What’s Cooking

May 2025

Chilled Kefir and Fermented Beet Soup with Golden Polenta Cubes Credit where credit is due: this recipe is heavily inspired (just short of plagiarism) by a recipe in Amber & Rye: A Baltic Food Journey.  It’s a lovely book, by...

Apr 2025

5-Minute Baby Bok Choy Most of the time, I write these newsletters at the last minute. So when my attempt at an April recipe fell flat three tries in a row, I needed a Plan...

Mar 2025

The Stew The Stew with No Name Here we bring together flavors and ingredients from the Balkan peninsula, Japan, the Middle East, and the 1960 Health Food Movement.  And – hey! – it works…   More than anything,...

Feb 2025

Enmoladas Casserole “An Oaxacan Lasagna” I’ve always loved mole (pronounced mo-LAY).  Hailing from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, mole is a deeply flavorful sauce made from roasted chiles (don’t worry, they’re pretty mild), nuts, seeds,...

Jan 2025

College Rice & Beans This is the first dish I ever “invented” for myself in college, and I remember being quite proud of it at the time. It tasted great, contained all the food groups,...

Dec 2024

Florentine Lace Cookies Florentines, a.k.a. “Lace Cookies,” are my favorite unhealthy sweet. Meltingly crisp with just a hint of chew, more nooks and crannies than an English muffin, and a thin layer of tempered chocolate....

Nov 2024

Crimson Cranberry Cobbler This is a very easy – even foolproof – dessert for your holiday table. And if it’s not fancy enough to your standards, you can fix that with some whipped...

Oct 2024

1 Oven / 2 Sheet Pans When the weather starts to get colder, on Sunday nights, I load two sheet pans into the oven: one with savory/spicy sausage and brassicas[1]; one with mild sausage and root...

Sep 2024

Dan Dan Noodles  In my informal poll of Americans, maybe 10% know what Dan Dan noodles are. That's about to change...

Aug 2024

Traditional Chopped Salad If any of you, my dear readers, have a connection to Lebanon, Israel, or Turkey, then you already know this salad by heart. You’re probably asking yourselves why do the Americans even...

Jul 2024

Vegan Tahini Caesar My grandmother was adamant about her Caesars.  No raw egg yolk?  No anchovies?  Then don’t call it a Caesar!   I’m pretty certain my grandma would have loved this salad.  She...

Jun 2024

Pav Bhaji We published this 8 days ahead of the Washington Post running a similar -- but carbie-er, and less flavorful -- version of the same. Just sayin...

Jan 2024

Black Cherry + Marmalade No-Bake Galette with a Hazelnut-Maple-Cacao Crust This recipe is vegan, virtuous, almost entirely raw, and without refined sugars (except for the little bit in the marmalade). Serve it frozen, slice and eat like a pizza.

Nov 2023

Pomegranate, Pistachios, Saffron & Honey in a Cloud of Yogurt A symphony of flavors and textures and colors.  The creamy yogurt, the heft of the pistachios, the little pomegranate arils bursting with each bite.

Sep 2023

Zuchinni Noodles Aglio e Olio e Gamberi  We shred summer squash – using a spiralizer, a julienne peeler, or by hand. That’s our “pasta.” And then we do it up aglio e olio style. That’s Italian for “garlic and oil.” E gamberi means “and...