Vegetables
1337 recipes found
Snap Pea Salad With Walnuts and Parmesan
For an especially bright snap pea salad, skip the oil and coat blanched snap peas with punchy mustard and lemon juice. Toasted walnuts and shavings of Parmesan add richness and crunch, while a shower of fresh mint adds freshness. This salad is great right when you make it but can also be made ahead and eaten cold from the fridge. How’s that for bright and breezy cooking?
Crispy Coconut, Asparagus and Green Bean Salad
This sweet and salty salad celebrates the best of spring, starting with a base of asparagus and green beans. The crispy coconut almond topping is loosely inspired by serundeng, an Indonesian spiced coconut condiment, which adds texture to the salad. You can grill the beans and asparagus to add a smoky flavor to the dish, or swap out the asparagus for runner beans, broccolini or any spring vegetable. All the individual salad elements can be made in advance, but you’ll want to assemble just before serving for the best results.
Mushroom Piccata
A brilliant combination of fat (butter), acidity (lemon) and salt (capers), tangy piccata sauce makes an excellent dressing for meaty, earthy mushrooms. Piccata refers to the Italian American dish of thinly sliced meat (typically veal or chicken) that’s dredged in flour, browned and served in a sauce of lemon, butter and capers. Though this dish would be delicious with just one type of mushroom, selecting a mix provides a broader range of textures and flavors. Grill them for smoky notes, or simply roast them in the oven for ease on a weeknight. The bright, piquant piccata pan sauce comes together quickly while the mushrooms cook. Leftovers turn into a fantastic salad the next day; simply chop the mushrooms and toss with leafy greens and more olive oil.
Cheese-Topped Cauliflower Steaks
Cauliflower “steaks” were all the rage in upscale restaurants a few years ago, but they’re easy to make at home in any number of variations. To get thick slices, you’ll want to invest in a couple of cauliflowers and be prepared to turn the trimmings into soup or use for stir-fry for another meal. Or simply skip the slices and use florets instead. You can serve these with a light marinara sauce, but they are very tasty with no sauce at all.
Thai-Style Crunchy Vegetable Salad
Inspired by Thai green papaya salad, this vibrant dish boasts a colorful medley of thinly sliced raw veggies; they’re electrified by a lime-and-fish sauce vinaigrette. This recipe builds upon a base of fresh asparagus, which is supercrisp, with a sweet, mildly grassy flavor, and cherry tomatoes. You can combine them with any mix of vegetables that are on hand: Radishes, cucumbers, carrots, snap peas, cabbage and yellow bell peppers are all great additions, each bringing their unique flavor and texture to the party. The just-tossed salad is bright and crunchy, but if you happen to wind up with leftovers, let the vegetables marinate in the dressing overnight and they transform into a pickled side dish that’s delightful in sandwiches or with grilled steak.
Stir-Fried Lotus Root
Lotus root has a subtle flavor — mildly sweet, and vaguely reminiscent of fresh corn — but its striking appearance and singular texture distinguish it, with a crunch that is snappier than an undercooked potato but not quite as assertive as jicama. This speedy stir-fry adapted from M Shanghai, a Shanghainese restaurant in Brooklyn, celebrates the root vegetable and its unique texture. May Liu, the restaurant’s owner, wanted lotus root on the menu because it’s a traditional Shanghainese dish. “It’s light, it’s tasty, it’s delicious, it’s unusual. It’s not a dish you can find at every Chinese restaurant,” she said. Simply seasoned with salt, mushroom seasoning and just enough sugar to render its components glossy, the flavor of this dish is subdued, allowing the quiet lotus root to dominate. The ingredients, like mildly spicy bullhorn peppers (sometimes labeled as green long hot peppers), can be found in Asian markets.
Citrus-Glazed Turnips
A sleeper-hit vegetable side dish on a predominantly seafood-rich menu, these sweet and tangy turnips are a loud statement for this idea: At a restaurant, order the unexpected thing. Get the salmon dinner at a brick-oven pizza joint; take a chance on the oatmeal cream pie at an oyster bar. More often than not you’ll be rewarded for your transgression. This dish, birthed by Nicole Cabrera Mills, the chef de cuisine of Pêche Seafood Grill, in New Orleans, is an unassuming celebration of the underappreciated turnip, which gets a lovely lacquer of citruses, chiles and butter.
Kerala-Style Vegetable Korma
A korma can be made with any combination of meats and vegetables, braised or stewed. In the Indian coastal state of Kerala, where coconuts are abundant, vegetable korma is made with desiccated fresh coconut and coconut milk. This quick, convenient version uses the same foundation — onion, tomatoes, ginger and garlic — while skipping the fresh coconut. It works just as well with whatever combination of fresh or frozen vegetables that might be handy. Cashew butter is used in place of making a paste from soaked cashews. Black mustard seeds add complex bitterness; Thai green chiles, black pepper and garam masala give it a kick. Cutting corners doesn’t quell any flavor in this recipe.
Roasted Radishes
When roasted, radishes are no longer snappy and spicy but rather juicy, meaty and sweet. You’re in luck if they come with their greens attached, because they roast into delicate chips that provide great textural contrast. A drizzle of honey accentuates their sweetness, though the radishes could also be finished with something bright (like a soft herb or some lemon juice), spicy (like grated garlic or red-pepper flakes) or savory (like miso butter or anchovy butter). Eat as a light side dish to grilled fish, crispy chicken or stewed lentils, or folded into a grain or green salad.
Blackened Cauliflower
Blackening cauliflower brings out its best, giving it deep color and flavor. What results is a dish that is delicious enough that you’ll want to eat it on its own, but also great as part of something bigger, paired with salmon, tossed in a salad, or set atop a grain bowl. While blackening cauliflower may seem complicated, it’s not. The florets are tossed with rich spices (smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, red-pepper flakes, thyme and sumac, if you like), then roasted at a high heat until the edges crisp up and darken. Double or triple this recipe and make it part of your meal prep; it keeps well for a few days in the refrigerator.
Mushroom Scampi
While most scampi recipes feature shrimp rather than the namesake small, lobster-like crustaceans, this mushroom version is a joyful meat-free alternative. All of the signatures are here – garlic, butter and white wine – and the mushrooms add a rich, earthy umami element. There is room to vary your mushrooms; while cremini or button mushrooms are great because they remain juicy and plump, oyster or shiitake mushrooms would add a pleasing, chewier texture. This dish is also parsley heavy; some is cooked with the mushrooms and the rest is added fresh, delivering a clean herbaceousness that brightens the dish. Eat with pasta, noodles or bread.
Roasted Cauliflower With Crispy Parmesan
The key to well-roasted cauliflower, with frizzled edges and sweet and tender middles, is to cook it at a high heat on a rack near the heat source, mostly on one side. You could stop there or, toward the end of cooking, shower it with grated Parmesan to crisp and add a salty boost. Follow the instructions in Step 1 to cut the cauliflower through the stem to create lots of flat sides, which yields more surface area for browning and cheese — in other words, more of the good stuff.
Kale and Butternut Squash Bowl With Jammy Eggs
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. The sauce is endlessly adaptable; add fresh or dried herbs or chile, ground or toasted spices, toasted coconut and more.
Honey-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Apples
Simple enough for weeknights but special enough for holidays, this mix of roasted root vegetables and fruits showcases all the sweetness fall produce has to offer. Because each ingredient roasts differently, you’ll also get various textures, from jammy apples to crisp-tender carrots. Honey accentuates the sweetness, but there’s plenty of room for personal flair. For warmth, roast with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, cardamom or ginger. For crunch, add chopped nuts to the pan in the last few minutes of roasting. For a little zip, add lemon or orange zest with the red-pepper flakes. Eat alongside turkey, lamb or pork, or serve over sautéed greens or salad greens.
Easy Mustard Greens
Mustard greens are a delectable option for the simplest weeknight meal or the grandest holiday table. Though they’re from the same plant family as collard greens, mustard greens are more peppery and the cooked leaves are more tender. (They also cook down a lot more, so it takes a lot of mustard greens to make a decent serving amount!) This recipe is generous with the liquid, because as it cooks it becomes something just as delicious as the greens themselves: pot likker. Smoked meats are often used for their flavor, but a small amount of liquid smoke keeps this recipe meat-free. Be sure to serve your greens in a bowl, so you can slurp up the resulting pot likker afterward.
Silky Creamed Corn
The original creamed corn likely did not have any cream at all: Native Americans scraped the cobs of their milky, starchy juices and simmered them with kernels until everything was thick and creamy. This recipe — which works with any frozen, canned or fresh corn — builds a similar silkiness by blending some of the cooked corn. Half-and-half adds richness, but not so much that it mutes the sweetness of the corn like heavy cream can. There’s no one way to flavor creamed corn; you can add herbs, cheese and peppers to make maque choux, or add nothing at all.
Greens and Beans With Toasted Crumbs
This light, plant-based main was inspired by a traditional cassoulet, a French slow-cooked casserole made with beans, pork and duck and simmered in duck fat. In this fast, vegetarian take, olive oil replaces the duck fat and chard stalks are cooked gently with scallion, garlic and thyme to create the flavor foundation. Summer vegetables are simmered in the infused olive oil until just tender, then served with toasted bread crumbs and fresh cracked pepper. The broth in this dish is the real star, so you will want lots of bread to soak it all up.
Aloo Anday (Potatoes and Scrambled Eggs)
This is just one version of a popular Pakistani spicy scrambled egg and potato breakfast dish. Endlessly adaptable, it also makes for an inexpensive yet substantial weeknight meal. Sweetness from onions, tanginess from tomatoes, heat from chiles and nutty freshness from coriander seeds provide a fine foundation for humble eggs and potatoes. Often served with chapati, the dish is just as good with store-bought pita, naan or even with rice.
Creamed Spinach
The incredible mound of spinach called for here (3 pounds!) deflates quickly after an initial blanching, which helps maintain its deep green color. Shallots and garlic lend sweetness, while a mix of milk and heavy cream provides richness without being too heavy. Finally, tangy sour cream lifts and balances the dish. The spinach can be blanched, cooled and chopped a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator. Leftovers make a great omelet or quiche filling, and are also a terrific addition to pasta.
Creamy Grits With Mushrooms and Chard
In an ode to her Black, Mexican and Haitian backgrounds, the chef Rahanna Bisseret Martinez created this recipe, which honors one of the Americas’s most important ingredients: corn. Corn grits cooked with unsweetened oat-milk cream act as a base for tender swiss chard leaves, pickled chard stems and mushrooms. Soaked then caramelized in a jalapeño sauce, the mushrooms create layers of varying textures along with the greens. This dish can be served on its own as a hearty one-plate vegan meal, or alongside a main dish or with a crisp and lightly dressed green salad.
Roasted Mushroom Laab
Earthy mushrooms replace meat in this take on laab. A dish popular in the northern and northeastern regions of Thailand, laab (also spelled larb) is often a lively combination of cooked minced meat, fresh herbs and a punchy dressing. In this recipe, mushrooms are roasted until golden brown and crispy around the edges, and, once cooled, tossed with a mix of cilantro, mint, basil and aromatics, including sliced scallions. Lime juice and soy sauce keep the dressing tangy and savory. A subtle, nutty crunch from toasted ground rice is an essential element of the salad, so don’t skip this step. Serve the dish with steamed rice and additional lime wedges for squeezing. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Grilled Zucchini Ribbons
Zucchini is the summer vegetable grillers love to hate. We love it for its summery flavor and sheer abundance. We love it less for its unfortunate tendency to become soggy when grilled. Russ Faulk, chief designer at Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet and author of “Food + Fire,” has come up with an ingenious method of keeping zucchini crisp during grilling: He slices it thin on a mandolin, then accordions the strips on skewers to grill over a screaming hot fire. The edges char and crisp, giving you the vegetable equivalent of meaty ribs’ burnt ends. I’ve taken the burnt end idea one step further by seasoning the zucchini with a classic barbecue rub — use your favorite — and basting it with spiced butter.
Grilled Corn With Sesame-Soy Butter
Mark Twain advocated for boiling corn — preferably right in the corn field. But there’s no better way to cook corn than by grilling. The high dry heat of the fire caramelizes the natural plant sugars, intensifying the corn’s natural sweetness while adding a beguiling smoky flavor. The key is to brown the kernels on all sides. To form a convenient handle for eating the corn, fold the husk back below the stem end. In this version, the corn is seasoned with sesame, soy, mirin and butter.
Warm Roasted Carrot and Barley Salad
There is something very exciting about transforming a simple bunch of carrots into a deeply flavorful and satisfying weeknight meal. Carrots are given a lot of love here: Leaving the skin on adds texture, slicing them into thin batons ensures that they cook quickly and evenly, and drizzling them with honey right out of the oven amplifies their natural sweetness. A sprinkle of lemon zest adds brightness. Ras el hanout, a North African spice blend, means “head of the shop” in Arabic as it was often one of the best mixes a vendor had to offer. Its fragrant blend of coriander, cumin, ginger, clove and turmeric brings warmth and richness to the tahini. The perfect chew of pearl barley is so gratifying in this dish, but for even more flavor, cook your barley in stock.