Vegetables
1337 recipes found
Asparagus and Tofu With Black Bean Sauce
While asparagus shines with light spring-like flavors, it also carries bigger and bolder seasonings extremely well. Here, tender asparagus is quickly seared to unlock its juiciness and then tossed with a salty, spicy and funky Chinese black bean sauce. Known as dou si (Cantonese) or dou chi (Mandarin), fermented black soy beans are made by inoculating cooked black soy beans with a mold similar to koji (which is used to make miso paste), followed by salting and drying them. While they look like wrinkled and shriveled watermelon seeds, they are intensely savory, with multidimensional umami that also hints at sweetness and bitterness. While store-bought black bean sauce is an easy convenience, making your own at home using fermented black beans allows more control over salt and spice levels (see Tip). This sauce will quickly become a weeknight workhorse, a quick way to inject a savory kick to vegetable or meat stir-fries, stews like mapo tofu and even salad dressings.
Chilled Cucumber-Spinach Soup
This chilled soup is easy to put together and most welcome on a hot day. The soft tofu garnish, dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce, is a lovely contrast to the bright green base. It is worth hunting down shiso leaves or Thai basil at an Asian grocery. Their bright flavors add interest.
Marinated Green Beans
This snappy, tangy and super easy recipe for Italian marinated beans makes a perfect side dish, salad or addition to an appetizer spread. The green beans are cooked briefly in salty boiling water just to turn them bright green, then tossed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, grated garlic and fresh herbs and left to marinate. Gently cooking the beans and marinating them while they are still warm allows them to soak up more flavor from the dressing. They are delicious served cold or at room temperature, and you can add a little kick to them with crushed red pepper, if you like. Green beans are available year round, which means this side dish is ready to become a staple in your kitchen.
Crispy Potato Quesadillas
Despite what many people think, quesadillas don’t always have cheese. In Mexico City, you can order a “quesadilla sin queso” with a variety of fillings, highlighting the regional debate around what constitutes a true quesadilla. This version embraces both worlds: It contains cheese, but it’s melted into a hearty potato and pea filling that makes these quesadillas more satisfying as a complete meal. The quick slaw on top, inspired by curtido (a vinegary cabbage salad popular throughout Central America), balances the richness of the quesadillas and provides a nice spicy crunch. If you have any slaw left over, it keeps for up to four days in the refrigerator and is versatile enough to serve with plain rice or grilled meat or fish throughout the week.
Herbed Cucumber-Yogurt Salad
A cucumber salad dressed with tart yogurt and lots of chopped dill and mint makes a cooling, pleasantly refreshing saucy accompaniment to grilled meat. This is a handy brightly flavored salad to make all summer long, and so simple.
Tomato-Feta Salad
Cherry tomatoes make a colorful zesty salad that’s good on its own or very welcome as a picnic side dish. They are halved and tossed with a garlicky vinaigrette, roughly chopped olives, cilantro and parsley and a shower of crumbled feta, an ideal accompaniment to grilled meats.
Roasted Cauliflower Caesar
For this more robust take on Caesar salad, you start by cutting thick slabs of cauliflower before breaking them into smaller pieces and roasting, which ensures maximum caramelized edges while using every part of the vegetable. The florets, stems and even the leafy bits roast together with capers, creating a mix of textures in the dish. The crispy capers and golden cauliflower harbor a punchy, Caesar-inspired dressing made with Parmesan, mayonnaise, anchovies, garlic and Dijon. This dish is delicious warm, but also can work as a cold salad the next day.
Asparagus Gomaae With Chilled Tofu
The classic Japanese side dish gomaae typically features blanched spinach coated in a sesame dressing, but here, the nutty sauce pairs beautifully with earthy asparagus. The asparagus is seared just briefly to unlock its buttery sweetness and juiciness; make sure the pan is hot when the asparagus makes contact to ensure the outside chars, even with a short cook time. The asparagus goma-ae is served atop chilled tofu, which serves as a creamy, refreshing backdrop for the bold umami of the sesame sauce. Eat this as a light meal, or partner it with rice or noodles.
Spiced, Dry-Brined Mushrooms
Dry brining is a technique typically used to tenderize and flavor meat by harnessing two simple but powerful culinary tools: salt and time. This vegan recipe applies the process to mushrooms, along with a fragrant spice blend and olive oil to aid in flavor, color and texture. Just thirty passive minutes can produce a meaningful metamorphosis for these mushrooms, releasing excess moisture and allowing the mushrooms to brown deeply. Once pulled from the oven, the mushrooms can be stuffed into a roti with pickled onions and cucumbers, served on a mezze platter next to muhammara and hummus, or enjoyed however you please! Oyster mushrooms are a fantastic choice, but maitake, baby bella, portobello or a blend of each will work well, too.
Miso-Parmesan Asparagus
Asparagus can be a tricky vegetable to get just right, but this recipe cracks the code for tender, flavorful spears every time. The delicate tips cook much faster than the thicker stalks, often leading to an unfortunate contrast, with mushy tops and undercooked stems. This is where slicing on a steep diagonal helps: Not only does this make the spears look wonderfully dramatic on the plate, but it also ensures more even cooking and creates more surface area to soak up flavor. A quick sear in a hot pan brings out the natural sweetness of asparagus, while garlic, black pepper and a miso-butter glaze add richness and depth. A final sprinkle of Parmesan melts into the warm asparagus, making it just salty and savory enough.
Charred Asparagus Lettuce Cups
This nearly effortless salad is full of flavor and makes for a striking table centerpiece. A creamy, tangy yogurt and sour cream dressing is studded with fragrant basil, chives and dried mint, then spooned into crisp, fresh lettuce cups. Parmesan brings a rich umami depth to the dressing, while a scattering of Urfa chile flakes add a smoky finish. Equally stunning as a snackable appetizer, handy enough to be scooped up without a plate, or a light, elegant starter to be consumed with a fork and knife, this dish is ideal for entertaining, as it’s quick to assemble and guaranteed to impress.
Miso Rice Cakes With Spinach and Peas
Tteok (oval rice cakes) partner up with spring’s abundance of greens to produce an easy, lightning-fast weeknight dinner. The firm, precooked rice cakes often found in soups and stews become amazingly absorbent after a quick soak, drinking in the surrounding miso sauce, becoming glossy and rich with umami. Spring offers ample opportunity for substitutions: Fragrant green garlic can swap in for the usual garlic cloves, magenta spring onions for red onions, fresh peas instead of frozen, and twirly pea shoots for baby spinach. This dish welcomes scallions, chives, parsley or any tender herbs that may need to be used up. Quick-cooking or already-cooked proteins such as shrimp, white beans or tofu are happily accommodated here, if a protein boost is desired to top off this very vegetable-forward vegan meal.
Grilled Asparagus With Burrata and Furikake
There’s something truly special about this combination of charred asparagus and scallions, milky burrata and crunchy furikake, a Japanese condiment of seaweed, sesame seeds and fish flakes. Maybe it’s the umami of the naturally savory asparagus, which intensifies on the grill; or the nubbly seeds blanketing the soft cheese; or the ingredients so redolent of land and sea. It’s probably best to not overthink it, and just dig in. Serve it alongside lentils, grains or grilled chicken, seafood or mushrooms for a full meal.
Roasted Carrots With Whipped Tahini
For a spectacular vegetable side at home, try this tried-and-true formula: A swoosh of sauce on a plate topped with a cooked vegetable and a confetti of finely chopped garnish. For this iteration, blend the base (a cloud of yogurt, tahini, citrus and garlic) and chop your garnish (a pretty pile of pistachios, dill and chives) while the carrots roast. Set on a platter, served hot or at room temperature, it’s a special side dish that can also hold its own as a vegetarian main, supplemented with chickpeas, quinoa, couscous or toasted bread.
Herby Asparagus Salad With Beets and Prosciutto
Asparagus is absolutely a symbol of spring, so what better way to celebrate the season than by centering them in a salad. A platter of green spears, bathed in a mustard-tinged vinaigrette, would be perfectly fine, but for something more celebratory, it’s nice to dress things up, with finely slivered raw beets, a shower of dill, parsley and mint leaves, and chopped (or quartered) soft-cooked egg. A few slices of prosciutto complete the colorful assembly. For the best flavor, look for the freshest firm, shiny asparagus available, whether pencil thin, medium or hefty.
Roasted Cabbage With Capers and Garlic
It sounds so simple — roasted cabbage with a garlicky caper oil — but the resulting dish is anything but plain. Sharp from briny capers and unapologetically pungent from the garlic, with a bold kick of zesty lemon, the flavored oil serves as both a marinade for the cabbage and a finishing glaze. As the cabbage roasts, it turns savory and caramelized while the capers develop a crunch. Make this dish heartier by roasting chickpeas alongside the cabbage, serve alongside a protein like quinoa or pan-fried tofu, toss through pasta, or simply serve with bread to mop up every last drop.
Loaded Oven Fries
Roasting thick wedges of well-seasoned potatoes skin-side down on a sheet pan delivers the crispness of fries while maintaining the soft, pillowy insides of a perfectly baked potato. Top them with crispy bacon, melted sharp Cheddar, chopped scallions and sour cream for a crowd-pleasing game-day snack or hearty appetizer.
Simple Whole Artichokes
An artichoke, which is actually the flower bud of a thistle, is a beguiling thing to eat, with its prickly outer leaves, purple inner leaves and a hidden, tender heart. This cooking method is as straightforward as they come, with minimal preparation and a luxurious sauce of melted butter for dipping. Spike the butter with the same ingredients used to season the boiling water; that could be lemon, black pepper and bay leaves, as written, or switch it up with dried chile, garlic, sage leaves or coriander seeds. Just keep the lemon, which adds brightness and keeps the artichokes from browning as they cook.
Mushroom Quesabirria Tacos
Rich with melting cheese, chiles and spices, these crispy mushroom tacos aren't trying to imitate their meaty counterparts — they're creating their own kind of magic. Birria, a true delight from Jalisco, Mexico, traditionally features beef or goat braised in chile-spiced broth until tender and served as a rich stew. As the dish traveled north to Tijuana's famed taqueros, it was transformed into cheese-filled quesabirria tacos, which became a smashing success. While tomatoes aren't traditional in most birria, they bring welcome depth to this vegetable-forward adaptation. The soul of this dish still lies in its rich consomé, a broth made with a pared-down blend of chiles and spices that is a perfect backdrop for meaty, tender mushrooms.
Orange-Ginger Brussels Sprouts
Bring sunshine to your vegetable routine with a sharp dressing of turmeric, ginger, citrus and lots of black pepper. The combination is reminiscent of nose-clearing tonics and the spices in sabzis which can brighten roasted brussels sprouts as well as cooked beets, squash, carrots, cabbage or other hardy vegetables. Juicy orange chunks, chopped peanuts and cilantro (including crunchy stems) add pops of texture and freshness. This side would glow on a dinner party spread, or make it a weeknight meal by stirring in chickpeas or eating it with grains and yogurt.
Easy Savoy Cabbage
Savoy cabbage, in season from late fall through early spring, doesn't need much to be outstanding — just a simple steamy butter bath and some salt and pepper. Unlike regular green cabbage, crinkly savoy grows with looser, more delicate leaves which still maintain their bite after cooking. Though the core is edible, it's much denser than the leaves and cooks more slowly. Cut it out and discard, or finely slice it so that it cooks at the same pace as the shredded leaves. Half a cabbage will do for this recipe; keep the other half wrapped in plastic in your fridge, where it will last in your crisper for up to 2 weeks. Serve this dish over rice and top with a fried egg for a simple weeknight meal, or enjoy alongside a roast to balance textures and flavors. Use leftovers for bubble and squeak or add to your weeknight stir-fry for extra flavor and texture.
One-Pot Kabocha Squash and Coconut Rice
Great on its own, this rice dish makes for a light, low-effort vegan meal, but it can also be served alongside seared tofu or grilled chicken. Kabocha wedges are shingled over a base of coconut rice seasoned with garlic and ginger. You’ll marvel at how the rice cooks through in the time it takes for the squash to tenderize. There’s an art to cooking rice in a pot, and the details make a difference. First, be sure to wash the rice thoroughly before cooking to rinse out the starch from the grains for a fluffier texture. Be patient and try not to peek under the lid while the rice is cooking, as you’ll want to keep the hot steam inside the saucepan. If the brand of coconut milk you’re using does not have any stabilizer, the liquid may appear curdled. Don’t be alarmed: It’s all fine and will still taste delicious.
Chile-Lime Crispy Rice With Roasted Vegetables
Cool-weather eating can mean heavy flavors and dishes that rely on richness to wake up your palate. This recipe makes a sharp left by combining sweet, caramelized vegetables with an ultrabright, spicy dressing and unexpected pops of crunch and chew from skillet-crisped rice. Serve as is, or toss in chopped peanuts, cooked shrimp, ground pork or shredded chicken for added protein.
Coconut Curry With Potatoes and Greens
This hearty dish comes with many possibilities: Part chunky chowder, part saucy curry, it can be eaten as a soup, with crusty bread on the side, or ladled over steamed rice or rice noodles. The flavor foundation of this aromatic, vegetable-laden dish comes from store-bought Thai curry paste, an undisputed weeknight pantry hero that delivers complex spices straight from the jar. Frying the paste until it turns a darker shade makes it even more special by intensifying its flavors. Different brands of curry paste will vary in water content, saltiness and spice, so keep that in mind when deciding how much to add. While any variety of potatoes could be used here, starchy Yukon Golds will hold their shape best, with a lovely creaminess that pairs harmoniously with the greens. Make this meal even heartier by adding diced extra-firm tofu or chickpeas.