F O O D !
Get inspired to try something new, make something better or upgrade your kitchen with these tasty bits. Or heck, throw a whole dinner party and order my cookbook “The Dinner Party Project” out now!
Horseradish and Arugula Salad
I love to serve a great crisp and simple green salad with a zingy dressing to balance the unctuousness (my husband’s favorite word) of a dish like short ribs or beef bourguignon. If you wanna chat about horseradish let me know. I always love to turn new people on to one of my favorite roots!
Brown Rice That Doesn’t Suck (Really)
So some of us love brown rice and some of us just endure it cause it’s healthy. I’ll admit that it can be a bland, gummy disaster but by following the recipe below you’ll end up with the perfect rice 98% of the time.
Chewy Udon With Mushrooms
This is a slight modification to the Chewy Udon Stir Fry from the blogger Drive Me Hungry. I love her recipes and this is one I’ve been slightly modifying throughout all of quarantine because it’s an ideal combination of everything comforting in life. It’s carby, it’s chewy, it’s fatty, it’s a little sweet, and it’s a great way to use up all the weird vegetables in your fridge at the end of the week. This recipe is the third recipe in a series of recipes all about using leftover portobello mushrooms. If you want the original recipe for the shrooms you can find it HERE, but you can also use raw mushrooms or sub a protein if you like!
Herby Chopped Salad a.k.a The Perfect Instagram Salad
This title is only kind of sort of a joke. You know you’ve thought about your plating for an insta pic before… Turns out your stomach and instagram like the same thing, lots of color, varied texture and large bowls. This salad is a winner because you can basically throw anything in it that you’ve got going on in your fridge, the more vegetables and the more color the better. Use your vegetables before they go bad! If you’re not into chickpeas and you want to make this salad to take to work feel free to throw on any protein you feel like.
Mushroomy Farro Salad
This is a perfect grain salad to keep in your fridge and munch on during the week or serve warm as a side with dinner. It’s super flavorful, easy to adapt based on whatever ingredients you have lying around, and is fun to munch on.
Portobello Mushroom Burgers
Listen, if you’re looking for the best veggie burger that will satisfy any and all humans (that don’t hate mushrooms) THIS IS YOUR BURGER. The mushroom turns out soft and tender but also meaty and the special sauce really makes you feel like you’re eating a legit diner burger. I hope you love these as much as I do!
Serial Kaler Salad
If you’ve enjoyed a kale salad at a restaurant but your homemade salad makes you feel like you’re grazing in a bitter pasture, the secret is the kale massage. Kale only tastes good in a salad if you give it a massage first. Simply remove those nasty kale ribs, cut up the kale, then take bunches of kale and rub the heck out of them with a bit of dressing. They should start to look darker and taste less bitter.
Smoky Spanish Spinach And Chickpeas (Espinacas Con Garbanzos)
After a month of eating in Spain, vegetables are the thing I get most excited about on a menu. The food here is insanely delicious, but it isn’t exactly vegetable-forward. At most traditional tapas restaurants there are generally two vegetable dishes on the menu: Padrón peppers and patatas bravas, and occasionally a third; espinacas con garbanzos! Espinacas con garbanzos (or spinach and chickpeas) is a dish that comes from Seville and I can't get enough of it. It's got an earthy, smoky flavor from the paprika. It's rich and creamy from the olive oil and chickpeas. And it has yet another layer of complexity from the roasted garlic and vinegar. Needless to say, it has quickly become one of my favorites.
Spinaki Lemonato
I’ve been obsessed with this spinach dip for years. I’ve only found it at one restaurant, so I recipe tested endlessly and cracked the code. Then changed the name by one letter so they don’t get too mad at me.
Cinnamon Sugar Fries
I'm a sweet potato fan. I like them roasted whole with butter and salt. It doesn't take much to please me when it comes to potatoes. However, if I feel like kicking it up a notch this is an easy side dish that I really like.
Wine Braised Asparagus
Braising shallots is a great way to add big flavor to simple sautéed veggies for an easy weeknight sidedish. Once you get the technique down you can use it to spice up just about anything you want to cook.
Overly Dilled Tzatziki With Crudités
This is a real easy recipe. Basically the only technique here is to remove excess liquid from the cucumbers so that the yogurt remains creamy and thick. To get the excess liquid out of the cucumber put the cuc’ bits in a colander and sprinkle with a little salt. Let the salt pull the water from the cucumber for a few minutes and then wring ‘em out between paper towels. It's best coooollllldddd. Serve with some carrots, cucumber, and radish. Or with pita bread. Or as a side for chicken.
BRATWURST’S BEST FRIEND — GARLICKY CABBAGE WITH MUSTARD SEED
There's nothing wrong with piling on bratwurst condiments to hit all the tastes that you're craving, but sometimes it's nice to keep things streamlined. When it comes to outdoor grilling I like to keep things simple by having fewer bowls on the table. Just makes life (and cleanup) easier. So when it comes to sides, I try and consolidate flavors and maximize each dish. You want veggies and mustard and a little acidity on your brat? Great! You're all covered in this one dish. Fear not vegetarians, this is also boss on a veggie burger!
Torn Sweet Potatoes With Chili And Lime
They're great hot. They're good cold. They're sweet, salty, a little spicy, and pair like a dream with a grilled skirt steak or a summer BBQed chicken. What more could you want from a simple side dish?
Charred Corn Salad With Cornbread Croutons
If you live in LA, then you've been to a Hillstone Restaurant. There are like a billion of them and they're always crowded. You might walk in and think "WHY IS THIS CHAIN SO CROWDED ALL THE TIME?!?" ... but then you eat the food and you're like "OH YES THIS FOOD IS SO GOOD." Where was I going with this? Oh yes, the cornbread. They have THE BEST cornbread, so I found the recipe and yoinked it. In trying to come up with a really delicious salad to highlight summer corn, I thought, why not up the corn salad with my favorite cornbread croutons. It’s like corn on corn on corn.
Bazillion Dollar Watermelon Salad
In the summer months when, at least here in LA, it’s unbearably hot, and the last thing you want to do is turn on the stove, this salad is everything. It’s cooling. It’s hydrating. It’s fresh. And did I mention it’s cold? Anyway this is one of my favorite no-cook recipes for those days when you don’t really want to cook, but still gotta eat.
Rosemary Smashed Potatoes (SSRI Substitute Potatoes)
If you love potatoes and you like to smash things this recipe is for you. This simple recipe has only five ingredients and is an amazing side dish. Plus, it’s therapeutic to take all of your frustrations out on the potatoes. All you need is your favorite flat kitchen tool to smack. I usually use a fish spatula, but you can use basically anything. Honestly, even though it’s not flat the underside of a ladle works. So have fun and you can thank me later.
Zesty Peachy Shallot-Y Summer Salad
If I'm going to be turning on the grill at all (and by "turning on" I mean prepping the charcoal and crossing my fingers that it gets hot), I like to utilize it as much as possible. I learn a lot just by throwing random things on the grill. It's sort of miraculous how much a fruit or vegetable can change simply by being grilled... sometimes for the better, sometimes not so much. The peach is one thing that really, really changes on a grill. The sugars in the peach caramelize and the fruit picks up a seductive smoke quality. Even fruit that starts out as slightly under ripe takes on a buttery texture after being grilled. The whole thing is pretty special. This salad is a great way to utilize the peach, get in some greens, and still keep all your friends happy.
Roasted Broccolini
If you’re looking for the quickest/easiest way to make a veggie side, roasted broccolini is your best friend. It tastes great a little undercooked or a tiny bit burned… so you can’t really go wrong. Plus broccolini is naturally a little sweet, which makes it inherently more delicious than other vegetables.
Brunch's Best Friend: A Seasonal Frittata
There are a few things that are crucial to making an epic frittata...
1. Sauté your vegetables before adding the eggs (helps remove excess liquid and build flavor)
2. Whisk your eggs before adding them into the pan (aerates and helps keep the frittata fluffy)
3. Cook your eggs low and slow (because no one wants tough bubblegum textured eggs)
4. Slow the cooking process of the eggs by adding fat (milk, sour cream, or butter) in 2 stages
The frittata you are about to make incorporates all 4 principles, resulting in what could be your favorite frittata of all time. Great thing is, you don't need these veggies, herbs or cheeses, you can use whatever you have lying around.
