This Sausage Asparagus Pasta comes to the table in less than twenty minutes. That’s faster than ordering carryout. Take advantage of fresh asparagus at local farmer’s markets with this easy entree. Continue reading
Seafood Chowder satisfies when nights are a little chilly. Pack your chowder with lots of vegetables and you’ll need only a small amount of smoked salmon for flavor. Continue reading
This spring vegetable dish can be called either a frittata or a crustless quiche, for those of us too lazy to make crust or simply wanting the delicious innards of a quiche without the extra starch from a pastry shell.
The less done to fresh asparagus, the better. Brief blanching, quick roasting or a few hops in the saute pan will do. If you’re lucky enough to score some tender, first-of-the-season asparagus, no cooking at all is just fine. Shaved in a salad or finely diced, as in this Asparagus Salsa Verde, asparagus has a pleasantly grassy flavor and gentle crunch that is unlike any other vegetable. It needs a bright wake up from citrus or acid to come to life. This salsa combines fresh asparagus with lime juice and green as far as the eye can see—except for a few bits of red onion for flavor and contrast. Continue reading
What better way to welcome spring and say so long to winter than with a recipe featuring elements of both seasons? Hey, there, asparagus, nice to see you again! Butternut squash, it was a good run, and now it’s time to make way for greener crunchies. With my quest to add more veggies to my daily meal plan (see previous post for Socca Pizza), I am finding that if vegetables are roasted ahead, or stir-fried ahead, I”m much more likely to heat and serve alongside my main dish. Continue reading
When asparagus season rolls around, I simply cannot get enough. Plain is fine by me, either roasted or steamed. Sauces for dipping or drizzling, or vinaigrettes for tossing, are also welcome at the table.
You can craft a savory tart with any number of crusts. Bubbly yeasted pizza dough, flaky pastry crust and crispy semolina flatbread to name a few; or you can make a crustless tart and make lots of folks happy. One of the current trends is to go paleo with crusts made from cauliflower, with or without cheese.
Know why pasta dinners are so popular? Boil water, add pasta, open jar of sauce and that’s that. Wouldn’t it be great if you had easy-to-defrost homemade sauce in the freezer, like kale apricot pesto or herbed roasted tomatoes? Now add sun-dried tomato pesto to that list.
Two very important words : local, and asparagus. Placed together, an item that is at the top of your farmer’s market shopping list. You must enjoy local asparagus during its short run at the markets, because the taste, and the color, and the texture is superior to any asparagus purchased at your grocer’s. Unless, of course, your neighborhood grocer carries local.
We’ve come a long way from salad defined by iceberg lettuce, waxy rounds of cucumber, flabby wedges of pale unripe tomato and bottled thousand island dressing languishing in a faux-wood bowl. These days salad offerings are some of the most intriguing items on restaurant menus, chock full of seasonal vegetables and fruits, local greens and house made vinaigrettes crafted to enhance, not overpower.