Bea’s radish salad with apple, egg, avocado, egg and shaved Manchego is the most delectable combination. With a light honey-mustard vinaigrette, it’s the perfect healthy summer treat.

I love everything about raw fennel in a salad, but you pair it with arugula and you’ve won me over tenfold. Thinly sliced zucchini, honey, pine nuts and feta and I’m swooning.

Celery, apple and fennel slaw might just be the perfect medium for celery … other than potato salad and soups of course. It’s fairly simple but would accompany many main dishes well.

I enjoyed the sugar snap peas from our CSA Farm so much that they didn’t even last long enough to make them into this sugar snap salad (and we had plenty!). It still tempts me, though, with its radishes, feta, mint and sumac (a lemony Middle Eastern spice).

As much as I love Heidi Swanson, I’m just not sure about this raw corn salad. Raw corn and shallots, tossed with a lemonade vinaigrette and fresh oregano and seeds. I just don’t have much more to say beyond I’m not so sure about that. However she more than makes up for the questionable-ness of that one with her to-die-for sounding macaroni salad. You had me at arugula, Heidi, but the apples and parmesan sealed the deal. Add this sesame yogurt pasta salad and Heidi’s back on track!

I’m really not obsessed with carrot soup. I really love it and it’s easy to make, so win-win. But it’s kind of weird (or maybe it’s the stars aligning….) that more than one recipe for a unique carrot soup — really, not your run-of-the-mill carrot soups — crossed my path recently. We’re currently snowed in — maybe a carrot soup for lunch tomorrow?

It’s embarrassing to admit that this recipe for creamy carrot soup has been sitting open in a browser window on my laptop for months. I love that it has miso and tahini in it, as well as fresh herbs and garlic.

Spiced carrot apple soup with fresh mint couldn’t appeal to me more right now. The ginger, allspice and nutmeg will balance out perfectly with the fresh mint … what a well-written recipe.

This recipe for curried carrot soup has coconut milk and fresh ginger … oh yeah.

Now who’s going to help me decide which recipe turns into tomorrow’s lunch?

It was the afternoon before Thanksgiving, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, and I needed to figure out what the hell I was going to make for the people who were going to be showing up at my house tomorrow. I wasn’t too stressed about it, since there were only going to be six of us and we were doing a potluck, but I needed to get my act together.

I had half a butternut squash left over from a mildly successful couscous recipe, so one of the things I wanted to make was butternut squash soup. Easy enough, right? Well, I cut into the squash and quickly realized that it had gone bad, so that was out. I still wanted to make soup though, so it came down to what I had in the house already (and those things did not include any sort of cream, which hobbled me substantially).

Luckily, I came across a corn potato chowder recipe on my Big Oven iPhone app. I had some frozen corn in my fridge, onion and potato, so I was pretty much good to go. Best of all, it’s a low-fat recipe, so it called for 1%milk instead of heavy cream.

I modified the recipe slightly from what is shown– I omitted the peppers and added garlic powder instead. I would also recommend reserving some vegetable broth if you decide to add the potatoes so you can control the consistency a little bit more.

What we ended up with was a creamy, hearty mild soup that even my two-year-old ate. It was the perfect Thanksgiving appetizer and held us over quite well until the main event of gluttony began.

When a chill in the air rears its ugly head, I crave soup. I’m not a big fan of winter, but I adore the fall and I’ll tell you that by the end of summer, I’m getting a little sick of grilled meals … I long for the comfort foods that sustain me through the cold months here in New England.

You knew Heidi Swanson was going to show up on this list sooner or later, so we might as well get it out of the way with her dried fava bean soup with mint and guajillo chiles. Wow, does this sound unique and hearty and interesting and complex. I’m anxious to try this one.

The opposite of that gorgeous, complex soup above has got to be this gluten-free black bean soup with chorizo. I’m not one to criticize a soup with only five ingredients (anyone smell a lie?), but I just can’t imagine this time-saver is worth my time … though there is that argument that almost anything with chorizo in it is worth eating. What do you think?

Now that I’ve got chorizo on the brain, this sweet potato chorizo soup recipe may be just thing to make me forget about that bizarre recipe above.

Lately, when I think of soup, I admit that my egomaniacal self thinks of my very own minestrone my way. We all love this soup so much in my house that it’s one I make often, and thanks to the glut of veggies from our farm this summer, we’ve got some frozen for those lazy winter days too.

Molly makes her rustic cabbage and white bean soup in a pressure cooker, a tool I lately reserve for cooking corn on the cob. Really, when I used to make complex stews in it, I’m not sure how it got relegated to corn status … maybe it’s time I give this soup a try because I love just about anything with cabbage in it.

Cate says she makes the best vegetable soup you’ll ever have — could she possibly be right? Her recipe is very similar to me minestrone recipe, but I like the way she leaves it open to trying different vegetables in the recipe, and I love the way she includes cabbage — brilliant.

Before my minestrone my way, there was easy lentil and vegetable soup, my go-to recipe. Now I have to go back and forth between the two and it’s always such a hard decision to choose which one to make. This one’s got corn, a big it with the kid….

Cate makes some serious soups and her pasta e fagioli, though she says it’s very nontraditional, is no exception. Pasta, beans and veggies? Yes, please!

This easy vindaloo squash soup has very few ingredients. It’s basically an acorn squash soup highlighted with some vindaloo spices to make it different. Love it!

Bob has made Tyler Florence’s clam chowder several times, and I’ve been the recipient of a bowl or two. He mixes it up a bit my using sweet potatoes and white potatoes, but this is a really great recipe.

How interesting does apple mulligatawny soup with chicken sound? Apples, winter squash, curry, coconut, fresh ginger … I’m all over this, and the fact that I have every ingredient for this soup in my house right now if both exciting and scary at the same time. You totally want to be here when a natural or man-made disaster strikes. We could eat for years.

Something about this very simple broccoli soup appeals to me. I’d definitely use plain yogurt instead of heavy cream, and I’d probably leave out the flour. But I’ve been craving broccoli (not a vegetable we got a lot of from our CSA farm this summer) and this just sounded so perfectly lovely to me.

I may not be writing much these days, but our CSA farm’s harvest has been so plentiful this season that I’ve been busy blanching and freezing green and yellow beans, making salsa from the Roma tomatoes and making and freezing fresh tomato sauce for this winter. Oh, there have been some batches of my easy lentil vegetable soup in there as well, and now I’ve got a new recipe for minestrone soup to share with you.

My friend Laura and I have mastered the art of the “found” lunch. Every so often we have a lunch playdate and we each just bring what we’ve got and we end up with a spread fit for a king — or at least two five-year-olds and their moms. Homemade hummus, veggies sticks, fresh fruit, homemade bread and raw seed wafers are often on the menu, and last week when we met at Laura’s house, she had some fresh, homemade minestrone soup to share with us — made from her CSA farm harvest.

When we got back from the farm this weekend, we were quite overwhelmed by the amount of food we had. I was prepared to cook up a huge batch of my favorite lentil soup (again) when Keith asked me if there was a green bean soup recipe we could do. I immediately thought of Laura’s minestrone, chock-full of green beans, and thought I’d take a stab at my own version of minestrone — a soup I’d never made before.

I popped by Food Network’s website to see when to add the pasta and one other little tip caught my eye: In their version of minestrone soup, they mash half of the kidney beans to make a thicker, more flavorful broth. Yes please! So I stole that idea and gleefully mashed my kidney beans. The rest is all me — I swear!

Minestrone My Way

Ingredients:

• 2 onions, diced
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 zucchini, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3-4 cups green beans, cut into 1-inch segments
• 4 tomatoes, diced
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained, and mash half the beans
• 8 cups water
• 2 tablespoons Better than Bouillon veggie base (or thereabouts)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound pasta (I used brown rice penne)
• about 4-6 kale leaves, chopped into 1/4 – 1/2 inch sections
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• parmesan or pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated

Heat some olive oil in a large pot and saute the onion and garlic until fragrant, about one minute. Add the carrots and zucchini and cook until tender, about five minutes.

Next, add water, Better than Bouillon, tomatoes and green beans and bring to a simmer. Add the pasta and simmer for about 10 minutes. Toss in herbs and seasoning, kidney beans (mashed and whole) and kale and cook until heated through. Add parsley and remove from heat.

This soup is designed to be served with lots of freshly grated pecorino romano or parmesan cheese. If you plan to veganize it — gasp! — you might want to add a bit more of the Better than Bouillon to compensate for the lack of salty cheesy goodness.

I don’t know about you, but our CSA farm has us up to our eyeballs in green beans (and yellow beans … Owen thinks the yellow are better but they’re all the same to me). I’ve been trying not to blanch and freeze them, and I’m scared to pickle or lacto-ferment them (botulism waiting to happen….), so we’ve been looking for ways to eat them fresh and not feel like we’re eating the same beans every night.

1. Toss your green beans into a potato salad. Yeah, we’re swimming in potatoes too.
2. Saute green beans with summer squash or zucchini, tomato, onion and garlic. Toss in some fresh herbs after you remove the veggies from the heat.
3. Lemon green bean and celery salad sounds so summery and fresh, and shallots and fresh parsley round out the flavors.
4. I’d eat almost anything if it had blue cheese on it, and these green beans with blue cheese and walnuts are no exception.
5. This Asian green bean stir fry is so easy — just dump in a bunch of stir-fry veggies and some black bean sauce and you’re done.
6. You know it’s a Paula Deen recipe because there’s butter and bacon, but these fancy green beans with teriyaki sauce, honey and cashews sounds good enough to eat.
7. Steam green beans and toss with some lemon juice and stone ground mustard.
8. Steam some green beans again, and toss with some butter and salt-free seasoning blend.
9. Green beans with tomatoes and feta uses frozen green beans, but use your fresh ones (you could use your fresh tomatoes too) and enjoy your harvest.
10. Vibrant tasty green beans is basically just green beans with leeks and dill, but that can’t be bad, right?
11. Add some green beans to a rice salad or quinoa salad.
12. Make a salad nicoise.
13. Serve steamed green beans with pesto.
14. Saute green beans with garlic, then toss with lemon juice and capers.
15. Yummy, spicy Szechuan green beans with ginger, garlic, scallions, chili paste and soy sauce uses a special cooking technique to keep the beans tender but not mushy.
16. Toasted almond green bean salad is so simple, but with the sesame oil and sesame seeds accenting the almonds, it’s got to be wonderful.
17. Green beans a la Bob — just shake some crushed red pepper over them.
18. Toss cooked green beans with the fresh herbs of your choice, something crunchy (think nuts or seeds) and something tangy (balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt).
19. The answer to my fear of pickling (really a fear of canning) might just be this cheat recipe for quick pickled green beans.
20. Green beans with roasted nuts and cranberries has the bean, the crunch and the sweet-tart … oh yeah.
21. How can some of my favorite things all be combined in one green bean dish? Because someone has the brilliance to invent green beans with walnuts, fennel, and goat cheese — and they threw in mustard.

It would be fairly easy to think of 21 more things since green beans are so versatile … and delicious. What’s your favorite thing to do with green beans?

When this time of year rolls around, I make quinoa tabbouleh, pretty much a different way every time. I did a few funky things this time, so I wrote it down, lest I become like my father who’s famous for making wonderful dishes … once. Because he never writes down the recipe, therefore we never get it again.

Wow, huge digression. The reason I make quinoa tabbouleh in late summer is because I have many of the ingredients growing right here in my own yard: flat-leaf parsley, mint, roma tomatoes, cucumber and chives (though I used scallions in this recipe).

I made it this time because on vacation last week, I had an amazing red quinoa tabbouleh with some seared yellowfin tuna and a tahini yogurt sauce. It was perfection in every way and so I had better-than-average tabbouleh on the brain. While I didn’t make it to the store to get red quinoa (which is definitely on my list) and I didn’t really set out to duplicate the Ocean House’s tabbouleh, I ended up with one that Keith and I couldn’t stop snitching before the meal was even served, so I did something right.

Quinoa Tabouleh

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 cups water
• 1-2 teaspoons miso (depending on how subtle you want it)
• 1-2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 2/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
• 8 medium roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup diced cucumber

For the dressing:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a dash or two of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted cumin seed, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Put the quinoa, water and miso in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low, cover and cook until water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, do all the chopping, toast the cumin seeds in a dry pan until fragrant, remove them, then use the same pan to toast the almonds. One less dirty pan — score!

Next, you can whisk together the dressing ingredients.

After quinoa has cooled, toss everything together, again with the dressing and serve at room temperature.

We served this tabouleh with Ellie Krieger’s rubbed pork tenderloin, only we grilled it instead of pan searing and baking it. It was delicious!

I’ve been planning this post for a while, but a couple of things have spurred me on. First of all, we have been getting the most amazingly delicious cabbage from our CSA farm. While I adore garlicky Asian cabbage, cabbage and chick pea salad and sweet and sour cabbage wedges, I really enjoy a good, mayonnaise-free coleslaw.

The other reason — I’ve committed to bringing a coleslaw to a Labor Day weekend cookout, and you can be darned sure it’s going to be one that I will eat. Besides, I feel as though it’s my duty to expose the brainwashed masses to mayonnaise-free potato salads and coleslaws to open their minds and refine their taste buds. I mean really, people, why would you want to eat something that makes you gag? What do you mean mayonnaise doesn’t make you gag? No matter….

This snappy, crunchy vegan coleslaw is gluten-free (probably most of them will be) and bursting with flavor. Cumin, dill, caraway seeds and golden raisins are highlighted by a champagne vinegar and agave dressing. Oh yeah, there’s cabbage too.

Clever, clever, clever … this multicolored coleslaw recipe gives you the choice of three different dressings. Depending on your main dish, you can choose a balsamic dressing, and Asian-inspired one or a Mexican fiesta.

This mayonnaise-free coleslaw reminds me of a Waldorf salad with cabbage — it’s got walnuts, apples, celery and radish and a simple rice vinegar dressing.

Citrus-spiked jicama and carrot slaw is definitely a new twist on tradition, but with a simple citrus dressing and some chopped fresh cilantro, less is more. Or maybe my very own mango coleslaw has the pizazz you’re looking for, with almond butter and ginger in the dressing.

Maybe a traditional Carolina coleslaw suits your fancy more … it’s got celery seed, dry mustard, green pepper and onions. Very, very basic, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Emeril’s delta coleslaw is a souped-up version of this.

Now we’re talking different again, but this recipe for mayo-free coleslaw is really interesting. Mandarin oranges, pears, raw garlic, tamari sunflower seeds, cumin seeds and lemon juice jazz up cabbage in an intriguing way.

I just realized, in looking at this recipe for spicy no mayo coleslaw, that I’ve never had a spicy coleslaw before. It might just be time to remedy that, however I’d probably use some peppers a little milder than habeneros!

This recipe for mayo-free cabbage salad combines a few of the ideas here into one salad — some citrus, some carrots and apple, agave syrup and a new ingredient: sesame seeds. This one sounds really good to me.

As does this parsnip and apple coleslaw … there’s still cabbage, but a honey-laden dressing, parsley leaves and walnuts mae this one special. Plus, I can really appreciate how this blogger goes on about the indignity of mayonnaise. And now we’ve come full circle, and I’ve got a new mayonnaise-hating friend.

Here’s a quickie for you … a potato salad that I threw together with some goodies we got from our CSA farm this afternoon: red potatoes, green and yellow beans, herbs from our garden (basil and parsley) and radishes from the local farm stand. The dressing was simple — just cider vinegar (but I think I’d use red wine vinegar next time), olive oil and stone ground mustard. Oh, and I almost forgot the sprinkling of feta.

You could definitely add some raw garlic to the dressing or some scallions or onions to the salad, but I love that I used what was freshly picked just today.

I’m not sure I know anyone who isn’t attending or hosting some sort of 4th of July celebration this weekend. And why not celebrate? The kids are out of school, looking forward to a fun summer and there’s something patriotic to remember… with sparklers and loud things.

You’re either making or bringing a side dish to go with those burgers and dogs, so you may as well bring something new. I’m pretty sure if you showed up at my door with a potato salad dripping with mayonnaise that I wouldn’t let you in, and that rotini pasta salad with the bottled Italian dressing … well, there’s really no excuse.

These side dishes are easy to make, crowd-pleasing and non-offensive to your mayophobic hostess. What do you mean, your Aunt Sally isn’t afraid of mayonnaise? Well, she’ll like the following recipes anyway.

Tabouleh says summer to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve got most of the ingredients growing in my garden: tomatoes, mint, parsley, scallions. You can try the traditional tabouleh recipe made with bulgur wheat, or make it with quinoa instead, my favorite way.

Grilled zucchini and chick pea salad has a lovely tahini dressing and is so summery with the zucchini charred to perfection on the grill.

If the thought of quinoa with your tabouleh made your ears perk up, perhaps you’ll enjoy pesto quinoa with corn and baby spinach. This one might corner the market on summery, but don’t tell the grilled zucchini.

Remember Aunt Sally? Gourmet potato salads for the mayophobic, more potato salads for the mayophobic, and even more potato salads for the mayophobic should just about cover it. We’ve got your back, Aunt Sally.

Talk about refreshing …. this fennel, arugula and green apple salad is crisp and balanced and sweet and tart and goes with just about anything.

Instead of a traditional cole slaw, try this red cabbage salad. You’ll enjoy the sweet crunch and uniqueness at your cookout feast.

Aw, Heidi Swanson gets me every time. Her summer green bean salad sports cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs, lemon juice, honey, cream and hazelnuts.

If you’re bringing the green salad, try my favorite gourmet mesclun salad. It’s got minimal chopping and enough unique ingredients (but easy) that your guests will be impressed … and toast those pine nuts. Or, Kona’s vegetarian caesar salad might fit the bill.

I’ve done two versions of black lentil and sweet pea salad. This is the first, and it’s full of scallions, fresh basil and mint and sherry vinegar. Then I riffed and came up with sweet pea, black lentil and hearts of palm salad, this time using cilantro, lime juice, tamari, rice vinegar and ginger. Take your choice — they are both delicious.

Roasted broccoli salad with red pepper vinaigrette — need I say more?

This light and easy carrot and snap pea salad can be dressed up a thousand different ways if you so choose, but the flavors of the carrots and snap peas speak for themselves.

There are so may ways to make a black bean corn salad, but I did one this week with fresh basil, lime juice and balsamic vinegar that was just about perfect. I’d like to say that someday I’ll post the recipe, but I didn’t write anything down .. I’m becoming my father.

My mother makes the most delicious chopped salad with honey lime dressing … she totally stole it from Epicurious, but sometimes she pretends she doesn’t remember where the recipe came from. She’s like that.

Last but not least … if you’ve got a little extra time on your hands, there’s nothing cooler than serving homemade ketchup at your barbeque.

This is just about the weirdest little collection of recipes this week. There’s something I like about each recipe, enough to want to try it, but then each recipe has something annoying about it. I guess that’s rather advantageous, because I get to tweak to my heart’s content. What fun is making a recipe if you don’t change it in some way?

I’m lazy enough to not make meatballs very often. If I find meatloaf to be a chore, then meatballs are like making about a hundred little meatloaves. This recipe for meatballs in chipotle sauce has so many tempting flavors that I just may solicit help from the five-year-old to roll all those little balls. Fresh herbs, cumin seeds, two kinds of meat and rice instead of breadcrumbs … yum.

This raspberry chicken recipe is vague, to say the least, but when a recipe for chicken doesn’t actually tell you what kind of chicken to use? The picture shows a breast, but baking chicken breasts for one-and-a-half hours seems like overkill to me. Nevertheless, the marinade sounds delicious and I think you could even use it like a grilling sauce.

Farro has quickly become the new trendy grain. The nice thing about trends is they tend to be based on what’s healthy and everything I’ve read about farro makes it sound like something I should be eating. Except for the fact that it’s a carb, but we’ll pretend I don’t know that so that I can try this farro, radicchio and roasted beet salad recipe. Slathered in feta. Just can’t suck.

I realize that I have a problem. My abhorrence for mayonnaise has become a fell-fledged obsession with mayonnaise-free potato salads. And why not? With any of the recipes I’ve tried and posted in the past, I’ve never once felt shortchanged or disappointed. In fact, I know many people who make potato salad without mayonnaise just because they are lower in fat and calories and actually taste better.

My theory is that the lack of the traditional mayonnaise brings out the creativity in the recipe creators. But that’s my gain; if they want to overcompensate for the missing ingredient by giving me flavor combinations like the ones below, I’m all for it. Step aside, mayonnaise and pickles — potato salad just got better.

Roasted onion and sweet potato salad really tempts me — doesn’t the combination of sweet potato, bacon and mustard sound divine? Don’t forget the sweet potatoes and onions are roasted, not boiled and raw. There’s some green pepper for crunch too.

This Caribbean sweet potato salad is great — I made this one. I like that it’s sweet potatoes and regular potatoes combined, and I’d highly suggest making this one ahead of time. The night I made it, it was just okay, but two days later, when all the flavors had time to meld, it knocked my socks off.

This layered potato salad with creamy avocado dressing is an over-the-top beauty. It’s made with three different colored potatoes (orange, white and purple) and layered with a veggie and olive … for lack of a better word, tapenade. I’m betting this one is delicious as well as gorgeous.

Are you looking for simple? It doesn’t get much easier than this potato and orange salad. Consisting of only six ingredients (and salt and pepper), I’m betting the flavors blend perfectly. Potato, orange, pimento, red wine vinegar and olive oil and onion … can’t be bad! I would have a very difficult time not adding a few capers to this one though….

I love hummus. I love garlic. How could anyone go wrong with this Mediterranean garlic hummus potato salad? You’ll also find plain yogurt, pine nuts, parsley and lemon juice in this fine salad.

Now here’s a different one for you … blissful red anjou potato salad combines potatoes, pears, macadamia nuts, coriander and a very simple rice vinegar dressing. That sounds like a balance I’ve got to try.

Anyone hankering for an old fashioned German potato salad? Yoo-hoo, Bob, it’s got bacon….

This French potato salad is simple and elegant, with sliced potatoes instead of chunked and shallots, mustard, lots of fresh herbs and a champagne vinaigrette.

Yummy — this balsamic vinegar potato salad, with roasted red peppers, black olives, artichokes and oregano sounds delicious, easy to prepare and kinda impressive. It reminds me of a pasta salad but with potatoes instead.

Don’t forget to check out gourmet potato salads for the mayophobic and more potato salads for the mayophobic. Enable my potato salad OCD.

Sometimes recipes come from weird places. I had some leftover baby spinach to use up, which is kind of normal, but how many of you happen to have chopped strawberries waiting for a home? If you overestimated when you made strawberry pancakes for breakfast, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

The flavors of all the ingredients in my salad were so lovely and distinctive that I didn’t want to overdress, so I chose to lightly sprinkle only three ingredients on my salad to finish it off.

Easy Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Ingredients:

• baby spinach
• chopped strawberries
• slivered almonds
• hearts of palm, sliced
• feta cheese (or goat cheese if it doesn’t cause your five-year-old to break out in hives)
• finely chopped shallots
• rice vinegar
• raspberry vinegar
• lemon juice

Toss all ingredients together in the ratio you prefer and serve. It really is that simple. I probably used about three times as much rice vinegar as I did raspberry vinegar and lemon juice, and of those two I used equal amounts. You might like a different ratio. There’s really no right or wrong here, and there’s really no recipe at all — just some distinctive flavors that come together to please your taste buds.

You could easily make this a dinner salad by tossing in some grilled chicken  or salmon. We served it alongside grilled game hens and some sweet potato / potato hash with shallots and thyme. The only thing we wished was that we had more baby spinach to use!

I bought the giant tub of organic baby spinach at BJ’s last week and it definitely shows in the recipes I’ve been creating (see pesto quinoa with corn and baby spinach). That’s not a bad thing, right? The way I figure it, if there’s a food as healthy as spinach that my five-year-old will eat by the handful, then I’ve got a good thing going.

What was I thinking about when I created this recipe? No really. I wanted something light yet hearty with a really high quality protein and lots of nutrition. I wanted something healthy that would really stick to my ribs and keep me from baking any of the luscious desserts that crossed my path this week. And I succeeded … without even a bedtime snack.

Some of the credit has got to go to Rebecca Wood for her awesome steamed buckwheat recipe. In the past, my buckwheat has always come out more oatmeal-like … just a bit too squishy to make a really fine salad. This technique worked wonders and made the fluffiest, most delicious buckwheat that was the perfect base for me recipe. Thanks Rebecca!

Buckwheat and Salmon Salad with Baby Spinach

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buckwheat, steamed like this
• 1/3 cup finely chopped onion, microwaved for 1-2 minutes in olive oil to take the edge off
• 4-5 large handfuls baby spinach
• 1 can salmon with skins and bones (the big one, 15-16 ounces)
• 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons capers
• slivered almonds

This is really easy. Toss together the cooked buckwheat, onion, kidney beans and salmon. Whisk together the lemon juice, mustard, olive oil and thyme. Pour dressing over the other ingredients, toss in spinach and capers, sprinkle with slivered almonds and serve.

If you like a little more bite to your dressing, you can add a bit of cider vinegar.

This meal left us wanting for nothing, and to be honest, we were both surprised at how satisfying it really was.

It was a strange week of cooking for me last week. Although I was able to try out a few new recipes, I didn’t feel completely satisfied by any of them. Maybe I should have tried one of these recipes instead … this week just might bring the pasta salad and the carrot soup to my table.

This saffron pasta salad sounds absolutely amazing — thank you, Heidi Swanson! I adore the unique flavor of saffron (paella anyone?) and blended into a pasta salad with asparagus, goat cheese, fresh chives and toasted pine nuts it’s sure to be tasty. Simple, but all you need with that strong saffron vinaigrette.

Why did I not find out about Guinness cupcakes sooner in my life? I knew there’s been a void I’ve been unable to fill, and I think these cupcakes just might make my life complete. Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake is the inspiration … why not make both?

It’s no secret that I’ve got a love affair with coconut chocolate chip macaroons, but how about these coconut lime macaroons? They promise to be airy and light, sweet and citrusy. And easy to make — did I mention that? La Tartine Gourmande started my day off with a drool….

I’d never heard of Country Captain before, but this version, with chicken, cauliflower, peas, coconut, cherries and peanut butter sounds absolutely scrumptious. Add in some of my favorite spices — cinnamon, cardamom, coriander and cumin — and we have a winner.

Do I really have to apologize again for including another soup recipe in my roundup? It wasn’t possible to let this one slip by, because it’s a carrot soup without ginger. Not that I have anything against a good ginger carrot soup, but they are a dime a dozen and this Moroccan carrot soup, with cumin, allspice, honey and yogurt caught my eye. You must want to try it….

As the weather gets warmer, I’m sure I’ll be less drawn to soup recipes. We even grilled a couple of times last week and it was magic. The collection of recipes today still has a couple of soups, but also just some recipes I loved and had to share and also some I’ve recently made.

I don’t know why Heidi Swanson and I are so obsessed with lentil soups, but she’s published another one, and I’ve fallen for it. This coconut red lentil soup recipe sounds just perfect to me, with the addition of quirky ingredients like golden raisins.

Tyler Florence’s teriyaki sauce I’m sure is delightful as written, but I messed with this recipe last week to outstanding results. More orange juice, less soy sauce (I used tamari) and onion instead of scallion (use what’s in the house!) made a spectacular salmon marinade.

More soup … I’ve been working on perfecting this pumpkin coconut soup to my liking, but it’s not quite there yet. I want it to have a slightly more Thai flavor, but the curry powder makes it more Indian. I haven’t found the right balance of Thai curry paste to other spices yet, but when I do you’ll be the first to know.

Belgian brownies sound a lot like flourless chocolate cake to me … with a little bit of flour. Or even chocolate souffle with all of those eggs. Either way, these get a big yum from me.

Every time I plan on making this recipe for orange hoisin shortribs, the lazies overtake me and I just buy a package of Trader Joe’s Korean BBQ Shortribs instead. They really are delicious and the five-year-old literally craves them. Someday, though, someday….

Whenever I serve something like this cabbage salad, I get “the look” from Keith. Don’t you know that if it’s vegetarian, it’s not really a meal? Man, Kona — you must be starving! Tonight I sent Keith out to the grill to cook up some barbequed chicken drumsticks to go along with that air-food vegetable dish, so I was off the hook, but I truly believe this cabbage salad is hearty enough to stand alone. I’ll let you know after lunch tomorrow….

I had half a cabbage in the fridge to use up, along with some fresh cilantro, and from there all of the other flavors fell into place. I took a bit of inspiration from Heidi Swanson’s Tassajara warm cabbage salad when I added some feta. I couldn’t help it — I have this salty-luscious sheep’s feta right now that really complemented the other flavors in this salad. It was a natural.

Play around with the amounts of the different ingredients. I used a teaspoon of cumin seeds and dry-toasted them in a skillet for a few minutes, until they were browned and fragrant, but I thought at times that they overpowered the other flavors, so I think a 1/2 teaspoon would be plenty. Keith loved every last cumin seed in there, so you’ll have to adjust it according to your tastes.

Cabbage and Chick Pea Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, shredded
• about 4 cups sliced cabbage
• 1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

For the dressing:

• 4-5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons tahini
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss together with all of the rest and enjoy.

I toyed with the idea of adding some fresh parsley as well, along with some baby spinach chopped chiffonade style. I think both would have worked great in this dish and I’ll probably try it next time. You could alter this a million ways, but I’m telling you, the saltier the feta, the better.

You’ve probably figured this out by now, but I’m a riffer. A certain dish gets stuck in my head, and I riff off a recipe inspired by it. In this case, I’ve riffed off one of my own recipes (I tend to do that a lot, actually) — black lentil and sweet pea salad.

Keith and I had been thinking about this one recently, and he was dying to have it for dinner tonight. My fresh basil was scanty and left a lot to be desired so I decided to change this recipe up a bit. It turned out that I changed it quite a lot, so much so that it deserves its own recipe. I shall call it “Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad,” but only because George was already taken. Yes, I’ve been cooped up with a sick kid all week … I’m getting a little punchy!

Sweet Pea, Black Lentil and Hearts of Palm Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sweet peas (I used frozen)
• 8 ounces black baluga lentils (from Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 cup hearts of palm, sliced

For the dressing:

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons tamari
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• a dash or two of garlic powder

Whisk together dressing ingredients and toss with all the rest. Could it really be so easy?

I was thinking some sliced or slivered almonds would taste wonderful on this salad, which could also be served warm as a side dish. You could probably throw in some scallions for that onion-y bite or some Chinese noodles for a bit of crunch. You could probably do a lot of things I haven’t thought of too. Whatever you decide, we’ve already decided that in our house, this one’s a keeper.

Isn’t that just about the prettiest salad you’ve ever seen? So crisp and fresh, the white of the apple and fennel contrasting with the shades of green in the arugula and apple skins. This fennel, arugula and green apple salad is fast becoming a favorite around this house.

When my friend brought this salad for a Christmas celebration, I enjoyed it for the first time. It went perfectly with the plum-glazed pork loin (which I made with figs instead of plums) we made. I served it not long after that for my parents, when they came for some sirloin with chimichurri sauce. Again, it went perfectly with it, even though it technically really didn’t go with it. In my attempts that make almost no sense, I’m saying that this salad is a very versatile dish.

I made it almost exactly as written, with a couple of exceptions. First, I dry-roasted some almond slivers in lieu of the walnuts, since my dad’s allergic. I had eaten it with the walnuts the first time, and it loses nothing with the switch to almonds. I think candied pecans would work spectacularly as well.

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you that I omitted the sugar in the dressing. I like my dressings tangy anyway, but with the orange and lemon juice, it really doesn’t need to be sweeter. Nature’s sweeteners are already in it…. yeah, I had to say it.

The salad is well-balanced: tart apples, fresh fennel, peppery and bitter arugula all dressed in citrusy-sweet. In fact, I challenge you to find something this salad doesn’t complement. You can even make it a main dish by adding poached or seared fish, grilled chicken or even shrimp.

An easy salad to prepare and enjoy.

Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.

I’ve got to just say it and not be ashamed: I’m not sick of heavy, rich foods yet. Serve me up a hearty lamb stew, slather some rich sauce all over my bloody rare red meat, and I’ll take a side of creamy, garlic-smashed potatoes to go with that. I’m still game, even though I ate myself silly during the holidays.

The difference is that I just don’t want the portions I devoured last week. Instead, give me some very modest portions of the rib-sticking foods and fill the rest of my plate with some greens, please. A cold, fresh salad is just the thing to balance out the warming winter foods.

For our Christmas celebration with some friends last week, they brought this amazing fennel, arugula and green apple salad. I’d pretty much eat anything if there was arugula in it, but thankfully this salad was out of this world. Even the kid crowd liked the citrus-y dressing and the shredded fennel and apple.

The apple and citrus got me thinking about this beet, orange and apple salad, a combination that might be just as good as chocolate and, well, anything. The only greens here are beet greens, but don’t let that stop you. Beet greens are one of my favorite greens and a perfect compliment for this salad.

Bob, this one’s for you: crisp escarole salad with garlicky anchovy dressing. Kona, stay far away, because there are a lot of anchovies in this dressing, which should actually make it perfectly tasty if you’re not a vegetarian.

I have to include my favorite gourmet mesclun salad here, because it is still truly my very favorite salad. We could have it every night and not tire of it. Lately, we’ve been using toasted pine nuts instead of the usual slivered almonds and it’s infinitely better. So sorry, Almond, but a fact’s a fact. We’ve also been tossing in some grape tomatoes and snap peas. It’s a winner.

What’s your favorite salad to balance out the rich winter foods all over your plate?

A lot of people are under the impression that, as a vegetarian, my diet mainly consists of salads. While that wouldn’t be a bad idea, there are actually several salads that are off-limits, including the ubiquitous Caesar salad. Even if you don’t add the grilled chicken to it, Caesar salads are still generally no-nos to vegetarians, due to the anchovies (a food which I still do not understand, even a little bit).

Some of your “fancier” Caesar salads will have actual anchovies in them, staring up at you as you’re pretending to be healthy by eating a salad. However, even your low-rent Caesar salads generally contain anchovies in the dressing. So, what’s a vegetarian to do? Eat something else. After all, we’re pretty used to that. Sure. Or, we could make our own non-anchovyish Caesar salad dressing. A dressing so versatile that it can even be made, sigh, vegan.

When I was with my family for the holidays, my sister made an amazing vegetarian chicken Caesar salad. I wanted to eat it all the time, so I was not to be deterred by the fact that she lives halfway across the country from me. I set out to recreate the goodness at home. So here you go:

Vegetarian/Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing (serves 2-4)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon of mayonnaise (I prefer the mayo made with olive oil, but you vegans out there can use vegan mayo).

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1-3 garlic cloves, minced (I use at least three, but I’m obsessed with garlic. This should really be to your taste)

1/2 lemon, juiced

Dash of soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together, and BOOM: Best Caesar salad dressing ever. The best part is, you don’t have to mess with raw eggs or any of that nonsense, so it’s fast and less scary than just downing eggs.

As for the salad itself, follow your bliss. Romaine, croutons and parmesan are boring to me, so I decided to make a chicken Caesar salad. I added the parmesan (because it is delicious) and cooked up two of the Morningstar Farms Italian Herb Chik Patties, sliced those bad boys up and stuck them in. I also added cucumber because they’re delightful and we had some that needed to be used up. All in all, if I didn’t make Luke have some, I would have sat there and eaten the entire bowl of salad, which would have been pretty much the opposite of the healthy, “I think I’ll have a salad for dinner” choice.

When winter weather sets in, my soup recipes come out. I think my first soup of the season was my lentil and vegetable soup … so easy and so flavorful. Before the spring thaw, some of my old favorites will surely make an appearance as well: acorn squash soup, carrot ginger soup and Thai coconut soup.

One of these days, I’ll get around to posting those recipes, but for now, I’ll share some of the delightful soups I’ve been discovering on the internet. Who doesn’t love a new soup recipe? Oh, and accompaniments that’ll make your soup shine….

I love a rich, brothy soup that makes me feel all warm inside. Wild mushrooms are just a happy bonus, and this recipe for porcini mushroom soup seems pretty easy to make, yet impressive.

This recipe for cauliflower soup intrigues me, because it is probably the simplest recipe I’ve ever seen. I haven’t yet decided if that’s good or bad, but I’m leaning toward good. Every flavor in this soup is wonderful — cauliflower, potatoes, stock and herbs de Provence. I’m even thinking that if you roasted the potato and cauliflower you could get a different flavor nuance to this simple soup. I’m trying it, and soon.

Chicken mulligatawny is an Indian-style soup that reminds me a bit of the Thai soup I love so much, with the curry and coconut. This one’s got chicken, Granny Smith apples and toasted almonds as a garnish … not sure you can go wrong here.

Speaking of soup, nothing goes quite so well with a hearty bowl of soup than some homemade flatbread. I’m rather fond of making an onion and olive focaccia, but I’m definitely trying this seeded flatbread recipe the next time, bursting with poppy, sunflower, pumpkin and mustard seeds.

Or maybe these sweet potato spelt biscuits will grace my table. It’s not often I find a recipe already designed for spelt flour, so I’m game to try a recipe without altering it, something that almost never happens.

Do you have a favorite soup recipe to share?

I know what you’re thinking — it’s kind of ugly (you’re right), but imagine some baby spinach mixed in and it becomes slightly more palatable … it does too! But seriously, if you tasted this, you’d know that it doesn’t matter how unattractive it is, every single bite is to die for. Just eat it with your eyes closed, if you must.

In my quest for finding a mushy orange vegetable that Owen will eat, I created this dish, which I thought would work for me twofold. First, the roasted yams are a lot like the sweet potato fries that he’ll tolerate, so I thought that’d be a win. Lentils are also one of his favorites, so do you see my thinking here? The only glitch in my plan was the fact that it’s not an easy dish to eat on the run, and since Owen doesn’t celebrate sitting still for meals, my devious plan was thwarted. Next time, I’ll be one step ahead of him….

Regardless, this was one of the most taste-balanced dishes to come along. The sweet yams, the savory lentils, roasted shallots and sage in a light and lovely vinaigrette. I know you’ll love it, just pretend it’s pretty.

Warm Black Lentil Salad with Roasted Yams and Shallots

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces black (beluga) lentils (I get mine at Trader Joe’s)
• 1 large yam, diced into 1/2 inch cubes and roasted
• shallots, chopped and roasted
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
• 3 tablespoons orange muscat vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard

Roast the yams and shallots at 400 degrees until browned, and watch those shallots — they turn from brown to black very quickly! Whisk together the last three ingredients and toss everything together with the dressing. It’s wonderful warm, but you can serve it at room temperature or even chilled if you like.

Oh, just a note — I bought yams because I recently read that yams are healthier than sweet potatoes, and that sweet potatoes are actually toxic. I don’t know if I believe it, as I really don’t see a big difference between yams and sweet potatoes, but since they cost and taste the same, I’m going for it.

I love vacation days … the ones where nothing in particular has been planned and schlepping around the house is the preferred family activity. It’s days like these (add in some pouring rain) that inspire me to make a big pot of homemade soup, and that’s exactly what I did today.

We don’t have any Thanksgiving leftovers hanging around, since we didn’t host, so the fridge and pantry were looking pretty bare. I didn’t even have a can of lentil soup, which turned out to be a very good thing indeed. I literally just chopped and tossed, tossed and chopped until a soup was born. Cooking with whole foods is so very easy and healthy, and this soup took just over 30 minutes from start to finish.

The fun part about this lentil soup is that you can alter it in about four-thousand ways and never feel like you’re bored. I’ll include a few variations — that Owen whined about while he was eating lunch — but the ingredients in your fridge, freezer and pantry are your only limitations. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that I am a food hoarder and have just about every frozen vegetable known to man at any given time. Trust me, it comes in handy.

Easy Lentil and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups dried lentils
• 6 cups water
• 1 TB Better Than Bouillon, or any concentrated veggie broth
• 2 large carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 cups corn
• 2 cups green beans
• 1 tablespoon miso
• 2 teaspoons basil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup baby spinach
• pecorino romano for serving

Put the water and lentils in a large pot and bring to a boil, then turn heat down so you’ve got a rapid simmer going. As you chop the other ingredients (or yank them out of your freezer) just toss them in. I’m sure you could argue technique with me from now until the soup pot boils over, but this method works for this soup (and for me most of the time). If there’s an ingredient you want less cooked, add it in late (like I stirred in the spinach at the very end).

Simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. You can cover this or not, depending on how thick or brothy you like your soup. Be sure to sprinkle with freshly grated cheese just before serving.

Variations:

• Add diced potatoes, your five-year-old will whine much less.
• Add a 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes.
• Change out the spices and use 2 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 teaspoon of ginger instead. And heck, if you’re going there, add a can of coconut milk to the broth.

You only think you know how good this recipe might taste. I’m pretty good at reading recipes, in that I can tell not only what a recipe will taste like, but also what to alter to make it better.

I left this one completely alone.

My carnivorous husband, who moans and groans when I serve a vegetarian dinner, said he’d eat this dish as a stand-alone meal. He just offered that information, mind you, he was not asked.

Are you convinced yet?

I lied a little bit when I said I cooked the recipe exactly as was directed. I didn’t have a red onion, so I used a yellow one instead. Also, no golden raisins so I popped in the regular old brown ones. Finally, I used pecorino romano instead of parmesan for the sprinkling of cheese at the end.

A word to the wise: Don’t skip toasting and sugar-coating the sunflower seeds. I almost did, because I am basically a lazy cook. They are so amazingly delicious (and I’ve discovered a new snack!) and combine with the other flavors so well. It is worth the extra step and pan.

Heidi Swanson has never let me down, and she just secured her spot in my gastronomic heart with this recipe. It’s so simple to make and has very few ingredients, but each one is integral — and crucial — to the success of the dish. The flavors meld together perfectly.

The next time I make this, I’ll probably serve it with some curried chicken breasts, or maybe I’ll just add some chick peas for a vegetarian entree.