Category Archives: Recipes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

14 Replies

“Eat your vegetables.”

Those words get such a bad rap.  I’d like you to let go, right now, of the nasal, nagging tone you associate with this phrase.  Imagine instead, if you will, the swelling of a great horn section, Rockettes high-kicking, and this ecstatic song:

“Eat your vegetables!”

Isn’t that better?  Hopefully it will be just as easy for you to part with any lukewarm thoughts you’ve ever had about Brussels Sprouts.  Because once you’ve roasted them, you’ll never want them any other way.  (Well, except maybe raw in this awesome salad.)  Roasting does this special thing to Brussels sprouts where the outer leaves get crisp and salty and the inside becomes sweet and nutty, and all it takes to reach Brussels sprout perfection is is one simple secret….

Continue reading →

Kale Salad with Miso-Roasted Winter Squash

19 Replies

After nearly a year of daily posts, usually dashed off in the moments before midnight, I took a day off yesterday.  It was for a good reason, one that many of you will remember or understand: after a few sleepless nights in a row, I fell asleep snuggling my one-year-old at 7 p.m.  A rare indulgence.  Delicious.

And so today I really should be giving you some menu suggestions for the week, which I skipped over yesterday, but I can’t focus on that right now (see below).  Because Allison told me to make this salad tonight, and it was so good that I have to tell you.  Right now.  Even though it’s hours past my new 7:00 bedtime. Continue reading →

Rustic Apple Pie with Walnut Streusel Topping

11 Replies

I always make at least one apple pie a year, on Thanksgiving, with the last of the apples from our trees that are tucked away in the fridge.  I always use this recipe.Today, Election Day here in the U.S., seemed to call for an extra apple pie.  There’s the Americana kitch of apple pie, of course, and there’s the fact that a pie is always welcome at a potluck.  But making a pie is also meditative, soothing, distracting.  By the time I arrived at our usual Election Day party with three little girls and a warm pie in my hands, I was calm and confident and I had stopped obsessively refreshing polling data on my phone.  This was our fourth Presidential election in a row with the same savvy, snarky, deeply caring group of friends, and I rather think that we all deserved an apple pie tonight.  So do you. Continue reading →

Savory Oatmeal with Black Pepper, Blue Cheese, and an Olive Oil Fried Egg

21 Replies

Today’s the day, people. Wake up and vote!

To fortify you, I bring you the second verse of my love song for savory oatmeal. It will have you jumping out of bed, eager for an excuse to begin your day. It’s quick, so you’ll have plenty of time to swing by your polling place on the way to work. It’s easy, so you can save your mental acuity for the important decisions of the day. And it’s clever, so it will remind you where you keep your stamps if you’re in a vote-by-mail state.* (*Not really.)

More important still, it’s a savory, creamy, hearty breakfast. And it’s halfway healthy, because it’s oatmeal. Talk about across-the-aisle collaboration.

Continue reading →

Pasta with Roasted Tomatoes, Roasted Broccoli, and White Beans

4 Replies

Have you entered this week’s cookbook giveaway yet?  You have until Monday night to enter!

I have a soft spot for those unreasonably large Greek “gigantes” beans.  They’re lima beans, maybe?  They’re fat and meaty and they make their presence known.  Here they nestle into a soft bed of pasta and roasted vegetables.  Small white beans could be fun too, though, especially if you use a shell pasta shape and let them get lost in the pasta swirls.  Either way, the beans and pasta are elevated one step beyond peasant food by the sweet, flavorful roasted vegetables.  Serve with a bracing, crisp, lemony salad for a nice flavor and texture contrast.

Continue reading →

Banana Bread with Bittersweet Chocolate, Whole Wheat, and Olive Oil

14 Replies

I’m not going to disappoint anyone by telling you that banana bread is really cake, right?  And this banana “bread” is no exception.  It has a couple of healthful flourishes, yes–whole wheat flour replaces some of the white flour, and olive oil and yogurt stand in for butter–but it remains a sweet, dense, chocolatey cake.

And to be honest, I like whole grains in sweet baked goods at least as much for their hearty flavor as for any health benefit they confer (I mean, we’re still talking about cake here).  These whole wheat chocolate chip cookies, this rye flour zucchini bread (also a cake, of course)—the whole grains add a layer of flavor and texture that leave more refined baked goods tasting rather insipid in comparison. Continue reading →

Kale Caesar Salad

25 Replies

Have you entered this week’s cookbook giveaway yet?  You have until Monday night to enter!

In some circles the kale salad is probably passe already, but let’s just agree not to be so hip that we can’t enjoy a good thing, ok?  I was briefly missing this summer’s Grilled Kale Salad with Ricotta and Plums, but it has already been replaced in my affections by this new winter favorite.  It’s from the Skillet Cookbook, a new release from my local hipster diner, the Skillet Diner.  I go to the diner just for this kale salad.  I bought the cookbook just for this kale salad.  I love this kale salad. Continue reading →

Creamy Roasted Celery Soup and Vegan Cookbook Giveaway

69 Replies

Welcome to Emmy Cooks!  You can see more of my favorite recent recipes by clicking the “My Favorite Recipes” category on the sidebar (here are July, August, and September).  If you like what you see here, you can sign up on the sidebar to receive a daily recipe by email, add the RSS feed to your blog reader, or follow Emmy Cooks on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Here for the Vegan Cookbook Giveaway?  Head on down the bottom of this post.Hello, friends!  Welcome to my table.  I’m happy to be joining the Virtual Vegan Potluck for the second time today, and I hope you’ll join me in visiting many of the other participating blogs!  (If you’re making your way around the circle, click here to go forward to the tasty blog Cheerfully Vegan, or click here to go back to Cauldrons and Cupcakes, where I love living vicariously on Nicole’s Australian farm with the koalas, platypus, and wallabies–and there’s even a calf named after me!)

I’m serving soup today, and before you turn your nose up at a creamy celery soup, let me just talk to you about the roasted part of this roasted celery soup.  It’s transformative.  It’s sublime.  It makes me revel in all the things that one humble vegetable can be.  Celery is crisp and herbal when freshly sliced.  It’s aromatic and powerful when dried.  And when roasted, as it is here, celery becomes sweet and deeply flavorful, bringing an earthy umami element to this creamy soup.  Aren’t vegetables amazing? Continue reading →

Roasted Squash and Tahini Dip or Spread

18 Replies

We are far away from the hurricane that’s raging tonight, but our thoughts have been on the storm all day.   Our East Coast family and friends are drenched but well, and the storm gave us the gift of my sister- and brother-in-law stranded with us for an extra day after their flight home was cancelled.  I hope that you and yours have fared as well.  (I’ve been seeing the photos of flooding and fires and hospital evacuations, though, so on top of just hoping that everyone is well I also made a donation to the American Red Cross.)

I’m thankful to be warm and dry tonight, and to have my big family gathered around the table for dinner.  It’s getting to be the season for cozy holiday meals, and, as always, I aim to equip you with a bountiful table of vegetarian and vegan options. Continue reading →

Delicata Squash Rings

9 Replies

 

Like you, I will be roasting squash all winter long.  But every once in a while, I like to change it up a little…and cook my winter squash in a pan instead.  Delicata squash is perfect for this because it slices easily into rings, and the edible rind makes the dish both easy and attractive. Continue reading →