Bulgur wheat is a quick-cooking whole grain you’ll want to keep on hand for an easy side dish. Chop up the herbs while the bulgur stands. You can vary this recipe in any number of ways – use vegetable or chicken broth in place of the water, stir in your favorite fresh herbs or garnish it with toasted nuts and a sprinkling of feta or goat cheese.
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English cookbook author Nigel Slater reminds me a bit of Marcella Hazan. Like Hazan, Slater is adamant that he’s a cook, not a chef, and he’s a champion of simple, straightforward home cooking. The American edition of his book, Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch (Ten Speed Press) came out recently, and it deserves a place in your cookbook collection. His signature unfussy approach lets the flavor of seasonal produce really shine. Roasting summer-fresh tomatoes heightens their sweetness and deepens their flavor. Slater recommends serving these as a side dish with fresh mozzarella or basmati rice. They’re equally delightful served over sliced baguette as an appetizer or light lunch.
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The barbecue of Santa Maria, Calif., is famous for delicious smoked tri-tip, and it’s always accompanied by a pot of pinquito beans. This legume, a cross between white and pinto beans, is grown only in the Santa Maria Valley. You can order them online, use standard pintos or experiment with other varieties of heirloom beans, such as Eye of Goat (which I used here) or Yellow Indian Woman. Using a pressure cooker yields tender beans that hold their shape in about a third of the usual cooking time. If you don’t have one, soak the legumes overnight and cook them in simmering water for 2 hours or until tender. Cooking time will vary, depending on the size and age of the beans. Use any leftovers to make kick-ass burritos the next day.
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If you need fast-cooking whole grains, stock your pantry with whole wheat couscous. As Maria Speck notes in her wonderful book, Ancient Grains for Modern Meals (Ten Speed Press), couscous is an anomaly. “It is neither a grain nor a pasta,” she notes, but it is eaten like a grain. You can vary the flavor of this recipe by using different types of pesto. We used our Basil-Mint Pesto here, but you also could use our Asian Pesto or Spicy Sage and Parsley Pesto, or even some from a jar. Whether it’s homemade or store-bought, use a bold pesto you really love since it adds most of the flavor to this dish. Serve with fish or chicken. “Garnish with 1/4 cup chopped toasted pistachios,” Speck suggests. “Or make it a light meal with crumbled ricotta salata, goat cheese or feta cheese and a few olives.”
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This carrot and ginger soup recipe demonstrates “Top Chef” contestant and cohost of “The Chew” Carla Hall’s deft touch with nourishing ingredients. It’s also the type of healthy everyday food she favors that leaves room for some well-chosen indulgences. She uses herbal tea bags as bouquet garni to infuse flavor and silken tofu instead of heavy cream to give this carrot soup body. Unsweetened carrot juice underscores the flavor of the fresh carrots while coconut water adds a subtle tropical note. “Using vegetable and fruit juices in addition to or in place of stock is another way to add layers of flavor,” says Hall.
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As we’ve noted before, amaranth has a gelatinous quality that makes it ideal for pudding. If you’re fan of rice pudding or tapioca, you’ll probably like this, too. Our version is spiced with a little ancho chile powder and ground cinnamon, and sweetened with coconut sugar. You can cook the amaranth in unsweetened coconut milk beverage found in the refrigerated section of health food stores (rather than the thicker, richer canned coconut milk you’d use in our Spring Vegetable Curry), or use almond milk if you prefer less pronounced coconut flavor.
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I deliberately left the dressing for this roasted asparagus super light so that nothing, with the exception of the cayenne, would tug your tastebuds too far away from the asparagus itself. The result is bright and zingy; it also pops asparagus out of the Mediterranean profile so you can serve it with Asian-leaning dishes. If you can get your hands on an unfiltered peanut oil, like Spectrum Organic’s, you’ll gain even more flavor.
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Whole wheat pizza dough can be heavy, but we’ve found that using a combination of flours and a long rise gives the yeast plenty of time lighten the texture. This no-knead method is based on Penni Wisner’s no-knead bread. You can double this pizza dough recipe and freeze the extra to make pizza another time (thaw the frozen dough in the refrigerator overnight).
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Dal is an Indian cuisine comfort-food standby made with lentils, dried beans or peas. Tarka is a technique in which spices are sauteed in fat to magnify their flavor. And as we learned from spice guru Monica Bhide, you’ll enjoy even more vivid flavor if you grind whole spices. Depending on your choice of cooking fat and stock, you can make this a vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free. Prepare the tarka and raita while the lentils simmer. Serve this dal with brown basmati rice, roasted cauliflower and our Fennel and Mint Raita.
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This chard recipe is my new go-to green dish. I can literally go from picking chard from the garden to getting this on the table in under 10 minutes. And don’t let the humble ingredients list fool you … these greens are loaded with flavor. I recommend zipping and chopping the greens, then giving them a good rinse in a big bowl of cold water and spinning or straining them dry. A Microplane zester works best for this dish because it grates the garlic so finely as to make almost a paste. If you don’t have a Microplane zester, use the finest grater you have and cook a tad longer.
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