Vegetables

Eggplant is a dinnertime staple on the southern Italian island of Sicily, where the vegetable is known as melanzane and might appear as involtini (rolled up with a filling) or caponata (the sweet-and-sour cooked vegetable salad). These are both first courses, but with a little tweaking, you can make them substantial enough for the main event. We fell for the dishes at the Anna Tasca Lanza cooking school in Sicily, where the late founder’s daughter, Fabrizia, teaches them.

This is an adaptation of a Turkish recipe, a sweet and savory combination of lentils, onions and carrots that can be served hot or at room temperature, as a main dish or a side.

I’m not anti-recipe (obviously), but some things just don’t need them — and most vegetable soups fall into that category. Here are easy-to-follow instructions for making vegetable (vegetarian and, for the most part, vegan) soups with common ingredients, a variety of choices and terrific flavor. Print the following page, stick it on your refrigerator and work your way through it. By the time you’re done — 12 days or 12 weeks later — you’ll never again need a recipe for vegetable soup. Promise.

In my flurry of experimenting, I found that virgin coconut oil had a deep coconut flavor that persists even after cooking. Refined coconut oil, which has been processed enough to raise the temperature at which it begins to smoke, lacks the same coconut profundity, but supposedly works better for stir- and deep-frying. In my recipe testing, however, the smoke point of virgin coconut oil was not a problem.

Home turf: California

Local flavor: In health-conscious California, chili is as likely to be made without meat as it is with it. No self-respecting Texan would sign off on chili with beans, squash, and bulgur—but this lean, mean dish is as delicious as it is healthful.

Make it a meal: continue the Cali fantasy with whole grain bread, an arugula salad with mushrooms and garlicky vinaigrette, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (California, $8 per six-pack).

"'Roasting the cauliflower really brings out its flavor in this side dish,' confirms Joann Fritzler of Belen, New Mexico. 'Even folks who aren't cauliflower lovers like it this way.'"

Beans baked very slowly for several hours develop a creamy texture, while the liquid they cook in, which thickens to a syrup, acquires a caramelized flavor. The kale practically melts in this casserole, going from bitter to sweet. I love using lima beans in this dish because they’re so big and their texture is so luxurious.

When you make a vegetarian curry, you can choose from among sturdy candidates such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes; firm-tender vegetables such as cauliflower, green beans, winter and summer squash, and peas; and heartier ones like chard and kale. If there is any rule, it’s that the colors in the bowl shouldn’t be drab or monotone. Spices are king in a curry. Assemble your own concoction or purchase a good powder or potent paste. Whether it’s mild or spicy sauce is up to you, but take care not to overwhelm the vegetables.

When you make a vegetarian curry, you can choose from among sturdy candidates such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes; firm-tender vegetables such as cauliflower, green beans, winter and summer squash, and peas; and heartier ones like chard and kale. If there is any rule, it’s that the colors in the bowl shouldn’t be drab or monotone. Spices are king in a curry. Assemble your own concoction or purchase a good powder or potent paste. Whether it’s mild or spicy sauce is up to you, but take care not to overwhelm the vegetables. 

A confession: Every Thanksgiving I cringe (I hope not enough for others at the table to notice) when the inevitable dish of marshmallow-topped or otherwise candied sweet potatoes appears. Sweet potatoes possess such an individual, earthy sweetness of their own, I can’t help but wonder why cooks push it into overdrive? Here is a recipe that gives Thanksgiving sweet potatoes a slight spin, keeping the sweetness in check with savory and piquant complements: black beans and radishes in a salad.