Sides

Cucumbers and radishes get a spring in their step when mixed with a tarragon and Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

This simple dish of coconut whipped sweet potatoes is vegan, but you would never know because it’s delicious. Perfect as a side dish for Thanksgiving or any fall-winter meal.

This is my mom’s Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie based on the Savory Cheese and Onion Pie in “The Vegetarian Epicure” by Anna Thomas published in 1972. All my life, we’ve called it Cheese, Onion & Tomato Pie, but after I reached out to Anna Thomas and asked permission to publish this recipe, I looked it up and see that she has another recipe called Cheese & Tomato Pie in her book, The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two. This is not that recipe although that one looks good too. My mom uses a frozen 9” pie crust for the pie, but the original recipe calls for a 10” shortcrust pastry. My mom adds Parmesan cheese to the recipe as well.

“Hey, nice looking slaw!” When was the last time someone called your coleslaw pretty? Behold, a stunning red coleslaw studded with dried cherries and topped with pistachio dust.

A recipe for a southern potato salad with eggs, sweet relish, mustard, red peppers, celery, carrots, red onions, parsley and more. It resembles confetti.

Rainbow chard and yellow peppers add the beauty to this recipe and the dynamic duo of garlic and flowering garlic chives adds the flavor.

When I buy garlic chives at the market, they give me so many I have make up dishes to use them up. This was a winner

A spicy Sichuan peppercorn flavored cucumber salad where you smash the cucumber so it absorbs more of the dressing.

The words healthy and fried do not always go together, but delicious and fried usually do. These healthier-than-meat 10 Veggie Egg Rolls nail fried and delicious! Use any combo of veggies you like that combine to make six cups of filling.

I make them my way. I like them crispy and golden and salty and slathered with sour cream and something sweet.

Originally a cross between a cabbage and turnip, the humble rutabaga is silky and elegant pureed with cream in this simple, yet addictive recipe. I often wonder why I only make them for Thanksgiving? They definitely taste like a special occasion.

Inspired by my garden, I created a salad where green, unripened tomatoes contrast three ways with their vine ripened counterparts: color, flavor and texture. It’s a great way to use up extra homegrown herbs as well.

When I was a kid this was a truly exotic recipe. Who eats bananas for dinner? CRAZY! It’s the perfect accompaniment to a savory curry and vegans and vegetarians can enjoy it too!

Bacon Fried Rice is my favorite breakfast dish, but I could also eat it for lunch, dinner, afternoon snack, or even dessert. Clearly, it may seem that I have a problem. I say, “There’s no problem unless there’s no more bacon or rice in the world.”

You can use any hearty greens to make this dish, but my Grandma always used collards, turnip and mustard greens in whatever combination she could find them. You need a lot of greens to make collards since they cook down to nothing. As a former slave food, collards used to be very cheap to buy and make. When I took over making them, Grandma would ask how much they cost. When I told her she would be horrified and tell me stories of how they were a nickel a pound in her day. She was also a stickler for not using the stems. “Stemmy” greens were a sign of being cheap or low-class. When greens were cheap, maybe you could afford to throw out the stems, but these days they’re not. I find if you don’t use the stems you have to buy a lot more greens. I strip off the leaves and chiffonade the stems. I cook them for a long time so they’re nice and tender.

No one ever asks if I’m making Grandma’s Rice, a buttery, cheesy rice pilaf studded with green olives, for Thanksgiving because it’s the law. I always make a lot so there’s leftovers. It was my Grandma’s tradition that she not only stuffed her guests, but they got food to take home for the next day. I won’t twist your arm to take food home like she did, but I make enough if you’d like to. Giving away our leftovers made my brother wince, but tradition is tradition. Now he always brings his own stack of take-out containers.

Garlic fried rice has something for everyone, vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, carnivores… except the garlic allergic and the VAMPIRES!!! Oh and the paleos, but that’s their choice and they should really cheat with this dish. It’s healthy and so damned delicious… I can understand why the Filipinos kept it a secret.

I can make all sorts of new fangled, over-the-top and invented dishes I want for turkey day, but I know my family and friends would turn on me if I didn’t make macaroni and cheese. It’s on the menu every year. It’s rich because it has a lot of CHEESE in it and BUTTER and that’s what makes it DELICIOUS! This is recipe for a crowd or just a few Mac ’n’ Cheese enthusiasts. You know your people. Be sure to make enough. It also freezes beautifully.

The smokiness almost makes these “shrooms” taste like they were barbecued. They make a great potluck dish because they can be served warm or room temperature.

Radishes can be hot and I’m not talking “trendy”. Common pinky-red European radishes are often spicy, almost peppery when raw. Anchovies and garlic are not shy of flavor either. Roasting them together tames them into a dish where they seem to give up their feisty notes and make nice together in the sand box of your mouth. Did I really just write that? Forgive me. They just remind me of bratty, little, only-children who are impossible until they meet each other in the playground and have to be nice… at least to one another.

This dish exemplifies what I love about Japanese cooking. It combines simplicity, elegance and the “POW” factor of umami flavors.

After I made these, I realized that I didn’t actually slow-roast them. I semi-slow-roasted them. The trick with them is to attempt not to eat them all once. Try to make enough so you have some to save.

You could eat any of the three delicious components of this salad on their own, but I combined to make mouth music as part of a brunch I made for friends who tend to be vegetarian-ish.