When we shared a menu from Ina Garten's new book, Make It Ahead, we pulled a few of our favorite recipes and chatted with Ina herself about ways to put them together into a delicious and satisfying vegetarian dinner party — one that, yes, you can make ahead.
The star of the show is this roasted vegetable lasagna — always a hit! Here's what Ina says about this dish, with a few smart tips for making it great.
Are you in the mood for some comfort food? Of course you are. But now that spring is here and summer is on the horizon, you might, however, be leaning towards something with vegetables — perhaps even a vegetarian dish?
I have a proposal for you: fresh baby spinach and chickpeas, slow-cooked with ginger, garlic, and onion in a creamy coconut milk sauce, finished off with a healthy dash of lemon. But it doesn't stop there. No — this spicy, tangy dish of greens was designed to be served over a sweet potato. See? Both comforting and your daily dose of vegetables, all in one dish.
As I flipped with no small pleasure through the pages of Yotam Ottolenghi's cookbooks, considering recipes for this week's lunch feature, I was looking for recipes that went beyond the obvious: the salads, the soups, the plain sandwiches that characterize my all-too-frequent lunch ruts. But what else is out there? Come on — give me a new idea.
And unsurprisingly, Ottolenghi came through, with this recipe for a cauliflower cake that is good fresh, cold, at room temperature, for breakfast, lunch, or really any time at all.
What is warm-weather cooking, to you? For me, it means keeping things as simple as possible. In the spring and summertime I want meals that come together in one big pot — easy to cook and easy to reheat later. I want meals that taste like the garden, fragrant with herbs and bright flavors. I want hands-off meals, so I can retire to the back porch with a cucumber gimlet while my supper cooks.
Well, this braised chicken dish fits all those requirements beautifully.
Mustard is one of those condiments that can add a lot of easy flavor to your cooking. And two kinds of mustard (grainy and smooth)? Now you're talking about a flavor powerhouse.
This braised chicken dish puts the classic French combination of mustard, white wine, shallots, and cream to work in a slow cooker to create tender, saucy chicken ready to be served with some good bread to drag through the last drops of sauce on your plate.
Forget Atkins and Paleo — the new low-carb diet du jour is called keto, as in ketogenic. Although there are many similarities between these diets, a keto diet is all about restricting carbohydrates and increasing healthy fats. The goal is to force your body's metabolism into ketosis, which means it burns fat instead of glucose — because without carbs, glucose isn't readily available.
Read more: What Is the Ketogenic Diet, and Why Are We Talking About It?
There needs to be a revolution in the poultry world. While many people think that boneless, skinless chicken breasts are the end-all-be-all for a chicken recipe, chicken thighs deserve the real love.
When cooked correctly (which isn't hard), chicken thighs will make the most succulent chicken you'll ever eat, with a perfectly crispy skin.
