Summer Squash in Tomato Curry Sauce

This Vegan Indian Dish Showcases the Great Flavors of Zucchini and Yellow Squash

Good-quality zucchini and yellow squash are available in markets year round, but we can buy extra-flavorful locally grown varieties during the warm weather months.  I’m still seeing high-quality specimens at my markets in St Louis.  And even though I’ve used both types of squash in various recipes at least a dozen times this spring and summer, I can never get enough of them. 

But I’m ready for a new flavor twist. 

Like this easy and tasty creation.  It would make a great side dish for any Indian meal.  But because it isn’t over-spiced, you can also serve it alongside roast or grilled fish, chicken, or meat. 

It’s simple to prepare.  Or you can make it ahead and reheat when you’re ready to serve. 

What a great way to eat your vegetables!

Aromatic Yellow Rice

Turmeric, Cinnamon, and Cloves Spice Up this Vegan Indian Specialty

Indians have developed a dazzling array of rice dishes.  Like today’s recipe:  Aromatic Yellow Rice.  Simple to prepare, yet appealing to both eye and palate. It owes its vibrant color to turmeric, its tantalizing spicy aroma to cinnamon and cloves. 

Aromatic Yellow Rice naturally goes well with most Indian meals, but it’s equally at home with roast or grilled chicken, meat, or fish.  The flavor is not particularly assertive, but it doesn’t get lost on the plate. 

Easy, colorful, tasty — you’ll find a lot to like in this dish.

Pink Dal with Swiss Chard

This Pleasantly Spicy Vegan Indian Dish is Healthy and Frugal

Lentils don’t get much love.  Which always surprises me, because they’re versatile, inexpensive, and highly tasty.  Especially in dal — an Indian dish that can be made from dried lentils, peas, or beans (pulses). Dal is a typical side dish at Indian meals, usually served with rice or bread. And there are scores of different dal recipes — today’s post is just one example.

Because dal is high in protein (about 25% by weight, comparable to meat), it’s an important nutritional source in India, where over a third of the population are vegetarians.  And since dried lentils and beans are relatively inexpensive and go a long way, dals are an exceptionally thrifty dish.

Bottom line?  Healthy, chock full of flavor, and budget friendly.  It’s (d)all good.

Garlic Coleslaw

A Vinegar-Based Version of a Summer Classic

When most of us think coleslaw, we picture Creamy Coleslaw — the kind made with mayonnaise. It’s exceptionally good stuff.

But have you ever tried a vinegar-based coleslaw?   It’s usually made with a classic vinaigrette dressing — you know, one made with oil, vinegar, and seasonings.

I flavor my version of this coleslaw with garlic (lots and lots of garlic).  That’s because cabbage and garlic have a natural affinity for each other, as you’ll discover when you taste this.  Combine them with vinegar and just a touch of red (fully ripe) jalapeño pepper, and you’ve got a flavor explosion happening on your tongue.

With Labor Day weekend coming up in the US, it means we’ve got another great cookout opportunity.  We’ll all want to serve coleslaw, no?  I mean, what goes better with grilled and barbecued meats?

And when your guests taste this garlic coleslaw?  Well, they’ll be urging you to open your own restaurant.

Hungarian Cucumber Salad

Fresh Dill Adds Flavor Magic

Throughout much of the US, local cucumbers are plentiful and inexpensive in our markets.  And if you’re growing them in your garden, you may be looking for new ways to use them.

This simple cucumber salad has a cool, refreshing flavor that mates well with grilled and barbecued meats, fish, and poultry — all the staples of the summer table.  But it also works with hearty stews and casseroles, so you can keep serving it when the weather turns cooler.  It makes a tangy side dish, but it has enough eye- and taste-appeal that you can serve it as a first course.  And because the dressing contains no oil, each serving has very few calories — so eat as much as you like! 

It’s inexpensive, healthy, and takes just minutes to prepare.  Best of all, the flavor improves if you make it a few hours ahead of time.  Perfect. 

Easy Pickled Watermelon Rind

The Quickest Way to Make This Old-Time Favorite   

Pickled Watermelon Rind is a traditional dish, and a tasty one.  It’s a shame that so few people have sampled it — let alone tried to make it. 

Traditional recipes for this dish are time consuming (in fact, the whole process can take several days).  They also require canning procedures, which few people are equipped for these days.

But there’s a much quicker way to prepare Pickled Watermelon Rind, made popular by David Chang, of Momofuku restaurant fame.  His method takes only a few minutes of cooking time, and the rind will be ready to eat within hours.  This beats most of the traditional recipes by, well, days.  As an added bonus, his approach allows you to leave a bit of the red watermelon flesh on the rind (traditional preparation requires scrapping all of it off).

In most of the US, July is peak watermelon season.  The melons in the market now are the sweetest, the most luscious, and definitely the cheapest of the season.

So instead of throwing out the rind of your next watermelon, why not turn it into a delectable snack or side dish?

Creamy Coleslaw

A Touch of Jalapeño and Horseradish Add Zip to this Classic

Coleslaw is the perfect sidekick for barbecue and cookout fare.  And the creamy style brings the forks out fast. 

Usually made with a mayonnaise-based dressing, it has an appealing richness that showcases the flavor of the most important ingredient — cabbage.

Every supermarket and deli sells prepared coleslaw, and some of it is pretty good.  But as good as what you make in your own kitchen?  No way! 

This weekend we observe Memorial Day, the official kickoff to summer in the US.  What better dish than Creamy Coleslaw to celebrate?

Easy Baked Beans with Bacon

Barbecue Sauce Spices Up This Cookout Star   

OK, there are baked beans you make from scratch.  You know, soak the beans overnight, then combine them with some pork and molasses and slow braise them in the oven for hours until the aroma drives you crazy enough that you grab the pot (before they’re done!) and start dipping your spoon in.

Pretty good.  But not as good as these shortcut beans.  My recipe starts with canned baked beans (don’t tell!)  Then you add some bacon and barbecue sauce, plus other goodies.  Time in the oven?  No more than an hour.  Time before the aroma drives you wild and you grab the pot of beans (without an oven mitt!) and start spooning them down?  Half an hour — 45 minutes tops.

Seriously, these baked beans are good.  I don’t care what else you serve at your next cookout, this is the dish people will keep coming back to (and the one they’ll beg you to bring to every pot luck for the rest of your life.)

Fortunately, this is a pretty easy recipe to make.  But you don’t have to tell them that.

Roast Asparagus

Roasting Intensifies the Magnificent Flavor of this Springtime Favorite

Springtime means asparagus.  Oh sure, asparagus is available in our supermarkets year round.   And often it’s pretty good.  But early spring brings locally grown asparagus — the freshest and most succulent of the year. 

With Easter coming soon, what better vegetable to grace your table?  Not only is asparagus seasonally appropriate, it combines well with the ham or lamb that many people like to serve. 

Although asparagus is wonderful no matter how you cook it, I have a soft spot for Roast Asparagus.  This veggie has extraordinarily good flavor to begin with, but roasting deepens and concentrates it.

Roast Asparagus tastes equally good hot from the oven or cooked ahead and served at room temperature.  What’s more convenient than that?

Roast Cauliflower

For People Who Think They Don’t Like Cauliflower

A lot of people say they don’t like cauliflower.  In most cases, that’s because they’ve only had cauliflower after it’s been boiled to death.  Bummer — too much boiling turns this vegetable into a bland mushy mess, and the unpleasant cabbagey cooking odor can be a turn-off.  Misguided cooks may try to cover up the mess with a mystery “cheese” or “white” sauce, and then bake the whole thing into submission.  Their guests suffer collateral damage. 

So cauliflower can be a tough sell.  But roast cauliflower?  It’s like a different vegetable.  Roasting deepens and concentrates flavor.  The vegetable becomes sweeter, and reveals hidden taste dimensions that most people find irresistible.

Best of all, it’s an easy recipe that practically cooks itself.

Roast Sweet Potatoes

When You’re Not in the Mood for Marshmallows

Everyone roasts meat and poultry.  And next week roast turkey will have the starring role on millions of festive Thanksgiving tables.  But roast vegetables?  Not so much. 

Too bad, because they’re delectable.  Roasting deepens and concentrates the flavor of vegetables, often revealing hidden layers of taste.  Roasting offers a flavor dimension you just won’t experience with the traditional T-day “candied yams.”

Sweet potatoes are ideal for roasting.  They’re naturally sweet — that’s why we call them sweet potatoes, no?  Roasting only emphasizes that sweetness, with no additional sugar (or marshmallows) needed.

Best of all?  Roast Sweet Potatoes take minimal preparation time.  And when cooking a big multi-dish meal like Thanksgiving dinner, who doesn’t want to reduce prep time?