From the category archives:

Main Dishes

Pin it From the archives for the quickly dwindling World Vegan Month, a brown rice and French lentil salad and a little TMI about some self-help thing I did for like three days. Why god why am I reposting this one? Story and recipe here.

Pin it From the archives for World Vegan Month, key tips for making good vegetable stock at home. (Hint: don’t forget the potato peelings.) Find the story here on Serious Eats.

The Best Vegetarian Gravy

by Carolyn on November 25, 2011

Pin it I am a gravy drinker. WOW, that feels good to get off my chest. On my hips, maybe — but off my chest. I should probably be a little bit sorry, but I’m not. Remember in elementary school, how some of the kids who went on to peak in high school used to [...]

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Pin it From the archives for both Thanksgiving and World Vegan Month (take that, uni-tasking!), hop on over to Serious Eats for a chat about stuffed squash. It makes vegetarians feel loved on Thanksgiving. Turkeys, too.

From the Archives: Mom’s Applesauce

by Carolyn on November 21, 2011

Pin it From the archives for World Vegan Month, my mom’s simply perfect recipe for applesauce. This will be on our Thanksgiving table this year. There’s still plenty of time to add it to yours! Find the recipe here.

Spiced Tomato Soup with Red Lentils

by Carolyn on November 20, 2011

Pin it In all the time I’ve been sharing little pieces of my world with you, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned how much I like to sing. How from sixth grade through college, I was always in at least two choirs at a time, and it was always my favorite part of the day. [...]

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Having been to Paris

by Carolyn on November 18, 2011

Pin it I’d love to pretend that I once had a meaningful relationship with Paris. Hemingway had one. Woody Allen had one. Carrie Bradshaw managed to have one, and she’s not even a real person. I think we’re all meant to feel hopelessly dull if we haven’t shone brightly in the City of Light. But [...]

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From the Archives: Alotta Falafel

by Carolyn on November 16, 2011

Pin it From the archives for World Vegan Month: Let’s face it. Without falafel, the world would suck. Get the recipe here.

From the Archives: Farro with Broccoli

by Carolyn on November 11, 2011

Pin it From the archives, farro with broccoli and shiitakes makes an outstanding vegetarian main dish on Thanksgiving. Just leave out the parmesan cheese, and it’s vegan (and still totally savory). Find the full post and recipe here, and don’t forget to check out all of the World Vegan Month posts. Happy Friday!

Black Bean Tacos

by Carolyn on November 9, 2011

Pin it There are two types of people in this world: those who lead with their best material, and those who save the best for last. Let’s not mince words — I kind of hate them both. But that’s totally not the point here. The point is that nobody, anywhere, ever, would bury their best [...]

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A Typical Family Dinner

by Carolyn on November 7, 2011

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what I feed my family for dinner on a mostly plants diet. So I took a picture of our dinner tonight. Look, there it is.

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From the Archives: Layla’s Lentil Soup

by Carolyn on November 6, 2011

Pin it From the archives, it’s another of Umami Girl’s most-popular posts that just happens to be vegan. My friend Layla’s humble lentil soup, made with red lentils and only a handful of other simple ingredients, pleases just about everybody and will quickly become a staple in your repertoire. It’s certainly a staple in mine. [...]

Pickled Red Onions

by Carolyn on November 3, 2011

There’s alchemy in the combination of onions and vinegar. These bright, gently perfumed pickled onions lend tremendous character to vegan meals and wildly carnivorous ones alike.

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In the crisper this week, two recipes for “green” smoothies made with fresh whole fruits and plenty of leafy greens. Trust me, they’re seriously delicious.

That’s Bloody Brilliant: Borough Market

by Carolyn on October 14, 2011

Umami Girl takes a touristy, expensive, and yet quite wonderful trip to London’s Borough Market.

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Pin it In the crisper this week, a homey mid-autumn meal that doesn’t like to be pinned down. Call it a salad or a warming main dish, as you wish. Recipe here on Serious Eats.

Ottolenghi. Need I say more?

by Carolyn on October 1, 2011

A short and glowing review of both Yotam Ottolenghi’s new vegetarian cookbook Plenty and his flagship London restaurant Ottolenghi in Islington, plus a few words and recommended sources on a mostly-plants diet.

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I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid.

by Carolyn on September 25, 2011

Pin it The bacon here in the U.K. makes me want to cry a little bit. Not a full-on heaving type of cry, but definitely at least a few stifled sobs. The traditional bacon choice here is back bacon, which is, in a nutshell, not bacon. It’s not very fatty, and it often isn’t smoked. [...]

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Big Girls, Small Supermarket

by Carolyn on August 30, 2011

Pin it Do me a favor and listen carefully. Have you ever been walking down the street behind a cute teenage girl, all long, wavy hair and skinny jeans, and then when she looks over her shoulder to cross the street and you catch a glimpse of her face, you’re suddenly aware that she’s not [...]

Pin it This week in the crisper, a pizza that was clearly devised in the mind of a Jersey girl but (and now I can vouch for this) tastes equally good no matter where you are. Recipe here on Serious Eats.

Lobster: A Love Story

by Carolyn on August 14, 2011

All the dirty details on how to select, cook, and eat every last bit of a whole lobster.

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My Perfect Pesto

by Carolyn on July 13, 2011

A simple basil pesto recipe that I’ve tweaked over the years to suit my taste (and, I hope, yours) just perfectly.

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Why we went

by Carolyn on July 7, 2011

Pin it Right. So it’s T minus 13 days until the movers come to pack up all of our hopes, dreams, and other non-electronic possessions to be shipped over the Atlantic to London. With any luck, they’ll arrive intact, and not too long after we do. With any luck. We were sitting down to dinner [...]

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Pin it My undying love for garlic scape pesto means that I rarely consider eating garlic scapes any other way. But I think I’ve finally come up with a worthy alternative — a ricotta tart perfumed with gently cooked garlic scapes and lemon thyme in a hearty yet delicate teff crust. This is the way to [...]

A Swedish Fetish

by Carolyn on June 14, 2011

Umami Girl indulges her Swedish fetish with a Smörgåstårta. Don’t you wish you knew what you’d read just there? Click on through to find out.

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Pin it This week the popular parenting site babble.com published a nifty little feature called 50 New Recipes from the Best 100 Food Blogs. My recipe for date-night roasted shrimp and asparagus — a special-feeling but ridiculously quick and easy dish, perfect with a glass of Pinot Grigio — is here on babble.com. Hope you’ll [...]

This week in the crisper, it’s all kinds of awesome sauce. Learn how to turn your bunches and bits of leftover herbs into a savory salad dressing or sauce for fish, meat, tacos, you name it. Recipe here on Serious Eats.

In the crisper this week, a healthy and delicious vegetarian brunch dish that won’t send your guests careening into diabetic coma. And don’t look now, but it even doubles as a light dinner. No job is too big or too small for Ratatouille in Buckwheat Crepes.

Pin it Back in the crisper this week: although the whole vernal equinox situation would suggest that spring has arrived, you don’t have to be Encyclopedia Brown to know that in many parts of the country, the reality of asparagus, fresh peas, and other springtime produce is still months away. That’s why we’re celebrating winter’s [...]

Canned Tomatoes on NPR

by Carolyn on January 22, 2011

Curious about the potential threats of BPA in tomato can liners? Want to know which kinds of tomatoes make the best Sunday sauce? Got five minutes? Tune in to Carolyn’s interview with All Things Considered’s Amy Eddings, and get the recipe for New Old-School Tomato Sauce, here on the WNYC Culture website. Let us know what you think! And if you have any follow-up questions, feel free to post them in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them.

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Alotta Falafel

by Carolyn on January 19, 2011

I used to think of falafel as one of those salacious street foods that you don’t bring home to your family. But making your own falafel at home is much easier and more satisfying than you might think. Click through for the full story and recipe.

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Layla’s Lentil Soup

by Carolyn on January 11, 2011

How do I say this? You are *going* to try Layla’s lentil soup, a humble, simple comfort food that elevates a mere…ahem…fistful of common ingredients into a healthy meal that’s sure to become a regular in your repertoire. You’re going to try it, or else I might have to fight you. So there.

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In the crisper this holiday week, possibly the closest you’ll come to a Christmas miracle. It’s a savory, satisfying vegetarian stew that comes together like visions of sugarplums and fuels a happy crowd. Find the recipe here on Serious Eats.

This week in the crisper, the classic pumpkin soup—without curry, without crispy pancetta, without dancing croutons—that got us all hooked on pumpkin soup in the first place but rarely makes an appearance anymore.

Pin it If you think pesto is just a summertime treat, think again. Winter vegetables make great pestos, and broccoli is just the beginning. Get the recipe for an easy broccoli-walnut pesto here on Serious Eats.

In the crisper this Thanksgiving week, let me begin by saying this: If you’re a squash, you’d better start sleeping with one eye open. Learn why stuffed squash makes an ideal vegetarian main for Thanksgiving or any day and an equally enticing side dish.

Vegetarian on Thanksgiving? Now hear this.

by Carolyn on November 10, 2010

Some days I get a little jealous of vegetarians, with their conscientious objector status and their shining cholesterol levels. Thanksgiving has never been one of those days. But at least with this umami-packed farro recipe on the Thanksgiving table as a vegetarian main dish, I won’t feel too sorry for them anymore.

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This week in the crisper, a basic, warming potato leek soup for the days in early November when the mere prospect of Thanksgiving dinner is enough to make you overstuffed, if not slightly drunk.

This week in the crisper, homemade vegetable stock. Whether you make it from whole vegetables or scraps you’ve saved in the freezer, vegetable stock is a quick, flavorful, vegetarian alternative to homemade poultry or meat stock.

Discard Solids

by Carolyn on July 12, 2010

A recipe for gift-worthy homemade chicken stock that really brings out the big guns, and a rhubarb syrup that comes with an incidental jam. These are just two of the wonderful pleasures that will enter your life when you learn to stop blindly following the recipe direction, “Discard solids.”

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The Way Gestalt Tastes

by Carolyn on June 11, 2010

100 perfect pairings

A perfect pairing of Shiraz and homemade pizza with sopressata, fresh mozzarella, Asiago, rosemary and basil, from the new book 100 Perfect Pairings by Jill Silverman Hough. Enter to win a copy of the book.

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spaghetti carbonada

As a small step toward sustainability, we’ve joined Meatless Mondays. It’s been around on and off since the first World War with a resurgence in recent years, and it works just the way it sounds. We eat meatless or meat-lite many days of the week anyway, so it’s been easy. Except for the part when I added the bacon fat to Monday’s dinner. Recipe for a carbonara-style pasta dish with spring vegetables.

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chiles resemblos (grilled chiles rellenos)

Where chiles rellenos are concerned, nothing beats the real thing. But if you’d rather spend a lovely spring evening on the patio, these chiles “resemblos” are a delicious, satisfying and somewhat leaner alternative.

Farfalle with Ramps, Spinach and Sopressata

Everyone’s been talking about ramps (sometimes called wild leeks) for the past handful of Springs. Now the ramps themselves have a chance to weigh in, and they present a recipe for pasta with ramps, spinach and sopressata, too.

It’s a crab-eat-crab world.

by Carolyn on April 15, 2010

soft shell crab salad

Cooking soft-shell crabs at home is really easy, promise. Sautée them and serve over a bed of greens dressed with spicy sauce.

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Possession with Intent to Distribute

by Carolyn on March 4, 2010

miso soup

Recipe for homemade miso soup and an unusual giveaway.

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House Special Roll

by Carolyn on February 23, 2010

spicy salmon avocado sushi

Recipe for homemade sushi made with fresh salmon, cucumber, avocado and an umami-rich spicy sauce. Making really good sushi at home is a lot easier than you’d think.

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Pasta Puttanesca. So To Speak.

by Carolyn on February 6, 2010

puttanesca

Easy recipe for pasta with puttanesca sauce, an umami-rich blend of tomatoes, anchovies, capers, olives, red pepper and parmesan.

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Chez Panisse Chickens

Simple recipe for roast chicken with garlic croutons served over salad, adapted from Alice Waters’ delightful children’s cookbook Fanny at Chez Panisse.

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vegan chili square

A healthy and delicious vegan chili made from lentils, pinto beans, bulgur and barley, and a hearty brown butter cornbread. These recipes feed a crowd and are great for a winter party buffet.

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stracciatella with spinach

In the Crisper on Serious Eats this week, Stracciatella alla Romana (Italian egg droup soup) with spinach. Lightning-fast, healthy recipe.

Cider-poached pork with fennel, carrot and apple slaw

Easy recipe for cider-poached pork tenderloin with fennel, carrot and apple slaw.

pomegranate

Wondering what to do with leftover Thanksgiving turkey? This week in the crisper, Umami Girl goes spa-like with a healthy and delicious turkey salad with pomegranate and pistachios.

Williams-Sonoma Spiced Cranberry Chutney

This week on Serious Eats, The Crisper Whisperer showcases a spiced cranberry chutney for your Holiday table adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Complete Entertaining Cookbook.

acorn squash lasagna

Easy vegetarian recipe for lasagna with acorn or other winter squash and a velvety béchamel sauce.

Fish in parchment, fish in pink

by Carolyn on October 20, 2009

fish en papillote bc

Healthy, easy recipe for fish en papillote (fish cooked in parchment) adapted from Martha Stewart Living in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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gingered butternut soup

Recipe for a creamy, vegan gingered butternut squash soup from The Crisper Whisperer on Serious Eats.

pears

Easy, healthy recipe for homemade apple-pear sauce to use up your aging beauties.

farro-stuffed-acorn-squash

Easy, healthy recipe for roasted acorn squash filled with a sweet and savory farro stuffing.

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escarole and bean soup with pistachio pesto

A quick, healthy and easy Escarole and Bean Soup with Pistachio Pesto with a deep flavor that belies its simplicity.

Homemade applesauce, emphasis on the home.

by Carolyn on September 20, 2009

mom

Mom’s easy, wholesome recipe for homemade applesauce to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary.

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The Crisper Whisperer on Serious Eats: Tortilla Soup

by Carolyn on September 15, 2009

tortilla soup

In this week’s Crisper Whisperer, Quick Tortilla Soup with tomatillos to accommodate your crisper’s odds and ends.

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

by Carolyn on July 1, 2009

garlic scapes

Recipe for Garlic Scape Pesto, the highest and best use of this early summer delicacy.

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Fish fry! (Better late than never.)

by Carolyn on May 29, 2009

fried cod and oysters on salad

Recipe for fried wild cod and local oysters over spring salad, with lemony tartar sauce dressing.

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Spring vegetable pizza to grow on

by Carolyn on May 5, 2009

mushroom and asparagus pizza

Recipe for a homemade pizza with mushrooms and asparagus inspired by Primo restaurant in Rockland, Maine. But the pizza is the least of what Primo inspired.

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Recipe for lasagna with a velvety béchamel sauce and a deeply flavored filling of spinach and portobello mushrooms.

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Tortellini Retrograde

by Carolyn on February 3, 2009

A simple soup of tortellini in broth with spinach is the ultimate quick comfort food.

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Comfort and Virtue

by Carolyn on January 27, 2009

A pair of recipes for a comforting winter meal: classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese and Fennel and Orange Salad.

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Pizza 44

by Carolyn on January 20, 2009

An Inauguration Day pizza with all the wit and charisma of President Barack Obama. Well, okay, maybe not quite all.

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Dirt-cheap root soups that clean up nice

by Carolyn on January 13, 2009

celery root and apple

A duo of fecipes for healthful, elegant veggie soups: Celery Root Soup with Pancetta and Carrot Ginger Soup.

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Delicious reunions

by Carolyn on November 16, 2008

bluepotatoesandbutternuts

Remembering autumn with recipes for braised chicken with leeks, and roasted butternut squash and potatoes.

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Joy (and a little blog news)

by Carolyn on October 6, 2008

Memories of autumns past, and a recipe for a killer Winter Squash, Mushroom and Radicchio Lasagna with bechamel sauce.

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The best things since unsliced bread

by Carolyn on September 18, 2008

Quick, easy recipe for stir-fried chicken with long beans and shiitakes.

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Recipes for an umami-rich ratatouille and Pimenton Shrimp, adapted from Fine Cooking by our friend Chef Julie Hartigan.

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Quick, easy and healthy recipe for Disappearing Zucchini Orzo, adapted from the Camille Kingsolver recipe in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

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Thai Red Curry with Vegetables

by Carolyn on August 1, 2008

Recipe for Thai Red Curry with Vegetables—a kitchen-sink style recipe that accommodates the tired and worn from your crisper.

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For a recipe for Chiles Rellenos, look elsewhere. But if you want to feel great about yourself, read this.

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Linguine with beet Roquefort sauce

by Carolyn on July 11, 2008

The recipe for Linguine with Beet-Roquefort Sauce that made me finally learn to love beets.

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Zucchini love

by Carolyn on July 10, 2008

When life gives you a zucchini patch that spreads to the compost heap, make Zucchini and Saffron Vichyssoise—and play baseball.

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Chilled Tomato Soup

by Carolyn on July 6, 2008

A chilled soup of roasted tomatoes with garlic, onions and herbs makes quick work of tomatoes on the brink.

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Shabby Chic Kale, Potato and Sausage Soup

by Carolyn on June 27, 2008

A sweet riff on the Portuguese caldo verde, this hearty, healthy soup of kale, potatoes, white beans and chicken sausage comes together quickly and easily.

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Spoonful of suga’

by Carolyn on June 26, 2008

Recipe for a fresh and delicious garlic scape pesto.

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Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Bacon Risotto

by Carolyn on June 24, 2008

Recipe for Caramelized Onion, Spinach and Bacon Risotto.

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Green garlic

Links to resources about green garlic, and a recipe for Basil and Green Garlic Pesto.

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Father’s Day Menu

by Carolyn on June 16, 2008

Recipe for grilled skirt steak with Asian-style marinade.

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Girl meets grill

by Carolyn on June 16, 2008

A seasonal menu with recipes for Grilled Wild Alaskan Salmon, Fresh Tomato Salsa, peanutty Soba Noodle Salad and French-style Radishes.

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The Minimalist on Meat

by Carolyn on June 12, 2008

Link to Mark Bittman’s article on eating less meat, and why that strategy makes extra sense for CSA members.

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Sorrel Soup

by Carolyn on June 11, 2008

sorrel soup

This sorrel and potato soup is perfect as a first course or light lunch when the days start to warm up.

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It’s soft shell crab season!

by Carolyn on May 22, 2008

Recipe for pan-fried soft-shell crabs over mizuna, cucumber and avocado salad with Asian-style vinaigrette.

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