Stews

Use shrimp shells from the Shrimp fra diavolo recipe, Old Bay, tomato paste, and leek to make stock. After 15 minutes, you have a rich base for shrimp stew. Add leftover shrimp in sauce to sweet red pepper, black beans, and cilantro. Serve the stew with crusty bread and a salad. The second-day dish isn’t as spicy as the first. It’s up to your valentine to add the fire. 

A classic Moroccan tagine (or stew) is typically made with meat. This satisfying vegetarian main course features three kinds of root vegetables—and a delicious spicy, crunchy chickpea garnish.

Here, sautéed polenta triangles add another dimension to a southwestern-style stew.

This vegetarian stew is similar to an Italian winter minestrone. It starts with carrots, onions, and celery, which are sauteed in olive oil over low heat for a long time. Tomatoes, white beans, and two bunches of Swiss chard go into the stew. That much chard may seem bulky but it wilts and quickly cooks down, lending the stew its robust flavor and lots of vitamins and fiber.

GUMBO, the Southern stew, is like many regional dishes: there are nearly as many interpretations as there are cooks. Most include the common Louisiana trinity of vegetables: green peppers, celery and onion.

Some include meat, often a spicy sausage like andouille, in addition to or in place of shellfish. And while some gumbos rely on okra as a thickener, others use a roux, a combination of flour and fat cooked until brown and tasty.

Toss these easy homemade croutons in salads, sprinkle over soups and stews or fold into hot scrambled eggs and omelets.

Smoked fish, particularly smoked haddock, is exceptionally good in chowder. The sweet and briny smokiness tastes just right in a delicate milky broth. Finnan haddie is a type of smoked haddock originally from Finnan (also called Findon), a Scottish fishing village on the North Sea near Aberdeen. In Scotland at one time, haddock was lightly salted and then cold-smoked very gently over a slow peat fire. These days a similar product, still called finnan haddie, is smoked in New England over hard wood.

A friend from Mozambique made this dish for us one night - he never follows a recipe, or makes the same thing twice, but we figured it out together and I wrote it down for Savvy Veg visitors to enjoy. Our Mozambiquan friend is vegan and doesn't believe in overcooking food. So it's quick to make - the secret is to chop the veggies small. If you like your veggies uncrunchy, just cook until it seems right to you - this recipe is highly improvisational! The result is rich, spicy, and excellent over rice or quinoa, or with any bread.

This chowder is easy to make and requires only one pot. The salmon comes out tender and is a good match with the dill and potatoes. For a smokier flavor, roast the ears of corn directly over the fire before removing the kernels. If you don't have fresh salmon, frozen will work fine, or you can use smoked salmon. If using smoked salmon, cut back on the salt for seasoning.