Vegetables

Barley makes a nutty, toothsome risotto-like dish when cooked with the right amount of liquid. For flavor and to make the grain into a satisfying meal, we use sautéed cremini mushrooms as a base, wilt in baby kale (or spinach or arugula) at the end, then top it all off with a pungent cheese. To make prep go a little quicker, look for sliced cremini mushrooms in the market.

Sturdy greens such as kale can be leathery and tough if not cooked long enough. But a gentle simmer gives kale time to become tender and sweet, and to meld with other ingredients. That’s why it tastes so good when we wilt an entire pound in a Portuguese-style soupy rice dish with chopped tomatoes.

We used curly kale for roasting because it retained some volume and featheriness, even when cooked. After tearing the leaves into large pieces and rinsing them, we spun the leaves in a salad spinner to remove most of the excess moisture that would otherwise need to be cooked off in the oven. Massaging oil and salt into the kale directly on the baking sheet evenly seasoned all the leaves and kick-started the wilting process before cooking. Roasting the kale in a hot oven cooked it relatively quickly and encouraged browning.

Ají amarillo, an orange-yellow chili with a fruity yet earthy flavor, is ubiquitous in Peruvian cuisine. The fresh chilies are difficult to find in the United States, but ají amarillo paste, sold in jars, is available at well-stocked markets and specialty stores. The paste is key to the deep, spicy flavor of this chowder. If you can’t find it, use 1 or 2 minced jalapeños instead (if you like, seed the jalapeños for milder heat). The soup is especially good made with fresh, in-season corn but frozen corn kernels can be substituted.

Piccata sauce — that buttery, briny combination of lemon, butter and capers, silky in texture and tart in flavor — is not just for chicken or swordfish. It’s also a zesty anchor for roasted vegetables. Here, cauliflower is roasted at high heat, which concentrates the flavor, adds nuttiness and encourages caramelization, before being doused with the sauce. Chickpeas make this a fuller vegetarian meal, but leave them out if you’d rather.

For a twist on standard fried rice, we don’t just scramble an egg or two into the mix. Instead, we “poach” a few in hollowed-out areas of the fried rice until the whites are just set and the yolks are deliciously runny. While the eggs cook, the rice forms a golden brown, nicely crisped bottom crust.

To elevate our tart to entrée status, we wanted a crust that was delicate, sturdy, and flavorful, with a filling to match. To increase the flavor of the crust and keep it tender, we swapped out part of the white flour for nutty whole wheat, and we used butter rather than shortening. To punch up its flaky texture and introduce more structure, we gave the crust a series of folds to create numerous interlocking layers. 

One splendid takeaway from Scott Simon's recent talk with the James Beard award-winning chef is a quickie recipe for a veggie side dish.

When you chop or chew collard greens, you get the powerful, helpful chemicals isothiocyanates and indole-3-carbinol. They help your liver produce enzymes that detoxify cancer-causing toxins in your body.

Tofu will adopt the flavor of other ingredients. When selecting tofu for this dish, select extra firm tofu, as it will hold up in cooking and provide a meatiness to the dish.

Summertime means bountiful gardens — but sometimes we have trouble keeping up with the bounty. Zucchini is the classic culprit. We’re here to help. We cook it into a creamy orzo pasta paired with plump shrimp, fresh mint, and briny feta cheese.