Tex-Mex Sloppy Joe Cobbler

Fancy enough for your Super Bowl party, easy enough for weeknight dinner

Seasoned, saucy, and tomato-fueled, Sloppy Joes are ground beef fun on a bun.

But we like to play with our food, so we couldn’t resist a few tweaks. The result is a Tex-Mex casserole version that adds spicy flavor and a presentation twist.  

Kids will love these. But maybe have Margaritas on hand for the grownups in the room.

Lamb Rogan Josh

Spicy but not fiery, this northern Indian dish makes excellent comfort food

The weather is getting chillier here, so we’re starting to crave stews and braises, preferably ones with some snap. Which leads us to Rogan Josh (aka Roghan Josh or Roghan Ghosht). Who can resist meaty chunks in a rich sauce perfumed with aromatic spices?

This dish is loaded with flavor, but it’s not spicy hot, so it appeals to almost everyone. And it’s as easy to make as beef stew.

So serve this at your next dinner party. And introduce your guests to a whole new world of comfort food.

Salsa Verde with Roast Tomatillos

Wonderful as a dip or sauce for grilled meat or fish

Ready for some bright, tangy flavor? Just dish up the Salsa Verde.

This dish, which is made with tomatillos, takes just minutes to whip up. It’s equally good at room temperature or chilled, so you can prepare a batch at the last minute while you’re grilling meat or fish.

Best of all, it will turn your next ordinary meal into a fiesta.

Corn, Zucchini, and Bean Soup

Serve this Mexican-style soup hot or room temperature

It’s peak corn and zucchini in our part of the world. So why not combine them?

This soup is a perfect first course – or you can even make a meal out of it. And it tastes equally good hot or at room temperature. Which also makes it perfect for summer weather.

So no need to sweat it in the kitchen.

Spicy Pork Vindaloo

Kinda, sorta like Indian chili con carne

Vindaloo has an incendiary reputation. But no worries if you’re heat-adverse — it’s easy to tame this dish by lightening up on the chile.

Which means you can share this vindaloo with even the most finicky dinner guests (and the flavor is so good, you’ll want to). You can also tell them that pork is really, truly authentic in this dish (more on that below). The vindaloos they’ve had in restaurants are copycats. They’ll feel honored to be at your table.

Pulled Pork Green Chile Chili

Flavorful and mild

Most chili recipes call for dried chilies—especially red ones in the form of powder. But chili made with fresh, whole green chilies has tremendous flavor. 

Green chilies are just juvenile red chilies. Red chilies are fully ripe, and often are dried before using (which concentrates their flavor and spiciness). You can also find spicy green chilies, but it’s more common to see mildly flavored ones—perfect for those who like a bowl of chili, but don’t want serious heat.

In this recipe, we pair tasty green chilies with “pulled” pork. The meat we’re using is really just Mexican-style shredded pork (similar to that which is often found in tacos, burritos, and enchiladas), but it has virtually the same texture and appearance as the traditional wood-smoked pulled pork used for barbeque dishes. And it has great flavor.

So taste buds, prepare to tingle.

Sweet Potato Chili with Black Beans

Sweet Potatoes Make Great Vegetarian Chili

Cold weather has returned here in St. Louis  — so naturally I’m craving a hearty dish.

When the temps turn chilly, I turn to chili.  But with sweet potatoes?  Sounds weird, I know.  They work brilliantly though, as I discovered.

Most of us know that the naturally sweet flavor of sweet potatoes is enhanced by even more sweetness.  Think Thanksgiving candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

Less well known is the sweet potato’s affinity for spicy flavors, particularly dried chilies.  To see what I mean, try adding a dusting of ground cayenne pepper to the top of those candied sweet potatoes.  It’s an amazing combination — and a revelation.

Sweet potato chili perfectly showcases the marriage of spicy and sweet.  The first bite will make your tongue smile.

The second bite?  You’ll probably decide this is the best vegetarian chili you’ve ever eaten.

Sweet Potato Soup with Chilies and Corn

Sweet potatoes are a power food.  They are low in fat and sodium, naturally sweet-flavored, and have tons of nutrients (especially vitamins A and C and calcium).  But they’re not just good for you.  They also taste good — really good.

Sweet potatoes combine well with a wide variety of spices and flavorings.  And they can be prepared almost as many ways as “standard” potatoes (although the two are completely different plants and aren’t even in the same botanical family).

Yet most of us eat sweet potatoes only once a year (at Thanksgiving) and in one way (candied, usually with marshmallows).

That’s how it was for a long time in the Kitchen Riffs household.  We knew how delicious these tubers could be, but somehow we just never got around to preparing them on a regular basis.

Sweet potatoes invariably made for some of our tastiest Thanksgiving leftovers.  And every year we would ask ourselves why we didn’t have them more often.  Then the holidays would pass, and we would forget about sweet potatoes.

Until a few years ago, when we decided to break out of the box.

Transgressing Against Tradition

We struck a blow against conformity!  We forged our own path!  In short, we started eating sweet potatoes during months that didn’t begin with the letter “N.”

And our eyes were opened to a really versatile vegetable with marvelous flavor.

One of the tastiest dishes we discovered was sweet potato soup.