Vegetarian

When baked, feta gains an almost creamy texture, similar to goat cheese but with feta’s characteristic tang. In this easy vegetarian sheet-pan dinner, broccolini (or broccoli), grape tomatoes and lemon slices roast alongside the feta until the broccolini crisp, the tomatoes burst and the lemon rinds soften. (Remember, broccolini has a tender, delicious stalk so only the bottom ½-inch needs to be trimmed.) Serve this dish over a pile of orzo for a complete meal. If you like, cut the broccolini, feta and lemon into bite-size pieces and toss with the orzo.

This recipe for roasted brussels sprouts from Mark Bittman is our most popular version and is perfect as a Thanksgiving side dish. If you haven’t yet figured out a go-to recipe, this simple preparation is the answer. It results in sweet caramelized brussels sprouts that will make a believer out of anyone.

Grilling season is upon us, so fire up your grill and throw on some . . . potatoes?

Yes, you heard me right: grilled potatoes! Soft and creamy on the inside, crisp and toasty on the outside with just a touch of smoky char, grilled potatoes have become my family’s favorite way to eat America’s favorite vegetable. 

For our roasted sweet potato wedges, we needed to cut the wedges wide enough so that they’d maintain their shape once they were cooked. After a quick toss with olive oil, smoked paprika, brown sugar, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper and a visit to a hot 450-degree oven, the wedges were nicely browned on their exteriors and had soft, tender interiors.

We experimented with the familiar cast of characters used to develop vegan cheese-like sauces—cashews, nutritional yeast, and miso, along with various vegetables. Tasters were largely distracted by their vegetal flavors and pasty textures. The most neutral-tasting ingredient in the lot was potato, and we had a revelation when we broke a cardinal kitchen rule: We whirred boiled potatoes in the blender at high speed to release as much gummy, gluey starch as possible.

Steaming vegetables is a quick way to enjoy their inherent sweetness, and steaming eggs is the secret to perfect-as-possible jammy eggs. In this recipe, you don’t need a steamer basket for either. Cook the eggs in a covered skillet or pot of shallow boiling water, then layer winter squash, broccoli or cauliflower and dark leafy greens. The small amount of water will produce ample steam to cook the vegetables. Eat with plenty of sesame seeds for crunch and a yogurt sauce that is nutty from sesame oil and bright with lemon and ginger.

Like air-fryer French fries, air-fryer sweet potatoes achieve similar success, utilizing less oil and requiring less time than deep-fried versions. While sweet potato fries won’t crisp up as much as their potato counterparts, that’s part of the appeal, offering textural contrast of creamy centers and charred tips. Oomph from any of your favorite spices would work well here, along with the paprika.

Crispy tofu is attainable without frying. In this mostly hands-off recipe, firm tofu is dredged in cornstarch (one of our pantry’s most versatile staples) before being baked at high temperature. The tofu becomes golden, with an enviable crunch that stays crisp even when drizzled with teriyaki sauce. Traditional teriyaki sauce contains just four ingredients — soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar — but this one also has ginger and garlic, which add a bit more punch. In Japanese cuisine, teriyaki refers to any grilled, broiled or pan-fried food with a shiny glaze.

Here’s the thing about tabbouleh salad: Most of the ones I’ve had invert my preferred proportion of bulgur to parsley. What you usually get is a bowl of tabbouleh studded with bits of parsley. I like a salad that is mostly parsley, studded with grains of tabbouleh.

A hearty vegetarian dinner-in-a-bowl, farro is dressed in a lemony tahini sauce spiked with garlic, and topped with charred broccoli florets, thin slices of turnip or radish, and a soft-yolked egg. To streamline the cooking process here, the eggs are simmered in the same pot as the farro. But if you want to substitute leftover grains for the farro (brown or white rice, for example), cook the egg separately using the same timing. Or leave off the egg altogether for a vegan variation.