What To Serve with Lemon Roasted Potatoes

• Sheet Pan Frittata
• Tofu Scramble
• Grillable Tofu Burgers
• Baked Cabbage Sliders
• Baked Quinoa Patties
• Pan-Fried Tempeh Ponzu Balls
• Lentils with Wine-Glazed Vegetables

You can see the potatoes I like to use up above. I like small, waxy, new potatoes – the smaller the better, ideally smaller than a ping pong ball. And on the citrus front, I’ll grab Meyer lemons over regular ones, although I wouldn’t get hung up on it. Whatever lemons you have are fine. Or if you want to get wild, swap a bit of fresh orange juice for one of the lemons.

One more tip: avoid crowding the pan – it will help you get the best color on your potatoes. And give the bottoms plenty of time to get nice and golden before tossing them with a spatula for the first time, you want to let that color get going and really develop. 

Lemon Roasted Potato Variations

In case you want them to be a bit extra, or want to take them in a slightly different direction.

• Olives & feta: add chopped, pitted, oil-cured black olives and a bit of crumbled sheep’s milk feta cheese.
• Pesto: dollop with homemade pesto – basil, potatoes, and lemon is perfection.
• Parmesan: keep it simple and finish with a dusting of freshly grated Parmesan.
• Chili crisp: I can’t help putting a little bowl of this homemade chili crisp on the table when potatoes like these are coming out of the oven.
• Labneh: add a couple dollops on the platter just before serving.
• Scallion and sesame: finish with lots of chopped scallions, toasted sesame seeds, and a small drizzle of toasted sesame oil after the potatoes come out of the oven.

More Roasted Vegetable Recipes

• Moroccan Roasted Vegetables
• Roasted Broccoli
• Roasted Cauliflower with Tahini
• Roasted Delicata Squash
• Farro with Roasted Butternut Squash
• Orzo Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
• Cauliflower Caponata

More Potato Recipes

• Perfect Creamy Mashed Potatoes
• Crispy Paprika Oven Fries
• Potato Gratin with Tomatoes and Spices
• Lori’s Smashed Skillet Potatoes
• Potato Chowder with Miso Broth
• Perfect Baked Potatoes
• all potato recipes

Continue reading Lemon Roasted Potatoes on 101 Cookbooks

A Note on the Squash

I note this in a few places on this page, but it deserves emphasis. You can make this soup using butternut squash as well as a wide range of other winter squash, or even sweet potato. I love using red kuri squash with its dense sweet flesh and deep color. Kabocha squash is another regular go-to, along with acorn squash and adorable honeynut squash. I’m seeing honeynuts more and more alongside traditional butternut squash these days, they look like pint-sized versions.

For the Silkiest Soup

When I’m feeling lazy, I often blend soups like this using a simple hand blender. It makes for easy cleanup. And for this exact soup, the hand blender does a pretty good job – really smooth, but not hyper-silky. All of which is a long way of saying that this soup goes next-level when you use a high-speed blender, and the result is arguably worth the extra effort. But don’t be deterred if a hand blender is what you use! It can still do a good job, the photos here are of a version I made using an old-school hand blender.

Best Toppings for Butternut Squash Soup

You can see in the photos I topped this lunch with a bright herby-olive oil drizzle. There’s cherry tomatoes, a bit of goat cheese, and some crunchy pepitas. But this soup is a real chameleon and welcomes a wide range of topping directions. Some other ideas: kale chips, crispy chickpeas, magic sauce, chile crisp, homemade labneh, roasted lemon chutney, candied walnuts, oil-cured black olives, toasted sliced almonds, toasted pumpkin seeds (you can make these with the seeds from whatever squash you’re using).

Make Ahead and Freeze

This is a favorite soup to make-ahead and freeze in batches for quick, healthful meals down the line. Reheat and add toppings before serving. If the soup thickens up too much for your liking, add a bit of water or broth and re-season.

More Soup Recipes

• Rustic Cabbage Soup
• Tortellini Soup
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Lively Up Lentil Soup
• Split Pea Soup
• Miso Soup
• White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil
• all soup recipes

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1. All-Butter Flaky Pie Crust

   Most pages about pie crusts are going to point you to their “best ever” pie crust, but I’m taking a slightly different approach. I’m going to share a few of the inspirations that have impacted my pie baking over the years along with the pie dough recipe I’ve tweaked and evolved until it’s my version of perfection. This is it.
   

1. Shaker Apple Pie

   The defining detail of this traditional Shaker apple pie is the use of rose water in the filling. Sliced apples, brown sugar, and a splash of floral results in a special combination. Pair it with an all-butter crust and you have a beautiful apple pie on your hands.
   

2. Berry Pie

   When you have an abundance of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or huckleberries, this is the berry pie to make. It’s classic, with a juicy, sugar-kissed, mixed berry filling. Pair it with a flaky, all-butter crust and you have the ideal berry pie on your hands.
   

3. Pumpkin Pie

   A classic pumpkin pie recipe with a couple wildcards to make it extra special. The creamy pumpkin custard is made with with a fragrant five spice blend and baked in a flaky, walnut-lined homemade flaky pie crust.
   

4. Shaker Lemon Pie

   The defining detail of this lemon Shaker pie is the use of whole lemons for the filling. Thin slices of lemon including the peel, pith, and flesh are macerated in sugar and then turned into a vibrant, flavor-packed, custardy filling. Pair this with a flaky all-butter pie crust and you’ve got something special on your hands.
   

1. Homemade Coconut Cream Pie

   There are a couple details that take this coconut cream pie to the next level. Like many versions, it is made with a homemade, flaky, all-butter pie crust filled with a creamy coconut pudding. It is finished with clouds of whipped cream and plenty of toasted coconut flakes. Using buttermilk and a confident amount of salt to offset some of the sweetness is how you take this pie from good to great.
   

2. Buttermilk Pie

   Buttermilk pies are simple, unassuming, and a breeze to throw together if you keep pie dough at the ready. The buttermilk filling here is a standout – simple, creamy, and maple-sweetened with a kiss of lemony tang and sea salt.
   

3. Heavenly Chocolate Pie

   A decadent chocolate pie featuring a honey-sweetened graham cracker crust and a wildcard cream cheese chocolate filling. From the book Country Wisdom & Know-How – the recipe calls for equal parts tofu and cream cheese in the filling. This combination creates a decadent, mousse-like texture that’s also a breeze to cut into precision slices.
   

1. Vegetable Pot Pie

   This hearty vegetable pot pie is made with a flaky, all-butter pie crust encasing a creamy, herbed potato, carrot, pea and onion filling. A homemade savory pie like this is such a treat! There are a couple tips you should know to help you take it from good to exceptional.
   

2. 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.
   

3. Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

   Imagine a Shepherd’s Pie with the flavors of an Indian samosa – that’s what’s going on here. Vegan, make-ahead, one-dish meal with a split pea (or lentil) base, mashed potato crust, and spices.
   

4. Spinach-Mushroom Quiche

   This is a spinach mushroom quiche recipe that features no dairy, no eggs, and no butter. Sounds like it would lack something in the taste department, right? Wrong. It was delicious.
   

1. Apple Cinnamon Hand Pies

   These apple hand pies are the seasonal treat you’d line up for – nostalgic, portable, and flat out delicious. The filling is a slow-baked, miso-swirled apple butter, and the crust is crisp with sesame-sugar spiked with a bit of chile flake.
   

2. Peach Hand Pies

   These peach hand pies are next-level good! Made with a flaky, fool-proof, all-butter pie dough and filled with ripe peaches, goat cheese, plus a bit of green chile and basil, they ride the delicious line between savory and sweet.
   

3. Mushroom Hand Pies

   Savory pie people, these mushroom hand pies are for you. Mushrooms, charred scallions, sesame, and miso come together in these portable pockets of deliciousness. You get creaminess from a bit of cheese, and each bite delivers the magic of a golden, flaky pie crust.
   

4. Jamaican Veggie Patties

   A favorite recipe from Bryant Terry’s book, Vegan Soul Kitchen. A richly spiced potato, pea, corn, carrot, and cabbage filling is wrapped with a turmeric-hued pastry crust made with coconut oil.
   

And if you’re looking to improve your pie crust designs and move beyond a simple, basic crust this season, there are a host of next-level pie crust design techniques out there to inspire your creations.

Looking for Tarts?

Making a homemade tart is equally rewarding. Depending on the season, I love baking this Cherry Tomato Tart with Burnt Scallion Ricotta, this Sourdough Galette with Delicata Squash, and this Rustic Tomato Tart.

Continue reading Pie Recipes: Favorite Sweet & Savory Pies on 101 Cookbooks

Macro Bowls: The Inspiration

Mastering The Art of Plant-Based Cooking is a 484 page beast of a book. Joe Yonan has authored a wonderfully comprehensive (globally inspired) cookbook and included an all-star list of contributors. If you’re the kind of person who owns just a dozen cookbooks and are plant-curious related to cooking, this book should be one of them. I’ve spent a lot of time with it in the past few months and kept finding my way back to the Macro Bowls. No stranger to macro bowls, these are special! I really love Diana’s tahini-miso finishing sauce here. So simple, so good! The five spice wink added to the protein component – genius.

What is a macro bowl?

Macro bowls are the ultimate feel-good food. They check the boxes next to important macronutrients like carbs, fat, fiber, and protein in a single bowl. They’re also endlessly adaptable, making them a great go-to all year.

Details: Brown Rice

The foundation of these macro bowls is good, well-cooked brown rice. I like the boil and drain method of cooking the recipe guides you through. It works brilliantly every time. So, if cooking rice makes you nervous, give it a try. For these bowls, a few of my favorite brown rices are: Koda Farms Organic Whole Grain Brown Kokuho Rose, Lundberg Organic Short Grain Brown Rice, and Massa Organics Medium-Grain Brown Rice.

Macro Bowls: Variations

Use what’s in season – I used in-season vegetables from the farmers’ market for the bowls you see pictured here – broccoli, delicata squash, and yellow beans. For reference, it’s December here in California. Other bowls recently have included cauliflower florets, small cabbage wedges, beets, and ribbons of carrot. When we make our way into spring, asparagus, fava beans, will be in the mix. And you can expand beyond steaming as a cooking method if you like. During colder winter months I sometimes integrate roasted ingredients (375°F tossed with a bit of olive oil), or do a combination of roasted and steamed. For this bowl I had roasted delicata on hand.

The Recipe:

The recipe below reflects all the tweaks and personal preferences I’ve come to make.  I always make double dressing, sometimes more. This makes for easy leftover meals and drizzles. I also tend to use tofu and do a quick pan-fry to get it golden and hot while my steamer is heating up, and sprinkle the tofu generously with five spice when done cooking – this is the one I tend to keep on hand. And, per my comments above, I grab for whatever veggies I have on hand, a rotating cast. The nature of macro bowls is flexibility, so have fun with them.

More Rice Recipes

• Green Rice
• Citrus Rice
• Kale Rice Bowl
• Sesame Coconut Rice
• Sushi Bowl
• Vegetarian Paella
• Rice Salad
• all rice recipes

Continue reading Macro Bowls on 101 Cookbooks

Why This Tart is So Simple

This isn’t a custard tart. It’s simply a market tart, where ingredients are piled onto a rolled-out piece of dough and baked once until deeply golden. You don’t have to par-bake the crust, and you don’t have to worry about the filling setting before the crust gets too dark. The process is a lot like making homemade pizza. Add your favorite toppings and bake. I like to eat a wedge of tart like this one alongside a bright, fresh, leafy salad.

Banana Pepper & Goat Cheese Tart: Ingredients

• Banana Peppers: I jump on banana peppers whenever I see them, but they can be tricky to find. They have a little bite and add a fantastic zip to whatever you’re making – tart, pizza, salad, etc. Swap in another pepper you enjoy if banana peppers are elusive. I picked up some gorgeous, mild Cornito Giallo peppers the other day as well – or  even a yellow bell pepper would work! Can you use the pickled banana peppers in jars? Sure! They’ll be tangier than fresh peppers, but equally fun to experiment with on tarts like this one.
• Zucchini Blossoms: Grab a few if you see them. They’re so special and beautiful, and I cut them into ribbon-like flecks here. If you can’t find them, just add another herb you like, or another edible flower – nasturtium or basil flowers would be nice!
• Herbs: I opted for chives and basil, but if you can imagine another herb working well with goat cheese, by all means, go for it.
• Goat cheese: I like using creamy, spreadable cheeses for tarts like this one. Labneh is another favorite in this sort of tart.

Shaping the Tart

The whole goal with a tart like this one is minimal fuss. And this includes shaping. You can bake it in a plan if you like but more often a free-form shape is in order. You can fold over the edges of your dough into a galette shape, or do what I’ve done here – fold the edge of the pie dough onto itself and then do a deep crimp using the thumb and pointer finger on one hand and the pointer finger on the other – see photo above.

I skipped the freezer step on this one (above), and you can see the issue. My crimping lost its definition, but aside from that it was really tasty and hit the lunchtime mark.

More Tart Recipes

• Banana Pepper & Goat Cheese Tart
• Rustic Tomato Tart
• Cherry Tomato Tart with Burnt Scallion Ricotta
• Sourdough Galette with Delicata Squash
• Lasagna Tart
• Bittersweet Chocolate Tart
• all tart recipes

Continue reading Banana Pepper & Goat Cheese Tart on 101 Cookbooks

High Salad Lunch Salad: Ingredients

The key here is assembling peak everything. If the tomatoes where you are look a little sad, skip them and bump up one of the other ingredients. Or, swap in another ingredient you love – this salad is very forgiving.

• Tomatoes: My neighbor Emily tipped me off to just how good the Green Zebra tomatoes were this week, and she was spot on. I love their concentrated flavor and beautiful lime green and yellow striped markings. Keep an eye out for heirloom tomatoes where you are, and go for the ones with the best flavor.
• Pluots: I love the complexity of a perfect, ripe pluot, and while a lot of people I know wait for peach season, I’m actually team pluot. You can use either here.
• Crispy Shallots: A lot of people buy these, but I like to make my own. Fry thinly sliced shallots in a good amount of oil until deeply browned, then use a spider to transfer them to a paper towel. It’s one of the assertive elements that also brings crunch and savoriness to this salad.
• Banana Peppers: Keep an eye out! I love their color and mild bite and spiciness. If you can’t find them and like bell peppers, swap in some yellow or red bell peppers. Quite different, but reasonable!
• Vinegar: The vinegar here is important and should taste delicious. I’ve been using a red wine vinegar that is agrodolce – a bit sweet, but still plenty acidic (it’s this one). If you don’t have an agrodolce vinegar, consider adding a bit of honey or sugar to your vinaigrette to round it out a bit. Just enough to get it to your liking. 

A few of the other ingredients and flowers that were at the market at the same time. On the ingredient front there were: perfect carrots, yellow beans, fresh cranberry beans, shallots, lemongrass, and some little lettuces hiding in there. Marigolds made an appearance after weeks and weeks of show-stopping dahlias. It’s one of the first things I notice as we round the corner into fall. 

High Summer Lunch Salad: Serving Ideas

I served this salad basically as a meal on its own, with a bit of Zanzibari Sesame Flatbread from The Food of Oman (page 177), published in 2015. Sidenote: this is a wonderful book that Ken at Now Serving turned me on to a few years back. The flatbread has a rich coconut milk dough, and I’ve been making variations of it ever since I brought the book home. It seems like the book might be out of print, but poke around for a used copy – they’re out there. I also added a little plate of sheep’s milk feta drizzled with olive oil, more of a creamy bonus than an essential. 

As far as drinks go, I boosted some sparkling water with lemon, a bit of saffron, and plenty of ice, then called it a day.

More Summer Salads

• Coconut Corn Salad
• Cucumber Salad
• Grilled Wedge Salad
• Roasted Tomato Salad
• Spicy Sesame Coleslaw
• Pluot Summer Salad
• Summer Melon Salad

More Salad Recipes

• Nicoise Salad
• Raw Tuscan Kale Salad
• Summer Fruit Salad
• Egg Salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Apple Salad
• All salad recipes

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Variations

I play around quite a bit with the make-up of these tempeh balls. Keep the ratio of beans to tempeh intact and then experiment with the rest. A few past successes include:

• Spicy: If I’m going to go spicy, I tend to introduce a spicy component through something like this chili crisp. Opting for a drizzle of that in place of the ponzu. That said, you can absolutely spice the actual tempeh balls themselves if you like. Use a bit of chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, or work a favorite curry paste into the mixture.
• Herb-filled: Swap out the cabbage for chopped soft, green herbs. A blend of chives, dill, cilantro, and basil are all good candidates. I like to trade out the onion for chopped scallions in this version.
• Super Green: Use finely chopped kale, spinach, and/or chard in place of the corn/carrots and cabbage.

What you See in the Photo

I pulled this bento-style lunch together primarily reaching for (leftover and make-ahead) items already in the refrigerator.

• Wild rice: I made a version of this ribollita with wild rice in place of the bread as a Sunday soup, used the leftover wild rice here.
• Hardboiled egg with spices: If you keep hard-boiled eggs on hand, make them special with a quick roll in a favorite spice blend. I used this red gomashio for this version, but 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!
• Baked quinoa patties: quite honestly I like these cold or hot and always bake extra so I have them for snacking. Here I’ve cut each in half and nested them into the box.
• Edamame: Sprinkled here with toasted sunflower seeds, pistachios, and a few dried chive flowers, seasoned with salt.
• Sliced avocado: heavily black peppered. I did a post years ago about how to slice pretty avocados.
• Pan-fried tempeh ponzu balls: recipe below

Pan-Fried Tempeh Ponzu Balls: Step-by-step

These are a breeze to make. The first thing you’re going to do is puree the beans and then combine them in a big bowl with the other ingredients (photo below). As I mention above, I used corn for this version because it’s in season, but you can use carrots.

The key to the next step is getting in there with your hands. You really want to mash and smash and squeeze the mixture together so it’s uniform and all the ingredients are distributed equally (see below).

To shape the tempeh balls, use a tablespoon and your hands. If things get too tacky or messy, rinse your hands and reboot. Keeping your hands damp and clean-ish throughout the process is helpful.

The last step is pan-frying the tempeh balls. My one pro-tip is to let them get a good amount of color on each side before you start to move them around the pan. This way the tempeh mixture is less likely to stick to the pan.

I typically serve these with ponzu sauce. It is quite salty, so I under-season the ponzu balls a bit. If you’re going to serve them with something else, something not as assertive on the salt front, go ahead and adjust the tempeh mixture with more, until it tastes good to you.

More Tempeh Recipes

• Tempeh Curry
• Tempeh Taco Salad
• Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh
• Spicy Tempeh Crumble Bowl
• Garlic Lime Lettuce Wraps
• TLT Sandwich (Tempeh Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich)
• all tempeh recipes

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This isn’t a difficult tart to make, but it’s not a “throw it together in 15 minutes” situation either. There’s the pie dough to thaw, roll out, and par-bake. You pre-roast the scallions and tomatoes, which you can do up to a couple days ahead. The filling comes together in a flash after that. It’s the type of recipe to enjoy on a slow summer afternoon if you’re excited about making a beautiful tart and happy to spend some time in the kitchen.

The Ingredients

Let’s talk through a few details related to the ingredients.

• Scallions: First up – you want to deeply roast these. Go hard. In the recipe down below, I have you do it in the oven, but you could certainly do a version on the grill if that’s more convenient. See the color at the edges of these scallions? You might go even darker.
  Whole almonds: Might as well toast them at the same time as the scallions and tomatoes. You can see I cut each almonds into little chunks to maximize toasty crunch. Alternately, use another nut if that is what you keep on hand. Pine nuts would be great, hazelnuts are a good option, and I wouldn’t say no to pistachios either!

The trickiest part about making a tart like this one is sticking the landing on the crust. Timing is everything. I think a lot of people tend underbake the crust at both stages – the par-bake, and the fully assembled bake. So(!), look for light golden toasty color when you first par-bake the shell, before the filling stage. Let it cool completely. Then, once it is filled and placed in the oven you want the filling to set in the time it takes the crust to get deeply golden. If the crust looks beautifully browned, there’s a good chance you’ve nailed it. And one more idea to consider if chili crisp isn’t your thing. Do a nice, thin layer of good pesto across your crust before filling with the ricotta – an A+ alternative!

More Tomato Recipes

If your kitchen looks anything like mine this time of year, some other ways to use tomatoes might be helpful. Some favorite recipes: 

• Rustic Tomato Tart
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
• Roasted Tomato Salsa
• Simple Tomato Soup
• Five Minute Tomato Sauce
• Heirloom Tomato Salad
• Simple Bruschetta
• All the tomato recipes

More Tart Recipes

• Banana Pepper & Goat Cheese Tart
• Rustic Tomato Tart
• Sourdough Galette with Delicata Squash
• Lasagna Tart
• Bittersweet Chocolate Tart
• all tart recipes

Continue reading Cherry Tomato Tart with Burnt Scallion Ricotta on 101 Cookbooks

Building an Iced Sesame Noodle Bowl

Aside from boiling the noodles, nearly everything else here can be prepared ahead of time. It’s part of what’s great about this and what makes it a weeknight-friendly meal. I like to toss some chopped veggies (whatever is on hand – broccoli, asparagus, etc.) in the pasta water after the noodles come out, keeping the cooking to a single pot. To summarize, here are the main components of the meal:

• Noodles: Keep a selection of favorites on hand.
  
• Homemade sesame sauce: make ahead and refrigerate for up to a week. Recipe below. Also, consider experimenting with almond butter and/or peanut butter in place of the tahini or sesame paste for another variation.
• Toppings: I’ll list off twenty-plus favorites. Choose 4-5 for your meal.
• Side veggies: And easy boost! As mentioned above, grab something that can do a quick boil in your pasta water after you remove the noodles. More ideas below.

Let’s Talk about Noodle Options

I’ve done fantastic versions of this meal with all of the following. Think long and slurp-able on the noodle front. I also check my noodle labels to make sure they’re not wildly salted, to be honest, I’ve been caught off guard  on a number of occasions.

• Soba: I love the combination of buckwheat soba noodles and sesame and soba traditionally works well with sesame sauces similar to this one. Soba is a frequent go-to when I make this recipe and cold soba, in general, is summertime wonderful. More soba noodle recipes.
• Somen: These thin Japanese wheat noodles are a crowd-pleasing favorite. Especially if you have picky eaters that aren’t as receptive to brown noodles.
• Homemade pici: A hand-rolled Italian pasta, if you’re up for more of a project, cold pici really makes this whole situation something extra special.
• Spaghetti: Give whatever spaghetti you love a try. I love the Monograno Felicetti Farro Spaghetti for its texture and boosted nutrition profile (not sponsored, just a fan), and the farro plays beautiful with the creamy sesame sauce. Pictured here.

Sesame Noodle Toppings

Choose 4-5 different toppings. I feel like grated ginger is a non-negotiable here. So good. And I leave any spicy component out of the base sesame sauce so that each person can light up their bowls with whatever level of spicy they can handle.

• grated ginger: peel ginger with a spoon and grate with a microplane grater into a small bowl. Key topping!
• something spicy: favorites for this recipe include Calabrian chile oil, chile crisp, tobanjan
• toasted seeds and/or nuts: za’atar, traditional gomasio, I also make a red gomasio-ish (pictured above) that I’ll post the recipe for soon, toasted peanuts, etc.
• tomatoes: specifically, these roasted cherry tomatoes
  
• crunchy bits: for example,  fried shallots or crispy jalapeño pieces (WB brought these home from TJ’s a few weeks ago)
• pesto: a little dollop of pesto in your bowl along with the sesame sauce is pretty great.
• lemon zest or chopped, preserved lemons
• makrut lime leaves: thinly slivered
• kale chips
• chives
• chopped scallions
• grated carrots
• hard boiled eggs, quartered

And as we move into later summer and early fall, and the weather is still hot enough for cold noodles, but the seasonal ingredients are shifting, here are a few other ideas:

• thinly sliced, crisp apple
• toasted pumpkin seeds
• simple cauliflower
• roasted cauliflower: This variation is next on my list, iced sesame noodles plus roasted cauliflower and some of the other ingredients in this recipe as toppings – mint, arugula, chopped dates, red onion, and a spice blend of toasted pine nuts, sesame, cumin, coriander, and red pepper flakes. It’s gonna be good.
  
• Also! For the iced noodle bowl (above), play around. Add thin citrus slices – Meyer lemon, rangpur lime, kishu mandarin, orange, key lime are all recent favorites. You can also add fresh herbs or lime leaves or use a cold broth. I have a cold mushroom broth that works really well. The recipe for that one is in Super Natural Simple, in the back.

While You’re At It: Add a Side Veggie!

Broccoli florets, asparagus tops, green beans, yellow beans, corn – these are just a few of the vegetables I’ve cooked in a flash after cooking the noodles for the bowls. Boil for a mint or so, strain under cold water and serve on the side. Everyone loves to work the vegetables into their noodle bowls as well.

More Noodle Recipes

• Walnut Miso Noodles 
• Ten+ Popular Noodle Recipes
• Vegetable Noodle Soup
• Sriracha Noodle Soup
• 20 Fantastic Noodle Soups
• Favorite Rice Noodle Stir Fry
• Fire Broth Noodle Soup
• Spicy Coconut Curry Noodles

Continue reading Iced Sesame Noodles on 101 Cookbooks

Ingredient Notes

A few notes related to the main ingredients in this soup.

• Beans: I cooked both the beans and the lentils from dried here. I wanted both to retain structure and a bit of firmness throughout the cooking and simmering of the soup, and that’s never going to happen using canned beans or lentils. The Santa Maria Pinquito beans were calling to me as I scanned the pantry, and they held up wonderfully. Their bean broth combined especially well with the mushroom powder to form the base of the soup. Other types of beans I suspect would work well with this soup: Alubia Blanca beans, cannellini, cranberry or borlotti beans, Good Mother Stallard.
• Lentils: The key here is choosing a lentil that will its shape. A lot of lentils really break down over time, especially in a soup that will be reheated. I rarely go wrong with French green lentils / Lentils du Puy, and this was no exception. I cooked them in their own pot, and then drained the remaining broth before adding along with the beans to the soup.
• Mushroom powder: You can buy mushroom powders, but I tend to make my own by blending dried mushrooms in a grinder or high-speed blender. I tend to use a lot of porcini mushroom powder in particular, and it’s the mushroom I went for here. I wanted an assertive mushroom broth that could stand up to the tomatoes, beans, lentils, and kale and not get lost.
  
  As a side note, related to turning ingredients into powders, Andrea Nguyen turned me onto one of my favorite kitchen appliances when I was telling her I was struggling to get a true powder when grinding chiles into powder. She sent me a link to the Cuisinart SG-10 Electric Spice-and-Nut Grinder and I’ve never looked back. Turns everything to the consistency of baby powder.
• Kale: Use what you have. A combination of lacinato and curly kale, stemmed and chopped well worked nicely here. Add it toward the end of cooking so it keeps some structure and brightness.

Other Soups & Stews Like This

Here are a few other soups and stews that are freezer-friendly and full of all the things you want in a one-bowl meal. I make this ribollita every other month or so, using day-old sourdough, it freezes nicely. The fragrant saffron and fennel combination in this white bean soup make it special, just a tad offbeat and unexpected (in a good way!), it also freezes well. And if you just want to poke around a bit, here’s a list of all the soup recipes. 

One rule of thumb I follow is I don’t usually freeze soups with noodles or pasta in them. The pasta just tends to get overcooked on reheating. And all of these welcome a poached or fried egg on top as a bonus!

Other Freezer-friendly Staples

• This mushroom ragu is a bit of an effort, but makes future pasta nights easy.
• Load up on summer basil and keep this pesto in the freezer year-round.
• Keep pie dough at the ready for easy pies, tarts, galettes, and hand pies.
• Related, peach hand pies, mushroom hand pies, and apple cinnamon hand pies – ready to bake from the freezer.
• This mushroom lasagna freezes well. The instruction are on the page.

Continue reading Bean and Lentil Soup with Kale on 101 Cookbooks

Green Bean Salad with Peaches: The Ingredients

Here are a couple pointers as you’re sourcing ingredients for this recipe.

• Green Beans: Look for tender green beans. I used green beans here, but I also look forward to making it with the beautiful yellow string beans we are starting to see at the market this time of year. Either will work beautifully. If I have extra time, I like to trim the tops and tails from the beans, cut them into bite-sized segments, and (extra credit) split them in half along the length. See photo above.
• Nuts: You see toasted pine nuts used here. Toasted almond slices are also wonderful along with the peaches, and I can imagine toasted walnuts or pecans working well if you shifted into a late summer version of the salad. You could swap in roasted tomatoes for the peaches, etc.

• Peaches: Aim for ripe, flavorful peaches that aren’t overly soft. You want them to maintain structure when tossed with all the other ingredients.
• Fresh oregano: You can also substitute fresh marjoram if that is what you have.

The Garlic-Oregano Oil

This is the magic component here. I have you make more of this oil than needed because you’ll never want to be without it. It’s perfect drizzled on just about everything. Drizzle on grilled vegetables, quesadillas, tacos, baked pastas, fresh pastas, bean dishes, green salads. I could literally go on forever.

More Salad Recipe

• Spicy Sesame Coleslaw
• Coconut Corn Salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Cucumber Salad
• Heirloom Tomato Salad
• Summer Fruit Salad
• more salad recipes

More Peach Recipes

• Peach Cobbler
• Peach Salsa

Continue reading Green Bean Salad with Peaches on 101 Cookbooks

Why I Love Cooking with Oats

The reasons to embrace more oats in your cooking are numerous. They’re good for you, sure. A fiber -rich, whole grain, hearty ingredient of the first order. They’re also an affordable pantry workhorse. There are different types ranging from steel-cut oats to oat flour made by blending rolled oats into a flour you can introduce into your baking projects for added depth, sweetness, and rustic vibes.

1. Baked Oatmeal Cups

   Baked oatmeal cups are the perfect on-the-go breakfast staple. These are made with oats, bananas, and lots of berries, then baked into golden deliciousness.
   

2. Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

   Classic peanut butter cookies flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. Double down on the peanut front with hand-chopped peanuts and chunky peanut butter.
   

3. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

4. Coconut Baked Oatmeal

   An extra special baked oatmeal – banana, coconut, vanilla, coconut milk, and some winter citrus, all baked into fragrant, golden-topped magic.
   

5. Peanut Butter Granola

   Using a short ingredient list of pantry basics, this peanut butter granola is incredibly good. It features a peanut butter and maple syrup coating that bakes beautifully into crunchy oat clusters.
   

6. No-bake Energy Bites

   An alternative to ultra-processed energy bars, these homemade, no-bake energy bites are a great late afternoon snack. The best part is they’re simple to make, and you’re in control of the ingredients.
   

1. Coconut Baked Oatmeal

   An extra special baked oatmeal – banana, coconut, vanilla, coconut milk, and some winter citrus, all baked into fragrant, golden-topped magic.
   

2. Baked Oatmeal Cups

   Baked oatmeal cups are the perfect on-the-go breakfast staple. These are made with oats, bananas, and lots of berries, then baked into golden deliciousness.
   

3. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

4. Oatmeal Porridge Pancakes

   If you love oatmeal, these need to be your next pancake adventure. They’re like a delicious oatmeal porridge in pancake form. Made with toasted walnuts and blueberries – dairy-free, egg-free batter.
   

5. Toasted Four Grain Cereal

   A hot, filling, four-grain breakfast cereal that you can make extra-special with all sorts of different toppings. If you love oatmeal, this is a way to level up.
   

6. Better Breakfast Cereal

   This is going to make your mornings better. Combine entire boxes of healthful cereal into your biggest bowl, add extra oats, oat bran, ground flax seeds, and freeze-dried berries. Now you have plenty of breakfasts ready to go.
   

7. Multigrain Waffles

   Poppyseed-flecked and made with a blend of barley, oat, and rye flours, these multigrain waffles are buttermilk-moist with a golden crust and a hint of tanginess.
   

8. Blueberry Muffins with Lavender

   Everything you love about a classic blueberry muffin, but with a hint of lavender and buttery oat streusel tops people inevitably eat first.
   

1. Oatmeal Muffins

   A rich, crumble-topped oatmeal muffin recipe made with an oatmeal and yogurt base. Golden-topped, wholesome, and a fantastic pocket treat.
   

2. Multigrain Waffles

   Poppyseed-flecked and made with a blend of barley, oat, and rye flours, these multigrain waffles are buttermilk-moist with a golden crust and a hint of tanginess.
   

3. Oatmeal Porridge Pancakes

   If you love oatmeal, these need to be your next pancake adventure. They’re like a delicious oatmeal porridge in pancake form. Made with toasted walnuts and blueberries – dairy-free, egg-free batter.
   

4. Blueberry Muffins with Lavender

   Everything you love about a classic blueberry muffin, but with a hint of lavender and buttery oat streusel tops people inevitably eat first. I also posted a sampler of great muffin recipes here.
   

1. Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

   Classic peanut butter cookies flecked with oatmeal and baked until golden. Double down on the peanut front with hand-chopped peanuts and chunky peanut butter.
   

2. Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

   I’m posting this recipe not because these are the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies ever of all time. They’re good, but…I’m posting the recipe, because they make amazing ice cream sandwich cookies. And it’s prime ice cream sandwich season.

   

3. Nikki’s Healthy Cookie Recipe

   A remarkable healthy cookie recipe. And SO popular! Banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. The recipe is butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school or after work treats. Healthy cookies!

   

4. Thinnest Oatmeal Cookies

   An easy cookie to bake. Made from rolled oats, they’re razor thin and lacy, golden, freckled with poppy seeds, plus an anise accent from crushed fennel seeds.
   

5. Healthful Double Chocolate Cookies

   A nut-free (school-friendly), double chocolate version of one of the most popular cookies on my site. Made with a banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. Butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school, travel, or post-workout treats.

   

6. Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

   Mesquite flour adds a wonderful accent to these oat and walnut studded chocolate chip cookies. If you’ve never baked with it, this is your encouragement.
   

1. Peanut Butter Granola

   Using a short ingredient list of pantry basics, this peanut butter granola is incredibly good. It features a peanut butter and maple syrup coating that bakes beautifully into crunchy oat clusters.
   

2. The Perfect Healthy Granola (Low Oil & Naturally Sweetened)

   There are a few different granola camps. This one falls squarely in the great, everyday, healthy granola category. Midnight black and deeply chocolate-flavored with dark black cocoa and cocoa nibs, this granola is packed with heart-healthy oats and seeds. Naturally sweetened, clumpy, and crunchy, the recipe calls for just a small splash of olive oil, and leverages a secret ingredient to bring it all together.
   

3. Sourdough Granola

   This sourdough granola is the way to go if you love huge, golden, oat clusters. It’s maple-sweetened, cinnamon-kissed and a great way to use up a good amount of sourdough discard.
   

4. Rose Petal Granola

   A variation on the granola from my book, Super Natural Every Day – this time with rose petals, walnuts, currants, and black pepper.
   

5. No-bake Energy Bites

   An alternative to ultra-processed energy bars, these homemade, no-bake energy bites are a great late afternoon snack. The best part is they’re simple to make, and you’re in control of the ingredients.
   

6. Nikki’s Healthy Cookie Recipe

   A remarkable healthy cookie recipe. And SO popular! Banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. The recipe is butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school or after work treats. Healthy cookies!

   

7. Healthful Double Chocolate Cookies

   A nut-free (school-friendly), double chocolate version of one of the most popular cookies on my site. Made with a banana-batter, shredded coconut, dark chocolate chunks, and oats. Butter-less, flour-less, egg-less, and potentially sugar-less cookies make great after school, travel, or post-workout treats.

   

1. 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.
   

2. Easy Little Bread

   The simple, easy little bread you should make right this minute – yeast-based, farm-style, made from rolled oats and a blend of all-purpose and whole wheat flours.
   

3. Oatmeal Crackers

   Snappy, substantial, homemade oatmeal crackers – made with rolled oats and rye flour.
   

4. Savory Power Bars

   These homemade power bars are based on the recipe I published years ago in Super Natural Cooking. The main difference here is I made these savory with toasted walnuts, crumbled kale chips, and oil-cured olives.
   

1. Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

   A simple spring crumble – rhubarb, strawberry, and a splash of port wine with a buttery black pepper, pine nut and oat crumble top. Sounds a bit fancy, but really, it couldn’t be easier to make.

   

More Whole Grain Recipes

There are endless ways to work diverse and flavorful whole grains in to your cookie. Here is a short list of favorite ideas:

• Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts and Pecorino
• Rye Chocolate Brownies
• Quinoa Patties
• Multigrain Waffles
• Swedish Rye Cookies
• How To Cook Quinoa
• How To Make a Sourdough Starter 
• Rye Crepes

Types of Oats in Recipes

There are a number of different types of oats to buy. Let’s talk through a few of them:

• Rolled oats: Likely the oats you’re most familiar with, rolled oats, also known as old-fashioned oats, are steamed and flattened oats used in cookies, muffins, and other baked items. They’re also a middle choice between thinner, flaky quick cooking oats, and long-cooking steel-cut oats.
• Quick oats: The fastest cooking oats to use in oatmeal and porridges, but I typically skip this type of oat. Rolled oats have a superior texture and structure and are well worth the extra few minutes of cooking time.
• Steel-cut oats: These are oat groats that have been chopped into pieces but blades keeping the bran, endosperm, and germ intact. They take quite a bit of extra time to cook and lend a completely different texture to morning oatmeals. Their chewy texture have won them many fans.
• Oat flour: You can easily make oat flour by blending rolled oats into a powder. It’s a natural GF flour (if your oats are labelled GF) to use it in cookies, muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc. It will bring a bit of nutty, rustic flavor to your baking, start by substituting 10-20% and take not of the difference. Oat flour absorbs water a bit more slowly than all-purpose flour so allow your doughs and batter to sit for a few extra minutes.

FAQ

• Are oats gluten-free? Oats are naturally gluten-free but if processed in a place that also works with other flours, contamination can happen. Check labels and look for the GF symbol if you’re avoiding gluten.
• Can you make oat flour out of rolled oats? Yes absolutely! Process rolled oats in a blender until you have a uniform, powdery flour.
• Can you swap in steel-cut oats for rolled oats in a recipe? Probably not. While they both come from whole-grain oat groats, they are processed differently, resulting in different shapes requiring different cooking times and resulting in completely different oat texture when cooked.

Continue reading Oat Recipes: 25+ Favorite Ways to Cook with Oats on 101 Cookbooks

Not joking, I enjoyed the leftovers for days. Initially, I served the corn as a side to a simple fried rice made with leftover rice and a quick omelette, shredded and folded in. The next day I channeled bruschetta vibes, spooning it onto slices of blistered sourdough rubbed with olive oil and topped with a bit of extra goat cheese. It also was right at home in a couple lunchtime grain bowls alongside sliced avocado and extra roasted vegetables. It keeps well for a few days, so if you’re a meal-prepper, take that into consideration.

Can I use frozen corn?

Yes, you can make this with frozen corn when fresh corn isn’t available. Start with 3-4 cups of frozen corn. Add the olive oil, corn, and salt to a cold skillet. Place the skillet over medium high heat and cook until hot – you don’t want to overcook the corn, so really keep an eye on it. From there, proceed with the rest of the recipe as written.

Variations:

There are so many ways to riff on this corn based on what you have on hand. A few ideas:

• Dates: Add 3-4 Medjool dates, pitted and sliced into long slivers. The sweetness is nice against the spiciness of the crisp.
• Stone Fruit: Nectarines, peaches, and pluots arrive at the market alongside corn. Cut them into bite-sized pieces and add alongside the herbs.
• Green Chile Version: I love the combination of green chiles and corn. Finely chopped a serrano or jalapeño and add it along with the crisp. If you’re chili crisp runs hot you may need to dial back the amount. Another idea – make a green version of Chile crisp and start there.
• Mediterranean-ish: Use toasted pine nuts in place of the toasted pepitas, maybe add some chopped black olives as well.
• Add Beans: A couple or two of cooked white beans or chickpeas make this corn even more substantial turning it more into a meal.  

More Corn Recipes

• Coconut Corn Salad
• Miso Corn Chowder
• 11 Ways to Cook Corn on the Cob
• Skillet Cornbread
• Summer Corn Salad
• Sopa Verde de Elote

More Summer Salads

• Simple Red Fruit Salad
• Summer Melon Salad
• Summer Fruit Salad
• all salad recipes

Continue reading Chili Crisp Corn on 101 Cookbooks

There are so many things that resonate with me in this book – subject matter, design, the emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients. More than anything, I love the approachability of Perla’s voice. She opens the book by saying, “Of all the reasons I have for writing The Seasonal Kitchen, the most important is to communicate and understanding of freshness and encourage a return to seasonal cooking. This is not a book for organic-food buffs, however, but for anyone willing to explore and rediscover the marvelous potential of fresh food.” Remember, this book was published nearly forty years ago. In many ways it reads like it was written yesterday.

You just don’t see cookbooks that look like this today. Even better, the ideas behind the recipes are straight-forward, produce-centric, and easy to update. To make these mushrooms, I replaced a substantial amount of sour cream with a dollop of creme fraiche, and never missed the former. And I give a few suggestions related to serving them in the head notes below.

This book was a real find, the sort of discovery that keeps me digging through stacks of books, but I’m certainly not the first to sing Perla’s praises. Perla Meyers elsewhere:

– Perla Meyers: The Seasonal Cook
– The Legendary Perla Meyers

More Mushroom Recipes

• Mushroom Ragù
• Mushroom Lasagna
• Stuffed Mushrooms
• Mushroom Scallops
• Baked Mushrooms with Miso Butter
• Mushroom Casserole
• Roasted Mushroom Sandwich
• Mushroom Scallion Tartine with Poblano Yogurt
• Mushroom Hand Pies
• all mushrooms recipes

Continue reading Fennel Mushrooms on 101 Cookbooks

I think there’s a lingering hangover from the leaden, hippie-style baking of the 1960s and 70s. There was a lot to admire from that era (an enthusiasm for local, whole foods, home baking), but we’ve come quite a way since then. Whole grain baking today can be very nuanced, unexpected, and deeply flavorful – with a range of wonderful textures – not just the heavy, earnest sort many people still associate with whole grain baking.

Making brownies with whole grain rye flour brings depth and maltiness that rides shotgun naturally to a good-quality bittersweet dark chocolate. It’s robust enough to stand up to it. Salt counterbalances everything, and you end up with brownies that will suck you straight into the chocolate vortex. And if you’ve never baked with rye flour before, brownies are a perfect place to start. You don’t need to worry about gluten development, hydration, or any of the other variables that give rye a bit of a temperamental reputation.

Rye Brownie Variations:

A few directions you can go with this brownie base:

• With nuts: add some chopped, toasted walnuts with the flour mixture – 1 1/2 cups or so. Classic match made in chocolate heaven here.
• With dark coconut sugar: I tested a batch of these brownies using coconut sugar (it was Big Tree Farms Organic Brown Coconut Sugar), just to see how the brownies would hold up to a less refined sweetener, also lower glycemic index. At first I was skeptical because the batter was much thinner and runnier – I just wasn’t feeling it. But they baked up beautifully, and the sweetness was rounder with noticeable caramel notes. This is a long way of saying, if I happen to have the coconut sugar on hand the next time I bake these, I’d absolutely use it. That said, the version with dark brown sugar (cane), is excellent as well.

If I had a bakery, I’d do the coconut sugar version with 100% rye flour, and 70%+ chocolate, and not skimp on the salt. That’s my brownie.

Step by Step: How to Make Rye Chocolate Brownies

One of the great things about these brownies is that there’s no need to get a big mixer out. You basically combine the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl (pictured below), and stir it together until it’s nice and smooth.

You combine the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in another bowl, and the flour and salt in a third.

You fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, and then sprinkle it with the flour. You can see what it should look like at this stage in the photo above.

Keep folding the ingredients together with a spatula or wooden spoon until it looks something like the above photo. And then transfer the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Here’s what they should look like after baking and cooling (below). I highly recommend letting them rest for a few hours, more on that below.

Brownie Storage

Ideally, allow these to cool out on the counter and then transfer to a refrigerator overnight. You can eat them shortly after baking, but they really hit all the right notes after they’ve cooled and set. These brownies also freeze incredibly well. I like to freeze them individually on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag.

More Rye Recipes

And if these brownies make you even more rye curious, here are some other recipes to explore.

• Rye Crepes
• Swedish Rye Cookies
• How To Make a Sourdough Starter (with Rye Flour)

Continue reading 100% Rye Chocolate Brownies on 101 Cookbooks