Knead-less Olive-Rosemary Bread

We’ve adapted this no-knead homemade bread recipe from San Francisco-based cookbook author and cooking teacher Penni Wisner’s foolproof formula. A long fermentation and baking the bread in a preheated Dutch oven yields artisanal results at home. You can play with different mix-ins–sub golden raisins and walnuts for the olives and rosemary, for instance, or stir in chunks of bittersweet chocolate for a variation of pain au chocolat. For the best results, Wisner recommends using a kitchen scale to weigh the flour, salt and water. It’s an essential for great at-home bread-baking.

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Wild Rice Salad with Pistachios & Golden Raisin Vinaigrette

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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Roasted Beet Wedges with Champagne Vinegar

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:

 

Spicy Sauteed Rainbow Chard with Golden Raisins

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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Vegan Tempeh Fajitas

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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End-of-Summer Pico de Gallo

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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Really Easy Roasted Ratatouille

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.

roasted-ratatouille-recipe

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Wheat Berry Salad with Middle Eastern Spices, Grilled Tomatoes & Eggplant

This wheat berry salad always wows those new to whole grains. The smokiness of the grilled tomatoes, creaminess of the eggplant and haunting complexity of the spice paste create quite a sensation. Soft wheat berries have a toothsome starchy quality that works well in this recipe.

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Roasted Red Pepper Romesco Sauce

Romesco sauce is delicious staple of Spanish cuisine. Our version of Catalonian tomato-red pepper romesco sauce boosts the ratio of roasted bell peppers. There are lots of ways to roast peppers and other items. Lia likes to do it on the stovetop in a comal (a flat griddle pan). You can also throw them on a hot grill (especially good and smoky if you add soaked wood chips to the coals or a smoker box), or use a pair of tongs to hold peppers over the open flame of a gas stove. Since this recipe calls for roasting a fairly large volume, we pop ‘em under the broiler. However you do it, the result is a simple, smoky romesco sauce that you can serve with grilled bread as an appetizer; as a condiment with fish, poultry, or meat; tossed with pasta; or even on pizza in place of traditional tomato sauce. It may just end up being your new all-purpose sauce.

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