This make-ahead salad combines indigenous North American wild rice with the colors of fall. Not only will it save you prep time on Thanksgiving Day, it will add a vegan element to your menu that everyone can enjoy. Prepare the vinaigrette while the rice is cooking. Combine the rice with half the vinaigrette up to a day ahead; prep and refrigerate the remaining ingredients separately and toss them with the rice and remaining vinaigrette up to an hour before serving.
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Celery root (celeriac) is a knobby, homely-looking root vegetable with mild celery flavor that pairs deliciously with apple and potato. Cutting the dense-textured celery root into smaller pieces than the potato ensures both finish cooking at the same time. Use any variety of apple for this recipe. I picked up the trick of simply mashing the potatoes and other veggies with a whisk from Jennifer Shaertl’s clever book, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens. Serve with our Spiced Pork Roast, Simplest Roast Chicken or Crispy Duck Breasts with Maple-Bourbon Sauce.
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I make this when great fresh tomatoes aren’t in season and I need a basic tomato sauce for pizza or pasta. The trick these days, of course, is finding preserved tomatoes in a BPA-free container. While many manufacturers are working to phase out use of BPA in canned goods (Muir Glen is using its first BPA-free cans for this fall’s tomato pack), right now the only way to know your tomatoes are BPA free is to buy them in an aseptic or glass container. Adding a dash or two of Worcestershire deepens the flavor of this tomato sauce recipe.
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This roasted beet recipe is the real deal. “Roasting” beets often calls for wrapping them in foil, baking them until tender and then peeling them. That’s a fine method, but it really steams the beets rather than roasts them. In this recipe, you’ll peel them first, toss them with oil and vinegar, and roast them at high heat so they caramelize. Serve them warm as a side dish (they’re delicious with salmon or Arctic char) or cold to augment a tossed green salad. We call for baby beets, but any size or variety will work beautifully in this recipe.
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Love beets? Try these recipes:
Rainbow chard’s vibrant orange, red and magenta stems are too pretty to toss into the compost. They have a crunchy texture similar to celery and add a colorful confetti-like cheer to this speedy saute. Serve as a side dish with, well, just about anything (it’s especially tasty with our Spiced Pork Roast) or toss with hot pasta and goat cheese for meatless entree.
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I developed this grilled salmon recipe when I got home from Cordova, Alaska bearing a few pounds of Copper River salmon. A simple salsa made with summer’s stone fruits is the perfect accompaniment.
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Tempeh is a firm, chewy cake made from fermented soybeans, and its dense texture makes it a hearty yet cholesterol-free and very low-fat stand-in for meat. It’s a staple of vegan cuisine. You can crumble into chili, or slice it and throw it on the grill. Here, we use it as a substitute for beef in fajitas. Tempeh does well marinated (it really soaks up the flavors). For this weeknight-friendly recipe, combine the tempeh with the marinade in the morning, pop it in the fridge, and then finish the recipe in the evening. We use plain old soy tempeh, but you can use other varieties, such as flax or three-grain. Serve with salsa (either End-of-Summer Pico de Gallo or Fiery-Sweet Peach Salsa) and a dollop of Guatemalan Guacamole.
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This simple pico de gallo salsa recipe is a tasty way to use up late-season tomatoes, and you can pull it together in no time. Pico de gallo — also known as salsa fresca — is traditional uncooked Mexican salsa. Serve it with our Vegan Tempeh Fajitas, as a condiment with grilled chicken or fish, or simply with chips and a nice, cold beer.
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Ratatouille is a Provencal specialty that’s a classic way to use a garden’s summer bounty of eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and bell pepper. In culinary school, I was taught to saute each vegetable separately, and then simmer them all together. That’s too much work. In this ratatouille recipe, everything is tossed together in one pan and roasted until the vegetables are tender and slightly caramelized. Serve the ratatouille hot, at room temperature or cold as a side dish, tossed with pasta, atop pizza or grilled bread, or even tucked into a quesadilla.
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Wild-caught sablefish (a k a black cod, Alaska cod, butterfish) from Alaska is a fatty, mild-flavored fish with luscious, buttery texture. It’s an ideal candidate for smoking. If your fillet is long, cut it in half so you can pull the thinner tail end, which will cook more quickly, off the grill when it’s done. If you can’t find sablefish, use wild Alaskan salmon instead. Your choice of wood will influence the taste. For more pronounced smoky flavor, use hickory. For subtle smokiness, use applewood. Serve atop crackers, flaked over a tossed green salad or with bagels and cream cheese (with capers, of course).
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