over the years. Different amounts, different types. I feel like this recipe needs the sharp edge of white sugar to balance the other ingredients in these scones – for example, the tangy buttermilk or sour cream. Just sweet enough is what I was after here, and for whatever reason the brown sugar tend to get lost. And a blend didn’t do the job either.
  
• Other: I use quite a bit less baking powder and baking soda than other scone recipes. You don’t really need more than the amount in this recipe, and the buttermilk neutralizes any residual off flavor from the leavening agents.

Variations:

The recipe below is for classic strawberry scones with a bit of zest. Aside from the zest, they’re straight-forward, direct, a good scone foundation. That said, I often switch them up with one or two of the following:

• citrus: zest of one lemon  or lime (mix into wet ingredients)
• rosemary: I love the combination of strawberry and rosemary. Finely chop 2 five-inch sprigs of rosemary – 1 1/2 teaspoons or so. (Add to dry ingredients)
• black pepper: black pepper and strawberry are a classic combination. Add scant 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to dry ingredients. Adjust with more in future batches if you love it.
• poppy seeds: add 1/3 cup to dry ingredients.
• toasted almonds: be sure they’ve cooled completely. (Add to dry ingredients)
• crystalized ginger: adds jolts of chewy ginger sugar. Chop it small and add it along with the wet ingredients.
• icing: lot of people like an iced drizzle over their scones. If you would rather have a drizzle top, here’s the plan. Use lemon zest in place of the orange zest called for in the recipe. Skip the sugar sprinkle, but do the egg wash. Allow scones to cool completely after baking, and use the salted lemon glaze from this glazed lemon cake recipe. Or do half and half so you can enjoy the sugar-topped scones warm.

Making Strawberry Scones By Hand

The recipe below assumes you have an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, but making them by hand is also possible and will save you some dishes! To make these scones by hand, watch the above video and reference these instructions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients well and then turn out into a pile on your counter top. Sprinkle the cold butter across the flour mixture and use your hands to rub the butter into the flour until it is evenly distributed throughout. You can use a dough scraper (or pastry cutter) to chop through the pile a bit and break up any butter lumps. You want the mixture to be sandy, with tiny pebbles.
2. Shape: Wrangle the flour mixture back into a pile with a dough scraper and make a well in the middle (the way you do when making homemade pasta). Pour the wet ingredients into the well and use your dough scraper to fold and mix the flour into the wet ingredients. Keep going until there is no dry flour left and a dough has started to form. At this point sprinkle the berries across the top, and fold them into the mixture as well.
   
3. Gather the dough into a ball and proceed with the recipe as written – slicing the dough into wedges and so forth.

More Scone Recipes

• Blackberry Ricotta Scones
• all baking recipes

More Scone Recipes

• Blackberry Ricotta Scones
• Rangpur Lime Scones
• all baking recipes

More Strawberry Recipes

• Roasted Strawberries
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
• Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk
• Red Fruit Salad
• Berry Swirl Ice Cream
• all strawberry recipes

Continue reading Strawberry Scones on 101 Cookbooks

Quite honestly I’m not sure what to call these. Toscano Brothers calls theirs Piattina and in parentheses (Italian Flats). They have a lot in common with certain piadina (thin Italian flatbread), but there are notable departures with this version. Traditional piadina are cooked in a skillet (or round clay comal-like pan). These are baked. Most piadina retain their softness and foldability. These, in contrast, have a range of textures – the thick parts retain some softness while the thin parts are baked long enough to snap and shatter.

I love them. They’re large and dramatic, rustic and imperfectly perfect. You can see (below) where I served the Toscano Brothers piattina with smoked labneh.  A few weeks back, instead of driving across the city, I started baking my own version. I make my favorite pizza dough late in the afternoon, let it rest overnight in the refrigerator, then roll out and bake the piadina the next day when convenient. So simple, so good!

Crispy Piadina: Variations

As you can imagine, the opportunity for variations here is immense. I did a version with 2 teaspoons of herbes de Provence, and that was really good. I think these are going to be a staple around here, so there are ideas for a lot of variations to try swimming around in my head.  I also noticed a big cracker / flatbread recipe in Mariana Velasquez’s beautiful new book Revel (bought it yesterday) – she calls them Long Seedy Crackers. Her take uses an egg wash across the dough before sprinkling with seeds which I’m sure gives nice sheen and color. Her dough is also interesting in that it is a blend of all-purpose flour and brown rice flour, no leavener, and a good amount of olive oil. Excited to try it! I’ll update here with variations over time. In the meantime, enjoy!

A Little Too Thin, A Little Too Hot

I wanted to show one of the pitfalls you can run into with these. The first few rounds I made I ran the oven hotter, pulled each piadina thinner, and made them extra large. See below. Sometimes I’d add a few decorative slashes as well.

The thin portions were getting too dark too fast, and the edges stayed too light. This round pictured below was baked at 450°F, and the dough ball was about 170g spread across a large baking sheet. See how dark it got? I started having much more reliable results dialing the oven back to 400°F, and working with slightly smaller dough balls – 125g.


With that approach (pictured below), I got more even coloring, and it was an easier, less intense bake overall. You can also, certainly, cook these in a large skillet.

Have fun with these and let me know if you give them a try!

More Crackers and Flatbread Recipes

• Pizza Dough
• Grilled Pizza
• Grissini
• Oatmeal Crackers
• Buckwheat Cheese Straws
• Homemade Cheese Crackers
• Olive Oil Crackers

More Italian Recipes

• Gnocchi
• Bruschetta
• Fregola Sarda
• Pesto
• Pici
• Polenta
• Homemade Pasta

Continue reading Crispy Piadina on 101 Cookbooks

Lunch Ideas #1 

These lunch boxes (above) came together pretty quickly. Nearly everything was a leftover, or component of a previous meal. To pull it together I peeled and chile-dusted the hard boiled eggs, sliced the avocado and sliced the mandarin.

1. Spicy Sesame Coleslaw: You’ve seen it before, you’ll see it again. Lol. It’s my favorite coleslaw, and I’ll basically tuck in anywhere. Feathery green and red cabbages along with carrots, apples, and scallions tossed with a spicy, creamy sesame dressing.

2. Pickled Cauliflower: The pop of color you need in your lunch. This quick pickled cauliflower delivers a good amount of tang and crunch in the midst of less structured components. I make mine with chiles, mustard seeds and slivered onion, but you can play around.

3. Chile-dusted Hard-boiled Egg: Here’s how to make these. Combine equal parts chile powder and MDH chana masala powder in a small bowl. I like to use this Kashmiri chillie powder, but use what you have (and like). Hard boil eggs, peel them, rinse, dab each egg a bit on a clean towel to take off excess water, then roll them around in the spice mixture until completely covered. Slice and serve, or pack into lunch.

4. Turmeric-Scallion Tofu Spread: This is actually leftover wonton filling from my last round of wonton soup. But it’s also great as a lettuce wrap filling, cracker and sandwich spread, and on its own. Here, I nestle it into a stack of 2-3 little gem leaves. Get the recipe – it’s the first part of the recipe on this page, minus the wrappers.

5. Red-spiced Edamame: I’ll write this up as its own recipe soon, it’s a homemade spice blend made by crushing Kashmiri chillies, smoked paprika, brown sugar, sesame, dried onion flakes, salt, and a kiss of cardamom together. Sprinkle generously. There are a lot of other spice blend ideas in the Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest PDF that members get. Just about any of those are great here. Experiment!

6. Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka: I’ve definitely over-stripped my young curry tree making this lately. Toast a cup of pepitas and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir in 50-ish fresh curry leaves. Continue to stir and when the leaves begin to crisp up add 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds. Keep stirring and when the seeds have toasted a bit and stopped popping, add 1/2 teaspoon chile powder. Pour this over your pepitas, toss well, and salt to taste. good on everything, Including the soba in the next lunch.

Also: purple rice, sliced avocado, mandarin wedge, nutritional yeast kale chips

Lunch Ideas #2 

The one component of the lunch boxes (above) that wasn’t made ahead of time, was the soba noodles. I boiled them, and ran them under cold water just before packing up. 

6+. Soba with Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka:  The same pepitas as above (lunch ideas #1), this time tangled with cold soba.

7. Vegan Tamagoyaki: This is a vegan version of tamagoyaki, the much-loved Japanese rolled omelette. I like to make chickpea-tofu version, and this one is lined with nori and seasoned with scallions and herbs. They’re fantastic lunchbox heroes because you can make and roll them ahead of time. They’ll keep for a few day so you can slice and go.

8. Blistered Artichoke Hearts: Leftovers from dinner the previous night. I cooked these from frozen. So easy, so good. I wrote a long post about how to cook artichokes – both fresh and frozen. So, if you love artichokes, but think they’re too much work, read this. Same goes if you think the frozen ones are going to be bad. They aren’t and they’re great in scenarios like this one, quick pastas, casseroles, etc.

9. Fava Beans Tossed with Citrus Olive Oil: These are fava beans that have been shelled, boiled for a flash, shelled again, and then splashed with a bit of lemon olive oil, and tossed with a pinch of salt. From previous dinner. I do the same with edamame, but favas are in season and I they’re worth all the shelling and peeling drama.

10. Kale Chips: Some extra crushed kale chips tossed with the remaining pepitas. My method for epic kale chips is this: buy curly kale, make sure it’s dry if you recently washed it. Toss the kale with olive oil and scrunch it all up with your hands, be sure it’s all coated. Toss with a lot of nutritional yeast, get a good coating going. Season with salt and bake at until the chips at the edges start browning. Toss well. Continue to bake until crispy but still mostly green. Or have a look at this kale chip recipe.

Also: blood orange wedges for dessert.

A Couple Pro-tips

There’s actually just one main tip, but I’ll add more as I think of them. Line your bentos with parchment paper for easy clean-up (pictured below).  This isn’t as important with stainless steel containers, they clean up quite quickly. Bentos, often made of cedar, are a bit more fragile and take more care if you want them to last for many years. Also, clean up as soon as you get home. The reset is key to looking forward to your next special box lunch.

More Lunch Ideas: Salads!

Salads are another favorite lunch idea. For the best experience, keep the dressing on the side and toss just before eating. Also, pro-tip, leave a good amount of room or headspace in your salad vehicle, so tossing is contained and less messy. For to-go or desk salads, I love bringing the components for a Nicoise salad or Nicoise-ish salad. The lettuces and other ingredients can stand up to transportation and you get a great mix of protein, greens, and veggies all in one lunch. See photo below.

Favorite Lunchbox Containers

Bentos: I have (and love) my small collection of bento boxes. They’re beautifully crafted and fit the perfect amount of food. They often come with small dividers to create separation between food, but you can also use lettuce, or other small containers to divide things up. 

Tiffins (or dhabbas): These containers have long been used in India to enable healthful, homemade meals outside the home. I have a circular, triple-stack stainless steel version I love for a number of reasons including durability, compactness, and security. The tiers nestle tightly making spills and accidents unlikely. I have my eye on a rectangular version as well.

Both bentos and tiffins have a tradition of enabling meals made with care and love. And continuing this tradition is something I try to channel when I’m packing a lunch for myself or someone I care about.

I don’t mind mixing different types of lunch containers. And sometimes I’ll make an individual lunch for each person, each in its own container. But, other times I think it’s fine to load up a few family-style containers and do it that way. I think that works great for components that can be more communal, like edamame, or a bunch of dumplings, a stack of paratha, vegan sushi or quesadillas, quinoa patties, etc.

Hot Lunch!

Use a thermos to bring hot miso soup or tea or rasam or whatever else you can think of. This is always the icing on the cake and unfailingly makes me happy (or happier!) When I really have things lined up, I’ll bring green tea, miso soup, or soba tea and a durable glass or two wrapped in cloth. Simply rewrap when you’re finished.

I hope this provides a bit of inspiration! It’s really wonderful to take a bit of time to sit down to a thoughtfully prepared, healthful homemade lunch and I’m never sorry about making the extra effort (in the long run). Even if it can make a morning a bit more demanding than usual, I know when I do it, I’ll eat better, feel better, and get excited about sitting down to lunch. Enjoy! -h

More Lunch Ideas

• Vegetarian Lunch Ideas: One Sauce, Three Lunches
• 10 Lunch Ideas that Spark Joy
• Otsu
• Vegan Sushi
• Quinoa Patties
• Mushroom Hand Pies
• Black Sesame Otsu
• Macro Bowls

Continue reading Feel-good Lunch Ideas on 101 Cookbooks

Citrus Caesar Salad: Ingredients

• Lettuces: A strong romaine component is good (and classic) here, especially with the Caesar-style dressing. But I can’t help adding other in season lettuces to create a colorful mix. Play around!
  
• Dressing: This Caesar salad dressing is my go to. It’s delicious and works in our veg household.
• Citrus: The salad is finished with roasted citrus. You can make it ahead of time from whatever citrus you like, but I have some favorites outlined on that page.
  
• Nuts: I call for toasted pistachios in the recipe, but pine nuts would also be excellent. Same goes for almonds.
• Herbs: Don’t skip the mint. If you skip one of the herbs, skip the chives. The mint really delivers something special alongside the Caesar dressing and the roasted citrus.
• Croutons: I outline how to make easy croutons in the headnotes below. They’re infinitely better than store-bought. And you can make them extra big and craggy for this salad.

More Salad Recipes

• Grilled Wedge Salad
• Roasted Tomato Salad
• Raw Tuscan Kale Salad
• Summer Fruit Salad
• Egg Salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Coconut Corn Salad
• Apple Salad
• All salad recipes

Continue reading Citrus Caesar Salad on 101 Cookbooks

What Types of Citrus Are Best For Roasting?

My general take here is to experiment. I’ve found sweet citrus with thin skin makes for the most exceptional roasted citrus. There is too much pith in certain citrus varietals, and you tend to get more bitter notes. Look for:

• Mandarins: sweet, thin skinned – these are a go-to. Murcott, clementine, etc.
• Mandarinquats: Perfect for roasting. They are about twice the size of kumquats.
• Kumquats: also yes.The perfect sized slices to accent many dishes.
• Blood oranges: Sweet and juicy, dramatic color.
• Meyer lemon: Fragrant, not too pithy, great for roasting.
• Navel oranges: I look for smaller one if I’m going to roast them
• Eureka lemons: common at many grocery stores, and a little pithy but they great to roast in slices, quarters, or halves.

Let me know if you have other favorite citrus you have had success roasting!Has anyone roasted the pink lemons? It’s very much on my list the next time I see them!

How To Use Roasted Citrus

Once you have roasted citrus on hand there are a lot of ways to use it to punctuate and accent all sorts of things. Some ideas:

• Salad: Salads are the perfect place to drop these jewel-toned, concentrated citrus gems. I use them in a  citrus-boosted version of Caesar Salad (I’ll post the recipe for this soon).
• Tacos: If you’ve ever enjoyed a taco made with hibiscus in the filling, you might try a version with a few pieces of roasted citrus alongside some mushrooms for your next taco night. Or use them in place of the citrus slices called for in this baked mushroom recipe (after baking).
• With Peanuts: Sprinkle these candied nuts with chopped roasted citrus for an added accent.
• On pancakes: Chop up some of your roasted citrus and sprinkle over maple syrup on pancakes or waffles, crepes!

How To Roast Citrus (Step-by-Step)

Here are a few photos to demonstrate the major steps when you’re roasting citrus.

Choose the citrus you intend to roast.  You can see in the above photo why mandarins are my favorite citrus to roast. See how thin that rind is? There is barely any of the white pith, which can be a bit more bitter. It’s still all good, but mandarins are a stand-out to me.

Prepare for baking. Rub olive oil across a baking sheet. Slice your citrus very thinly, and arrange on the sheet. Rub or brush the tops of each slice with a bit more olive oil. Bake until browned and caramalized.

Allow the citrus to cool and crisp up a bit. Enjoy!

More Roasting Recipes

• Roasted Broccoli
• Roasted Strawberries
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
• Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini
• Roasted Mushroom Sandwich
• Roasted Delicata Squash

More Citrus Recipes

• Sunny Citrus Recipes
• Super Orange Citrus Rice
• 15 Inspiring Winter Citrus Recipes
• Glazed Lemon Cake
• Ginger-kissed Grapefruit Juice
• Grapefruit Curd with Ginger
• Citrus Salt
• Citrus Furikake 

Continue reading Roasted Citrus on 101 Cookbooks

I talk through my thoughts and preferences in detail in this post. So even if you tend to be a jump to recipe person, a scan of these details before diving into the recipe is going to be helpful on a number of fronts. And will help you have an exceptional bake.

Pumpkin Bread: The Ingredients

Some notes related to the ingredients called for in this recipe.

• The pumpkin component: You’re going to use kabocha squash here. It’s arguably richer, more dense, sweeter than many pumpkins, and the color is gorgeous. I like to carefully cleave the squash in half (to one side of the stem), then with the flat side down, slice off the stem. Then proceed with de-seeding, etc. You can use canned pumpkin, but I’m going to encourage you to roast your own here.
• Olive oil: this recipe is heavy on olive oil, it’s part of what makes the cake incredibly moist. Use a good-quality version that has a mild flavor profile, nothing wildly spicy, or over-the-top assertive.
• Nutmeg: I always use a microplane to freshly grate my nutmeg for this recipe. It’s a game changer, and worth swapping in freshly grated nutmeg for the ground nutmeg called for. Actually, that goes for just about any recipe calling for nutmeg.
• Chocolate: I use the Guittard Organic 74% bittersweet chocolate baking wafers for this recipe. And really give it a good chop, no big chocolate pieces. Can you use another percentage chocolate? Of course, but  I feel like a chocolate in this range has enough edge to counter some of the sweetness from the squash, sugar, and icing. And the chocolate really shines if you do a version without the icing. Depending on my mood, sometimes I just dust the cakes with a but of powdered sugar.

Pumpkin Bread: Technique

• Decide on cake size: I prefer to bake this cake in smaller pans. The original recipe calls for a 9×5-inch loaf pan resulting in a gorgeous, massive, chocolate-flecked creation. It takes forever (sometimes 90+ minutes) to bake, and it can be tricky to decide when the deep center is fully baked. But(!) if you nail it, the whole situation is amazing. I prefer to bake 3 smaller cakes, using one of the quad mini-loaf pans I inherited from my dad. There is enough batter in this recipe to yield 3 perfect pumpkin breads using smaller loaf pans. And although it seems like the quad pans might be discontinued, in general, with this batter, I’ve found you can fill whatever pan you’d like to use to within about 3/4-inch of the rim and you should be fine. Adjust the baking time accordingly, and note the photo (below) to get a sense re: how full you can go with the batter.
  
• Roasting the kabocha: I love the depth of flavor you get from deeply roasting the kabocha / pumpkin here. And because we roast vegetables 4-5 nights a week (especially in colder seasons), it’s a breeze to toss the kabocha in alongside everything else for use the next day. Can you use canned pumpkin? Sure. But if your heart is set on a special pumpkin bread, this is a step to hang on to.
• Straining pumpkin/squash in cheesecloth: This, on the other hand, is a step I skip. The original Gjelina recipe has you strain your roasted puree – four hours to overnight. I rarely got much liquid coming off the squash, so I started skipping this time-intensive step, arguably to minimal ill effect.
• Baking: You’re in for a long bake on this one, whether you’re doing a single large loaf, or a series of smaller loaves. To set yourself up for success, make sure your oven is accurately calibrated. The bake happens at 325°F, so if your oven runs cold by 25 degrees, the large version of this cake may never fully bake lol. Use a toothpick or skewer to test for doneness. Of all the cakes I’ve baked in my life, this one can be tricky, especially if you’re baking the large, single version. And if the top of your pumpkin bread gets too dark over the course of the bake, cover it lightly with foil to give it a bit of protection. I rarely have to do this in my oven, but there have been times when the top gets pretty dark, especially when baking in the large single loaf pan.

Pumpkin Bread Video

Pumpkin Bread: Step By Step

This pumpkin bread comes together much like many others out there. The main exception is you roast roughly half a kabocha squash ahead of time and then pulse it in a food processor to make a puree. That puree is combined with other wet ingredients in this batter and then folded into the dry ingredients (below).

You mix the batter until it just barely comes together, add the chocolate, and you should have a batter that looks like the photo below. Look at that color!

The batter goes into your parchment-lines pan (or pans). You can see a version of a trio of small (but still sizable!) pumpkin breads below.

And a much larger single loaf pictured below, the scale is hard to gauge. The larger loaf is baked in a 1-lb loaf pan.

Once the cakes have cooled completely, it’s time for the olive oil glaze. The glaze is whisked up with hot water, olive oil, and powdered sugar. And then the whole situation is sprinkled with pepitas and cacao nibs. The seeds stick in the glaze and are left to set for a while.

You can see (above) how I place the cakes on a rack, over a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drip and overflow of the icing. It makes for quick cleanup. And below is the olive oil glaze before mixing well and pouring over the cakes.

Below you can see the icing on the cakes starting to set. 

And below you can see the end result, ready to share.

More Pumpkin Recipes

• Pumpkin and Feta Muffins
• Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
• Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin and Rice Soup
• all pumpkin recipes

Continue reading My Favorite Pumpkin Bread (Kabocha + Dark Chocolate) on 101 Cookbooks

The Recipe: A Better Version of Broccoli Cheddar Soup

One of the things you notice when you look at a lot of the broccoli cheddar soup recipes out there is the stunning amount of dairy in them. There is often so much milk, heavy cream and grated cheese that the soup is nearly white in color. I totally get it, if you’re trying to make a version styled after Panera’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup (and it seems like a lot of people are), you’ll likely go that route. The Panera Copycat Broccoli Cheddar Soup recipes tend to have a ratio of more cream/milk than broth and multiple cups of grated cheese. I’m going to argue you don’t need all that. You can make a creamy, wonderful broccoli cheese soup with a fraction of the dairy, a good blender, and a couple techniques to keep things creamy, bright, and smooth.

Key Ingredients for Good Broccoli Cheddar Soup

• Broccoli: Look for deeply green, tight heads of broccoli. Avoid any heads that have yellowing florets, discoloration or seem dried out.
• Vegetable Broth: Use a good-tasting vegetable broth you would drink on its own. I like to make my own broth and freeze it, or make a quick broth from vegetable bouillon cubes or my homemade bouillon powder. Another delicious option would be to use a quick miso broth. You have some options here!
• Cheese: I call for freshly grated aged cheddar here. Something sharp with a lot of flavor. You can also use a gruyere if you wanted to switch things up a bit.
• Mustard: The mustard is my secret weapon ingredient in this soup. It pairs perfectly with the broccoli and cheddar and pulls everything together. If you don’t have a whole grain mustard on hand, a Dijon-style mustard is 100% fine to swap.

Troubleshooting: How Do You Keep Broccoli a Vibrant Green?

Broccoli (and your broccoli soup) can turn a sad, dull, unappetizing green color when over cooked. For this soup you’ll cook it until bright and tender. Keep an eye on things is my advice on this front.

Troubleshooting: Why is My Broccoli Cheddar Soup So Grainy?

One of the most common problems cooks run into when they make broccoli cheddar soup is a gritty or grainy texture. Your soup may become grainy if the cheese or dairy curdles. With a recipe like the one that follow you shouldn’t have trouble because the cheese is added as a finishing component, off heat. But to avoid “breaking” the dairy while reheating (or with other dairy-rich soups), take it low and slow. Heating the pot over medium-low and avoiding a boil.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup: Topping Ideas

Aside from the croutons, this soup likes crusty, toasted walnut bread, or olive bread. It likes a good sheep feta in place of cheddar if that’s what you happen to have on hand, or a kiss of harissa whisked into a bit of olive oil. I know people like to pair broccoli with blue cheese. Personally, I find that to be over-powering, but if you really love blue cheese, it might be another direction to explore. A finishing drizzle of chile oil or a citrus olive oil is always welcome. If you have any other ideas, let me hear them – I make this soup often enough that I need fresh angles to work!

What to serve with Broccoli Cheddar Soup

I don’t think you need much more than big shards of the mustard croutons included in the recipe, no bread bowl needed. Lol. That said, you can certainly take other approaches or layer up! Adding a poached egg would be a way to make a meal of things. Or make a side of a simple quesadilla, grilled cheese or egg salad sandwich. Or, something like this TLT. 

More Broccoli Recipes & Ideas

Poke around the archives for more broccoli recipes and inspiration. There are a lot of great recipes from past years worth revisiting. I love a broccoli-centric version of this vegetable stir-fry, this double broccoli quinoa, this orzo super salad, and this is another broccoli soup with coconut milk is another favorite.

More Broccoli Recipes

• Broccoli Apple Salad
• Braised Broccoli with Orange and Parmesan
• Double Broccoli Quinoa
• Broccoli Soup with Coconut Milk
• Roasted Broccoli
• all broccoli recipes

More Blended Soups

There are also a bunch of simple, creamy, blended soups in the archives! Or browse all the soups.

• Simple Cauliflower Soup
• Pumpkin and Rice Soup
• Simple Asparagus Soup
• Simple Carrot Soup
• Thirteen Great Blender Soups
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Blended Vegetable Soup
• Zucchini Soup

Continue reading Broccoli Cheddar Soup on 101 Cookbooks

I love this soup and suspect you will too. Even better, you might already have all the ingredients in your kitchen. And if you don’t, I’ll suggest some easy substitutions down below. Peanut soup is the best kind of meal in a bowl, and the leftovers are even better than the original.

Peanut Soup: Inspiration

The foundation of this soup is similar to many West African peanut stews. Or, more specifically, what my version of a vegetarian take on it might look like. It’s in regular rotation around here (I even included it in Super Natural Simple), and I tend to make it with a lot of the pantry items kept on hand – crushed tomatoes vs. tomato paste, homemade curry paste(s) from the freezer – typically a red curry paste for dimension and heat. And by keeping a couple bags of frozen spinach at the ready, I nearly always have the other components to pull this together on a whim. I love it over rice, over polenta, over quinoa, or alongside a good baked potato.

Ingredients (and Substitution Ideas)

• Onions: The recipe calls for an onion. If I don’t have an onion, I’ll substitute 3-4 shallots. You could also use spring onions or a finely diced red onion.
• Curry Paste: I typically grab my Thai red curry paste from the freezer, but you can experiment. I’ve cooked this with massaman curry paste, powdered Madras curry powder, and yellow curry paste. They each bring a different flavor profile, but are nonetheless delicious. If you’re nervous about making the soup too spicy, start with a little curry paste when called for in the recipe, and add more later in the cooking process until it is just right for you.
• Peanut Butter: I tend to use smooth peanut butter for this soup, but chunky peanut butter is great too. There are times when I don’t quite have the 1/2 cup called for in the recipe. My solution? Top it off with almond butter. You could even do a version of this soup using almond butter and almonds in place of the peanuts. Although, I do love the peanut version.
• Tomatoes: This soup gets extra depth from using canned fire-roasted crushed tomatoes if you spot them. Regular canned tomatoes work well here too.
• Spinach: I call for frozen spinach here, because I typically think of this as a pantry soup, and frozen spinach is easy to keep on hand. That said, if you have fresh spinach, or kale, collard greens, etc. – by all means chop and go! I’ve also enjoyed a version of this using chopped cabbage in place of the spinach. The goal for me when I’m thinking about making this is to avoid a trip to the store.
• Carrots: Many of the West African versions of peanut soup use sweet potatoes. This recipe calls for carrots. You can use whatever you have. Other ideas include: potatoes, butternut squash, kabocha squash, etc. Or use a medley!
• Miso: I have a country-style miso I like to use here. The main thing? Try not to skip the miso. You can use white, red, yellow – the miso brings extra body, depth, and flavor to this soup.
• Citrus: I used lemon in these pictures, but a big squeeze of citrus over the top of each bowl of soup is what you want before taking the first bite. Lime is great. Orange, also really good. My favorite to date? A squeeze of Rangpur lime.

This is one of those soups that works well for a wide range of people. It’s hearty, filling substantial and delicious and you can serve it to vegans, vegetarians, people with gluten issues, dairy issues. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! -h

More Soup Recipes

Consider making your own homemade bouillon powder. So easy, and nice to keep on hand!

• Tortellini Soup
• Wild Rice Soup
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Lively Up Lentil Soup
• Split Pea Soup
• Miso Soup
• Ribollita
• Ten Great Blender Soups
• All soup recipes

Continue reading Peanut Soup (with Spinach and Miso) on 101 Cookbooks

Smoked Labneh: The Inspiration

Smoked labneh has been on my list of things to make for some time now. Late last year we made a few trips to San Francisco to make sure we were ready to make the move back from LA. I would walk through the Presidio to lunch at Dalida, in part, because I love their homemade pita situation – called Breaking Bread. The pita comes with a trio of spreads (hummus, muhammara, smoked yogurt), some pickles and olives. The smoked yogurt is a show-stopper – rich, creamy, luxe. The server wasn’t sure how it was prepared but I started thinking about how to approach it once I could get my smoker unpacked. I already make homemade labneh regularly, so it wouldn’t be too much of a jump. Flash forward, and I’ve made smoked labneh a number of times in the weeks since! 

The Technique

I’ve been using a cold-smoke technique and it works nicely. It’s where you keep the yogurt cold but flood the area around it with smoke. Every smoker is slightly different, so you might need to tweak your approach, but this will give you the general idea of how to think about it. You can see in my diagram below how things are layered in the smoker. Starting at the bottom: a piece of foil, wood chips, the grate, a bowl of ice and some water, the shallow container of labneh, the lid eventually goes on above that.

You can see the aluminum foil sitting on the bottom of the smoker topped with wood chips. The foil makes for easy cleanup.

Below, a stainless steel bowl of ice and some water sits on top of a grate, which keeps the bowl from having direct contact with heat or the wood chips. The labneh sits in the ice, keeping the yogurt cool through the smoking process.

Alternate approach: There’s also a method for smoking Labneh in the NOPI cookbook, but I haven’t attempted it yet. The labneh is formed into a puck shape and placed on a piece of parchment paper inside the smoker – no ice. They also use different aromatics for smoking (oolong tea, caraway seeds, pink peppercorn, etc). I suspect the biggest difference would be texturally, with the parchment version losing more moisture and possibly taking on more flavor because more surface area is exposed? Excited to take this version for a spin as well.

Video: How To Make Smoked Labneh

How Long Should I Smoke the Labneh?

Every smoker has its own quirks and personalities. My advice here is to take good notes. You want a nice, round, balance of smoky notes. Aim for the sweet spot between too subtle and too strong acrid (yikes). Every time I use the smoker I make note of: what I’m smoking, what type of wood chips / herbs, etc., and how long. Then note how I would increase or decrease the time in the future. Good notes are key to getting a good working relationship with your smoker. Twenty minutes seems to be the sweet spot here for the labneh using applewood chips. A similar timeframe worked well for this smoked chocolate mousse.

What if I don’t Have a Stovetop Smoker?

Here’s what my smoker looks like, I loooove it (not sponsored). If I didn’t have my Ibushi Gin (donabe smoker) another way to get smoky flavor into the labneh might be to use a smoked salt. I’d grind it finely with a mortar and pestle and go from there. I’ve never really liked liquid smoke, so that wouldn’t be my move, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t experiment a bit as yet another approach. There could very well be better liquid smokes on the market compared to the last time I played around with it.

Smoked Labneh: Serving Ideas

• Drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with red gomashio (pictured above), along with candied nuts with rose water, seeded flatbread, and assorted cookies.
• In place of the poblano yogurt in this mushroom tartine.
• In place of the ricotta on this roasted mushroom sandwich.
• In place of the green chile yogurt in this sourdough galette.
• Rolled into 1-inch balls, rolled in spices, herbs, and/or seeds, and kept, refrigerated, in a jar topped off with olive oil.

More Yogurt Recipes

• Homemade Labneh
• Frozen Yogurt
• Pomegranate Yogurt Bowl
• Mast-o-Khiar Yogurt
• Fresh Mint Chip Frozen Yogurt

More Ways to Use Stovetop Smoker

• Smoked Chocolate Mousse

Continue reading Smoked Labneh on 101 Cookbooks

The Inspiration

I’ve had a magazine clip in my files for the better part of twenty years, Gourmet circa mid-2000s (pretty sure), for Rose-Water Candied Peanuts. Maggie Ruggiero is mentioned in the headnotes citing them as “one of the best tasting snacks she’d ever had.” They were a bit different than other versions of candied nuts I’d come across. The sugar coating ends up being somewhat uneven and craggy, and you get little pebbles and scrabble of sugar stuck to the nuts and throughout. Loved them. I was in, and started making riffs on her version over the years based on it. Almonds, pistachios, cashews, all fair game. Although, I still prefer to bake candied walnuts, and sometime pecans.

How To Make Candied Nuts

Some pictures to provide visual cues at various stages in the process.

• Heat the water with sugar:  Once the sugar has dissolved and started simmering a bit, you’re going to add the peanuts and stir well. Medium heat seems to work best for me, the sugar mixture thickens and the peanuts begin to take on some color. Also, choose a nice, thick pan to use here.
  

  

• Toast the sugar and nuts: Keep cooking and stirring. You’ll stir in the salt, and at some point the mixture will get dusty and dry in appearance. It’s ok. It will loosen up again and the sugar will turn a beautiful caramel color, and by then the nuts should be well toasted. At this point, remove from the heat, and allow to cool for a minute or so. Stir in the rose water (or other accent, extract, water), rose petals, and/or additional spices at this point. 
  

  

• Cool completely: Allow the candied nuts to cool completely before transferring them to an airtight storage container.
  

  

Video: Candied Nuts

Variations:

• Candied Nuts with Orange Blossom Water: Swap in orange blossom water for the rose water. I also like to grate a bit of orange zest onto the tops of these just before serving. The zest is moist, so be sure to add it late in the game, so everything doesn’t get tacky and sticky. You can’t store the candied nuts post-zest, but it’s wonderful for any nuts you’ll be consuming pronto.
• Candied Nuts with Fioro di Sicilia: With notes of vanilla and orange, swap in fiori di Sicilia for the rose water in the recipe. It’s wonderfully fragrant, and brings a bit of je ne sais quoi to whatever you add it to.
• Candied Whole Almonds: If I’m making candied nuts with almonds I sometimes consider using 1/2 teaspoon almond extract in place of the rose water called for.

Candied Nuts: Other Ways to Use Them

These candied peanuts are incredibly delicious on their own, but they’re also the perfect wildcard ingredient in all sorts of things.

• In salads: Let’s say I use rose water in the candied nuts. Use a little splash in whatever salad dressing or vinaigrette and you have a wonderful, off beat salad. If I use orange blossom water, use that in the dressing, etc. This works really well with buttermilk based dressings.
• In cookies: You just know a version of peanut butter cookies spiked with these candied nuts is good.
• In granola or trail mix: as an accent ingredient or punctuation.
• In chocolate: Specifically in these chocolate energy bites.

More Nut Recipes

• Candied Walnuts
• Turmeric Cashews
• Homemade Nut Butter

Continue reading Candied Nuts (with Rose Water) on 101 Cookbooks