Vegetables

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 slice it raw into pearled couscous; it offers a slight crunch and cool contrast to a rich, warm tomato vinaigrette.

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 toss zucchini with mint and chives, top it with a dollop of ricotta and lemon zest, and finish with toasted pistachios and sesame seeds. 

You haven’t tasted chickpeas until you’ve tried them roasted. Trust us, the delicious crunch is absolutely worth the time they spend in a hot oven. In this recipe, they’re tossed with bubbly Israeli couscous, roasted veggies, and smoked paprika for a mishmash of savory Mediterranean flavors. You likely won’t have leftovers, but if you do, they’ll taste even better the next day. 

The combination of crisp broccoli, dried fruit, nuts, and creamy dressing is a picnic-salad staple, but the sweetened mayonnaise dressing tends to overwhelm the dynamic flavors and textures of the other components. We made a lush but light dressing by replacing the mayonnaise with avocado and olive oil, buzzing them in a food processor with garlic and lemon so that the flavor was clean, bright, and savory. We also added shallot and tarragon to the salad to balance out the sweet tang and rich toasty flavors of the dried fruit and nuts, respectively.

Espinacas con garbanzos is a hyper-regional dish native to Seville with strong Moorish influence that's substantive and full of flavor. Briefly simmering canned chickpeas (uniformly tender, well seasoned, and convenient) in a combination of chicken broth and chickpea canning liquid tenderized them and infused them with savory flavor. A picada (a paste of garlic and bread cooked in plenty of olive oil) thickened and seasoned the sauce. Smoked paprika and Moorish spices such as cumin, cinnamon, and saffron imbued the picada with heady aromas, and tomatoes and vinegar boosted its tang.

When traditional French fries are fried, water is rapidly driven out of the starch cells at the surface of the potato, leaving behind tiny cavities. It's these cavities that create a delicate, crispy crust. Since oven fries don't heat fast enough for air pockets to form, we instead coat the potatoes in a cornstarch slurry that crisps up like a deep-fried fry would.

For our roasted fennel, we began by cutting the bulbs into wedges, which had two benefits: It provided good surface area for browning, and the attached core kept the pieces intact. Covering the pieces with foil for most of the cooking time allowed them to steam and turn creamy; we then removed the foil for the last 10 minutes of roasting so that they could turn golden and deliciously caramelized. We also tossed the wedges with salted water before covering them, which provided moisture for steaming and helped get seasoning between their layers.

Broccoli Delight was born on a night when I came home from work very hungry and without a plan, and my near-empty fridge came through for me.

It's also a dish that my teenage son claims is the “best thing you make.” While this could be construed as an insult considering how many other things I’ve made for him, I’m pretty sure it’s meant as a compliment, and that what he’s getting at is that pan-roasted broccoli florets bound to one another by melted-crispy sheets of cheese never disappoints.

For creamy, tender roasted fingerlings, we tossed the potatoes with oil and arranged them in a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan, where they fit snugly in a single layer. Covering the pan with foil to start helped the potatoes steam instead of drying out in the hot oven. Removing the foil and letting the potatoes finish roasting uncovered allowed them to brown for more flavor. Shaking the pan halfway through roasting ensured that the browning was even.

Bathe seared cabbage in turmeric-accented coconut milk until it’s meltingly tender and sweet.