And when I say simple, I’m not kidding. For a bit of something special, I ground a bit of brown sugar with coriander seeds to add to the fruit, liking the way the coriander’s citrusy, green notes played off the flavor of the strawberries and cherries. Just a little tweak, but enough to bring a hint of unexpectedness to a bowl of radiant, seasonal fruit. If you’re stuck on traditional fruit salad, consider making the jump to a red fruit salad!

I first started making this fruit salad in the early days of the QUITOKEETO project, when a lot of it was happening at the house. Laugh/ cry. Friends would stop by and just shake their heads. The towers of boxes, the tape guns, the bins of items we’d sourced – it was all a bit much. We did many shipments from the dining room and kitchen island, and I thought you might like a look at the process. But, in the midst of it all, we would always try to break for a quick lunch.  This ruby-hued beauty came out of one of those lunches.

More Summer Fruit Recipes

• Summer Berry Crisp
• Pluot Summer Salad
• Watermelon Poke
• Blackberry Limeade
• Summer Fruit Salad

More Strawberry Recipes

• Roasted Strawberries
• Strawberry Scones
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
• Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk
• Berry Swirl Ice Cream
• all strawberry recipes

Continue reading Simple Red Fruit Salad on 101 Cookbooks

1. Baked Quinoa Patties

   Great served hot or room-temperature, these quinoa patties are packed with herbs, kale and creamy feta cheese. Adult and kid-friendly, and perfect for lunches on the go. I love to keep the patties frozen – pop on a baking sheet and bake for the lowest lift type of meal.
   

2. Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls

   A colorful pasta bowl bonanza featuring a glossy, smooth chickpea harissa sauce and loads of crunchy cucumbers, cashews and fried onions. The definition of a vibrant, exciting one-bowl meal!
   

3. Chickpea Salad Sandwich

   The chickpea salad sandwich filling to make in bulk for easy lunches and snacks all week. A perfect vegetarian or vegan sandwich option.
   

4. Cashew Curry

   A simple, weeknight cashew curry recipe. Curry powder in coconut milk, deeply toasted cashew nuts, a handful of green beans, two handfuls of tiny cauliflower florets, and a bit of tofu for good measure makes it all good. Substitute whatever season vegetables you have on hand.
   

5. Caramelized Tofu

   One of my favorite tofu recipes, caramelized strips of tofu served over sautéed shredded brussels sprouts. It comes together quickly and uses just one pan.
   

6. Penne alla Vodka

   This penne alla vodka uses both whole tomatoes and tomato paste along with a splash of cream to make a vodka sauce with plenty of depth. The defining detail in this recipe is adding the zest of a lemon to the vodka. It lends a fragrant brightness to the whole preparation, making this family favorite extra special.
   

7. Mushroom Scallion Toasts

   A substantial, delicious, mushroom sheet pan sandwich recipe. You roast a bunch of mushrooms and scallions in a hot oven, whip up a simple poblano yogurt while those are roasting. So good!

   

8. Pasta with Etruscan Sauce

   From the Pasta Grannies series, this is a simple pasta with a special sauce made from a quick puree of sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, parsley, and garlic. It’s fast, strong, adaptable, and doesn’t disappoint.
   

9. Iced Sesame Noodles

   Iced sesame noodles have become a thing in our house in recent years. Cold noodles plus a creamy sesame sauce and a line up of great toppings equals custom bowls everyone loves!
   

10. Curried Tomato Tortellini Soup

    A crowd-pleasing tomato-based tortellini soup, dotted with plump, tender dumplings, spiked with a range of spices, and boosted with plenty of spinach.

    

11. Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh

    A simple ginger and garlic-spiked orange glaze that plays of the nutty earthiness of the pan-fried tempeh beautifully. Pair it with a favorite vegetable over your favorite rice or noodles, delicious.

    

1. Spicy Tempeh Crumble Bowl

   A riff on one of my favorite recipes in Andrea Nguyen’s Vietnamese Food Any Day – a caramelized tempeh crumble. The sort of thing that immediately becomes the best component in your rice bowl.
   

2. Health Nut Vegan Chili

   A special, triple-bean, vegan chili inspired by Jess Damuck’s new cookbook. It’s bold, flavor-packed and uses a technique to achieve the best texture of any chili I’ve eaten. It’s time to schedule a big chili night.
   

3. Tofu Scramble

   This tofu scramble is fast, flavorful, and a wonderful egg-free savory breakfast. Made with spinach, curry powder, nutritional yeast, garlic, and onions, this is the version we’ve been making for years!
   

4. Cottage Cheese Wraps

   Cottage cheese wraps are a great foundation recipe! They’re high in protein, wildly versatile, and super satisfying, You can stuff them with a wide range of fillings, drizzles, and spreads depending on the season. Here are all my tips and tricks and favorite ways to enjoy them.
   

5. Salt and Pepper Tofu

   A special ingredient in the coating of this salt and pepper tofu is what makes it extra good. You’re going to want to have it over cold noodles, salads, or as a straight-up snack.
   

6. Coconut Red Lentil Soup

   A vibrant red lentil soup (or stew) that is always hugely popular. A friend turned me onto this Ayurvedic dal recipe from the Esalen Cookbook years ago. Red lentil based, curry-spiced coconut broth with back notes of ginger and tomato, with slivered green onions, and a finish of cilantro or kale.
   

7. Grilled Veggie Tofu Kebabs

   Spicy grilled veggie kebabs made with a flavor-packed yogurt marinade and mix of vegetables with paneer cheese. A favorite that you can make ahead, and grill or bake year-round.
   

8. Grillable Tofu Burgers

   Seasoned with a good amount of cumin, cayenne and mustard, these are hearty, filling, easy to make, dump-everything-in-the-food processor grillable tofu burgers.
   

9. Tempeh Curry

   A vibrant tempeh curry recipe loosely inspired by a recipe from Lora Zarubin’s cookbook, I am Almost Always Hungry.
   

10. Golden-crusted Sesame Seeded Tofu

    In the April 1998 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine there was a recipe for Sesame Asparagus and Tofu. I ripped it out, and cooked it a hundred times in the twenty years since.

    

11. Sheet Pan Frittata

    You don’t need much to make a good sheet pan frittata. This one starts with a dusting of lemon zest across a sheet pan, and uses a simple egg, cream, salt and pepper base.
    

12. Baked Cabbage Sliders

    Crisp on the edges and packed with beans, quinoa, cabbage, cottage cheese and other good stuff on the inside, these make for an easy, protein-packed meal everyone can personalize with toppings.
    

13. White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil

    This white bean soup is rustic, silky, and built around plump beans simmered in a saffron-tinted broth. A squeeze of citrus, crumbled feta, and chopped olives makes each bite special.
    

14. Lentils folded into Yogurt, Spinach, and Basil

    Have you seen the little book, Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal? It’s great on many fronts, and these lentil-topped open-faced sandwiches are the recipe I make from it. Great for a quick meal, especially if you keep lentils on hand.

    

1. How to Make a Great Vegetarian Poke Bowl

   Let’s make a vegetarian poke bowl! They’re fantastic this time of year because they’re light, clean, filling but not heavy. Made with watermelon poke.
   

2. Spicy Summer Miso Soup

   A show-stopper miso soup made with a spicy broth punched up with garlic, ginger and chile paste. To that you add cubed potatoes, chopped cabbage and summer produce like cherry tomatoes, basil, and corn.
   

3. Double Broccoli Quinoa

   For the broccoli lovers out there (or anyone who strives to be), this is your recipe. Cook up lots of broccoli, and puree half of it into a pesto. The other half is cut into little florets. Toss the broccoli with some quinoa, sliced avocado and a drizzle of feisty chile pepper oil.
   

4. Pasta with Smashed Zucchini Cream

   If you have an endless supply of zucchini right now, this is your recipe. A simple, garlic-boosted pasta, it uses two pounds of zucchini, and is endlessly adaptable.
   

5. Grilled Zucchini & Bread Salad

   If you need to put a 2 pound dent in your zucchini supply right now, give this a go. A bread salad made with torn pieces of toasted multi-grain bread, grilled zucchini, chickpeas, and a simple, garlic-forward ponzu dressing.
   

6. Black Sesame Otsu Soba Bowl

   The Black Sesame Otsu recipe from my Super Natural Every Day cookbook – soba noodles and tofu slathered in a thinned-out, salty-sweet black sesame paste, then topped with lots of sliced green onions. So good!
   

7. Cauliflower Caponata

   This deeply flavorful caponata recipe cleverly trades out traditional eggplant for roasted cauliflower and uses an oven in place of deep-frying. The idea comes from Easy Wins by Anna Jones and has become an absolute favorite.
   

8. Niçoise Salad 

   Everyone can find ingredients to love In this vegetarian take on Niçoise Salad! Beans and artichokes take the place of tuna (or anchovies) here alongside tender potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, and green beans.
   

9. Sweet Potato Tacos

   These sweet potato tacos are so simple, and so good! Tortillas are slathered with smashed, roasted sweet potatoes. Top with black beans, sliced avocado, quick pickled red onions, a bit of cheese, and squeeze of lime. Fantastic.
   

1. Pan-Fried Beans with Kale

   Golden crusted pan-fried beans are made extra special by loading them up with kale, Parmesan, lemon, walnuts, and nutmeg. So many great variations in the comments as well!
   

2. Asparagus Stir-Fry

   A favorite stir-fry recipe. Asparagus and tofu form the base, but it has quite a lot going on beyond that. You get a bite of tang from the lime, heat from the red chiles and fresh ginger, mint and basil cool things down. A touch of hoisin sauce gives you just enough sweetness to balance it all out.
   

3. Harissa Spaghetti

   A unique and flavor-packed spaghetti recipe. Whole wheat pasta noodles, olives, kale, and toasted nuts are tossed in a pan for a tangle with a garlic-charged harissa and olive oil sauce. This one is an easy weeknight win!
   

4. Meal In a Jar: Spicy Coconut Curry Noodles

   Just add water and a splash of coconut milk to make this fragrant curry noodle pot. A dynamic and feisty broth is bolstered with cayenne, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric enveloping egg noodles and whatever seasonal vegetables you have on hand.
   

5. Garganelli with Kale and Lentils

   This one-pot, garganelli pasta is an easy weeknight win. It’s pasta and lentils simmered in crushed tomatoes and finished with lots of chopped kale, saffron, swirls of tahini and chopped almonds.
   

6. Garlic Lime Lettuce Wraps

   Ginger and garlic tempeh rice, folded into lime-spiked lettuce wraps with lots of herbs, cucumber, and carrots. A one-pan meal that comes together in no time!

   

7. One-Pot Indian-Spiced Rice with Cauliflower and Tofu

   A true one-pot meal, this Indian-spiced rice is made with store-bought spicy simmer sauce, paired with tofu and cauliflower. It’s hearty, filling and you can load it up with a range of herbs or crunchy nuts as toppings.
   

1. Baked Ziti

   This baked ziti uses ricotta, mozzarella, and creme fraîche to make a bubbly, rich pasta with a hearty, spinach-flecked red sauce loaded with flavor. The creme fraîche keeps things silky, adds dimension, and is a game changer. A family favorite that freezes well and happily feeds a crowd.
   

2. Rustic Cabbage Soup

   Hearty, healthy, and satisfying – this cabbage soup recipe is super simple to make. Slice a cabbage into thin ribbons and cook it down in a simple pot of sautéed potatoes, onions, beans, garlic and flavorful broth. Finish each bowl with a generous drizzle of great olive oil, a couple dollops of sour cream and a jolt of something spicy.
   

3. Giant Chipotle Baked Beans

   A riff on Laurence Jossel’s famous NOPA beans – plump, creamy beans baked in a bright, chunky chipotle tomato sauce, topped with crunchy breadcrumbs, plenty of oozy queso fresco, and an emerald drizzle of cilantro pesto.
   

4. Vegan Red Pozole

   This favorite meatless red pozole is grounded with cascabel and chipotle chiles and spiked with citrus olive oil. It’s so incredibly delicious.
   

5. Three Cheese Pizza Beans

   Inspired by the internet-famous Smitten Kitchen Pizza Beans highlighted in Rancho Gordo’s new book, this wintery version has all the much-loved components – tomato, melty cheeses, and giant beans – along with pumpkin, feta, black olives and kale. A favorite one-pan make and bake meal.
   

6. Peanut Soup (with Spinach and Miso)

   This spicy peanut soup is the definition of a crowd-pleaser. Meaning, it’s hearty and delicious and it works for a wide range of people with a range of dietary preferences – gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free. If you’re hosting a soup night, this is your move.
   

7. Saag Paneer

   This is how I like to cook saag paneer – chopped spinach, golden-crusted paneer cheese, assertively spices, and finished with toasted sesame seeds and fresh lemon juice.
   

8. Pasta with Creamy Crushed Walnut Sauce

   Toasted walnuts pounded with garlic into a creamy sauce make this pasta easy and exceptional. If you have dried pasta, a few cloves of garlic, walnuts, and black pepper you can make this. The other ingredients – lemon zest, a bit of grated cheese, a finishing cascade of breadcrumbs and herbs are encouraged, but not essential.
   

9. Spicy Tahini Noodles with Roasted Vegetables

   This is my favorite kind of weeknight meal. Noodles tossed with a quick sauce, topped with an abundance of vegetables, and kissed with chile feistiness courtesy of the condiment shelf.

   

1. Homemade Pappardelle

   Simple, homemade pappardelle pasta is a deliciously versatile shape to make! Pictured below topped with crispy mushrooms, clouds of Parmesan cheese, and lemon.
   

2. Ultimate Veggie Burger

   The ultimate veggie burger recipe made with a secret trick, garbanzo beans, cilantro, onions, lemon zest, eggs, and bread crumbs.

   

3. Homemade Tagliatelle

   Homemade tagliatelle pasta is long, slender, flat, and a much-loved pasta shape. For good reason! It works with a range of sauces and if you have flour, eggs, olive oil, and salt you can make it immediately.
   

4. Vegan Fish Tacos

   The vegan “fish” tacos to make on repeat. Quick-marinated slabs of golden-crusted tofu, avocado slathered tortillas, and a spicy sesame slaw come together in these favorite tacos.
   

5. Hand-Rolled Pici Pasta

   Pici is one of the most charming pasta shapes. It is a quirky favorite requiring a short list of simple ingredients hand-rolled into long, slightly irregular strands. Pici love forever.
   

6. Best Easy Pizza Dough

   This pizza dough recipe sets the foundation for beautiful, flavorful pizzas. It works great in home ovens as well as outdoor pizza ovens. No mixer is needed and you don’t need to proof your yeast.
   

7. Thousand Layer Lasagna

   My favorite and best lasagna recipe. Dozens and dozens of whisper-thin sheets of fresh pasta brushed with the most vibrant red tomato sauce imaginable all intersecting layer after layer of warm, oozy, fresh mozzarella.
   

8. Mushroom Lasagna

   This freezer-friendly mushroom lasagna is all about homemade mushroom ragù, big dollops of ricotta cheese, and silky tender sheets of pasta finished with a bit of basil and some grated Parmesan cheese.
   

Continue reading 50+ Vegetarian Dinner Recipes on 101 Cookbooks

Cottage Cheese Wraps

Cottage cheese wraps are a breeze to make, but you do have to be mindful of a couple details the first few times through the process to avoid issues:

• Don’t over-process the mixture in your blender. 15-20 pulses does the job, resulting in a smooth batter.
• Yes, you need to use parchment paper.
• Spread the batter across your sheet pan gently, to a uniform thickness. Too thin, it is more likely to crack.
  
• Bake until the wrap is very golden on the bottom, this is right around 30 minutes in my oven. This is the color you’re after, or even a bit darker!
  
• After removing from the oven, let the wrap set for a bit. Roughly 3-5 minutes is about right. It’s less likely to break apart as you’re filling and rolling.
  

The Ingredients

To make the wrap component of cottage cheese wraps you need three things: cottage cheese, eggs, and a bit of salt. You can accent from there with abandon. I tend to spice my batter with whatever spice blend I’m fixated on at the time, but herbs, peppers, and pastes are also favorites.

• Cottage Cheese:  For this recipe I always use low-fat cottage cheese. Typically 1.5%-2% I’ve found that different brands of cottage cheese impact the thickness of the batter, sometimes it is more runny than other times. If you feel like your batter is regularly too runny, use 2 eggs instead of 3. If you feel like your batter is too thick use 3 eggs in place of 2. I find two eggs usually gives me a nice consistency that is easy to pour and work with on the pan.
• Eggs: Good quality, large.
• Accents: Some favorites include chopped chives (pictured), chopped serrano chile, a couple pieces of turmeric plus freshly ground black pepper, madras curry powder, toasted onion powder.

Cottage Cheese Wrap: Variations

The variations here are endless. A few ideas to flavor the wrap component:

• Furikake: add a couple teaspoons of citrus furikake to the wrap mixture prior to baking.
• Turmeric & Black Pepper: add 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric and a few cranks of freshly ground black pepper to your batter.
• Double allium: Add some good onion powder along with a bunch of chopped chives to your batter.
• Za’atar: add a teaspoon or two of za’atar to the batter. This goes especially well if you use labneh as a spread filling.
• Olives: Finely chopped black olives work well here, just make sure to chop them extra fine, and stir them in after blending.

Cottage Cheese Wrap Filling Ideas:

My goal when I make these is: one wrap meal. I’m going for an all-in-one situation. Filling the wraps with something green is usually where I land.

• Kale Salad: I like to stem and chop a half bunch lacinato kale. Massage with 1-2 teaspoons of good-tasting vinegar, and 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil, and a bit of salt until it collapses, add some avocado, toasted seeds, cherry tomatoes, etc. and use for your wrap filling.
  
• Broccoli and Winter squash: Pictured below is a wrap smeared with chive-flecked labneh, and topped with simple oven-roasted broccoli, thin crescents of delicata squash, sliced green onions, and a smear of sriracha. Calabrian chili paste is a good alternate here on the spicy front. Also, a few toasted pumpkin seeds. To roast the vegetables, toss them in a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in the 350°F / 176°C oven until golden brown. You can do this at the same time you are baking the cottage cheese mixture. It’s the wrap also pictured in the lead photo.
  
  
• Labneh: Use a smear of labneh (homemade labneh is the best!) across the wrap before adding other fillings and rolling. You can see labneh used as a spread in the lead photos here.
• Chili crisp
• Roasted cherry tomatoes
• Pesto
• Pan-blistered artichoke hearts

More Cottage Cheese Recipes

• Cottage Cheese Muffins
• Cottage Cheese Pancakes
• Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Continue reading Cottage Cheese Wraps on 101 Cookbooks

How To Make Risotto

Taking our lead from what Marcella Hazan tells us in The Classic Italian Cookbook, “…in making risotto, the objective is to cause rice to absorb, a little at a time, enough hot broth until it swells and forms a creamy union of tender, yet firm grains.”

In broader terms, these are the basic steps. Once you get your timing and flow down, you can adapt the process to a wide range of seasonal risottos. But it’s worth nailing down the fundamentals first.

1. Start with great ingredients and equipment: Choose a high-quality risotto rice, and a wide, heavy-bottomed pan.
   
2. Build the base: Sauté finely chopped onion or shallot in oil or butter until soft.
   
   
3. Toast the rice: Add the rice and stir until well-coated and slightly translucent at the edges.
   
   
4. Add liquid gradually: Increase the heat and begin adding hot liquid (salted water or broth) a splash at a time. Allow each addition to absorb before adding more. Different rices absorb different amounts at different speeds, you’ll need to adjust accordingly. It’s about vibes at this stage.
   
   
5. Finish strong: Continue until rice is tender and creamy with a bit of a bite, then finish with olive oil and Parmesan, I like some chives as well (above). Your goal is a creamy, flowing risotto with tender distinct grains.
   

Best Rice For Risotto

I bought a box of Campanini Vialone Nano risotto rice a couple of years back, and it was a game changer. Risotto perfection, the kind you dream of. Before that, I made plenty of risotto-style dishes using pearled barley and farro, and endless batches with arborio and carnaroli rice. But the Vialone Nano was a record scratch for me. It snapped me right back to classic risotto territory – one of those “why mess with perfection?” moments. Now I make a classic risotto like this one about once a month.

That said, you can absolutely make great risotto with arborio, and carnaroli is excellent as well. But keep an eye out for other risotto rices – especially the Vialone Nano pictured above –  because one of them might end up being your a-ha rice.

Common risotto rices: (each absorbs liquid differently)

• Arborio – widely available, solid choice, short and pearly, creamy
• Carnaroli: holds shape well, larger longer grain than Arborio, a little more dense
• Vialone Nano: my favorite, incredible texture, highly absorbent, creamy dreamy, thirsty

Equipment for Risotto

If you love risotto, and if you’re serious about making it part of your cooking rhythm, finding the right pan is half the battle. When my dad died I took his dark green, shallow Le Creuset braiser, and it quickly became my favorite risotto pot. It’s deep enough, expansively wide, and heavy – a triple win.

• The pan: A good risotto pan should be wide rather than narrow, thick rather than thin, and deep – but not so deep it makes regular stirring awkward.
  
• Wooden spoon: Skip the floppy spatulas and silicone, this is a job for an old-school wooden spoon. The structure of a wooden spoon lets you scrape the bottom of the pan and free any rice that sticks as you cook.

Do You Have to Stir Risotto Constantly?

I know you want me to tell you that you don’t need to stir risotto continuously, but here’s why you should. If you’re making great risotto, you’re cooking it over a lively burner, with enough heat to keep things bubbling. This means the rice on the bottom of your wide pan is going to stick pretty quickly. A big part of stirring is scraping the bottom of the pan, freeing up any grains that are starting to catch. So yes, when I’m cooking risotto, I’m right there at the stove with a wooden spoon the entire time.

Risotto: Variations

• Meyer Lemon Risotto: Inspired by a version in the Via Carota cookbook, I love this winter citrus variation. Warm three basil leaves with the oil at the beginning of the recipe below – discard them before adding shallots/onion. Finish the risotto with the zest and juice of two Meyer lemons. To make it extra special, use a Y-shaped vegetable peeler to peel the lemons (no white pith please!), then use a sharp know to slice the peels razor thin. Making hand cut zest (versus microplane grater) is arguably worth the extra effort.
• Citrus Risotto: A mixed citrus risotto is also great. I like orange zest and juice combined with equal parts lemon zest/juice. Or some grapefruit juice.
• Spring Risotto: We enjoyed this the other day – classic risotto topped with fava beans, a spoon-fried egg and lots of snipped chives. Pictured below.
  
• Mushroom Risotto: Use mushroom broth in place of the salted water. Serve topped with a double batch of these baked mushrooms. A dollop of creme fraiche brings it all home.

What To Do With Leftover Risotto

• Baked Arancini: I like to make a baked version of arancini (typically fried). Form small balls, the size of a walnut shell using wet hands. Coat with beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs, bake at 375F until golden on the outsides.
• Risotto Cakes: Form cold risotto into firm patties about 3/4-inch thick using wet hands. Pan-fry in a generous amount of olive oil until deeply golden. If you’re worried about the rice patties being too delicate, mix in 1 egg for every two cups of leftover risotto. Shape, and pan fry in olive oil. Starting with cold risotto is key.

More Italian Recipes

• Bruschetta
• Fregola Sarda
• Gnocchi
• Pappardelle 
• Pesto
• Grissini
• Polenta

More Rice Recipes

For more ideas, explore my collection of rice recipes. Some faves include: 

• Green Rice
• Citrus Rice
• Kale Rice Bowl
• Sushi Bowl
• Vegetarian Paella
• Rice Salad
• Rice Pilaf

Continue reading Classic Risotto on 101 Cookbooks

Homemade Pesto: The Inspiration

My friend Francesca makes the trip from her small town near the pesto-epicenter of Genoa, Italy to San Francisco once or twice a year – this time (lucky for us) she brought her mom and two-year old son Mattia. Her mom makes a beautiful pesto (and perfectly light, potato gnocchi to go along with it) and offered to show me (and my friend Jen) how it is done. It was a complete game-changer. If you love pesto, you really have to try this. Her technique results in an incredibly special version.

How To Make Pesto

The method can be summed up simply:

• Chop your ingredients by hand, adding basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese and pine nuts in stages.
• Bring it together with a bit of olive oil.

Here’s why. Most of the pesto you encounter here in the U.S. is different for a few reasons. First off, much of it is made by machine, usually a food processor or hand blender. The cook will pulse the ingredients into a paste. This holds true even if it is homemade. Don’t get me wrong, it usually tastes good, but because the ingredients aren’t hand chopped you end up with a texture that is more like like a moist, uniform paste with little to no definition between ingredients. You also might see pesto made with a mortar and pestle. This pesto is something different.

During my lesson I quickly began to realize chopping all the ingredients by hand is key because this prevents the ingredients from becoming a completely homogenized emulsion or paste. When you dress a pasta with a pesto that has been hand chopped the minuscule flecks of basil will separate from the olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese in places. You get definition between ingredients, and bright flavors pop in a way they don’t when they’ve been blended into one.

Video: How to Make Pesto

Choosing The Best Basil for Making Pesto

Genovese pesto is famous in part because it is often made with young, small fresh basil leaves. For us non-Italians it is easy to find Genovese basil in stores and at farmer’s markets, particularly in the summer. That said, chances are it wasn’t picked young. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, simply by hand chopping all your ingredients, you will see a major shift in personality of your pesto.

Hand-Chopped vs Food Processor?

Per the above, this pesto celebrates hand-chopping. Correspondingly, if you’re serious about making good pesto using the hand-chop technique you’ll need a sharp (preferably large, single blade) mezzaluna, or a good knife. The sharpness of your blade absolutely matters because you don’t want to bruise or tear your basil. Whatever you use to chop, make sure it has a sharp blade or the basil will turn dark. Chopping the ingredients will take twenty minutes or so. Once you chop your ingredients, you’ll form them into a cake, pictured above. You add olive oil to this cake, and it’s magic. That said, not everyone has the time or patience to hand chop – let’s talk about it.

How to Make Pesto with a Blender or Food Processor

We don’t always have time to hand chop, I get it! If you want to make pesto using a blender or food processor here’s how. Pulse the garlic and pine nuts into a chunky paste. Use the quantities in the recipe below. Add the basil and pulse into a bright green paste. Pulse in the olive oil, adding more if you want a thinner texture. Stir in the grated cheese by hand and season with a bit of salt if needed. Some days, are going to be blender pesto days! 

How to Use Pesto

What do you eat pesto with? There are so many great ways to use pesto – some traditional, many not.

• On pizza: I love a thick slather as the base sauce on a good pizza (this page actually has an extended list of pizza topping ideas).
• Pasta: Good pasta paired with homemade pesto is a classic duo for a reason. Same goes for pesto and gnocchi. Start with simple homemade pasta, and branch out to other shapes over time – pici and cavatelli are favorites.
• On savory tarts: A slather of pesto on a tart shell before adding the rest of ingredients is a favorite pro-tip. I do it often on this quiche, and on tomato tarts.
• Bruschetta: If you have a slab of sourdough coming off the grill, a bit of pesto, some seasonal roasted veggies, and a dusting of cheese makes an easy meal. Something along the lines of these bruschetta.
• Instant flavor: And because pesto lends a bolt of flavor, I love to whisk a dollop into scrambled eggs, omelettes, mashed potatoes, and baked potatoes. It’s great swirled into grain bowls or spooned over roasted vegetables as well. 

Pesto FAQ

Generally speaking, store any pesto you might use in the next day or two, refrigerated, under a thin film of olive oil. You can also freeze it in snack-sized baggies. Thaw and toss with whatever gnocchi, ravioli, or other favorite pasta you like – and a good splash of pasta water!

• How Do I Keep Pesto from Turning Brown? There are a couple ways to keep your pesto bright green. Browning comes from oxidizing. One way to prevent this is to limit exposure to air. Because of this, I like to keep pesto in my narrowest jar with a thin layer of olive oil on top so that no pesto is exposed to air. The other option is to blanch your basil leaves briefly, and proceed with your pesto-making from there. I almost always opt for option one.
• Can Pesto Be Frozen? Yes! You can absolutely freeze pesto. Any pesto you won’t use within a couple days, transfer to freezer baggies. Freeze flat, and break off chunks of pesto to use whenever you need it. When you need larger quantities defrost the entire bag either in the refrigerator or on your countertop.
• How do I store basil? here are a number of great ways to keep basil fresh until you’re ready to use it. If you think you’ll use it within a day or two, keep the basil in a jar of water on your countertop. The way you’d keep a bouquet of flowers. If you think it will be a few days beyond that, treat the basil like you would salad greens. Give the basil a gentle wash, then wrap the leaves in a clean kitchen towel or paper towels, place this in a baggie, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Pesto Variations

Don’t limit yourself to basil pesto. You can absolutely experiment with a blend of other herbs as well. You can add anything from parsley to marjoram (a favorite!), mint to fresh oregano to your basil base. Or leave the basil out entirely! I like to add citrus zest on occasion, or switch up the type of nuts I use – toasted almonds and walnuts are favorites.

• Arugula pesto: swap out all the basil for arugula.
• Vegan pesto: use a hard vegan cheese in place of the Parmesan
• Herb pesto: here’s a five herb pesto I make on occasion. You can chop it by hand or use a food processor.
• Broccoli pesto: This broccoli quinoa recipe uses a broccoli pesto of sorts.

More Pasta Recipes

• Homemade Pasta
• Pappardelle
• Cavatelli
• Pici
• Beet Fettuccine
• Mushroom Lasagna
• Pasta with Crushed Creamy Walnut Sauce
• Stuffed Shells
• Last Minute Red Lasagna
• more pasta recipes

Favorite Pasta Sauces

• Creamy Walnut Sauce
• Five Minute Tomato Sauce
• Mushroom Ragù

Other Favorite Italian Recipes

• Gnocchi
• Bruschetta
• Fregola Sarda
• Pizza Dough

Continue reading Homemade Pesto on 101 Cookbooks

1. Crispy Chickpeas

   Crispy roasted chickpeas are one of my favorite ways to add crunch and a bit of protein to salads, bowls, and roasted vegetables. There are a few tricks to getting…
   

2. Turmeric Chickpeas

   Turmeric chickpeas, you can use them in all sorts of things! This includes your favorite hummus, salads, and other chickpea creations.
   

1. Asparagus Ribbon Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Hot Honey

   Shaving asparagus into ribbons turns it into something completely different — delicate, tender, and perfect for a big spring salad.
   

2. Chickpea Salad Sandwich

   The chickpea salad sandwich filling to make in bulk for easy lunches and snacks all week. A perfect vegetarian or vegan sandwich option.
   

3. Bar Tartine Cauliflower Salad (with Chickpeas)

   A beautiful cauliflower salad from the Bar Tartine cookbook – a crunchy, hearty mixture of cauliflower, seeds, chiles, radishes, chickpeas, and green onions slathered in an enveloping garlicky yogurt dressing.
   

4. Quinoa Salad (with Chickpeas)

   A favorite quinoa salad punctuated with crunchy cucumbers and toasted cashews. There’s creamy feta, wisps of arugula, flecks of red onion and herbs, and a special ginger-curry dressing. So delicious!
   

5. An Ideal Lunch Salad (with Chickpeas)

   There’s all sorts of good stuff in this salad – chickpeas, celery, black olives, pepitas, avocado, blanched broccoli. Full of crunch & substance.
   

6. Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Salad

   A beauty of a carrot salad – tricked out with chickpeas, chunks of dried pluots, sliced almonds, and a toasted cumin dressing. Thank you Diane Morgan.
   

1. Turmeric Chickpeas with Garlic Tahini

   A quick lunch. And a compelling reason to always keep turmeric chickpeas on hand!
   

2. Ultimate Veggie Burger (with Chickpeas)

   The ultimate veggie burger recipe made with a secret trick, garbanzo beans, cilantro, onions, lemon zest, eggs, and bread crumbs.
   

3. Lemony Chickpea Stir-fry

   A tasty, quick, and easy stir-fry recipe featuring golden crusted, pan-fried chickpeas, chopped kale, summer squash, tofu, and a bit of lemon zest.
   

4. A Really Good Chana Masala

   There are a lot of chana masala recipes out there that are perfectly good, but this is the chana masala you should make tonight – a Technicolor version of chana masala.
   

5. Green Falafel Bowl

   The star of this show is the golden-crusted, green spinach falafel. Lemon-flecked, made with chickpeas, you see them tucked into this rainbow assortment of hummus, pita, kale, cucumber, and carrots.
   

6. Instant Pot Chickpea Cauliflower Korma

   An Insta-friendly riff on the Chickpea Cauliflower Korma recipe in Jennifer Iserloh’s The Healing Slow Cooker – chickpeas, cauliflower, combined with a not-shy simmer sauce.
   

7. Rice Pilaf (with Chickpeas)

   An all-star, homemade rice pilaf focused on building flavor throughout the cooking process. This one is made with butter, basmati, toasted nuts, caramelized onions and fragrant spices. One pot.
   

8. Pan-fried Chickpea Salad

   A salad made by pan-frying chickpeas with leeks and a bit of garlic. The creamy dressing is made with plain yogurt and curry powder, and the salad is finished off with plenty of chopped cilantro and chopped red onion.
   

1. Chickpea & Rice Soup with Garlic Chile Oil

   A simple, chunky rice soup, studded with lots of chickpeas, flecked with kale, and drizzled with a vibrant garlic-chile oil. It has peanuts. It has a dusting of turmeric.
   

2. Spicy Chickpea and Bulgur Soup

   Inspired by a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe in Plenty More a seductive, red harissa broth fragrant with cumin, coriander, and caraway, and enough chickpeas and bulgur to make it work as a main course. An herb-whipped feta is the crowning dollop.
   

3. Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh)

   An amazing Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh) inspired by a version in Greg & Lucy Malouf’s beautiful book, Saraban. At its core, this is a celebratory chickpea, bean and noodle soup featuring thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, chiles, and black pepper. Loaded with spinach and herbs, you serve it topped with walnuts, caramelized onions, and a dollop of something creamy. It’s a stunner.
   

4. Roasted Tomato & Sourdough Soup (with Chickpeas)

   If you have both tomatoes and sourdough on hand, consider this. A spicy, saffron-smacked take on pappa al pomodoro, the bread-thickened Tuscan classic.
   

1. Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls

   A colorful pasta bowl bonanza featuring a glossy, smooth chickpea harissa sauce and loads of crunchy cucumbers, cashews and fried onions. The definition of a vibrant, exciting one-bowl meal!
   

2. Instant Pot Herbed Chickpea Plov

   If you love robust one-pot rice dishes, and you own an Instant Pot, this recipe is for you. It has rice, and chickpeas, fragrant spices, spinach, herbs, saffron, garlic, and olives.
   

3. Cherry Tomato Couscous (with Chickpeas)

   Cherry tomatoes, cucumber, chopped basil, and chickpeas tossed with couscous, olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon and lime juice. Finished with a bit of feta.
   

4. Chickpea Hot Pot

   A fast-cooking bulgur cooks in a light orange-juice accented broth. Plenty of chickpeas, tiny cauliflower pieces, onions, and greens add texture and substance to the hearty pot.
   

1. Golden Beet Hummus

   A lightened-up hummus – reining in the tahini and oil a bit. Billowy and smooth, it’s a boosted hummus for everyday, all-day w/ golden beets, turmeric, and chickpeas.
   

2. Melissa Clark’s Instant Pot Hummus (with Variations)

   Melissa Clark’s recipe results in a silky smooth hummus. Once you nail down the method, the variations you can do are endless.
   

3. Hummus en Fuego

   A beautiful, spicy hummus recipe made from pureed garbanzo beans, toasted walnuts, and spicy crushed red pepper oil finished with a few chopped olives and a bit of cilantro.
   

1. Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

   From The Miller’s Daughter cookbook, these chocolate-flecked cookies are made with chickpea flour, tahini, and brown sugar for a brilliant twist on peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. The texture is crisp at the edges and soft-centered with oozy puddles of chocolate throughout.
   

2. How to Make Simple Vegan Mayo

   A simple vegan mayo to use in all your favorite potato salads, macaroni salads, and coleslaw this summer. Made with the liquid from a can of chickpeas (aquafaba).
   

Chickpeas are a favorite beans to cook with, they’re super approachable, affordable, a bit nutty, and delicious. If you’re looking for more ideas, explore all my bean recipes.

Continue reading Chickpea Recipes on 101 Cookbooks

The Ingredients: Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts & Pecorino

A few thoughts on key ingredients.

• Farro: After years of experimenting, I always buy semi-pearled farro for this salad. The pearling process takes away some of the outer bran layer. You end up with a chewy, nutty grain that softens nicely while still holding its structure. Farro packaging uses a range of terminology, just look for semi-pearled or pearled. I often see this type of farro in Italian groceries, in bulk bins, or in the Italian section of markets (near pastas or pasta sauces). It takes about 10-15 minutes to cook.
• Olives: In my original headnote I noted “massive Sicilian Castelvetrano olives are my choice here, but any great-tasting green olives will do – Cerignola, Lucques, or Sevillano – preferably from an olive bar, not a can.” But I’ll be honest, I haven’t made this in years without Castelvetrano olives. They work perfectly with the farro and toasted walnuts and pair beautifully with sheep’s milk pecorino.
• Cheese: the finishing touch here is shaved pecorino cheese. I like to buy a mild textured (semi-stagionato) one that isn’t too young or aged too long – somewhere in the middle. It should be assertive enough to stand up to the other bold flavor in play, but not overly strong or salty. And use a good amount, I basically leave that up to you. As people dig into the serving bowl it breaks up into smaller flecks and clings to the walnuts and olives.
  
• Chopped dates or raisins: You need a sweet component in this salad, and I tend to reach for whatever I have in the kitchen. This time I went with chopped dates, but golden raisins also work well. You could play around with dried cherries, or even chopped dried apricots.

More Farro Recipes

• Farro Salad with Buttermilk Dressing
• Farro with Roasted Butternut Squash
• Simple Farro and Bean Soup
• all farro recipes

More Salad Recipes

• Grilled Wedge Salad
• Roasted Tomato Salad
• Raw Tuscan Kale Salad
• Summer Fruit Salad
• Egg Salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Coconut Corn Salad
• Apple Salad
• all salad recipes

Continue reading Farro Salad with Olives, Walnuts and Pecorino on 101 Cookbooks

Why I love Chocolate Chia Pudding

I love this sort of thing – a bowl of something that feels indulgent, but is actually quite nourishing. Chia seeds bring fiber and omega-3s, Greek yogurt delivers a nice amount of protein, and the cacao powder shows up with deep chocolate flavor without being overly sweet. It’s filling, make-ahead friendly, and easy to adapt.

It also works for vegans, just swap in a non-dairy yogurt and you’re all set. As a savory breakfast person, I usually like this as an afternoon snack, but it also works just as well as a dessert.

Tips for Great Chocolate Chia Pudding

There are a couple things I’ve found that help here, especially if you don’t love the tapioca-like texture of puddings made with chia seeds:

• Use a hand blender. Use a hand blender rather than a food processor. A food processor tends to chase the chia seeds around the bowl, while a hand blender smooths everything quickly and evenly. A high-speed blender works as well, but the hand blender is faster and easier to clean.
• Fully hydrate the chia seeds. Chia seeds need time to fully plump up. Mix the chia and yogurt together, preferably the night before, then add the rest of the ingredients and give everything a quick pass with the hand blender.
• Splurge on good cacao powder. I like to raw, natural cacao powder here. The chocolate flavor is deep, direct, and intense, and since it’s the main flavor note in the pudding it’s worth sourcing a good one.
• Play with sweetness. Feel free to adjust the amount of maple syrup. I usually land somewhere between 2-3 tablespoons. The recipe calls for 3, but you can dial it back or swap in another natural sweetener if you like.
• Don’t skimp on the crunch. Clusters of crunchy granola are what really make this bowl for me – they add needed contrast to the pudding vibes. If granola isn’t your thing, try toasted nuts, toasted coconut, toasted pumpkin seeds, or freeze-dried berries. This peanut butter granola is really good with here, or if you want to double down on the chocolate, try this low oil and naturally sweetened granola.

More Chia Recipes

• Chia Breakfast Bowl
• Chia Pudding (with mango)
• Watermelon Raspberry Breakfast Bowl
• Glowy Beauty Bowl
• all Chia Seed Recipes

Continue reading Chocolate Chia Pudding on 101 Cookbooks

Easter Brunch Ideas

I limited this recipe list to long-time favorites. Real go-to options, the brunch all-stars. Be sure to browse the list of menu ideas down below if you need inspiration on that front!

Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole: A top contender for Easter brunch. Breakfast casseroles are a thing for good reason. You can prep them the day before. They’re great for serving a crowd, and they’re endlessly adaptable. This is my take on the popular Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole. It’s a deep-dish merging of grated cheese, bagels, eggs, plant-based sausage along with the crunch and savoriness of everything bagel seasoning. The bagels that break through the top get beautifully crunchy and kissed with oven-toasted cheese. Give it a try!
Fregola Sarda: It’s a favorite recipe from Near & Far. The perfect lunchy, brunch dish, and it’s made with fregola. Fregola is a beautiful, tasty Sardinian pasta made from hard durum wheat flour – rolled, sun-dried, and toasted to a mix of shades of yellow, gold, and brown. The pasta is rustic and nutty, each grain with a raggy surface adept at catching flavor. So good!

Deep Dish Quiche: The deep dish quiche of your dreams. It’s made with a flaky all-butter crust. The filling is silky smooth and creamy, while still being perfectly sliceable. Switch up the add-ins based on the seasons – roasted cherry tomatoes in summer, winter squash later in the year.


A Tasty Frittata: I love a good frittata as part of a brunch spread. You can pre-bake them a bit ahead of time which opens up the oven for other dishes if needed. This is a tasty, super adaptable frittata recipe made with potatoes, onions, and eggs drizzled with a cilantro chile sauce. Don’t skimp on the sauce!

The Best Waffles: You’re looking at the waffles I make for (literally) every family brunch, and they’re perfect for an Easter brunch gathering. You can set up a toppings bar, and let people make their own, or pre-make them and hold in a warm oven. If you’re a waffle fan, please give these a try. Everyone needs a solid waffle recipe in their back pocket, and I’m quite sure these are the end of the waffle conversation for me. Enjoy!

Red Fruit Salad: Red fruit salad, and arguably so much better than old-school fruit salad! It’s perfect as spring rounds the bend into summer. A simple, seasonal fruit salad made with plump strawberries, sweet cherries, lemon zest, and coriander brown sugar. Five ingredients. So good. If cherries aren’t quite in season where you are, go with 100% strawberries.

Classic Pancakes: If you’re more of a pancake family, this is a classic pancake recipe that delivers a beautiful, classic stack with impossibly tender crumb and golden edges. It has been a favorite go-to since I first posted it in 2006. The pancakes have lightness and lift, and good color. The recipe is also endlessly adaptable based on what you have on hand.

Sheet Pan Frittata: If you like to serve family style, a sheet pan frittata is another great option. You don’t need much to make a great one. This one starts with a dusting of lemon zest (key!) across a sheet pan, and uses a simple egg, cream, salt and pepper base.

Tofu Scramble: This tofu scramble is fast, savory, and flavorful egg-free brunch option. Made with spinach, curry powder, nutritional yeast, garlic, and onions, this is the version we’ve been making for years! Also, super adaptable to whatever vegetables and seasonings you have on hand.

Skinny Omelettes: Setting up an omelette “station” with a range of toppings works great if you have a casual brunch situation. People can make and customize omelettes to their liking with fillings like caramelized onions, pesto, herbs, choice of cheeses, etc. These omelettes are made with eggs cooked crepe-thin and stuffed. A delicious and lighter alternative to heavy, cheese-stuffed omelette recipes – great for lunch and brunch.

Easter Brunch Ideas: Breads & Cakes

Braided Onion Bread: Every Easter brunch spread welcomes a statement piece. This is one of my favorites. Made with a rich, buttery, yeast-based dough, each of the four strands in the braid is stuffed with a caramelized onion and grated cheese mixture. If you’ve never baked a braided loaf before, I’ll admit that stuffing the strands adds a layer of complexity, but the whole process is incredibly forgiving if you commit and keep going. Give it a try!

Glazed Lemon Cake: A sunny, bright addition to any Easter spread. This lemon cake is moist, fragrant and topped with a salted lemon glaze. It is made with lots of lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You don’t need a mixer, the olive oil based batter comes together quickly, and you’re not much longer than an hour from having a beautiful cake to share.

Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread: This oatmeal bread wins the award for best toast. It’s a hearty oat-flecked loaf with a buttermilk base studded generously with melty cubes of cheddar cheese and punctuated with thin slices of jalapeño pepper. Where the cheese touches the pan it turns to golden-crispy perfection.

Cinnamon Rolls: If making these cinnamon rolls for Easter brunch, I’m going to make a suggestion. Swap out the cinnamon for citrus. Like, use the zest of a lemon or two in the filling and a tablespoon or so of lemon juice in the icing along with the heavy cream called for as the liquids in the icing.

What To Make with Extra Eggs

If you find yourself with extra cartons of eggs after Easter, here are some ideas.

Deviled Eggs: I love these so much – beautiful and delicious deviled eggs made with an herb-flecked filling and topped with toasted almonds.

Egg Salad: My go-to egg salad, and what I turn to when craving an egg salad sandwich. This post talks you through all the little tweaks and tips that go into making the perfect egg salad sandwich. Served on garlic-rubbed toasted bread with chopped celery, onion, and whole-grain mustard.

Shredded Egg Salad: A fun alternative to classic egg salad (above). This one is made by shredding hard boiled eggs on a box grater. The resulting shredded egg salad is light, fluffy, and bright. Pictured here on avocado toast with scallions, pickled red onions, a pinch of curry powder and sesame seeds.

Easter Brunch Menu Ideas

Here are a few sample menus to start with. When I say toppings bar, I just mean putting out a range of different topping options. It’s a great way to let everyone make omelettes or waffles exactly the way they like it.

Menu #1

• Everything Bagel Breakfast Casserole
• Strawberry Salad
• Ginger Grapefruit Juice

Menu #2

• Cheddar Jalapeño Oatmeal Bread
• A Tasty Frittata or Skinny Omelettes with Toppings Bar
• Iced Green Tea
  
• Glazed Lemon Cake

Menu #3

• Breakfast Bruschetta + Toppings Bar
• Herb Cream Cheese Scrambled Eggs
• Pineapple Coconut Water

Menu #4

• Waffles with Toppings Bar
• A Tasty Frittata
• Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk

Easter Brunch Drink Ideas

Freshly squeezed juices, or homemade drinks are an easy way to make a brunch menu feel extra special. Here are a few favorites from past brunches.
Pineapple Coconut Water: A beautiful shade of Easter yellow, this beauty is always first to go at any brunch spread. Freshly juiced pineapple is at the heart of this quencher – made with coconut water, lime, and straight ginger juice. It’s invigorating, fragrant, hydrating, and that pure, intense shade of yellow that somehow tips us off to its strength and vitality before ever picking up the glass.

Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Iced Green Tea: As good as it sounds. Ripe strawberries plus fresh almond milk were made for each other. And yes, you can use frozen berries!

Ginger-kissed Grapefruit Juice: This grapefruit juice will jolt you to attention. It’s just the thing if you’re looking for something bright, invigorating, spicy, and full volume citrus. Steep grated ginger in a bit of sugared water, and then strain it into a lime & grapefruit juice blend.

Continue reading Easter Brunch Ideas on 101 Cookbooks

White Bean Soup: Canned vs. Dried?

Let’s talk about how I like to pull this soup together, starting with the beans. Many white bean soup recipes call for canned beans but I always cook this soup using dried beans for a couple of reasons. First, they maintain shape and structure well, instead of going to mush in the pot during the simmer. Second, cooking beans from dried gives you both plump flavorful beans and the rich broth that comes along with them. That broth is the stealth secret ingredient here – when you change it to something different (water, a different broth, etc.) it changes the foundation of the soup.

What To Serve With White Bean Soup

There are a lot of ways to make this soup even more of a meal. Here are a few ideas:

• Put an egg on it: More times than not I top this soup with a spoon-fried egg (pictured), or a poached egg. You get the added protein and extra staying power.
• Side Salad: Soup and salad is a classic combination for a reason. I love this cilantro salad alongside this soup, or something like this easy kale salad. Or, just poke around the salad recipes to find other ideas.
• Artichokes: If you see baby artichokes when you’re shopping for the fennel called for in this recipe, grab them and cook them in olive oil until they’re nice and brown and caramelized. I wrote this post about how to cook artichokes if you need a bit more instruction. Make a big platter full!
• Good Bread: thick slabs, well toasted, preferably rubbed with a peeled clove of garlic.

Variations:

I love the combination of caramelized fennel, saffron, and a squeeze of citrus in this soup, but you can certainly take it in other directions. For example, in place of the saffron, you could try a favorite curry powder. Just keep in mind that part of what makes this soup special is the subtle way the flavors meld together – they form a somewhat subtle, harmonious chorus. Stronger spices will bring something different entirely. Still good, but different.

Can I Freeze This Soup?

Yes! This soup freezes like a dream. Allow it to cool completely. Transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag, and freeze in portions. To reheat, I usually let the soup thaw a bit. Put a small amount of water in the bottom of a soup pan, transfer the block of frozen soup to the pan, cover, and heat over medium for a while. Stir now and then.

More Bean Soup Recipes

• Farro & Bean Soup
• Ribollita
• Dried Fava Bean Soup with Mint and Chiles
• White Bean Soup with Pesto Herb Dumplings
• Chipotle Cinnamon Slow-Cooked Coconut Beans 
• Persian New Year Noodle Soup (Ash Reshteh) 

More Soup Recipes

• Rustic Cabbage Soup
• Tortellini Soup
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Lively Up Lentil Soup
• Split Pea Soup
• Miso Soup
• all soup recipes

Continue reading White Bean Soup with Garlic and Olive Oil on 101 Cookbooks

This asparagus ribbon salad is all about contrasts. You have silky ribbons of asparagus piled with crispy chickpeas, toasted almonds and coconut, and snappy bites of apple. A vibrant lemon olive oil dressing pulls everything together, and a drizzle of hot honey softens the lemony edge. It’s a bit of a springtime weirdo, but in a really good way.

If you’ve never shaved asparagus into ribbons, I encourage you to give it a try. The resulting tangles of asparagus are delicate, tender, and wonderful. They absorb dressing nicely, and welcome all sorts of crunchy, contrast  ingredients you might have around – nuts, seeds, fried shallots, etc. That’s (basically) how we ended up with today’s recipe.

How To Make Asparagus Ribbons

Shaving raw asparagus into delicate ribbons is my favorite way to enjoy uncooked asparagus. The ribbons are delicate, becoming instantly tender when tossed with a simple lemon oil.  The key here is using a Y-shaped vegetable peeler. Beyond that, a few tips:

• Buy medium-thick asparagus, thin asparagus is hard to peel into ribbons.
• Wash asparagus and snap off the thick woody ends.
  
• Start peeling your ribbons just below the tip of the asparagus. Rotate if needed to get as many ribbons as possible per spear. I usually have a bit left, the part that is too hard to get to with the peeler. Slice that piece (and the tip) into thin strips. Pictured below.
  

Place the crunchy toppings on your salad at the last minute so they retain their crispness. Enjoy! -h

More Asparagus Recipes

• Simple Asparagus Soup
• Avocado Asparagus Tartine
• Asparagus Panzanella
• Asparagus Stir-Fry
• All asparagus recipes

More Chickpea Recipes

• Turmeric Chickpeas
• Chickpea Salad Sandwich
• Chickpea & Rice Soup with Garlic Chile Oil
• Turmeric Chickpeas with Garlic Tahini
• all chickpea recipes

Continue reading Asparagus Ribbon Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Hot Honey on 101 Cookbooks

Crispy Chickpeas: Pro Tips

Sad, chewy chickpeas are not what you’re after here. And there are a number of things you can do to get golden, super-crisp chickpeas.

• Dry well: Get your chickpeas extra dry before baking, and you’ve won half the battle. – Hot oven: Crank that oven up, get it screaming hot.
  
• Hot pan: Preheat your baking sheet. Chickpeas coated in oil hitting a hot pan is the pairing you’re after, and the hot pan gets things crisping more quickly.
• Don’t overcrowd: If you cram your chickpeas onto a small pan they’ll steam. The opposite of what you want for crispiness.

Ways To Use Crispy Chickpeas

• In salads: Swap in some crispy chickpeas for the regular chickpeas in this quinoa salad, toss some into this favorite coleslaw, or add some to this wedge salad. If none of those strike the right note, browse the salad recipes – lots of salads there that would welcome some crispy chickpeas. Use them in place of croutons.
• Lunch on the go: I love including crispy chickpeas in bento-style, feel-good lunches.

More Chickpea Recipes

• Spicy Chickpea Pasta Bowls
• Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chickpea Salad
• Turmeric Chickpeas
• all chickpea recipes 
• all bean recipes

Other Salad Toppers

• Candied Walnuts
• Turmeric Cashews
• Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
• Salad Booster 

Continue reading Crispy Chickpeas on 101 Cookbooks

Strawberry Scones: The Ingredients

A few words about the ingredients I use here and why.

• Flours: Most scone recipes use all-purpose flour exclusively. But I find that adding a percentage of whole wheat flour can really anchor a scone and bring flavor dimension. Don’t worry, you won’t run into any dreaded whole-wheat dryness with these. The whole wheat flour really lends rustic farmhouse vibes in the best way possible with a tender crumb. Now when I go back to tasting more conventional scones, they end up tasting too one-dimensional to me.
• Sugar: I’ve baked these scones with a rotating cast of sugars over the years. Different amounts, different types. I feel like this recipe needs the sharp edge of white sugar to balance the other ingredients in these scones – for example, the tangy buttermilk or sour cream. Just sweet enough is what I was after here, and for whatever reason the brown sugar tend to get lost. And a blend didn’t do the job either.
  
• Other: I use quite a bit less baking powder and baking soda than other scone recipes. You don’t really need more than the amount in this recipe, and the buttermilk neutralizes any residual off flavor from the leavening agents.

Variations:

The recipe below is for classic strawberry scones with a bit of zest. Aside from the zest, they’re straight-forward, direct, a good scone foundation. That said, I often switch them up with one or two of the following:

• citrus: zest of one lemon  or lime (mix into wet ingredients)
• rosemary: I love the combination of strawberry and rosemary. Finely chop 2 five-inch sprigs of rosemary – 1 1/2 teaspoons or so. (Add to dry ingredients)
• black pepper: black pepper and strawberry are a classic combination. Add scant 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to dry ingredients. Adjust with more in future batches if you love it.
• poppy seeds: add 1/3 cup to dry ingredients.
• toasted almonds: be sure they’ve cooled completely. (Add to dry ingredients)
• crystalized ginger: adds jolts of chewy ginger sugar. Chop it small and add it along with the wet ingredients.
• icing: lot of people like an iced drizzle over their scones. If you would rather have a drizzle top, here’s the plan. Use lemon zest in place of the orange zest called for in the recipe. Skip the sugar sprinkle, but do the egg wash. Allow scones to cool completely after baking, and use the salted lemon glaze from this glazed lemon cake recipe. Or do half and half so you can enjoy the sugar-topped scones warm.

Making Strawberry Scones By Hand

The recipe below assumes you have an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, but making them by hand is also possible and will save you some dishes! To make these scones by hand, watch the above video and reference these instructions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients well and then turn out into a pile on your counter top. Sprinkle the cold butter across the flour mixture and use your hands to rub the butter into the flour until it is evenly distributed throughout. You can use a dough scraper (or pastry cutter) to chop through the pile a bit and break up any butter lumps. You want the mixture to be sandy, with tiny pebbles.
2. Shape: Wrangle the flour mixture back into a pile with a dough scraper and make a well in the middle (the way you do when making homemade pasta). Pour the wet ingredients into the well and use your dough scraper to fold and mix the flour into the wet ingredients. Keep going until there is no dry flour left and a dough has started to form. At this point sprinkle the berries across the top, and fold them into the mixture as well.
   
3. Gather the dough into a ball and proceed with the recipe as written – slicing the dough into wedges and so forth.

More Scone Recipes

• Blackberry Ricotta Scones
• all baking recipes

More Scone Recipes

• Blackberry Ricotta Scones
• Rangpur Lime Scones
• all baking recipes

More Strawberry Recipes

• Roasted Strawberries
• Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble
• Homemade Strawberry Almond Milk
• Red Fruit Salad
• Berry Swirl Ice Cream
• all strawberry recipes

Continue reading Strawberry Scones on 101 Cookbooks

Quite honestly I’m not sure what to call these. Toscano Brothers calls theirs Piattina and in parentheses (Italian Flats). They have a lot in common with certain piadina (thin Italian flatbread), but there are notable departures with this version. Traditional piadina are cooked in a skillet (or round clay comal-like pan). These are baked. Most piadina retain their softness and foldability. These, in contrast, have a range of textures – the thick parts retain some softness while the thin parts are baked long enough to snap and shatter.

I love them. They’re large and dramatic, rustic and imperfectly perfect. You can see (below) where I served the Toscano Brothers piattina with smoked labneh.  A few weeks back, instead of driving across the city, I started baking my own version. I make my favorite pizza dough late in the afternoon, let it rest overnight in the refrigerator, then roll out and bake the piadina the next day when convenient. So simple, so good!

Crispy Piadina: Variations

As you can imagine, the opportunity for variations here is immense. I did a version with 2 teaspoons of herbes de Provence, and that was really good. I think these are going to be a staple around here, so there are ideas for a lot of variations to try swimming around in my head.  I also noticed a big cracker / flatbread recipe in Mariana Velasquez’s beautiful new book Revel (bought it yesterday) – she calls them Long Seedy Crackers. Her take uses an egg wash across the dough before sprinkling with seeds which I’m sure gives nice sheen and color. Her dough is also interesting in that it is a blend of all-purpose flour and brown rice flour, no leavener, and a good amount of olive oil. Excited to try it! I’ll update here with variations over time. In the meantime, enjoy!

A Little Too Thin, A Little Too Hot

I wanted to show one of the pitfalls you can run into with these. The first few rounds I made I ran the oven hotter, pulled each piadina thinner, and made them extra large. See below. Sometimes I’d add a few decorative slashes as well.

The thin portions were getting too dark too fast, and the edges stayed too light. This round pictured below was baked at 450°F, and the dough ball was about 170g spread across a large baking sheet. See how dark it got? I started having much more reliable results dialing the oven back to 400°F, and working with slightly smaller dough balls – 125g.


With that approach (pictured below), I got more even coloring, and it was an easier, less intense bake overall. You can also, certainly, cook these in a large skillet.

Have fun with these and let me know if you give them a try!

More Crackers and Flatbread Recipes

• Pizza Dough
• Grilled Pizza
• Grissini
• Oatmeal Crackers
• Buckwheat Cheese Straws
• Homemade Cheese Crackers
• Olive Oil Crackers

More Italian Recipes

• Gnocchi
• Bruschetta
• Fregola Sarda
• Pesto
• Pici
• Polenta
• Homemade Pasta

Continue reading Crispy Piadina on 101 Cookbooks

Lunch Ideas #1 

These lunch boxes (above) came together pretty quickly. Nearly everything was a leftover, or component of a previous meal. To pull it together I peeled and chile-dusted the hard boiled eggs, sliced the avocado and sliced the mandarin.

1. Spicy Sesame Coleslaw: You’ve seen it before, you’ll see it again. Lol. It’s my favorite coleslaw, and I’ll basically tuck in anywhere. Feathery green and red cabbages along with carrots, apples, and scallions tossed with a spicy, creamy sesame dressing.

2. Pickled Cauliflower: The pop of color you need in your lunch. This quick pickled cauliflower delivers a good amount of tang and crunch in the midst of less structured components. I make mine with chiles, mustard seeds and slivered onion, but you can play around.

3. Chile-dusted Hard-boiled Egg: Here’s how to make these. Combine equal parts chile powder and MDH chana masala powder in a small bowl. I like to use this Kashmiri chillie powder, but use what you have (and like). Hard boil eggs, peel them, rinse, dab each egg a bit on a clean towel to take off excess water, then roll them around in the spice mixture until completely covered. Slice and serve, or pack into lunch.

4. Turmeric-Scallion Tofu Spread: This is actually leftover wonton filling from my last round of wonton soup. But it’s also great as a lettuce wrap filling, cracker and sandwich spread, and on its own. Here, I nestle it into a stack of 2-3 little gem leaves. Get the recipe – it’s the first part of the recipe on this page, minus the wrappers.

5. Red-spiced Edamame: I’ll write this up as its own recipe soon, it’s a homemade spice blend made by crushing Kashmiri chillies, smoked paprika, brown sugar, sesame, dried onion flakes, salt, and a kiss of cardamom together. Sprinkle generously. There are a lot of other spice blend ideas in the Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest PDF that members get. Just about any of those are great here. Experiment!

6. Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka: I’ve definitely over-stripped my young curry tree making this lately. Toast a cup of pepitas and set aside. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir in 50-ish fresh curry leaves. Continue to stir and when the leaves begin to crisp up add 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds. Keep stirring and when the seeds have toasted a bit and stopped popping, add 1/2 teaspoon chile powder. Pour this over your pepitas, toss well, and salt to taste. good on everything, Including the soba in the next lunch.

Also: purple rice, sliced avocado, mandarin wedge, nutritional yeast kale chips

Lunch Ideas #2 

The one component of the lunch boxes (above) that wasn’t made ahead of time, was the soba noodles. I boiled them, and ran them under cold water just before packing up. 

6+. Soba with Pepita & Curry Leaf Tadka:  The same pepitas as above (lunch ideas #1), this time tangled with cold soba.

7. Vegan Tamagoyaki: This is a vegan version of tamagoyaki, the much-loved Japanese rolled omelette. I like to make chickpea-tofu version, and this one is lined with nori and seasoned with scallions and herbs. They’re fantastic lunchbox heroes because you can make and roll them ahead of time. They’ll keep for a few day so you can slice and go.

8. Blistered Artichoke Hearts: Leftovers from dinner the previous night. I cooked these from frozen. So easy, so good. I wrote a long post about how to cook artichokes – both fresh and frozen. So, if you love artichokes, but think they’re too much work, read this. Same goes if you think the frozen ones are going to be bad. They aren’t and they’re great in scenarios like this one, quick pastas, casseroles, etc.

9. Fava Beans Tossed with Citrus Olive Oil: These are fava beans that have been shelled, boiled for a flash, shelled again, and then splashed with a bit of lemon olive oil, and tossed with a pinch of salt. From previous dinner. I do the same with edamame, but favas are in season and I they’re worth all the shelling and peeling drama.

10. Kale Chips: Some extra crushed kale chips tossed with the remaining pepitas. My method for epic kale chips is this: buy curly kale, make sure it’s dry if you recently washed it. Toss the kale with olive oil and scrunch it all up with your hands, be sure it’s all coated. Toss with a lot of nutritional yeast, get a good coating going. Season with salt and bake at until the chips at the edges start browning. Toss well. Continue to bake until crispy but still mostly green. Or have a look at this kale chip recipe.

Also: blood orange wedges for dessert.

A Couple Pro-tips

There’s actually just one main tip, but I’ll add more as I think of them. Line your bentos with parchment paper for easy clean-up (pictured below).  This isn’t as important with stainless steel containers, they clean up quite quickly. Bentos, often made of cedar, are a bit more fragile and take more care if you want them to last for many years. Also, clean up as soon as you get home. The reset is key to looking forward to your next special box lunch.

More Lunch Ideas: Salads!

Salads are another favorite lunch idea. For the best experience, keep the dressing on the side and toss just before eating. Also, pro-tip, leave a good amount of room or headspace in your salad vehicle, so tossing is contained and less messy. For to-go or desk salads, I love bringing the components for a Nicoise salad or Nicoise-ish salad. The lettuces and other ingredients can stand up to transportation and you get a great mix of protein, greens, and veggies all in one lunch. See photo below.

Favorite Lunchbox Containers

Bentos: I have (and love) my small collection of bento boxes. They’re beautifully crafted and fit the perfect amount of food. They often come with small dividers to create separation between food, but you can also use lettuce, or other small containers to divide things up. 

Tiffins (or dhabbas): These containers have long been used in India to enable healthful, homemade meals outside the home. I have a circular, triple-stack stainless steel version I love for a number of reasons including durability, compactness, and security. The tiers nestle tightly making spills and accidents unlikely. I have my eye on a rectangular version as well.

Both bentos and tiffins have a tradition of enabling meals made with care and love. And continuing this tradition is something I try to channel when I’m packing a lunch for myself or someone I care about.

I don’t mind mixing different types of lunch containers. And sometimes I’ll make an individual lunch for each person, each in its own container. But, other times I think it’s fine to load up a few family-style containers and do it that way. I think that works great for components that can be more communal, like edamame, or a bunch of dumplings, a stack of paratha, vegan sushi or quesadillas, quinoa patties, etc.

Hot Lunch!

Use a thermos to bring hot miso soup or tea or rasam or whatever else you can think of. This is always the icing on the cake and unfailingly makes me happy (or happier!) When I really have things lined up, I’ll bring green tea, miso soup, or soba tea and a durable glass or two wrapped in cloth. Simply rewrap when you’re finished.

I hope this provides a bit of inspiration! It’s really wonderful to take a bit of time to sit down to a thoughtfully prepared, healthful homemade lunch and I’m never sorry about making the extra effort (in the long run). Even if it can make a morning a bit more demanding than usual, I know when I do it, I’ll eat better, feel better, and get excited about sitting down to lunch. Enjoy! -h

More Lunch Ideas

• Vegetarian Lunch Ideas: One Sauce, Three Lunches
• 10 Lunch Ideas that Spark Joy
• Otsu
• Vegan Sushi
• Quinoa Patties
• Mushroom Hand Pies
• Black Sesame Otsu
• Macro Bowls

Continue reading Feel-good Lunch Ideas on 101 Cookbooks