Category Archives: vegetables

Green garlic and pistachio pesto crostini

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Asparagus and spring garlic are here! I almost cried when a dear friend brought me a bunch of asparagus from McGrath Farm a couple weeks ago. Something freshly grown to eat. And now they have spring garlic!

Spring garlic seems to be fussed over in places with long winters. We will eat almost anything with gusto if it comes out of the ground this month. None of my California friends even knew what I was talking about when I told them about my green garlic find.

It’s a warm day filled with energetic weed pulling and tomato planting and dirt hauling, so dinner is going to be light. Along with a hearty salad, I’m making green garlic and pistachio pesto crostini, with optional burrata on top. Continue reading →

Polenta and roasted vegetable pie for Mother’s Day

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Getting dinner on the table

 If you ask any of my three brothers to tell you about a time when they laughed the hardest as a child, they will either recount watching the Cheech and Chong “Up In Smoke” movie with my dad, or they’d recall one specific family dinner.

My mom cooked for our family of six every night, kept track of my three brothers and me, and did all the housework. This was before feminism came to our Los Angeles suburb, so my mom just did her job and tried to get us to help when she could. But sometimes we didn’t do our part (and who could blame us–we were 6, 8, 10, and 12 at the time of this memorable meal). My mom would yell and we might or might not be more helpful next time. Eventually she came up with a better strategy. Continue reading →

Edamame pesto and roasted beet crostini recipe

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We are in the home stretch of winter, and even though it’s been one of the warmest winters in New England and the forsythia is blooming nearly 2 months early, it’s still slim pickings, food wise. We are many weeks away from garlic scapes or asparagus or peas at the nearby farms. I’ve had quite enough kale and winter squash and now I long for spring and fresh vegetables.

Continue reading →

Sweet potato chips and yogurt harissa dip recipe

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So, if you came over yesterday to watch some football, I might have hung up your coat, offered you a beer, and immediately set out a warm plate of these chips and this dip. And five minutes later, when the chips were gone, you might have asked for the recipe, after acting impressed that I made these chips, and from scratch.

Can I even call this a recipe, since the chips are only 3 ingredients, and one of them is salt?

We discovered it when my mom and I were making a fancy vegetarian torte topped with these lovely slices of sweet potato draped and arranged like a big flower. We had slices left over and baked them with a tiny bit of olive oil until crispy. We were surprised we had never made sweet potatoes like this before and polished off the pan of crispy slices in a quick minute. Continue reading →

Greens, sweet potatoes, and cannellini beans with harissa recipe

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greens, sweet potato, and cannelini beansWhat was I thinking when I bought a bag of “southern greens blend,” which is a pound of mustard, turnip, and collard greens–stuff I probably would throw away, not knowing it’s edible–and some spinach?

I was thinking its probably good for me and everything else looked kind of tired after a  long drive from the west coast. Flash forward four days, and this bag of trimmings is the only thing in the vegetable drawer. And, right about now I’m thinking this blog should be called the root vegetable kitchen. But, I have hope for a decent healthy dinner in 60 minutes less.

The way some people use bacon to fix food or myriad other situations, I add sweet potatoes. So here’s a quick weeknight healthy vegan dinner that would make Aunt Nettie proud. Continue reading →